Tara Brach - Guided Meditation: Listening to & Feeling the Moment

Episode Date: November 28, 2013

2013-11-27 Guided Meditation: Listening to & Feeling the Moment

I think sometimes the most helpful guidelines for the sitting posture is assume a sitting posture that will support the inner qualities that we're hoping to cultivate, which is quality of being alert. So there's a wakefulness, which means you might sit up in a way that, but there's a quality of uprightness, sitting tall,

sometimes the image of a tree with its roots deep into the earth so you feel grounded but then arising up into the heavens sitting tall and then letting as the branches the arms of the tree can relax to see how your limbs can relax see if you can let go a little in the shoulders and just relax through the body wherever possible

and part of that relaxing is supported by taking a few full breaths. We'll inhale deeply and it's an extended inhale. So breathing in fully and then a slow out breath, slowly exhale, slow enough so you can feel the sensations of letting go. And then inhaling again, deep, full in breath. And then slowly releasing the breath as if you're relaxed, relaxing, releasing into the space around you, just letting go, letting go. And once again, a deep, full in breath, filling the chest, filling the lungs.

You might even hold a moment, feel the sense of holding the breath, and then a slow out breath, softening down the length of the body, letting go, letting go, letting go, letting go, letting go. And then the breath returns to its natural rhythm, just sense that you can relax. As the breath comes in, so if you're relaxing open, relax as the breath goes out. Bringing this relaxed presence and attention to the heart, just feel whatever mood, whatever emotion, whatever quality of heart is predominant. It might be the first time you've checked in a while, just to sense, how's my heart?

You might sense an openness or a tightness, flow, heaviness, sadness, excitement. Whatever's there without any judgment, noticing, allowing it to be there, letting your attention, be like a listening attention. So you're listening to your heart and just listen in to sense what your intention is for tonight,

asking yourself in a fresh way, what really most matters tonight? What do you feel most sincere about? We open our evening as community with the simple chanting of the mantra, which is the sound current of connectedness. So you might gently let the hands touch, palm to palm,

the heart area, let the sound be an expression of heart, will inhale deeply and then we'll be chending it three times. So inhale. A gateway to presence is by waking up and relaxing through the body. So let the awareness scan through the body. You might feel the top of the head and the skull. Just feel the vibration or tingling there, letting the attention move down and spread through the eyes, the brow area.

You might feel the outside corners of the eyes and let them be soft, if the brow be smooth, real receptivity, openness and the area of the eyes. Eyes really soft as if they're like balls floating in pools of water, ganing down through the face, let the jaw, be relaxed, unhinged. You might sense a slight smile at the lips, the inside of the mouth smiling. And just feel the sensation, the aliveness,

tongue, gums, teeth, lips, feeling the throat, let the throat fill the neck area. So you can feel the sensations of aliveness, of space, movement in the throat area. throat area in the neck. You might let the awareness fill the shoulders so that you can feel the shoulders from the inside out. Just imagine and sense whatever's there, tightness, tension, tangled, just letting it soften

and loosen in the space of awareness, as if it could float. So you can begin to sense the space and the aliveness inside the shoulders, feeling the arms from the inside, the region of the upper arms. and then the lower arms. Feeling right down into the hands. And see if you can let the hands rest in a very easy, easy way, like very, very light, no tension. And as you soften the hands, feel them from the inside out,

placing the whole awareness inside the hands. Can you notice the tingling or vibrating inside the hands, right now. You soften even more. Just feeling the movement of energy. The sense of space and aliveness that fills the hands. Let there be an openness to the chest. And again, sense the awareness inside the chest, can you imagine the space that fills the chest area? And just receive the whole play of aliveness in there. Scanning down the body, softening the belly. So you can soften and then let this next breath be received in that softening belly. This breath and now this breath and again. So you can sense the awareness and aliveness deep in the torso, the hips, the buttocks,

the genitals, allowing the awareness to fill the legs right down into the feet, feeling the places of pressure and temperature where your feet contact the floor and feeling from the inside of out the whole movement of energy, aliveness, space inside the feet. You might imagine feet directly and energetically connected with this earth, this massive body that's our extended body and all the aliveness, the dynamic energy of the earth, moving through the feet, moving through this whole body now so that you widen the lens and feel the body as a whole dance of sensation, animated part of the earth body, tingling, vibrating, pulsing, heat or cool, flow, heaviness, lightness. Just let everything

happen, including in this dynamic energy field the sounds that are arising and passing, listening in a global way, letting everything wash through you, aware of the changing sounds, of this whole dance of sensation, sensing that whole play in the foreground, sound, sensation, aliveness, and in the background, that alert, inner stillness,

that which is aware, your own presence, being that presence, the silence that's listening to sound, the openness that everything is happening in. You might have noticed that your mind left that openness or stillness of presence entered into the trance of thinking. Not to judge in any way.

Just when you notice the practice is simply to pause, just notice, okay, thinking, thinking, and relax open again, noticing the sounds that are actually happening right here instead of the sounds of the thoughts. Just letting these sounds wash through you. You can reopen in the body by just softening a little, relaxing a little. Again, we're in a receptive way to feel the sensations, the aliveness that's here. The shoulders, the hand, softening the belly, the belly, the belly, belly, perhaps feeling the movement of the breath, letting these senses, sounds, the immediate experience that's here be a kind of portal, helping you to arrive again and again, relaxing

with your moment-to-moment experience. If it helps to stabilize presence, you can let the breath be a kind of anchor in the foreground, the in-flow out-float the nose. Or it might be the rising, falling sensations at the chest, the abdomen, or even the whole body, inflating some with the in-breath, settling with the out-breath. As you're sitting, you notice something difficult to be with, some physical sensations that are uncomfortable and pleasant, tiredness, restlessness, unpleasant emotion. And see if you can bring a quality of interest and kindness to being with that experience. Just noticing how it changes as a constellation of sensations in the body.

Notice what happens if you offer a gesture of kindness, just an attitude of care. Nothing strong is drawing the attention to either rest with the breath. Just let the senses be wide awake. Resting in that stillness, that presence that's aware of this changing dance of life moment to moment. Check and see if it's possible to relax to let go just a little bit more right now. When there's tension in the body, it's kind of a tensing against the present moment. saying let the senses be wide awake, listening, listening to the space in this room,

listening not just with your ears but your whole awareness. The same way you listen to sound you can listen to and feel the aliveness of the body, fully receptive, listening to and feeling the whole moment.