Tara Brach - (from Retreat) Introduction to the Heart Practices

Episode Date: July 11, 2012

2012-04-28 - Introduction to the Heart Practices - These instructions on the heart practices were given at the IMCW 2012 Spring Retreat. A guided lovingkindness or "metta" meditation to open the heart and come home to presence follows. Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Your donations make a difference!

So we'll begin this session with a little bit of talking. I'll be doing the talking. You'll be listening if you're here to listen. And I'd actually like to start with a question for you. And that is, who here is new to the heart practices has never really been introduced to loving-kindness practices? Can I see by hands? Okay. Thank you.

Who here has been introduced many rounds and finds the loving kindness practices difficult? Please raise your hands high. Okay. So I'm going to speak a little to that because I think it's almost the elephant in the room sometimes with these guided practices, that especially for those of you that have been to many retreats, for some people being guided in a loving kindness practice, rather than evoking the supposedly intended, intended effect of open-heartedness, there's kind of a yuck response and aversion. And what I have found is that there's some misunderstandings about the heart practices.

One of the misunderstandings is that when we talk about a meta-meditation, there's a particular meditation that involves this and then this and then this and then you say these phrases. And you might alter the phrases a little, but that it's got that format. And then another thing that happens is that you'll hear teachers do their favorite versions within that and it just doesn't match your sensibilities. And finally, you might find that you come to a guided practice and you're totally not in that mood. In other words, rather than some form of a intentional heart practice, what you really need is just mindfulness to what's going on. And it feels oppressive or like you're

being directed in a way that doesn't match. So the main thing I want to say right now is that for me, the hard practices are completely an experiment. And almost every time I sit down to do a hard practice. It's like I'm starting from scratch in some way sensing what's the way of paying attention this moment that will soften and open my heart. And it really varies. And I'd say a large portion of the time when I listen to other people guide me, it doesn't work. So what happens is I listen and I take pieces of it, but I am mostly, you know, just, you know, just just launching off into my own way of coming home to my heart and to presence. I want to invite you to do the same.

To take what works on these afternoon guided practices, but really let it be an experiment to see what awakens your heart. There's no one formula. There are so many different ways that we can use imagery and words and guide our attention to soften up. There's so many different ways. So really experiment. It becomes very interesting if you approach it that way.

There's a reason why for most of us, and I haven't run into real exceptions yet, a intentional practice to awaken the heart is an essential part of the path. And that is that our mind fixates in ways that harden us. So we need softening. I'm going to read you.

This is Chogam Trunkpa. According to the wisdom of the Buddha, we are basically good. We possess what is known as basic goodness. And that's this awareness. This awareness with its capacity for love, for luminosity. Then it goes on.

Then we develop an overlay of tricks to shield ourselves from being embarrassed or from feeling too painful or naked. Okay, we develop an overlay of tricks to defend ourselves. Now those are habitual tendencies, but they are not fundamental. The deepest truth of what we are is this awareness. And it has two expressions, much like the sun. One expression is luminosity. radiance, clarity. That's when we're seeing clearly. And the other expression is warmth or tenderness,

a capacity to respond with care. That's fundamental. But that gets covered over by these tendencies to protect. And then what happens? We get identified with those tendencies and we develop what I think of as ice-cubness. We're water, but we harden. So the meta-practice,

This is a way of bringing the warmth of our awareness to dissolve the ice-cubness so we can remember again this purity, this awakeness, this tenderness that's home. So it's in that spirit of just sensing it as a warmth that we're calling on that I'd like to, we'll practice today. And there's a few common denominators I found as useful for most people. people in these practices. And one is to begin by remembering that it matters to you. If you in some way at the beginning of a metta practice sense for yourself, I care about awakening this heart. I really want to live from the fullness of what I am. If you touch a sincerity about caring

about the heart, that itself will give energy to your practice. The other thing that helps to wake up the heart is to, in some way, see goodness. And we start with wherever it's easiest. You know, for some, it's easiest with a child or with a grandmother that's no longer here. We start wherever it's easiest. And then the third piece to mention that wakes up the heart is we actively engage in some way offering care and receiving care. So we're going to explore that way and what I'll be guiding you with are pieces or elements of that that work for me. And what that means is they might or might not resonate for you.

So feel free to just pay attention to whatever way you feel honors your own body, heart, and mind. Okay, so take a few moments to settle yourself in a way that feels alert. You're sitting upright. but primarily do a kind of scan to make sure you're comfortable. So right from the start, take care of yourself. As you come into stillness, just briefly scan and sense of you have in some way tightened in the last few moments or hours or whatever, any part of your body that just by noticing some of the muscular ice-cubness can be dissolved. Softening where you can.

And then just pausing enough to sense your intention through this guided practice. See if you can get in touch with your own sincerity about connecting and awakening heart energy. In both the Buddhist and the Taoist traditions, one of the levels of loving kindness practices with the body itself. And the image of a smile is often used to help the nervous system, the muscles, the body

come into a state of ease, receptivity. So you might imagine the sky that's around us filled with the curve of a smile, that it extends through the sky up into the heavens, and that that that opens, openness and that curve and that receptivity can fill the mind, letting the image and the curve of a smile spread through the eyes. You might sense the corners of the eyes, lift it up a bit, see if it's possible to soften the eyes. Let them be like orbs floating in a pool of water, the brow smooth, sensing a slight smile at the mouth. Ticknodhan describes this as smile yoga. because it really does communicate to the nervous system some ease.

Let the inside of the mouth smile also. Jaws relaxed. Now again, smiling into the eyes, sensing the mouth and a slight smile. And then smiling into the heart area. Imagine, feel that curve of a smile spreading through the heart and the chest. And imagine the smile coming from the inside out, from deep within. in the cellular way, the space inside the heart area, a smile emerging. So they're not getting rid of anything in the heart area, but creating the space that can hold it.

Imagine you can smile into the naval area, let that curve of a smile spread through what's called the dantien. So you can loosen and soften there also to free up the energy in the whole torso area. And then a very gentle attention resting at the heart. so that as you breathe in, you can feel that whisper and sensation of the breath, the breeze of the breath, whispering, touching, moving through the heart area, and breathing out, sensing the space, tenderness in the heart area. We extend this heart met into the interpersonal realm by bringing to mind someone who's very easy for us to feel love with.

someone where the loving is simple, not complex. Now that question itself, that invitation might bring up a lot for you. For many of us it does. So see if you can give yourself permission to just settle on whatever person your mind brings forward that seems like the best choice for now without adding a lot to that. See if you can keep it simple for yourself. Give yourself that gift. Choosing someone who you trust the love with.

You trust cares about you. You trust knows you. You trust your caring. And with some interest or curiosity to explore this further, bring that person right here close in. So you can see his or her eyes face. See the expression of this person when he or she is feeling close with you, is appreciating you, is happy or is in a mode of being very kind, generous,

where there's positive feelings. Sense as well as you can what it's like to feel this person's loving, their care for you. As you sense this person's goodness, his or her capacity for love, for presence. Just feel your care in a very visceral way for this person. Sense what you appreciate. See if you can feel into that invisible

yet alive place of connection, that field of loving that's there between you both. Offering your care to this person, your prayer. Whatever wish

arises naturally that you'd like to offer for their well-being. Imagine whispering it. Imagine that person hearing you, receiving it, using the person's name as you express your wish. We bring our attention from this other person, our relationship with another, to our relationship with our inner life. to bring our care, our presence to the life that's right here. A poem for you by Cassia Berman.

She says, The Mother of the Universe refuses to let me worship her outside myself anymore. She is withdrawn inside me and tells me if I want to know her. I have to come inside too, which is the last place I want to be. Although she's been telling me this for years, she's never gone to this extreme before of actually hiding inside me If I want to love her, I can only do it by loving myself now. Just as we look the goodness in another to now reflect on the goodness that's right here inside this being.

And you might, as a beginning of looking inward at goodness, look through the eyes of a loved one, just to experiment a little. look through the eyes of someone that cares about you at yourself look to see your own innocence and purity your humor the aliveness of your mind your capacity for loving notice what happens when you look through another's eyes at your own being if you want to continue to experiment you can look through the eyes of the Buddha of Kuan Yin. Look through the wisest eyes, through the most awake

heart that you can imagine at the life that's right here. Bearing witness yourself through your own awakened heart mind now. Seeing behind the conditioning to the goodness, it helps to look and sense your aspiration that will remind you of your goodness. One part of awakening in the heart is to see this basic qualities of awareness, of tenderness, of curiosity.

And the other is to offer ourselves prayers of care. For many, it's quite helpful just to put your hand on your heart, to let it be more intimate, this offering inward. You might experiment, and if you have your hand on your heart, just to vary the pressure some, so that you're communicating presence, communicating care. I'll just suggest some phrases and feel free to customize however you'd like. May I be filled with loving presence? As you hear a phrase, just visualize it and see if you can feel it from the inside of

out what your wish really is. May I be filled with loving presence. This moment, may I be filled with loving presence? May I be held in loving presence? Sensing the possibility of this life being held in a field of light, of tenderness. May I be filled with loving presence, held in loving presence. May I be happy? Visualize what that means to you. May I be happy? Sense that you really wish that for yourself. Sense the possibility through your visual image, through a felt sense. May I be happy. May I feel safe. May I touch great natural peace. Feel your sincerity in offering the wish, visualize, let there be a felt sense. Truly offer yourself something now. May I feel safe. May I touch great and natural peace. May this heart and mind awaken and be free.

Again, sensing the realness of your wish, that this matters. And whatever image or felt sense comes with it, may I be filled with loving presence. Held in loving presence. What's the image? For some, it may be a sense of light and warmth just pouring into you, being held in that field of tenderness. Let the phrase is bring it alive for you. Filled with loving presence.

Held in loving presence. May I be happy? Feel your own caring for yourself and offering the prayer. May I be happy? just the kindness in that. May I feel safe. May I touch great and natural peace. May this heart and mind awaken and be free. Allowing yourself now to let all the senses be open and just to inhabit open-heartedness. Just to let every cell light up with it, the spaces between the cells, sensing who you are when the heart is really awake,

innocent, tender, caring, just noticing if there's any boundary to this space, this heart space, bringing to mind that dear one, the person you reflected on sensing how that being lives in this heart space filled with loving presence, sense how all those here

are part of that heart space. is radiant, empty of any center, our solidity or ice-cubness, vast. And we close by sensing this shared field that we're in as truly being edgeless that when we wake up these hearts, we really wake up to a boundless space of loving, to this fundamental goodness that like the sun radiates in all direction. offering our prayer to all beings everywhere, that all beings might be filled with loving presence, feel held in loving presence, that all beings might know loving presence as their very essence, that all beings everywhere be happy, that all beings touch a great and natural peace,

that all beings everywhere awaken and be free, to sitting in silence for the these last few minutes. Day and blessings.