Tara Brach - Guided Meditation: Embodied Presence

Episode Date: September 20, 2013

2013-09-18 Guided Meditation: Embodied Presence

So you might close your eyes and as a way to begin, just feel your body from the inside out and notice your posture. And notice if there's any way you'd like to subtly adjust how you're sitting so that you're as awake and relaxed as possible. So your body has a quality of perhaps sitting tall, so you have a sense of balance. and also importantly a sense of ease. You might even notice if there's some muscles that can soften a little, relax a little,

just as you're sitting here right now. I'll take a few very conscious full breath, so let's inhale deeply, filling the lungs, and then a slow out breath, slow enough so you can feel the sensations of releasing the breath and another full deep in breath and then a slow out breath. Feeling the sensations of letting go, letting go, letting go, letting go. And again, breathing in, breathing in fully. You might even hold the breath for a moment once you're filled up

and then a very slow out breath, relaxing outward, softening down the length of the body, letting go. go, letting go. And in a natural way the breath will come back into its own rhythm. Just feel a sense of ease so that as the breath comes in like a balloon expanding, you can just naturally open to receive it. And as the breath goes out, you can gently sense that releasing, riding the breath with your awareness, sensing the increased presence that's here. just in these few moments of breathing consciously. And bring that presence, if you will, to the heart area.

So you can take some moments to reflect on what brings you here. Just to reflect on what your intention is, your deepest intention for the evening. You're listening and feeling into that aspiration that really has to do with your aspiration for any given moment, including this moment right here, what really matters. What matters most about how you experience this moment, sensing what you care about.

And we'll bring our voices together chanting, just expressing that caring in our community here, our sangha here. If you'd like to bring the palms together, please do. We'll chant three times this mantra oom, which is a very universal sound current of of connectedness, belonging, oneness. Please inhale deeply. Two wings of kindness and mindfulness to the body. And a beautiful way to begin is to just sense a great sky,

a great open sky with a smile spreading through it. So you sense the curve of a smile spreading through the sky. And that quality of upliftment, openness, benevolence, warmth that comes with a smile. And then sense that you can sense that smile spreading through the mind, let the mind and the sky emerge. So that openness and receptivity of a smile spreading through your whole mind and letting it spread right through the eyes so that the corners of the eyes are up a bit.

The eyes are soft, receptive. Sensing the eyes smiling, letting the brow be smooth, at ease. And just feeling the sensations just as they are in that area of the face. Let the mouth join in, the corners of the mouth up, and a slight smile. You can imagine the inside of the mouth smiling, slightly touching the upper palate, jaws at ease, and just to let awareness receive the sensations in the mouth just as they are. The eyes are smiling, soft, the mouth. You might now imagine that curve of a smile spreading through the chest in the heart area,

smiling into the heart, letting a smile emerge in the heart area, spreading through it, not to cover over, but to really allow for whatever is there to be felt. creating some space to feel the aliveness in the heart just as it is right now sensing the openness from that smile and the chest radiating outward

and widening circles so that the shoulders are free to relax back and down a bit letting your awareness inhabit the shoulders so you can feel them from the inside out and see if you can notice the space

and the aliveness, movement of energy in the shoulders, including any areas of tightness or tension, any knots, just let them float in awareness, offering that same friendly, intimate presence with the life that's in the shoulders. See, if you can feel the whole arm from the inside out, movement of energy, energy right down into the hands. You might purposely soften the hands a little. And then notice the experience when you bring the awareness right inside the hands, palms, the fingers, just feeling them from the inside out. It's so receptive that you can detect the tingling and the vibrating, the tingling, the vibrating, the pulsing.

places of pressure or the hands perhaps contact your legs or each other, warmth. An intimate embodied presence. See how much it reveals the life of the hands. ...and openness at the chest and then letting the awareness scan down some. So you begin to feel the belly and you might sense the possibility of a small spreading through the naval area, sensing the curve and the receptivity of a smile there, softening. Perhaps letting this next breath be received in a softening belly. This breath, and now this one, and again, letting the awareness be inside the belly,

feeling the aliveness, movement of energy, again an intimate embodied body, presence, sensing the possibility of that awakeness, that openness spreading through the hips, the buttocks and the genitals, lower torso, pelvic area filled with aliveness, continuing to scan down the body, the awareness inside the legs, feeling the thighs, the calves, the shins, right into the feet, letting the awareness occupy the feet so you can feel from the inside out, the tingling and vibrating there. You might imagine and sense the feet as part of a rooting into the floor

and into the earth beneath so that you can sense in a bigger way the aliveness of this earth body, sensing that aliveness flowing into you, moving through you. So if you widen the attention, you can feel this whole body as a field of sensation, noticing if there's any edge, any outside,

side edge or any center to this field. Just let everything happen. This whole dance of tingling, pulsing, warmth or cool, tightness or flow, just letting it happen. If you're feeling the sensations, you might notice you can widen the lens and include sound so that you're listening to and feeling the whole moment to moment flow. friendly attention. Notice how much you can really let go into this changing flow. Really let it happen. Let it be just as it is. Not too long, you'll notice that the mind can quickly drift into a kind of mental movie and be removed from the actual aliveness that's right here.

And that noticing is part of waking up, that is our practice, just to notice and gently come back home again, sense the difference between any thought, any memory or idea of the future or comment, and the vividness and immediacy of what's right here, this play of sensation, the symphony of sound. Notice how much it's possible to relax with what's going on right here, letting go into the changing flow over and over. Notice what part of your body can relax just a little bit more right now. And sense the possibility of resting in the moment-to-moment experience,

resting in presence. As part of closing this meditation to take a moment, moment to scan and notice if there's any part of you judging how you've done the meditation. Quite often we're monitoring and evaluating. And if you notice a judgment just with a kind and mindful attention, see if you can let go. And in a simple way, just offer appreciation to yourself for your own sincerity in practicing. for the effort you've offered.