Tara Brach - Guided Meditation: Letting Life Live Through Us

Episode Date: February 15, 2012

2012-02-08 - Guided Meditation: Letting Life Live Through Us - Meditation ends with poem by Roger Keyes, "Hokusai Says." Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Your donation makes a difference! Thank you!

letting your eyes close coming into stillness and inviting yourself right here just notice what happens when you intentionally call yourself into the moment you might let the breath collect the attention will breathe together inhaling deeply a long deep in breath filling the lungs and then a slow exhale and as you exhale feel that sense of letting go and see how much tension you can let go of relaxing outward, letting go and then again inhaling deeply long deep breath

and filling the lungs, the chest when you're filled hold the breath for a moment and as you hold feel the stretch across the chest let the shoulders come back and down tuck the chin slightly and then again

a slow out breath exhaling, releasing, letting go, letting go. And once again, a nice deep in-breath. Hold for a moment, feel the sensations of the fullness in the chest, and the slow out breath, softening down the length of the body, letting go, letting go, allowing the breath to now resume in a natural way,

and just notice that increased quality of presence, just knowing that you're here, letting that attentiveness be right now at the heart. So you can take some moments as we do to sense your intention for being here tonight. What is your intention? Listen deeply until you sense the sincerity that is the sign of a pure intention,

a kind of innocence, what really matters to you? What brings you here? Establishing the attitude of practice, a quality of kindness, gentleness, can help to have the image of a smile. You might sense the curve of a smile filling the sky, stretching upward and outward. Sense the spaciousness, the receptivity.

And then just visually imagine. Imagine that smile descending into the mind, filling the mind, so you can sense the space and awakeness, vastness. It really fills the mind. You can directly sense the curve of the smile spreading through the eyes, corners of the eyes up, the flesh around the eyes softening, the brow is smooth.

The smile is a way of undoing the conditioning to tighten, to clench. It says smiling into the eyes. A slight smile at the mouth. It's sometimes described as the half-smile of the Buddha. Again, it sends a message to the whole nervous system. To move from fight-flight to tend and befriend. You might sense that smile on the inside of the mouth, feeling the aliveness and space inside the mouth.

The jaw unhinged. Face relaxed. Receptive. Gentle. Sensing the possibility of smiling into the heart, of a curve of a smile spreading through the heart, allowing you to sense the space that's there, sensing an openness that lets whatever's real be felt. Sensing that space, the rippling out from the smile, widening and widening, so the shoulders are included. There's the softening, the shoulders can relax back and down.

You would feel the shoulders from the inside out. And see if there's naturally a possibility of dissolving, softening whatever habitual tension is there. See if you can imagine the space and the aliveness inside the shoulders. And in the same way the whole arms, the region of the arms, the flow of energy and space that's there, right down into the hands, the palms, the fingers. Notice what happens when you intentionally soften the hands and they just feel them from the inside out.

Sensing the openness of the chest. Again, the space inside the chest, the aliveness and flow of energy there. Imagine that you could smile into the belly, a curve of a smile there and the openness, the softening. So if you could bring your whole awareness down into the lower part of the torso, just to feel the aliveness, the space,

the flow that's there, and then softening the belly even more, making room for the life that's there to express itself naturally, sensing that openness, that aliveness down through the hips and down through the legs, feeling the legs from the inside out, a region of vibration, aliveness, and space, and feel the feet from the inside out, places of contact and pressure, warmth, flow, the space that's inside the feet, opening the attention

so you can simultaneously feel the whole body. This field of sensation, both the space of the field and the aliveness. Let everything happen without resistance, the tingling and vibrating places of

pressure or tightness, the flow and aliveness, just letting it all live through you. Sensing in the background this awake presence that's here, this knowing of experience in the background a stillness that's very alert, recognizing this wakeful stillness as the most subjective and intimate sense of what you are. formless dimension of being that expresses in this whole array of aliveness. Notice if you feel supported in presence by letting the breath, the inflow, outflow of the breath be in the foreground, the place to rest the attention, a kind of home base to connect you with presence. Or you might notice your home base is sound.

It's just listening, letting the sounds be in the foreground, let you you know that you're here or perhaps feeling the whole display of body sensations that come with the sitting posture helps you to anchor yourself in the present. If you find one of those as supportive, let that be in the foreground, helping you to know that you're here, helping you to rest in that alert stillness, that background of all experience, that essence of what we are. poem is called Hokusai Says by Roger Keys. Hoku Sai says, look carefully. He says, pay attention. Notice. He says, keep looking. Stay curious. He says, there's no end to seeing. He says, look forward to getting old. He says, keep changing. You just get more who you really are.

He says, get stuck, accept it. Repeat yourself as long as it's interesting. He says, keep doing what you love. He says, keep praying. He says, every one of us is a child. Every one of us is ancient. Every one of us has a body. He says, every one of us is frightened.

He says Every one of us has to find a way to live with fear He says everything is alive Shells, buildings People, fish Mountains trees Wood is alive

Water is alive He says Everything has its own life Everything lives inside us He says live with the world inside you. It matters that you care. It matters that you feel. It matters that you notice.

It matters that life lives through you. Contentment is life living through you. Joy is life living through you. Satisfaction and strength is life living through you. Peace is life living through you. through you. He says, don't be afraid. Don't be afraid. Look, feel. Let life take you by the hand. Let life live through you.