Tara Brach - Guided Meditation: Being Presence 2

Episode Date: December 21, 2013

2013-12-18 - Guided Meditation: Being Presence 2

And you might as you close your eyes, just feel the sitting posture from the inside out. And adjust in any ways that allow you to perhaps feel a quality of uprightness, sitting tall. But without a stiffness, tall and yet see if you can just relax in that tallness, at ease. Aware of the breath you might breathe in and let the in breath be extended. so it's a very full in breath and a slow out breath. Just slow. So you can feel the sensations of releasing. That's it.

And then a nice deep, full in breath again, breathing in, filling the chest and lungs. And then again, slowly releasing. Just feeling those sensations of letting go, letting go. And again, inhale deeply and extended in breath. and extend it in breath. This slow out breath, so you're softening down

the length of the body with the exhale, letting go. And when the breath is ready to come in again, just a natural cycle of the breathing, not controlling the breath any longer, but just sensing the possibility of relaxing with the breath. Just as when you breathe in like a balloon that it's inflating, relaxing open. and with the exhale of settling, releasing, letting go,

notice an increased quality of presence just in these few moments, perhaps more of a sense of right here, being right here. Notice your senses being more awake. Let the sounds around you move through, listening. And with that attentiveness of listening, just listening, just listening into the body, receptive to the sensations in your body. Perhaps noticing, maybe you haven't been in your body,

just noticing what it feels like right now inside your body. Bringing that gentle listening attention to the heart. Coming home to the heart, just connecting and noticing, well what's the state of my heart right now? Maybe the physical feelings in the heart area, maybe there's a squeezing or pressure, or flow, opened or closed, maybe numb, maybe very sensitive. Also listening in and sensing whatever mood might be here.

Is there a certain mood or emotion that you're aware of? And as you continue to listen to your heart, you might listen into what your intention is, what intention you have for being here tonight. So you're listening into the most sincere place within you, that place that cares about your life, cares about living aligned with your heart, cares about being present and awake,

cares about caring, cares about awakening, about freedom, cares about this world we belong to. And it's from that place of caring that we join our voices together, a kind of ritual of opening as shangar, community and you might gently bring the palms together and feel with the palms coming together at the heart that you're really centered right here in the heart chanting the simple mantra oom

mantra of connectedness we'll chant it three times together so please inhale deeply we continue to deepen presence by awakening and relaxing through this body You might sense the eyes and just soften the eyes. You can soften the corners of the eyes. As if you're smiling into the eyes, letting the brow be smooth. Feel a kind of receptivity. Let the jaw be relaxed. You might have a slight smile at the mouth.

Explore that if this is your first time. Slight smile. Let the inside of the mouth smile. It actually sends a message through the whole nervous system to relax our defenses, our aggression, be a little more trusting at ease, letting all the small muscles around the eyes and through the face be very relaxed. You might feel the chest and the heart area and also imagine a smile, that curve and receptivity of a smile spreading through the heart and the chest. This isn't to paper over

anything but rather to make room for whatever's here. I sense the kind of openness that spreads outward and outward so that the shoulders are free to relax back and down some, letting the awareness inhabit the shoulders. So you're feeling them from the inside out. It's a soft, awake awareness inside the shoulders. You might notice a kind of dissolving. Sometimes it's like ice to water or melting, where you can begin to feel more and more movement of sensation. Ice to water, water to gas, more and more space. Inside the shoulders, it carries so much there. Just to lighten up some.

The eyes are still soft, smiling through the eyes, the mouth, smile, feeling the life the shoulders, feeling that life and energy through the arms. You can feel right down into the hands. Notice what happens if you soften the hands and just let the awareness be inside the hands, feel them from the inside out. And you feel the vibrating or tingling. It might soften even more. Very easy, effortless placement of the hands. And just feel the life from the inside out. Perhaps you can feel the tingling and vibrating in the hands and then just feeling the shoulders, the arms, the hands. And then again, the chest and heart area from the inside out, sensing the space and aliveness there, letting the awareness, the attention

scan down the body some so you feel the navel area. Sometimes it's called the Don Tien, a little below the navel, this energy center. You might again just visualize that smile spreading through the belly and just let this next breath be received in a softening belly. This breath, deep in the torso. And now this one. Notice how the awareness can spread deep, deep into your body, right down to the pelvic floor. Awareness, fill your torso, just as a couple of the is filled with water, this whole body can be filled with awareness down through the legs, feeling the legs from the inside out, right into the feet. You might feel the places of pressure, warmth where your feet contact the floor, and feeling the feet from the inside out. Again,

the vibrating, the tingling, and widening the lens now to feel in a simultaneous way, this whole body, this whole field of sensation, letting everything happen, not stopping anything, not controlling, dance of sensation, like points of light in the night sky, including an awareness the play of sound, listening not just with your ears, but your whole awareness, listening to and feeling this whole flow of the moment, aware in the foreground at the deep, changing play, sound, sensation, and aware in the background of this alert, inner stillness at which is aware, just being that presence, relaxed and awake, control that the mind dress. Our practice is quite simple just to notice when you can and gently choosing to arrive again,

right here, listening to the sounds that are actually happening right here, listening to and feeling the aliveness in your body right this moment, perhaps having an anchor for your attention, the inflow and outflow of the breath. For some, the sensations in a particular place in the body can be a kind of anchor, like the hands or the feet, letting sounds wash through you. In the mind's busy, it's helpful to choose one home base. that can help you to create more of a steadiness of presence. Ask yourself if it's possible to let go just a little bit more right now.

To give yourself that gift of relaxing, unclenching, softening. And it's a way of closing just to experiment with whatever gesture of kindness towards your own heart resonates in this moment, some wish, some offering of care inward.