Tara Brach - Meditation: Befriending Your Inner Life

Episode Date: March 2, 2023

Meditation: Befriending Your Inner Life - This meditation establishes a gentle and caring presence through bringing the image and felt sense of a smile to various domains in the body. We then settle with the breath, and practice relaxing with whatever arises, letting life be just as it is. The underlying intention is to regard all experience with a clear, interested and friendly attention. The gift is a homecoming to our naturally loving presence.

The following meditation is led by Tara Brock. To access more of my meditations or join my email list, please visit tarabrock.com. Meditation is one of a friendliness, kindness. We can establish that mood through our whole body first by imagining and sensing a wide open sky that's filled with the curve of a smile. Just imagine that, an open vast sky and a smile spreading through that sky, illuminating, sensing the receptivity of a smile,

letting your mind merge with that open sky so you can sense that smile spreading through and filling and lightening up your mind. whole mind. Sensing the eyes smiling, the outer corners of the eyes lifted up so that smile spreads through the eyes and you can feel all the sensations of the eyes floating, light and dark, tingling, vibrating, letting the brow be smooth. Sense a slight but real smile also at the lips.

the inside of the mouth smiling. The eyes are soft and smiling, the mouth smiling. Notice that the tongue can spread naturally filling the lower palate. You can relax the tongue down to the root. You might become aware of all the sensations in the mouth, the teeth, the gums, the lips, the tongue, tingling and vibrating in space. The eyes are soft, smiling, the mouth. You might visualize and sense the curve of a smile spreading through the area of the heart, smiling into the heart and sense how this doesn't cover over anything it creates more space for the life that's here.

Letting that friendly space hold whatever feelings experience is in the region of the heart. You might gently soften a bit in the shoulders, allowing the shoulders to fall away from the ears, feeling inside the shoulders if you feel some tension or tightness, sense that it might float a little in awareness, letting be wakefully, letting the hands rest in a very easy and effortless way. You might explore softening the hands. and softening again and feeling from the inside out the aliveness that's right here. Notice how intimately you can feel the sensations. And again sensing the eyes are soft and smiling, mouth slightly smiling, a smile spreading

through the heart and as you scan down the body feeling the midsection you might imagine visualize and feel the curve of a smile spreading through the belly. And perhaps you can let this next breath be received in a softening belly. This breath and now this one and again feeling from the inside out the sensations and the aliveness through the whole midsection of your body. soft, belly soft, breathing deep into the torso, awake and hear. If you continue to scan down, you can visualize and sense this curve of a smile spreading through the pelvic region, relaxing, opening to the sensations there, the awareness deep

in the torso, breath by breath, feeling the aliveness that's here. You might imagine at the base of the spine as if you're sitting in a vase or the curve of a smile, directly contacting the base of the spine. Just visualize that and sense the earth's energy pouring up through that vase into your body, flowing up and filling your body with aliveness. And filling the aliveness everywhere in the arms, the hands, the legs, the feet, so that if you widen the lens you can sense this body as a field of sensation. Sensation vibrating and tingling and bubbling and changing in space, floating in space,

not stopping anything or opposing anything, letting everything happen, letting everything be just as it is, along with sensation aware of the sound, appearing, disappearing in the open space of awareness, the sound, sensation, feelings, this whole changing stream of experience unfolding moment by moment in this wakeful openness. You might sense in the midst of all that's happening, the simple movement of the breath, And resting in that, letting that perhaps be the foreground, still aware of the sounds and other sensations, the intention be to have an alert and friendly and interested presence. Right here, open to the changing flow.

And when the mind gets drawn off in thoughts, which it's natural and happens, it's inevitable, The practice is to simply notice that when we do and gently relax open the attention again, aware of the sounds that are actually here, perhaps sensing that smile and the eyes, the mouth, the heart, and reestablishing a friendly presence, relaxing with the breath, relaxing with the life that's here, letting everything be just as it is. these last minutes you might explore a bit more what it means to meet the moment with a friendly quality of presence, a gentle, clear attention, letting this life be just as it is moment to moment.