Tara Brach - Meditation: Aliveness and Presence

Episode Date: March 23, 2023

Meditation: Aliveness and Presence - This meditation guides us to wake up our senses and full aliveness through a body scan, and then to rest in the formless presence that is aware of this changing dance of life. We close with a poem by Robert Hall.

The following meditation is led by Tara Brock. To access more of my meditations or join my email list, please visit tarabrock.com. We will bring ourselves together in a meditation and the invitation is to find a posture. Any posture that really supports you in coming into presence, that supports you in feeling grounded and feeling safe, that you can feel really right here. And you might let your gaze be lowered or for some closing your eyes, whatever works for you.

I sometimes like to think of a tree and just sense the roots really rooted in this earth, our mother, belonging to the earth, feeling that sense of gravity of belonging here and also just sensing the space around that has room for this coming-going life for all the experiences that are here. So letting the attention go inward, becoming aware of this life breath. Let's breathe together. It's so beautiful to breathe together a bit, extending the in-breath, take a nice long deep in-breath to the count of five and a slow-out breath again releasing to the count of five breathing in together filling the chest in the lungs and that slow-out breaths you can feel the release of air through the nostrils letting go let him go and again breathing in filling

the chest in the lungs the slow out breath softening down the length of the body, letting go, letting go. And then as the breath resumes in its natural rhythms, just sense that you can observe and feel the breath from an increasing sense of presence. Continuing with an awareness of the breath, you can also begin to scan the body, deepening that presence, feeling the area of the eyes, the region around the eyes, and softening the eyes, breathing in, breathing out. You might even sense a smiling into the eyes, letting the brow be smooth. In a similar way, you might have a smile at the lips, a very slight smile, and feel from the inside of the mouth, a relaxing, letting the jaw be slack, letting the tongue feel.

the lower palate, breathing and feeling the aliveness in the mouth, letting it spread through the face. You can feel the tingling and vibrating through the face, scalp and skull. See if you can allow the shoulders to fall away from the neck of it. And as you breathe, bring the attention inside the shoulders. as if you could breathe in and open the spaces inside the shoulder, joints, receiving the breath, and with the out breath, a settling or relaxing or releasing, aware of the length and the volume and the weight of your arms and softening the hands. Feel the breathing with the fingers, let the thumbs be coming in awareness,

filling with awareness, as if when you breathe in, you can feel the thumbs lengthening a little, as if there was a slight pulling and lengthening, with the out breath of settling, breathing in, letting the joints open, filling the thumbs with aliveness, breathing out, settling, and then the forefinger, breathing in, feeling that slight pulling and lengthening, opening the joints, and breathing out, settling, resting. The middle finger, breathing in, feeling that pulling, extending, lengthening, and opening. Breathing out, settling, relaxing, resting.

The ring finger, the same, extending with the in-breath, opening the joints, and with the out-breath, the settling, resting. and the small finger, the pinky, inhaling, lengthening, opening the joints, exhaling, relaxing, settling. And you can feel all the fingers and the spaces between the fingers as you breathe in and breathe out. Aware of the palms and the back of the hands and the space between them. Feeling the hands as a field of energy alive, awake. and let there be an openness to the chest. Feel the sense of breathing in and filling the chest with awareness and aliveness.

Breathing out, settling, releasing, letting go. Breathing into the upper back, especially if there's areas of tightness or tension. Letting the breath go right there. And with the out breath, letting go, relaxing. Letting the breath fill the body. belly now, inhaling, receiving the breath in a softening belly, opening with the in breath, settling, relaxing with the out breath. Let the breath be filled in the middle back, especially if there's areas of tightness or tension. Breathing deep into the torso now,

filling the pelvic region with awareness, feeling the breath deep inside you, opening to receive, relaxing with the out breath, letting the breath be felt in the lower back, especially areas of tightness or tension. Aware of the legs, the length, the weight, the volume of your legs, feeling down into the feet, the tingling and vibrating there, and then widening the lens so you can feel this whole body breathing now. breathing in, even in a cellular way, feeling the breath, the cells, the spaces between the cells, opening with the in-breath, settling, relaxing with the out-breath. Sensing this body, this energy body is a field of sensation.

The whole body, the energy field, and the stream of the breath. as it moves through the body. So you're feeling the breath with the whole body's awareness. You're of the sounds that come and go around you and letting them wash through, receptive, open, listening presence so that you're listening to and feeling this moment-to-moment experience of aliveness in the quietness. See how much you can relax with what's happening.

if the attention has wandered which it naturally does, let this be a moment of practicing the pathway home, listening, simply listening to the sounds that are actually right here, listening to and feeling the body, the aliveness that's here. And you can always re-relax areas of tightness, just breathing with them, aware of sound, and sensation, feelings, emotions in the foreground. And in the background, the presence that's aware,

in the background, really the ground of being, that which you truly are, wakeful, tender, awareness. Noticing where your attention is and gently arriving again right here in this mysterious aliveness, this changing flow, sound and sensation. The poet Robert Hall writes this. He says, within the body you are wearing,

now inside the bones and beating in the heart, lives the one you have been searching for so long. But you must stop running away and shake hands. The meeting doesn't happen without your presence. your participation. The same one waiting for you there is moving in the trees, glistening on the water,

growing in the grasses, and lurking in the shadows you create. You have nowhere to go. The marriage happened long ago. Behold your mate. You might take a few long, deep breaths, and if your eyes are closed, gently opening the eyes, and continuing in presence. As you perhaps look around, you might sense your body needs to move some, stand, stretch,

whatever's needed.