Tara Brach - Guided Meditation: Vipassana Instructions

Episode Date: May 16, 2014

2014-05-14 - Guided Meditation: Vipassana Instructions

The following meditation is led by Tara Brock, meditation teacher, psychologist, and author. And as you come into stillness, just feel the sitting posture from the inside out. You might close your eyes and then make any additional adjustments, some subtle moving to sense yourself sitting upright. So there's not, you're not leaning forward or back to the sides. There's a balance, sitting tall but not stiff. And sense the possibility in that tallness to then relax your arms, your shoulders, relax your face, keep breathing. In fact, now let's extend this in-breath, this next in-breath so you take a nice, full deep-in-breath,

and then a slow-out breath, slow enough so that you can. can feel the sensations of the breath as you release it. And again, inhaling deeply, nice full in-breath, and slow out breath. Feel the sensations of letting go. And once again, inhale deeply, fill the chest and lungs. And then a slow-out breath, softening, softening down the length of your body, letting go, letting go. And then allowing the next in-breath to come in naturally, resuming in your natural rhythm of breathing and feeling the quality of presence that's here just as you listen to sounds

you can listen inwardly and just listen to and feel the sensations in the body listen to your heart and just allow yourself to take some moments to be aware of whatever mood or emotions might be here what we might call the state of the heart right now. With this same inner listening, just sense what your intention is for tonight,

what it is that brings you here, what most matters to you, feeling your own sincerity, one of the most direct gateways to awakening is bringing a mindful attention to the life of the body. You might begin by just letting the awareness sweep through the body and sense if there's areas of particular tightness or tension. And just take a moment to see if it's possible as you bring the awareness there for

there to be a natural softening or loosening. You might pay attention, the eyes, and let the brow be smooth, the eyes soft, the jaw unhinged, perhaps a slight smile at the mouth, feeling the inside of the mouth smiling. Feel the shoulders from the inside out, bringing a very soft attention there, just allowing for a natural releasing, letting the hands rest in an easy, effortless way. Notice what happens as you soften the hands and feel them. from the inside out. Notice how as you relax and soften, you can become aware of more sensation, more aliveness, letting there be an openness to the chest and feeling the

heart area from the inside out. You might feel the breath gently washing through as you breathe in and out, relaxing and sensing the space and the aliveness in the heart area, letting the awareness scan down, so that you can feel the belly and let this next breath be received in a softening belly. Okay, this breath and then this one and again, feeling the life deep in the torso, loosening and relaxing through the whole pelvic region. Aware of the sensations of contact where you're sitting on your cushion or chair, hardness or pressure, where your hands are touching your legs or each other, where your feet are

touching the floor, and feeling from the inside out the legs, the feet, so that if you widen the lens of attention, you can feel this whole body simultaneously as a field of sensation, Just letting this whole dance of sensation unfold without any interference or resistance. Really everything flowing in and out of stillness, discovering in the midst of these sensations, the simple sensations of the breath. Letting the attention rest with the breath wherever it's most easy to perceive. or perhaps more pleasant to perceive, so you might pay attention to the inflow, outflow at the nose, the rising, falling of the chest, the expanding, settling at the belly,

and perhaps the entire movement of the breath. And some people like to feel the breath as if the whole body is breathing, which it is, the cells everywhere, opening to receive, and then settle. and then settling, releasing. So we let this attention with the breath be a kind of home base or anchor, letting us know that we're here. The attention to the breath is an intimate kind of attention, gentle, close in.

It's almost as if you're listening to and feeling the breath, discovering what it's like moment to moment, relaxing with the breath. letting this home base be a friend that helps you collect and settle and come to ease moment to moment. And while there are other anchors you could choose and you're entirely welcome to do so, the breath is the most common. But you could be choosing listening to sound

or attending to the sensations in the body or parts of the body like the hands. The purpose is to have an anchor that's sensory-based, that helps you be right here in the moment, just this breath, just this inflow and this outflow, and perhaps this pause between the breaths, moment to moment, right here. Before too long you'll notice that the mind has drifted. It's left the immediacy of the senses and gone into a virtual reality, thoughts about the future or or past, some commentary. When you become aware of thinking, just to pause and appreciate it's a moment of waking up. This whole practice is training to wake up. So just to appreciate

that you've noticed and pause and you can re-relax a bit, opening the senses again, listening. to the actual sounds that are right here rather than the sounds of the thoughts in your mind. Relax the body a bit, just softening. You can relax the heart and gently finding again this next in-breath or out-breath or rising breath or falling breath and gently landing, relaxing with the movement of the breath.

We let the breath be in the foreground unless some other strong, strong experience is calling our attention. And when any other experience calls, then we just relax the attention open and include that. So rather than the breath, for instance, if some squeeze of fear arises, and just let that be where we're paying attention, a gentle noticing of what it's like, feeling the sensations and how they move. where they're located, how they change. It's fine to breathe with what you discover is there that can help you stay with it. We stay with what arises until it's no longer really calling our attention.

And that way a strong feeling or some other strong sensations in the body. Whatever is really predominant is the place we're paying attention, bringing our interest, bringing our care, just moment to moment noticing what's this life like in this moment? The two big questions we can ask, what is happening inside me right now? And can I be with this? Or can I let this be? And when nothing is strongly calling your attention, to gently rest again with the movement of the breath are your chosen anchor. moment to moment, to moment. Know that you're here, relaxed and awake. You can begin fresh in any moment, just noticing where the attention is and gently reopening the body, heart

and mind, listening, re-relaxing a bit through the body, sensing your intention to befriend experience, a gentle, interested attention, moment to moment.