Tara Brach - Meditation: Breathing Through

Episode Date: February 3, 2022

Meditation: Breathing Through - Drawn from a classic Tibetan Buddhist compassion practice, this guided meditation invites us to open to the sufferings of the world, and let it move through our hearts and out again. The blessing of this offering of presence is that our hearts become a transformer of sorrow.

The following meditation is led by Tara Brock. To access more of my meditations or join my email list, please visit tarabrock.com. This is a practice called Breathing Through. And it's a traditional practice actually adapted from classic Tibetan Buddhist compassion practice. And I hope you enjoy it. You might begin by sensing your posture and making sure that you're sitting in a way that is relaxed, comfortable,

and allows you to be awake. If you'd like to close your eyes, please do, or lower your gaze. We'll begin together with a few long, deep breaths, inhaling to the count of five, breathing in and filling the lungs, the out breath matching the in-breath, exhaling to the count of five, let him go, letting go. And again, breathing in, filling the chest and the lungs. A slow, smooth out breath, releasing, letting go, letting go.

And again, inhaling, and a slow, even out breath, releasing, relaxing outward, letting go. then allowing your breath to resume in its natural rhythm, letting go of all controlling, and simply observing and feeling the breath as it is, as you watch the breath, just noticing that it happens by itself without your well, without you deciding when to inhale or exhale,

just sense that you're being breathed being breathed by life, just as all other beings on our planet, human and non-human animals, life forms, we're being breathed, sustained in a vast breathing web of life. And now visualize your breath as a stream our ribbon of air that's passing through you. See it flow up through your nose and down through your wind. pipe and into your lungs. And then from your lungs, now take it through your heart. Picture it flowing through your heart and out through an opening there to reconnect with the larger web of life. Let the breath stream as it passes through you appears one loop within that

vast web connecting it, connecting you with it. So the breath is flowing like a stream. a ribbon, up through your nose, down through your windpipe and into your lungs, and from your lungs, taking it through your heart, and then picture it flowing through your heart and out through an opening that reconnects with the larger web of life, breathing in and through and out, letting that breath stream as it passes through you appear as one loop within that vast web, connecting you with it in through your heart and out. Feeling the breath enter through the nostrils. Move down through the heart and out.

Creating that loop within the vast web. connecting you with it. Now widening your awareness, sense the suffering of our larger body, this earth, sensing how that suffering is present in the world. Let your intention be to drop all the fences and open to your knowledge of that suffering and let it come as concretely as you can. Still breathing, you might imagine, concrete images of land stripped of trees or trees burning and wildfires of droughts, parched land, devastating storms of toxins entering our air or waters, of vulnerable humans struggling to raise crops, to find food, to find drinkable water, to protect their homes

from floods, from fires, or perhaps animals killed in oil spills, animals endangered by our warming climate. The fear and trauma that arises with the dying of life systems. Let your attention go to the suffering that you're most aware of. Let it be close in, real. Now breathe in the pain like dark granules on the stream of air, up through your nose, down through your trachea, your lungs, your heart, and out again into the world net. You're asked to do nothing for now, but let it pass through your heart, breathing in the pain, dark granules on the stream of air, up through your nose, down through your trachea, your lungs, and your heart, and out again into the world net. Be sure that stream flows through and out again, not to hang on to the pain, but surrender

it for now into the healing resources of life's vast web. if no images or feelings arise and there's only blankness, perhaps grayness or numbness, breathe that through. The numbness itself is a very real part of our world. And if what surfaces for you is not the pain of other being so much as your own personal suffering, breathe that through too. Your own anguish, your own hurt is an integral part of the grief of our world and arises with it, breathing in whatever suffering is here, through the chest, through the heart, and out again into the vast web. Should you feel an ache in the chest, a pressure in the ribcages if the heart would break, that's all right. Your heart is not an object that can break,

but if it were, they say that the heart that breaks open can hold the whole universe. Your heart is that large. Trust it. Keep breathing. Know your belonging to infinite loving awareness, wherever the suffering is. Breathing it in like dark granules through the nose, your lungs, the heart, and out again. Doing this, your heart can become a transformer of sorrows. become a field of tenderness as you take it in and then let it go into your larger belonging as you release the pain into space feel the web of aliveness of compassionate awareness that it's its source you can rest in that loving awareness offering prayers to your own fears and hurt, offering prayers for those you know, offering prayers for all beings everywhere.

The poet RELCA writes, I live my life in widening circles that reach out across the world. I may never complete the last one, but I give myself to it for these last moments, sensing your heart as a transformer of sorrows, breathing in, breathing out, realizing your belonging to that heart space that's boundless, tender, and awake.