Tara Brach - Meditation: Collecting, Unifying and Opening the Mind

Episode Date: January 31, 2019

Meditation: Collecting, Unifying and Opening the Mind (a favorite from the archives) - We begin with a listening attention, relaxing open, letting sounds wash through. Scanning through and feeling the aliveness of the body, listening to the breath. Not pushing away anything - a very open and relaxed, receptive attention. Sensing what's happening in this present moment. Closing by sensing all in the foreground and in the background - that alert inner stillness, that light of awareness, that which is our deepest, formless nature. Free download of Tara's 10 min meditation: "Mindful Breathing: Finding Calm and Ease" when you join her email list.

The following meditation is led by Tara Brock. To access more of my meditations or join my email list, please visit tarabrock.com. The listening attention, just notice the sounds that are here, relaxing open and letting sounds wash through you, the close-in sounds, perhaps in the room, including the sounds of my voice, noticing the space between sounds.

sensing the space in the room listening into that space and then the more distant sounds, noticing that sounds aren't known by bringing the attention to them. They're received. They're known spontaneously. There's nothing to do. The same receptivity of listening you can listen to and feel the aliveness of the body. Just as with the appearing and disappearing,

of sounds. Just sense the arising of sensation, this play of tingling and vibrating, heat or cool, dense or loose, light or heavy. Just letting this play of sensations move through you. You notice a place of real tightness or tension. Sense what happens when you soften around it. Just let it float. What happens when you feel the shoulders in the inside and just let it float? Whatever tangles might be there. When you soften around the hands and just feel the life in the hands floating in awareness, loosening and softening in the belly, softening around the life that's there and letting it move and float just as it is, allowing the awareness to scan down through the legs, just

receiving the life that's there. if you're listening to your life, letting it happen, letting it be just as it is. Perhaps softening around the feet, letting the sensations there, float, move, be received in awareness.

Sensing this subtle body, this energy body, is a field of sensation, listening to and feeling this changing dance, noticing that you can listen to to and feel the breath a very light, intimate attention, letting the breath breathe itself, listening to the breath as if you're listening to the voice of a quiet loved one

from really close in tender attention, including in the background sounds, not pushing away anything. It's just a very open, relaxed, receptive attention. Can you receive this next inflow of the body? breath. Where of the outflow? Perhaps you're feeling the breath in the nostrils. Perhaps you're feeling the breath in the chest, that opening, rising of the chest with the in-breath, a little bit of the collapsing with the out-breath. Or maybe it's the inflating, deflating at the belly.

For some, being with the breath is breathing with the breath throughout the whole body, as if you're feeling every cell, even the spaces between the body. the cells opening with the in-breath, letting go, releasing with the out-breath. Sent your whole awareness listening to the breath, feeling the breath. And explore how fully you can relax as the breath comes in. Just relax and receive, yield. Explore how fully you can soften and release with the out-breath. There's any tension, any controlling the breath.

Just notice that and listen to sound again. Perhaps sense of smile spreading through the eyes, slight smile at the mouth, just letting sounds wash through you. And then again just bringing that very intimate attention, that soft attention to the inflow and the outflow, your whole body's awareness. with the breath coming in

and the breath going out you might notice the mind drifting into thoughts and when you do it's an opportunity to invite yourself back right here with real friendliness sensing what it's like

to relax again with the next in-flow or outflow of the breath moment by moment noticing what it's like to relax, to soften as the breath comes in and to let go, let go, let go with the out-breath. You might sense the possibility of an attention to the breath

that expresses a feeling of being in love with the breath, how you'd be paying attention if you were in love with the breath, that subtlety, that intimacy, that listening, that tenderness, very close in as the breath comes in and as the breath goes out. If you discover as you collect and unify the mind in this way, a very deep kind of pleasure arising, let it be as big as it wants to be.

Let go into that pleasure. Fully embody it, sensing the possibility of this presence shining through every cell, every part of your being. You might ask yourself, is it not true that the stillness I seek is already here? Is it not true

that the peace I seek is already here? Is it not true that the happiness I seek is already here? Is it not true that the love I seek

is already here? As a way of closing tonight, you might sense what's actually happening in this moment, perhaps the sensations of the breath, the other sensations through the body, play of light and dark in the eyes, sounds, sensing that all in the foreground and in the background, that alert inner stillness, that light of awareness, that's our deepest formless nature.