Tara Brach - Guided Meditation: The Center of Now - Includes Body Scan

Episode Date: January 3, 2014

2011-02-16 - Guided Meditation: The Center of Now - Includes Body Scan

As your body becomes still, you might invite your attention right here. Just make yourself at home right in the moment. It can help to begin with a few very conscious long breaths. So let's together inhale deeply. And with the out breath, a conscious letting go, letting go, letting go. Good. And then inhaling, filling the lungs, filling the chest. and again as the breath goes out, sense of releasing, letting go.

And again, inhaling deeply, filling the lungs. This time holding for a moment when the breath is full, feeling the sensations of fullness, and slowly letting go of the breath, softening down the length of the body, letting go. As the breath resumes its natural rhythm, sense the possibility of relaxing as it comes in, relaxing, receiving, as a balloon inflates, opening with the breath. And with the out breath, again, kind of dissolving outward into the space around you. Sensing the possibility of this breath as kind of a way of collecting the attention, relaxing with what's happening right here. The breath in the foreground,

and yet still aware in the background of the sounds that are here, sense is awake, aware of the field of sensation, this body, aware of the heart, breathing and feeling your heart, opening the evening as we do with that inquiry of what really brings us here, what our intention is for the evening, what matters to us. And as you feel with sincerity what you care about, And we sense our shared caring that this awakening of heart and mind might serve all beings. We will chant together, and tonight we'll chant what's called the beege syllable, which is the root syllable, ah, which is the sound current of the heart, of the opening, awakening heart. If you'd like to bring the palms together, please do.

And we'll take a deep in-breath and then just chant. And when you run out of breath, just breathe in and start chanting again, so it becomes a continuous sound and I'll ring the bell when it's time to stop. See if you can let go into the sound current, become part of the sound current, and if you feel so drawn to let the voices harmonize. Okay, inhaling deeply,

sensing the quality of presence that's right here, quality of awakeness, openness, noticing the changing stream of experience. we deepen our presence as the body becomes more awake and relaxed. You might notice if there's any obvious places of tightness or tension and just soften. You might find just by bringing your awareness to where there's a tangle, holding,

there's a natural letting go, loosening. You might feel the shoulders from the inside, inside and just sense whatever tightness might be there can float. Maybe a dissolving. You might feel that. Letting go. Helps to feel the hands. And just soften and feel the tingling and vibrating there.

Soften and feel the aliveness there. Let the chest be open. And then scanning down the torso, feeling the belly from the inside, and just see if it's possible to loosen. and soften there. Let this next breath be received deep in the torso. This breath and this one and again. Let the awareness wake up through the hips inside the legs.

There of sensation right down and through the feet. Feel the feet from the inside. And then the whole body at once, this living field of sensation, this energy expressing, expressing, just letting it happen. Sense is wide open, including sound,

that there's a listening to and feeling the whole moment. Continuing in presence, it helps to have an anchor of the breath in the foreground to stabilize the attention. You might feel the inflow and outflow

with a careful attention, a receptive attention. So if you're receiving the breath, still aware of the sounds and sensations, aware of the quality of heerness right here. You might notice the attention drifting into the kind of virtual reality of thinking. Without any judgment, just to pause,

you can start fresh in any moment, kind of re-relaxing, open the mind. Sounds are here, listening to this. these sounds instead of the story sounds in the mind. It's a space that's here. You can re-relax in the body a bit. Get the shoulders again. Soften the hands.

It's softening the heart. There's an openness to the entire field of experience. It feels supportive to have the breath in the foreground. Please let that be there. Sense what it means to be in the center of now. simply recognizing and allowing this changing play of experience. When you notice the mind is drifted, what most matters is your attitude in arriving again.

If instead of judgment there can be a celebrating of noticing and appreciation of arriving again, right here. Ah, back, okay. With interest, what's it like right this moment? Can we say yes to the experience it's right here, to these sounds and sensations, to these feelings in the heart? You might ask yourself if it's possible to relax just a little bit more right now. Relaxed attentiveness. We'll close the sitting much as we opened by feeling the breath again in a very immediate way,

perhaps taking a fuller inhale now, breathing in, and exhaling, letting go. Inhale deeply, and exhale, letting go. And again, nice full in breath. Exhale, letting go. And sensing as you complete this formal sitting, if there's any way that you're holding a judgment about how the practice went, and giving yourself that gives you. gift of letting go, letting go of the judgment and honoring your deepest intention just to be here

and be present as well as possible. We close with a forgiving heart, a kind heart, towards the life within us, around us.