Tara Brach - Guided Meditation: Embodied Spirit

Episode Date: July 13, 2013

2012-09-19 Guided Meditation: Embodied Spirit

and letting your body come into stillness, letting your attention go within. Eyes closed. We'll take a few full breaths together as a way to collect attention. So let's inhale deeply, fill the lungs, nice, full in-breath. And releasing the breath slowly. Slowly enough so you can feel the sensations as the breath leaves the nostrils. and then inhaling again deeply, filling the chest, filling the lungs. When you're full holding the breath for a moment and as you do stretching the chest open,

shoulders back and down, sitting up nice and tall, holding the breath, holding, holding, slow release, exhaling, letting go, letting go, letting go, letting go. And again, inhaling deeply. filling the lungs. Hold a moment, feel the sensations of fullness, and this gentle out breath, softening down the length of the body, exhaling, letting go, relaxing as the breath resumes its natural cycle. Aware of the breath, let the senses be awakes, you're aware of the whole field of sensation in the body, sounds around you. And aware of that quality of heerness, of presence,

that just in a few moments become so much more accessible as we pay attention. And as you settle into this presence, bringing your attention in a gentle way to the heart and to whatever your intention might be for this evening, sense where your own sincerity opens up, where you feel that kind of innocence, really in touch with what matters to you, widening the attention to sense our shared aspiration,

our Sangha, our community, holding in our heart all beings with the wish that these practices, this awakening, ripple out to bring healing and freedom to all. If you'd like to bring the palms together as a way to feel the heart, feel that devotion, please do. We'll chant in the simple way that sound current of Ome three times, this universal sound current of connecting. So let's inhale deeply again.

The portal to presence is awakeness in this body. just to begin, just to feel the eyes and let the eyes be soft, receptive, as if floating in pools of water the corners of the eyes lifted up some, sensing that you could smile into the eyes, softening the flesh around the eyes, the brows smooth and just feeling the sensations of aliveness that are there.

Perhaps the flickering of light and dark, slight flickering of the lids in the same way slight smile at the mouth you might sense the inside of the mouth smiling jaw relaxed unhinged and just feeling the sensations in the mouth tongue gums and teeth

the lips if you can imagine the space that fills the mouth and the aliveness the faces relax no effort to have an expression, receptive, and feeling the sensations through the whole face. Just as it is, right this moment, sensing the scalp, the skull,

and the space and aliveness that fills the whole head. Can you imagine the throat expanding to fill and entire neck? Feeling the aliveness in space inside the neck. Receptive, just sensing this play of the entire neck. this play of sensation, feeling the shoulders from the inside, perhaps loosening a little. And just imagining and feeling the space and aliveness inside the shoulders. Again, the play of sensation, including the whole region of the shoulders, like a full band from shoulder to shoulder, including the neck,

feeling this whole region of sensation. letting the arms hang in an easy way so you can feel the life from inside the arms. Just noticing the different pulsing and vibrating and stream of energy that's there and the space that fills the arms, making sure that the hands are resting also in a very easy, relaxed way and explore softening the hands as you feel inside them, softening and feeling from the inside the play of life, the tingling, pulsing or vibrating, inside the fingers between the palm and the back of the hand, softening and feeling the aliveness.

The hands and the arms and the shoulders simultaneously. This whole field of sensation. opening, sensing an openness to the chest and feeling the space, imagining the space and the sensation inside the chest, loosening the abdominal area so this next breath is received in a softening belly, this breath and then this one and again awareness and attention to the whole belly, feeling the aliveness, the sensations, and the widening the attention to include the back, the upper and lower back. Very receptive in the play of energy flowing, tight or loose, heaviness, sweet, cool. Aware of touch points, aware of the pressure and warmth where you're sitting on your chair or cushion,

touch points where your hands contact each other or the legs, where your feet contact the floor, and bringing the awareness inside the legs. See if you can feel the legs from the inside out. Relaxing, receiving the changing dance of sensation. Bringing the whole awareness into the feet, dealing the feet from the inside out, tingling, vibrating life.

And widening the lens of attention in a very full way so you can feel this whole body as a dancing field of sensation. Just let everything happen. Noticing perhaps the particulars of tingling or vibrating, of pressure, of flow. I'm sensing in a very subtle way, just the expression of energy itself,

just the aliveness, the light of aliveness with its infinite varied dance, Just be the space that this dance of aliveness is happening in, a very relaxed, receptive awareness. If you notice the attention is narrowed into a thought form, plans, worries, a little commentary, without any judgment, just notice and gently relax open again into this aliveness that's right here, relaxing with what's happening. As you continue, if you feel it would support your presence to have in the foreground the sensations of the breath,

that's quite fine. Or you might choose just to rest in awareness and continue to receive this changing flow of aliveness moment to moment. The mind is drifted, drifted, let this be a moment of gently reawakening, just opening out of the thought back into this living field right here. And take a moment to notice the difference between any thought, that kind of virtual reality,

and this vividness and immediacy and mystery. that's right here.