Tara Brach - Meditation - Awakening Compassion (from retreat)

Episode Date: December 26, 2012

2012-12-31 - Meditation - Awakening Compassion - Our deepest wisdom and purest actions arise out of open-hearted presence. This meditation is drawn from the Tibetan tradition and carries us home to the vastness of loving presence. Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Your donations allow us to continue to freely offer the teachings!

This afternoon's heart practice will be Tunglin, which is a compassion practice that is from the Tibetan tradition. In the different expressions of love, loving kindness is understood to be the natural response when we take in or touch a sense of appreciation for another's goodness, for beauty, for the sense of the sacred that shines through life. And in a similar way, compassion is the natural arising that comes from when we let ourselves be touched by suffering. It's the heart's resonance with suffering our own or others. And it's a natural capacity of our heart, and yet it takes cultivation

given that in the moments when we are in fight or flight, including when we fleeed into our thoughts, we're not available to really be touched in a visceral way by suffering. So there's a correlation between our capacity for mindful presence with what's difficult, an embodied presence with what's difficult, and a full-bodied response of care, a distinction between abstract or mental compassion

and that which is expressed and experienced in a more full way. So in that spirit, it's always helpful. And this is with all the heart meditations. To begin by, again, no matter how many times you've done it, re-relaxing, letting the attention scan through the body, body and letting go some. Noticing how if in this moment you relax and soften the shoulder some, you can begin to feel the life that's there. You can begin to loosen loosely, as one teaching describes it. And when you intentionally soften the hands,

there's a kind of intimacy and receptivity to the life that's there. You have the intention to soften the heart or perhaps smile into the heart sense of smile there. It actually helps you to be sensitive to the feelings or mood of the heart. So just taking some moments to see if there's any areas of obvious tension or tightness, places that you might soften, bring awareness to give the possibility of untangling a little. The whole translation of Tonglin is taking in and sending out. The breath is very, very useful kind of support in the practice, and we'll explore it with the breath today.

It's not necessary, but it's very helpful. And beginning with just feeling the in-breath and with the in-breath, imagining that you're taking in some what's dark or hot or gritty substance and with the out breath letting go and letting go into space just sensing releasing relaxing outward so breathing in and taking in what's hot dark gritty correlates with difficulty being willing to take in and breathing out cool into the space around you. With each in breath reflecting on receptivity, this willingness to take in what's here,

opening to receive. And with each out breath, are releasing or letting go into larger space of being, just as we need this willingness to take in and be touched by suffering. There also needs to be that wisdom that lets that,

stream of suffering be released into the ocean of awareness, not holding on to, not owning, not possessing. For some people, in working with compassion, the difficulty is this sense of not being able to take in, that it will be too much, that will be overwhelmed. And so that's where the out breath gives us a sense of of the space, the vastness that can hold what's here. For others there's a sense of not really being able to fuel what's here, be touched by it, and that's where the in-breath helps to deepen our attention to receiving, to letting

in. Both are necessary. So we begin with our own experience of difficulty and you're invited if you'd like to sense some place in your life, something you're touching right here at retreat, that feels difficult, hard to open to, hard to regard with compassion, maybe an experience of anger, of fear, of hurt. You might sense the circumstances that bring it up. So this is where it's fine to have a storyline in the background. The worst thing about the situation.

You might allow your attention to go to your throat, your chest, your belly, wherever the feelings are the strongest, so that as you breathe in, you really let yourself invite and contact what's going on inside you. With the in-breath, contacting what's going on. And with the out-breath, sensing the feeling, floating in a larger space, held in a larger space, released into a larger space of awareness. If at first it's difficult to contact the experience, then emphasize the in-breath,

keeping the attention at the throat, the chest, the belly, wherever feelings are the strongest, agreeing to and allowing the experience to be as big as it is. And if it feels too much, just emphasizing the out breath, just sensing over and over again that you can allow this, these emotions, these waves to be held in that ocean of presence. Offer them into loving presence. For some people, it helps to bring the hand to the chest or belly to add that touch as a way of increasing presence.

increasing presence with the experience that's here. So experiment, make this your own. Breathing in and letting yourself touch your own experience. You might find with the out breath there's a prayer or wish for yourself that you'd like to offer. As you experiment, if you find your often thought or feeling dissociated again, let this story, the background to the experience come in closer.

So you're reminding yourself, you're letting the story be a kind of portal into the emotion and into the body. As you breathe in, see how much you can say yes to what's here. Breathing out, a kind of ventilating, finding the space inside and around that lets what's here float. We continue the practice now by reflecting on all those beings, that may be suffering in this very same way, and you might sense people you know,

that might have the same fear or sense of failure, disappointment, shame, sorrow. So you're breathing in for all of us that might suffer this way. Breathing in and opening to receive our collective sorrow, collective fear, and with the out breath, letting that whole whole huge current of suffering, empty into the vastness, a sea of awareness, see of loving presence. In the most basic way, with each in breath, the willingness to be touched, not blocking, not resisting, just that intention alone, with each out-breath, a sense of letting go,

letting go into the vastness of what's always and already here. We continue to practice by bringing to mind someone that's dear to you, someone who's having a hard time. This is a person in your life who's struggling in some way with their own feeling of failure, hurt, fear, loneliness. And sense that you could bring this person right here, very close by and really sense his or her presence.

And even more so that you can sense being inside this being, looking out through his or her eyes, imagining what this person's world is like from the inside out, dealing with this person's body, this person's heart. So as you breathe in now, you're allowing yourself to fully contact. what the suffering is like for this person. Take your time to image in, to imagine, from the inside out, what's it like? And with the out breath, a sense of letting go. Again, letting this pain, this suffering be held by something vast and loving.

With the in-breath opening to receive, no resistance, nothing pushed away. away, breathing out, letting go, releasing, offering into a larger belonging. You had sense with the out breath offering your prayer, your words of compassion. May you be free from suffering. As one Hawaiian healer put it, when he contacted suffering his own or another's, I'm sorry and I love you. by widening the field to sense and imagine all those who are suffering in this same way. So with the in breath, breathing in for all beings with this suffering and with the out breath,

offering space, love, the wholeness of awareness. Letting the suffering be a current in the great ocean of awareness. ideas of other, of suffering. Just gently bring your attention to exactly the experience this moment of the heart. Continue with the gentle in-breath that is fully connected, contacting the moment, open, and the out-breath that surrendering, releasing all. all holdings, into the infinite, into the whole. These are the words of the radiant sutras. There is a place in the heart where everything meets.

Go there if you want to find me. Mind, senses, soul, eternity, all are there. Are you there? Enter the bowl of vastness that is the heart. Give yourself to it with touch. total abandon. Quiet ecstasy is there and a steady regal sense of resting in a perfect spot. Once you know the way, the nature of attention will call you to return again and again and be saturated with knowing, I belong here, I am at home here.

Once you know the way, the nature of attention will call you to return again. again and again, and be saturated with knowing, I belong here. I am at home here.