Tara Brach - Meditation: Cultivating a Clear and Relaxed Presence (2018-04-25)

Episode Date: April 26, 2018

Meditation: Cultivating a Clear and Relaxed Presence (2018-04-25) - This guided meditation begins with a calming breath to quiet the mind and relax the body. Following this, we establish our presence with an anchor - the breath, sound or sensation - and practice "coming back" from distractions, and including whatever direct experience asks for our kind attention. The meditation ends with a short loving kindness prayer. 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. These moments of settling, you might feel the breath and feel the breath in the area of the heart, as if you could breathe in and out of the heart. Just bring a listening attention, so you're listening to and feeling the area of the heart,

sensing your mood, sensing whatever emotion is here, and under that, sensing what your longing is, what your deep intention is for meditation, for stepping on a path of awakening. What brings you to practice? What do you really care about? It's really what most matters to you. In the stillness, again, sense your body sitting here,

breathing and notice what might want to let go right now, want to soften, and then deepening the attention to the breath, extending or lengthening the in-breath now, so it's a long, full in-breath, and then a slow-out breath matching the length of the in-breath, inhaling deeply, filling the lungs, and a slow-out breath, slow enough so you can feel the sensations of the breath, leaving the nostrils. continuing with a long deep in-breath. You might count to five. Without pausing, the out-breath, again matched, counting to five.

Breathing in, filling the chest and lungs. Exhaling, slow, smooth out-breath. Breathing in, filling the lungs. Opening to receive the breath. And releasing the breath slowly, letting go. letting go. At your own pace now, breathing in a long, deep in breath and then matching it with the out breath. Now releasing any deliberate way of breathing, letting the breath be natural. I'm just sensing the presence that's here as you breathe. It's receiving the breath with a soft,

clear presence. Letting this life breath be an anchor home base connecting you with full presence. You might be attending to the breath at the nostrils, the inflow, the outflow. That's one place of attention. The inflow and outflow of the breath at the nostrils. You might feel the chest expanding, rising, and then falling.

You might enjoy feeling the breath at the belly, the expanding and then the deflating. Or perhaps it's the whole body breathing that helps to most engage your attention, as if you could feel even on a cellular level, the opening to receive the breath, relaxing, releasing. Your mind feels busy,

you can gently place a palm on the belly, and let the feeling of the breath expanding and deflating help you to stay with the breath. The breath is a popular home base but if for whatever reason it doesn't feel like a match for you, you can also rest in the sounds, the listening to sounds, or for some the sensations throughout the body or maybe just the sensations in the hands. but it's helpful to have a home base so that when the mind drifts off you have a place to come back to

to gently return to living presence. Our attention is conditioned to get distracted or drifts so you may notice that the mind has left the breath. The way you come back to the breath is what will determine the depth of presence. You don't have to drag your mind back. It's more of a relaxing back. So when you notice you've been off in thoughts, you might pause for a moment. You can even mentally note,

okay, thinking, thinking, and then reopen your attention to presence. Since the sounds that are actually here right now, rather than the sounds of the thoughts. reopen in the body, perhaps re-relaxing a little in the body. You might soften the shoulders, legs the hands, loosen and soften the belly, and even bring a slight smile to the mouth, which sends a message to the whole nervous system to be at ease, and gently land again with the movement of the breath, the in-flow and outflow, rising, falling,

or whatever you've chosen as your anchor, your home base. See if you can relax with your moment-to-moment experience. At times, experiences will arise that really capture your attention. Strong unpleasant sensations, perhaps pleasant sensations of vibration, aliveness, maybe an emotion like fear, excitement, restlessness.

If something calls your attention strongly, then let go of the primary focus on the breath or your anchor and open to include what's here. Our practice is to include whatever life arises, as if you can say yes to it. You belong. This is part of experience of the moment. This feel it as sensations in the body.

even though you're no longer focused on the breath, you can breathe with what arises. If it's really challenging, you might offer some kindness, some care. And when it's no longer predominant, then again come resting in your home base, your primary anchor. Moment to moment,

recognizing and allowing what's right here. No matter how many times the mind driven, you can start again right in this moment, beginning fresh, relax, awake, present. And in this presence, bringing the breath and attention to the area of the heart, and sense that you can call on your own wisest heart, most awake heart, bearing witness to your smaller self, just sense whatever prayer or blessed, blessing you'd like to offer to yourself right now. What does your awake heart wish for yourself? And sensing that heart space, your awake heart space, as totally vast, edgeless, all-inclusive,

you might sense some of the beings in your life included in that heart space, sensing your wish for well-being, holding and bathing them. Sensing that heart space as wide as the world, including the earth, our mother, all beings. We close with that simple prayer. May all beings trust and realize loving awareness as their essence. May all beings be happy. May all beings touch great and natural peace. May all beings awaken and be free.

Namaste.