Tara Brach - Meditation: Awakening Loving Presence (2021-12-22)

Episode Date: December 23, 2021

Meditation: Awakening Loving Presence (2021-12-22) - Loving presence is an innate capacity, and it can be cultivated. This meditation begins with a scan arousing a relaxed tender presence in the body, then brings loving attention to our inner life, and in widening circles, to our world.

The following meditation is led by Tara Brock. To access more of my meditations or join my email list, please visit tarabrock.com. Hands be relaxed. You might place the palms in your lap or fingers interlaced or palms down on the thighs. This meditation as we enter the new year is a heart practice, awakening, loving presence. We begin this heart practice by bringing

a caring attention to our body. You might just sense where there's any areas of tightness or tension. Just offer yourself that gift of letting go a little, softening, relaxing. You might let the image and sense of a smile fill the sky with this image of a great open sky and just letting a smile spread through it. So you're visualizing it, sensing it. And then let that smile spread through the eyes so that the mind is filled with a smile, the mind merging with that sky and the eyes are smiling.

The outer corners lifted a bit. Softening the flesh around the eyes, the brow smooth. feeling that same slight smile at the mouth, the inside of the mouth smiling. Sense how that smile can help connect to a mood or spirit of friendliness, benevolence, kindness. The eyes are smiling in the mouth. You might smile into the heart, sensing a smile spreading through the heart, visualizing it, feeling it. It's not to cover over anything but just to make room for what's here. Letting that atmosphere and sense of a smile wide and outward and outward so that the shoulders

are free to relax some, to fall away from the neck. See if you can feel from the inside out the aliveness in the shoulders, tinkling or vibrating, and if it's tightness, let it float. in awareness. Notice if it might naturally soften with a kind attention. Let the hands rest in a very easy and effortless way. See if you can soften the hands and what do you notice as you soften? Can you feel the vibrating or tingling from the inside out? Perhaps in the thumbs, and fingers, palms, tops of the palms, space inside the hands, awake alive space, and let there be an openness to the chest and see if you can feel from the inside out the area of the heart.

Again, sensing that smile spreading through the heart, very receptive to the feeling tone there, open or close, sensitive or numb, squeezed or flowing. You can bring this same smile of friendliness and ease to the belly, just visualizing and sensing the felt experience of a smile spread through the abdominal area. You can soften and make room to receive this next breath in a softening belly. This breath and now this one. And again, visualizing and sensing a smile through the pelvic region, receiving the aliveness, movement of energy,

it really feels the whole torso, and the weight and the volume of your legs, the feet from the inside out. And notice what happens if you widen the lens to feel this whole body simultaneously as a field of sensation and sensing how the particular sensations and the heart region float in the midst of things, letting the breath gently be felt, breathing in and feeling the area of the heart, and breathing out with the outflow, relaxing outward.

And it's from this heart-centered presence that you might bring to mind someone in your life who's very easy to love. It's a non-complicated love. It might be someone in your family or friend. Could be somebody who's alive or not alive. Could be a pet. Some being where there's just a very palpable sense of tenderness, warmth. And as you imagine this being, bring them close in.

in right here, imagining what this being is like when they're caring about you, expressing love, expressing their aliveness, and just sense what you most love about them. Your attention to the loving itself, the warmth, the care of that loving, the goodness of that loving. I'm just sensing this is basic goodness, this capacity of love, this capacity of love, this loving to love. It takes some moments to sense what else feels like basic goodness in your being. It's a reflection on your own basic goodness, your natural loving, perhaps your dedication to knowing truth, what's real, perhaps your desire to be helpful and serve

others to grow, to awaken. And if it's difficult to sense goodness, you might look through the eyes of one who loves you, sense what it is that they appreciate, give yourself that gift of opening to basic goodness that's right here and offering yourself these messages of care. And if you like, you might offer them by gently placing your hand on your hearts, you're offering them both with touch and also the words themselves. You might experiment with that. I'll suggest words, feel free to alter them if that's helpful.

May I feel held in loving presence, filled with loving presence. May I trust my basic goodness. Trust that I'm enough. May I feel happy. May I know the joy of being alive. May I feel deep and natural peace. May my heart and mind awaken and be free. And again, mentally whispering these phrases with as much sincerity as you can contact.

May I feel held in loving presence, filled with loving presence. May I trust my basic goodness, trust that I'm enough. May I feel happy. May I know the joy of being alive. May I feel deep and natural peace. May my heart and mind awaken and be free. Now bringing to mind someone you care about that you'd like to offer your blessings to

and as you did before, bringing that being close in, you might sense the aliveness in their eyes, their creativity, their care for the world and take some moments to really let yourself reflect on their goodness, what brings up care and love from you. And as you offer these phrases, you might imagine, visualize, and sense what it would be like

if they really could receive and experience what you're wishing for them. May you feel held in loving presence, filled with loving presence. May you trust your basic, a goodness, trust that you're enough. May you feel happy. May you know the joy of being alive. May you feel deep and natural peace. May your heart and mind awaken and be free. And now bringing to mind someone you know but not well, someone you might consider as a neutral person and that means really that you don't have strong feelings that are positive or negative. Perhaps someone

and you see regularly but just don't connect much with. And as you bring to mind this person, again, try to bring them close in so you can sense what is the goodness in this person? What's the natural and deep goodness here? Sensing how they too would long to love and be loved, to know truth, to be more present and free. Again, repeating the phrases. May you feel held in loving presence, filled with loving presence.

May you trust your basic goodness. Trust that you're enough. May you feel happy. May you know the joy of being alive. May you feel deep and natural peace. May your heart and mind awaken and be free. Now, including in this heart space, someone who's difficult for you, someone who brings up reactivity as you do and as you did before to bring that person close

in enough that you can try to see the goodness. You might imagine that person as a child, imagine that person when they're really happy, imagine that person when they're feeling loved, you can imagine that person as if they've already died. But sense the inherent goodness that this person too wants to love and be loved, wants to be more peaceful, wants to be free. And with that basic goodness in mind, again the phrase is, may you feel held in loving presence, filled with loving presence.

May you trust your basic goodness, trust that you're enough. May you feel happy. May you know the joy of being alive. May you feel a deep and natural peace. May your heart and mind awaken and be free. Sensing in the heart space that's here that you could include the loved ones you've considered, the neutral person, the difficult person, your own being. Just imagine and sense this heart space of

as wide as the world, boundless, edgeless, including all humans, all those who are happy and well, including those who are suffering, those in poverty, those experiencing injustice, oppression, violence, including non-human animals, those living naturally and free, those suffering from human abuse of factory farms, those suffering from climate change, including the earth or mother as if you could hold the earth in your lap and all beings everywhere in this vast heart space. May all beings everywhere feel held in loving presence, filled with loving presence. May all beings be happy.

the joy of being alive, may all beings touch a deep and natural peace. May there be peace on earth. May there be peace on earth. May there be peace everywhere. May all beings awaken. Their hearts and minds, may all beings everywhere be free. Namaste.