Tara Brach - Guided Meditation: Breath as Homebase

Episode Date: April 19, 2014

2014-04-16 - Guided Meditation: Breath as Homebase

The following meditation is led by Tara Brock, meditation teacher, psychologist, and author. So we'll begin with a meditation and for those of you that are new, the first step is to set yourself in a posture that you feel will allow you to be upright. So you're sitting with a quality of tallness, not stiff but tall. And you might close your eyes and do the subtle adjustments of the posture that let you feel a kind of balance of sitting tall but also relax. Feel balanced so that if you leaned forward a little bit for a moment and leaned back, then you could find yourself right in the middle, balanced evenly. You might begin to pay attention to the breath

and let this next in-breath be expanded, so it's nice and deep and full. And then exhale slowly, very consciously and slowly, so you can feel the sensations of the breath as you exhale. Okay, again, a nice deep, full in-breath. And a slow-out breath, letting go, letting go, letting go, letting go. And again, breathing in, inhaling, filling the chest, filling the lungs, exhaling consciously, slowly. Just feel a sense of softening down the length of the body as you release the breath.

And then as the breath resumes in its natural rhythm, just let your attention gently rest with the breath, relaxing with the inflow, relaxing with the outflow, letting the senses be awake. so you might also be aware of the sounds that are around you the sensations and aliveness throughout the body and then with a gentle attention sensing your heart

with kind of a listening to your heart just listen in and sense what your intention is for tonight what it is that really brings you here and what matters to unless you sense what you feel sincere about May it be presence or opening the heart, being more caring or generous with others, really discovering the truth of who you are, relaxing more, whatever it is, just feel your sincerity.

It's part of homecoming, getting aligned with really what matters to us. It's from that place of sincerity and caring that we bring our voices together to chant. You might let the hands come together, very lightly touching at the heart area. Prayer Mudra. The posture of devotion or dedication. And we'll chant the mantra Ome. It's a sound current of connectedness. We'll chant three times together.

So please inhale deeply. We'll take some moments to let the awareness gently skis. scan through the body, just noticing areas of particular tightness or tension. Just bringing the awareness to wherever there is tension and seeing if you can just let it float in awareness. Perhaps naturally untangle, release, places that are important to take some moments of attention, softening the eyes, letting the brow be smooth. We unconsciously furrow our brows with thought, with tension, with worry.

You can even imagine that you're smiling into the eyes. Let the corners of the eyes be lifted a bit. In a similar way, relaxing the jaw, a slight smile at the lips. You might bring the awareness inside the shoulders and just see if there's a natural letting go possible. You might sense the shift from ice to water. Just imagine and feel that kind of a melting, a dissolving, ice to water and water to gas. Might let the hands rest in an easy, effortless way.

Place the awareness inside the hands. See what happens if you intentionally soften. being receptive to the sensations, tingling, the vibrating, the life that's there. Letting the attention rest in the domain of the heart and chest area. Feeling this space and aliveness there. From the inside out, as you scan down, you might loosen the belly some. Perhaps let this next breath be received in a softening belly. this breath and then this one and again so you begin to feel the waking up the aliveness and space

throughout the whole torso perhaps you might feel the contact points fresher warmth where you're sitting on your chair or cushion underneath your legs or your feet and then feeling from the inside out the legs relaxing right down into the feet feeling the feet from the inside out and then opening the attention wide so you can feel simultaneously this whole body, this entire field of aliveness, just receiving this whole play of tingling and vibrating, heat and cool, tight, flowing, receiving with an open, allowing awareness, and discovering in the midst of this field of sensation, the particular current of the breath.

Wherever you detect the breath most clearly or distinctly, wherever it's most pleasant perhaps, or at least neutral, just bringing a gentle, careful attention there. No need to manipulate the breath. Just let it be as it is, sensing the possibility of just receiving the inflow and the sensations of the outflow with an intimate attention.

So you're both relaxing with the breath and noticing what it's like. Some of you may be resting with the breath as an in-flow, outflow through the nostrils, or perhaps just noticing the sensations of the tip of the nose. Some may feel the rising falling at the chest, or perhaps the inflating and settling at the belly, or some might feel the whole body, even in a cellular way, opening with the in breath, and settling. with the out breath, a receptive, close in attention.

Just noticing what this life breath feels like, moment to moment. You might notice the beginnings and the endings of the breath are that slight pause between the in-breath and the out-breath. And if you feel yourself tightening, trying to stay with something, then very intentionally relax. And just as if you're listening to San Francisco,

sounds. Just let yourself listen to and feel the breath with interest, with friendliness. You'll notice that the mind's conditioning is to wander off into the future, the past, some commentary. So in the moments that you recognize that, you can just appreciate that that's a moment of waking up. In a way the breath is your support, your friend because you'll notice, oh okay I've left the breath often thoughts and just give yourself permission to pause recognizing the thinking and then reawakening opening to what's right here you might be aware of the sounds in the room you might gently scan through the body a bit and feel the shoulders softening a little the hands perhaps

loosening the belly relaxing your heart and then bringing that wholeness of attention gently into this next inflow or outflow of the breath. Let the breath be a place of ease, of relaxing, and just a simple noticing, what's it like? Letting the breath be in the foreground. But if some other strong experience arises, some strong sensations,

discomfort or pleasure in the body, perhaps a strong emotion, a wave of fear, or excitement, sadness. And we let the breath fade into the background, and whatever arises, that becomes the place of a careful, gentle, attentiveness, letting it be there, letting it express itself. Feeling whatever is here as a felt sense or a constellation of sensitivity, in the body. If it helps you can still feel that you're breathing with what's going on, but allowing it to be there, saying yes to our experience, and then when it's no longer

predominant, and gently come back to let the breath be in the foreground, relaxing with and noticing the quality of this next in-breath, our out-breath, rising breath, or falling breath, in this breath and this one, resting in what's right here, moment to moment, taking a moment to notice where your attention is. The mind has drifted into a virtual realm to know that the practice of coming back deepens your capacity for remembrance.

So to just take a moment to pause and appreciate, okay, waking up, open the senses, aware of the sounds, the awareness inside the body. We feel the life that's here. There's no rush to come back to the breath. Rather, we gently open up the senses and come back to presence.

And then if there's nothing strong calling the attention to again rest with the inflow and outflow of the breath, our home base for remembering. And writes a thousand flowers in spring, cool breeze in summer, moon and fall, snow and winter. If this mind is not filled with unnecessary things, this is the best season of your life.