Tara Brach - Guided Meditation: Breath & Presence

Episode Date: November 16, 2013

2013-11-13 - Guided Meditation: Breath & Presence

Please come into the stillness with a listening attention. So you're listening to sounds around you, receptive. And then just listening to the life within you. It's a very receptive attention, noticing the experience of vibration and sensation and aliveness in the body, with a gentle attention listening to the heart. Just be curious as to the state of your heart. of your heart right now. You might feel the breath in the heart area. Let your attention settle

there a bit. Dropping the question inward, what is my intention for tonight? What is my aspiration? A true aspiration, a spiritual aspiration, is for this moment. What really matters right now? What's the quality of presence, of heart, of attentiveness, of being that matters. As we begin to open to what we care about, we can let that be the energy behind the chanting of om, this simple mantra of connectedness. If you'd like to bring the palms together and just feel that full arriving and the heart area, the humility, the devotion, to presence, to awakening. And we'll chant together three times.

Please inhale deeply. A listening attention receptive to the changing sounds around you, listening into the space of the room, listening to the silence, noticing how with listening there's nothing to do. are known spontaneously. It's with the same receptivity of listening that we can listen to these sensations in the body, listening to and feeling this whole moment, discovering in the midst of this changing flow of sound and sensation,

this simple movement of the breath, just listening to and receiving to and receiving the sensations of the breath. You might attend to the breath the nostrils, the inflow, outflow, perhaps the rising falling of the chest, maybe the inflating and settling at the belly. For some it may be the sense of the whole body breathing. No need to control the breath. Let it happen naturally. Receiving the sensations as if you're listening to sound, You can let this breath be a kind of home base, an anchor that helps you collect and arrive,

right here. Just this in-breath and just this out-breath. You might explore how much can you relax open in a receptive way as the breath comes in, just yielding. You might discover how much with the out-breath you can just dissolve, settle, come into stillness, relaxing open to receive, dissolving and settling.

It's the nature of mind to wander away from home, to leave presents. When you notice that, that's a moment of waking up, just to appreciate it. Let that be an opportunity to pause, to really recognize the virtual reality you were just in, and to gently relax back and take your time. You don't have to rush back to your anchor. Notice that listening again, the sounds around you, listening to and feeling the life within you, and gentle contact again with the breath.

Since the breath is a friend, a way of connecting to living presence. You might let the breath be in the foreground, but if some strong experience arises and calls your attention to let the breath move aside in the way so that you can bring your attention to whatever is real and true right here. It's strong sensation that's unpleasant or pleasant. It may be tingling, vibrating, or it may be a squeeze, or tightness, soreness, ache.

Just letting that constellation of sensations be right at the center of your attention, soft presence with what's happening. Let it unfold itself. Say yes with interest, with kindness. And when that experience, those waves of sensation no longer call you, then you might gently ease back into the inflow and outflow and outflow of the breath as the primary place of attention. In the same way, if a strong emotion arises,

let the breath recede into the background a bit and let that emotion, that inner weather system, be felt. Discover where it is in your body, where it's most predominant, as a felt sense, as emotion, as sensation. Let it unfold itself, saying yes to what, what's here, allowing. And when that weather system no longer is calling your attention, again you can settle your attention and relax with the inflow and outflow of the breath.

Inquire, am I dreaming right now? Is there a narrative going on, some film between you and this aliveness, the immediacy of what's right here? Again, exploring the pathway of homecoming, relaxing back, listening to the actual sounds that are here, rather than the sounds of your mind, listening to and feeling the body, the life of the body, sensing perhaps if you can let go of tension somewhere, maybe the shoulders, relaxing the heart, resting again in the movement of the breath, and your presence to whatever is predominant, moment to moment.

Final part of our sitting, just to bring a gentle attention to the heart, feeling that you can breathe in and out of the heart. As you breathe in, you can sense the heart being touched, awake, contact with aliveness. And as you breathe out, a sense of letting go into a vaster space that's here. And this breath can be part of a simple compact. passion practice that as we breathe in, we allow ourselves to be aware of and be touched by the suffering of those in this world, and in particular right now, those in the Philippines, that are dealing with such awful degree of disaster and deprivation and sickness, young

ones, old ones, breathing in and letting our hearts register. the realness of suffering. And as we breathe out, it's an offering of our prayer, our care, letting that suffering be held by the heart of the world. You're breathing out an offering into the heart of the world with prayer. So we breathe in and let ourselves contact the realness of humans, of sisters and brothers, of children, parents, struggling. And we breathe out and offer our prayer.

May those that are suffering find refuge. May those that are suffering find safety and peace. May those that are suffering find healing. May those that are suffering feel held in loving presence.

May those that are suffering be free. Namaste.