Tara Brach - Meditation: A Calm Refuge - with the Rain (2020-04-08)

Episode Date: April 9, 2020

Meditation: A Calm Refuge - with the Rain (2020-04-08) - This meditation includes a relaxing body scan and guidance on finding a space of peace and balance in the midst of whatever life brings us. Also enjoy the Virginia springtime rain that accompanies us halfway through the meditation.

The following meditation is led by Tara Brock. To access more of my meditations or join my email list, please visit tarabrock.com. Our meditation is called a calm refuge. Please close your eyes. Make any adjustments, subtle shifts in your posture that allow you to be sitting in a way that's relaxed, awake, one of the direct portals to full presence is through our bodies. So we begin waking up and relaxing through our bodies with a body scan. You might start and begin with the area of the eyes,

smiling into your eyes. So the outer corners are lifted some. Letting eyes be soft, letting your brow be smooth, and opening with a relaxed presence to the different sensations that play through that region of the face, tingling, vibrating, perhaps the flickering of light and dark at the eyelids, bringing a slight smile to the mouth.

You might feel the inside of the mouth smiling, letting the tongue fill the lower palate. See if you can relax right down to the root of the tongue. And then with a receptive kind of presence, just opening to the sensations through the whole mouth, the tongue, gums, teeth, lips, letting the awareness spread through the face, the sensations, tingling, vibrating,

received an awareness, scalp and the skull. You might take that image and felt sense of a smile and let it spread through the throat, let the throat fill the neck, Let that smile help to establish a kind of openness so you can receive the sensations there. You might allow the shoulders to relax back and down some. Let the awareness fill the shoulders evenly, both sides, perhaps letting go a little with the sense of ice melting to water.

Can you feel that? A dissolving. Then water to gas. Sensing whatever sensations, and the shoulders can float in awareness, untangle, soften in awareness. Aware of the length and the weight and the volume of your arms, the energy that flows through it, feeling the energy and sensations right down into the hands. And now softening the hands and softening again and again.

And letting the awareness fill the hands so you can feel from the inside out. What do you notice? What's the play of life like? As you feel from the inside out in the hands, the eyes still soft and smiling. Slight smile at the mouth. You might visualize and sense the curve of a smile spreading through the heart. Notice the openness that a smile lends to that region,

allowing for you to feel the sensations, emotions that are there. Receptive presence. You feel directly inside the heart area, what's it like? Breathing with and smiling into the heart, feeling what's there. Relax, receptive presence. Continuing to scan through the torso, letting this next breath be received in a softening belly, this breath, and now this one, and this one.

and continuing with a softened belly you might sense the curve of a smile spreading through the belly letting there be that openness that you can feel the life that's there what are the sensations, energy, feelings in the area of the belly like letting them be experienced with a receptive relaxed presence you might visualize and have the felt sense

of a smile in the pelvic region. Again, opening to receive the life that's there, letting the awareness fill the legs, letting the awareness fill the feet, receiving the tingling, vibrating, aliveness that's right here, widening the attention so that you can feel spontaneously and simultaneously this entire field of aliveness, the energy body, the dance, of sensation. Just let everything happen. Let it all be received in an open awareness, including in this field of aliveness, the play of sound. These words coming and going, sounds in the space around you, the spaces between sounds, taking everything in in a

global way, aware of the changing stream. sounds, sensations, and feelings. And in the background, that relaxed openness, that wakeful stillness that's aware, our own presence, continuing to rest in this open, receptive presence. And if it helps to the attention be steady and present, you might be aware in the foreground of the movement of the breath or for some you may be aware in the foreground of the changing sounds or you might prefer as your home base to be aware of the sensations in the body

perhaps just the hands and the feet are the sensations of your whole body as you're sitting here whatever you choose as a home base breath, sounds, sensations. You can let that be a place you return to again and again when the mind gets drawn off in thoughts. If you notice that you're lost in thinking, then without any judgment,

explore the possibility of relaxing open again, opening the mind from the thoughts to the sounds that are actually here. Listening, receptive. Reopening in the body. Perhaps relaxing again in the shoulders, letting go. Softening the hands.

Loosing and softening the belly. Perhaps smiling into the heart and relaxing the heart. Opening again into that presence, that relaxed, receptive presence, that's listening to and feeling the changing flow. of experience. Right here, you can rest in that open presence or let the attention rest with the movement of the breath as a home base or perhaps sounds as a home base. Are for some

the sensations in the body, laxed attentiveness, feeling that refuge of calm presence moment by moment just right here, right now, with a gentle mindfulness noticing what's going on inside you right now. The mind's been drifting, gently arriving again. Every time we notice that we've been lost and we, with kindness and with clarity, shepherd the mind back into the present moment, we're deepening the pathway home. we're learning to come back with more ease as you arrive again sensing what's true in your heart your body opening with a relaxed attentiveness to the life that's right here and if when you arrive in presence what's here feels difficult perhaps you're feeling a more tumultuous experience

in the moment physical pain emotional pain fear deepening the intention to meet what's here with gentleness, with presence, with care. For some, if there's some strong grip of fear, you might just gently place your hand on your heart. Take a moment to offer a kind message. Thank you for trying to protect me. I'm okay right now. knowing that every emotion has intelligence. In a deep way we say yes to whatever's here. Feel it. Let it come and let it go.

In a caring presence. Breathing with what's here. And when there's quieting again, when there's nothing strong that calls your attention, relaxing back and sensing that background of presence, of stillness, of openness, letting go and making yourself completely at home in this moment, taking refuge in a calm, alert attention, moment by moment, right here, relaxing open from the thoughts, aware in the

foreground of the changing sounds, of the movement of the breath, the play of sensations and body, sounds, sensations, emotions. And in the background, that stillness, that openness, a quiet space within, the sacred refuge that we can rest in, feeling at home in our being. We'll close with a poem from the poet, Dana Falls. It takes a while, but I finally find the quiet place in, side, where I can embrace fear with love and not be hijacked by anxiety. In that space, connected and awake, I take a breath and feel my heart begin to open again. Instead of pushing away sadness and grief, I let it all be. This is meditation in the midst of a pandemic. This is how I regain in my center many times a day now, but who's counting? What matters is finding my way back to

intimacy with what's real and unchanging. What matters is finding my way back to intimacy with what's real and unchanging.