Tara Brach - Meditation: Being Here (21:22 min.)

Episode Date: August 5, 2026

This meditation begins with listening to sounds as a portal to spacious awareness. In addition to guiding attention to naturally occurring sounds, Tara plays chimes and gongs to deepen the experience of receptivity and openness. The meditation progresses to include all experience - sounds, sensations, thoughts, feelings - in the vast, transparent, timeless space of awareness.   Our introduction music is from "Opening" by Adrienne Torf, © 2025 ABT Music

Welcome friends to the Tara Brock podcast. I'm so glad you're here. Each week I share teachings and guided meditations to help us awaken our hearts and bring healing to our world. You can learn more or support this offering by visiting tarabrock.com where you can also join our email list. Now let's explore together the many ways we can live from the love and presence that's our deepest essence. Namaste. As you become still, notice this body sitting here breathing and gently let your attention go to the area of the heart

so you can feel as if the breath is coming in and out of your heart and as if you could listen into the heart, just sense the mood of the moment and continuing to listen. Sense what you're most sincere and take. is right now for being here, for meditating. What is it you wish from meditation? What is your heart long for? Feel your own sincerity, your sincerity about wanting to become more present or kind, more

peaceful, more awake. Since our shared sincerity, that goodness of heart that we share that wants to wake up and be part of the healing of our world. It's from that shared caring that we chant together as a community and you might bring your palms together touching lightly at the heart and just feel that sense of that heart presence. We'll chant the mantra oom. It's a universal sound current of connectedness. We'll chant three times but begin by inhaling deeply, filling your lungs,

of this life breath and then consciously extending the breath. So the in-breath is long, slow and full. And the out-breath, an equal length, releasing the breath evenly, slowly, and moving right back into the in-breath again, a nice full deep in-breath, and then a slow out-breath, feeling the sensations,

they leave the nostrils, letting go, letting go. And again, breathing in, perhaps to the count of about five. Slow out breath, five counts. Breathing in, full deep in breath, matching the out breath, letting go, relaxing outward. Breathing in, releasing with a slow, smooth out breath. Continuing like this with a matched in-breath and out-breath, sense with the in-breath, receiving this life energy, like a balloon, swelling, receiving, open.

And with the out-breath, the releasing, relaxing outward, letting go. Feeling this life breath, receiving with the inflow, and releasing with the out-word, flow and then letting go of any intentionality around the breath, letting the breath resume in its natural rhythm, just resting in that witnessing of the breath as it naturally comes in and out, gently scanning through the body, noticing if there's any places that want to let go a little, places of collected tension or tightness, you might directly soften the eyes, and let the brow be smooth, perhaps have a light smile, a slight smile at the lips,

relaxing the tongue down to the root of the tongue. Let the shoulders fall away from the neck. And if you feel inside the shoulders, you might imagine that transition of melting from ice to water. So see if you can feel that. inside the shoulders, ice to water and water to gas. There's remaining tension letting that float in awareness, easy, effortless presence. Let the hands rest in a very easy, relaxed way,

feeling the inside of the hands, softening. Notice as you soften the hands, the sensations that you can feel, the tingling, the vibrating, let there be an openness at the chest and softening down through the belly and see how deeply in the torso you can feel the breath moving. Soft belly, relaxed hands, slight smile, be aware of the touch points where your hands touch your legs or each other, or your bottom contacts the cushion of your chair, your zafu, that you're sitting on the floor,

and where your legs or feet contact the floor. So places of warmth, their pressure. Sense if you can experience this whole energy body at once simultaneously as a field of sensation, let everything happen, not opposing anything anything. letting aliveness play through you, including the sounds that appear and disappear, letting the sounds wash through, sounds, sensations, feelings, maybe thoughts are moving through, and sensing in the background that witnessing presence, that open wakefulness, that which is aware and the practice is to rest in this wakeful presence.

It's noticing the changing flow of experience, the sound or sensation, emotion. So knowing that you're here, right here, you might even whisper the word here. You can see how much you can relax into that hereness, resting in presence, relaxing with the changing flow. It might help you to feel the movement of the breath

and relax with the in-flow and outflow as a way to steady your attention, letting the breath be a kind of anchor, a portal to presence. And if the mind drifts and gets lost inside a cloud of thoughts, when there's a noticing of that, there's a natural reliance. relaxing open again, letting the cloud come and go, relaxing back into that presence again

that's right here, sensing the difference between any thought and this vivid immediacy of heerness. Each time you notice that the mind has drifted and you relax back, you're strengthening the pathway home. When we notice thinking not to judge but rather just to appreciate, okay, waking up again from that trance and then sense the sounds that are here, let your senses be awake. You might re-relax in the body, letting go through the shoulders, softening the hands, relaxing your heart. Aware again of the inflow and the outflow of the breath. And then in the background, that witnessing presence, that awake openness,

that everything's happening in. Learning to relax with the flow of life, to be fully here, right here. As a way of closing the meditation, you might take a few full breaths and to feel your heart's intention to bring that quality of presence or hearing us with you as you open your eyes and move in, move into whatever's next. Namaste and thank you.