Tara Brach - Instruction and Meditation: Pathway to Non-Doing Presence (2020-10-27)

Episode Date: October 30, 2020

Instruction and Meditation: Pathway to Non-Doing Presence (2020-10-27) - While meditation begins with purposeful collecting of attention, it leads to non-doing presence, to Being. In this guided practice, we arrive in presence through a body scan and attention to the breath, open the attention to changing experience, and then explore the freedom of not controlling anything, and letting life be just as it is.

The following meditation is led by Tara Brock. To access more of my meditations or join my email list, please visit tarabrock.com. Welcome. It is a pleasure to be together again, and I'm, as I was meditating, I was feeling how very real and meaningful it is to belong together in a field like this and how hard it would have been to imagine in the past that it was possible,

and yet here it is manifesting. So, again, it's really just feels wonderful to connect in this way. I wanted to start the morning meditation instruction period with what we sometimes call the art of practice, just a bit of a kind of a big picture of the art of, practice and most meditations that you'll find around the world have one or both of two elements and one of the elements is to in some way concentrate or focus or direct the attention and this is where we choose an anchor like the breath or the body or sounds the anchor can be changing we

can have an anger of the body and systematically do a body scan. That's a way of collecting the attention and grounding. You can choose several touch points in the body and just move from one to the next. For some people it's listening to sound. Some people it's moving through a mantra, a set of words that are meaningful like meta, the love and kindness phrases that we choose. But the purpose of this style of directing the attention is to quiet the mind, to collect the attention and actually increase the strength and the penetration of our attention. And it also can be to cultivate inner states like peace, like love, to cultivate love, compassion.

We're directing the attention in purposeful ways. So that's one category. The other category is mindfulness. And mindfulness is that non-judging, receptive awareness that recognizes what's going on right here and now, that understands that look, sees, feels the nature of reality, right, as it is, just as it is. and as you might imagine the two elements in many styles of meditation come together

so you may be collecting the attention with the breath but you're also being mindful of the breath or you might be resting in mindfulness and periodically collect or come back to a primary anchor to strengthen the sense of a steady mind, to quiet the mind again. But here's the thing. Each of you is ultimately customizing these elements to work with your particular body, mind conditioning. And so we give instructions, but there's inevitably going to be ways that you have to kind of not listen and really attend to, well, what does this body mind need right now in this moment? And you might get some habits of how you meditate, but actually it's really important to keep staying fresh and sensing, okay, right now, what serves?

So there's a kind of fresh listening that we're doing all the time. and what you'll find is that for most of us anyway, we need some purposeful collecting, focusing, the more concentrated kind of practice at the beginning of a formal meditation. Because the mind tends to be busy and occupied, so we're trying to kind of say, come on back, let's be right here. and often we begin when I give instructions I begin with a body scan as a way of collecting attention because we tend to be so dissociated from our body. We spend so much time and thoughts.

So I tend to ground in the body and then perhaps some time with the breath. But what you'll find is that as it gets quieter, you can, more keep the breath, you know, have the breath or whatever your anchor is in the foreground, but keep opening mindfully to whatever calls attention. Because ultimately, there's no freedom if all you're doing is coming back to the breath. The freedom really is in opening and resting in life just as it is. So we begin to practice with the different experiences that are coming up and you were guided and how to work with the different bodily sensations.

And yesterday, Laud talked about how we can use rain to work when there's difficult emotions and we'll explore thoughts and just opening to all the different experiences that come. And just to say with emotions, because that's such a strong charged energy in us, when they're difficult in the midst of a meditation, as law described, it's really very helpful to pause. And rain is really mindfulness and compassion and pause and pause and recognize what's there and allow it, deepen the attention, you know, untangle the bones. with the kind of in the body, does just sense really what's here, what wants attention, and then nurture.

If an emotion comes up and it's not so charged, to simply recognize and allow the first two steps of rain are really mindfulness, just recognize and allow. And generally what can happen is the strong sense of identification with it dissolves. That's the point of mindfulness, is that we dissolve the identification with what's going on and just allow the waves to come and go, where the ocean allowing the waves. Ultimately, the trajectory of everything I'm describing, whether you're first collecting and then opening to mindfulness, the trajectory is towards less doing and more being,

and more being. You know, I always encourage whenever there's enough presence to drop all the formal doings of meditation and let life be just as it is. Because if there's such a thing as a goal of meditation, it's really to dissolve the sense of being a meditator. Now, there's to let go of the meditator and just be, really just be, really just be that natural, open, wakeful, tender awareness

that's right here. Just be that. So we're going to go into the guided meditation, and you'll sense that trajectory of moving from purposefully collecting our attention, getting embodied, being here, to opening more with mindfulness, to the different changing phenomena, to really just letting be. So, wherever you are, take some moments, and you might close your eyes as you do this, to set yourself, establish the sitting posture or perhaps you're standing or lying, whatever posture is serving you. But to establish it consciously, to inhabit it. And you might make those subtle adjustments

sitting tall, upright, perhaps the chin slightly tucked. So there's the sense of a straight line from the base of the spine to the top. of the head to let the shoulders relax back and down. Perhaps you might lean to the left or lean to the right and then come really center so there's that sense of balance and then noticing within this posture the possibility of relaxing, of letting go of whatever can let go right now and become aware increasingly of the presence that's here. And you might sense in the background that intention that whatever arises and however your practice unfolds, that there be that atmosphere of kindness, noticing how even the intention towards kindness can soften and bring you more here. We'll scan through the body, collecting

the attention and waking up through the body, starting with the area of the brow, you might soften your eyes, let the brow be smooth. If it helps to visualize and feel that curve of a smile spreading through the eyes, to deepen the ease that's there, please do. And then receptive to the play of sensations in the brow. Perhaps noticing a flickering of light or darkness at the lids, You might have a slight smile at the mouth also. Let the inside of the mouth feel like it's smiling.

That'll allow you to just feel the sensations, the lips, gums, teeth, the tongue. You might let the tongue fill the lower palate and relax down to the root of the tongue so the sensations can fill the whole mouth. Receptivity, just sensations. spread through the whole face, the little micro muscles, softening. Again, softening the eyes. The scalp and the skull just feeling tingling. Awaken the awareness there. So you can feel

the whole head, the volume, the wave, sensations, letting the throat fill the neck. So you can feel from the inside out, the sensations there. Allow the shoulders to fall away from the neck and see if you can fill the shoulders with awareness so you can feel from the inside out allowing any letting go, dissolving, releasing to happen. And if there's tension or tightness, to allow that to float in awareness, aware of the land, length and the volume, the weight of your arms. And feeling your thumbs from the inside out, tingling, vibrating. The forefinger.

Sense of space inside the fingers. The middle finger. Ring finger. Pinky. Sense the space between the fingers. Sense the space between the palms and the backs of the hands. And notice if you soften the hands. and then feel from the inside out, the aliveness you can receive.

Softening again, receptive presence, the awareness, filling the hands. Just as a cup can be filled with water, this whole body can be filled with awareness. Letting the chest be open, perhaps feeling the area of the heart. You might let a smile spread through the heart, the chest, just smiling into the heart. This is not to cover over anything, but really to make the space for a life to be here. It's feeling intimately the sensations,

the energy in the area of the heart, receptive, present, scanning down, letting this next breath be received in a softening belly this breath and now this one and again and continue feeling a softening in the belly the breath deep in the torso waking up the awareness in the belly in a receptive way to feel the sensations and energy that's there continue scanning filling the pelvic region with awareness receptive to the aliveness here, feeling the legs, the length, the volume, the weight, the feet.

So you can feel the space between the souls of the feet and the tops of the feet. And feel the awareness filling that space, receptive to the tingling, vibrating there, toes. And now widening the attention. so you can feel this whole energy body at once as a field of sensation, not stopping anything, just letting life live through you. And you might discover within this field of sensation, the particular sensations of the breath, letting the breath breathe itself,

receiving with a very intimate, receptive presence, relaxing with the breath. Still aware of the sensations, the field of sensations. The breath is like a wave on the sea of sensations. At some point you'll notice the minds drifted from this aliveness of presence, the sensations, the breath.

And the arriving back home, the way we arrive back home, seeds what's next. So when you notice there's been a drifting, to let that noticing be without judgment. Rather just sense, oh, okay, often that virtual world. And the choosing to relax back. The way back home is a relaxing back. relaxing open the mind from the contraction of thought perhaps listening to the sounds that are right here re-relaxing the body a bit

perhaps the shoulders can soften the hands relaxing your heart relaxing back to rest in this next in-breath or out-breath it doesn't matter how many times you drift the essence of the practice is this relaxing back, just gentle arriving again, listening to and feeling what's right here. With the sounding of the gong,

you might ask yourself, what will most refresh presence in this moment? And for some it may be even becoming more still and for others moving in some way, perhaps opening your eyes, looking around, resettling, taking these moments to just sense what will support you in being most here. Two questions that support mindfulness are what is happening inside me right now. And can I let this be? or be with this. As you continue, it's totally fine to have the anchor, the breath, or if you have a

different anchor, that's quite fine, to have that in the foreground, to continue to collect and quiet, but also to have the invitation to be with whatever is calling your attention, to notice what has happening? Is there something calling my attention, some predominant experience? And can I let this be? Can I be with this? You might find that there's some strong sensations calling you, maybe very unpleasant or pleasant. And then our practice is to let that be in the foreground. It can be fine to also have your anchor, for instance, you can breathe with strong unpleasant sensations. But let the experience be in the foreground.

Notice how it changes. Perhaps shift from the word pain to simply unpleasantness, sense the constellation as it is, sense the space around it. And when those sensations are no longer calling your attention and coming back to perhaps your anchor or whatever else arises, if unpleasantness gets so strong you feel it's pulling you off balance, then it's actually skillful not to stay with it,

but rather to shift the attention to instead feel the breath, our sense another part of the body that's perhaps neutral or pleasant. Similarly with emotions, a strong emotion calls the attention to open to it, to let that weather system be here, to recognize it as it is as a sensation or constellation of sensations. to feel where it is in your body, perhaps to breathe with it, to allow it to move through. And it is very charged, perhaps to deepen the attention by investigating, sensing what's most vulnerable and being tender with that, nurturing. So in this way, we rest in presence, we allow whatever way you.

in the ocean is most compelling to call our attention and we learn the art of being with letting the waves come and go and sensing the oceanness the space it's happening in the awareness the tenderness the wakefulness that's our home explore the pathway of relaxing back if the mind is drifted, relaxing, open the attention, listening, and letting go again, sensing what might want to let go in your body, softening, opening the heart, to what's right here. I'm just noticing the difference between any thought and this vibrant, living, mysterious stream that's right here. And you might explore through these last few minutes

letting go of doing, of any idea of how to meditate, resting in what is, letting life be just as it is.