Tara Brach - Meditation: Dedicated to Maya Angelou: Being at Home

Episode Date: May 30, 2014

2015-05-28 - Guided Meditation: Dedicated to Maya Angelou: Being at Home

The following meditation is led by Tara Brock, meditation teacher, psychologist, and author. Angelo writes, I long as does every other human being to be at home wherever I find myself. I long as does every other human being to be at home wherever I find myself. this homecoming, this relaxing and inhabiting the moment with love, with presence is available right here, right now. As a way of arriving, you might let that image of a smile help to bring a sense of natural benevolence, loving kindness to the body, heart and mind. You might imagine a smile spread through the sky, great open blue sky, a

last receptive smile, and sense that vastness, that receptivity filling the mind, letting the mind merge with sky. So the whole mind is lit up in that receptivity and openness and benevolence of a smile, sense a smile spreading through the eyes. Corners of the eyes lifted up a bit. Softening the eyes and letting the brow be smooth. Sensing a slight smile at the mouth. Slight but real.

So the eyes are smiling, slight smile at the mouth, the inside of the mouth smiling. And as you breathe in and out, you might feel the breath at the throat and sense that curve and receptivity. of a smile there, the openness and space inside the throat. So the eyes are soft, slight smile, the mouth smiling, the throat, and feeling that breath as the breath rises and falls at the chest. And sense of smile spreading through the chest, smiling into the heart. So you can

imagine and feel both the aliveness and the space and receptivity. in the heart area. You might notice how the smile, the heart makes room for whatever's there. It allows you to be at home with whatever is arising. You might imagine and sense that space, that heart space widening and widening so that the shoulders are included. You can notice the possibility of letting the shoulders relax back and down some, being at ease. sensing that you can be the awareness inside the shoulders, feeling the space and the aliveness inside the shoulders, sense if it's possible to let any tension in the shoulders

float, dissolve, relax in awareness, letting that sense of relaxation and openness and aliveness just spread down through the arms so that the hands can rest in a very, easy and effortless way right now. Feel free to adjust them slightly if that helps. Very easy and softening the hands now. Soffening so that you can feel from the inside out the aliveness that's here. Can you feel the space and the energy inside the hands, tingling, vibrating? experiment by relaxing and softening just a little more and with a receptive presence noticing

what you feel in the hands. You can bring this same intimate presence everywhere in the body, just as a cup is filled with water. This body is filled with awareness. Feel an openness in the chest and again sensing that smile at the heart. And from the inside out feel the whole heart area as space and aliveness. Just let the whole dance of energy play out in this awareness that's right here. You might still sense a smile in the eyes, soft eyes, slight smile at the mouth, smile at the heart, and then loosening in the belly and sense the curve of a smile spreading through the belly. More accurately, the d'ontana little below the belly. And see if you can feel from the inside out the space and the aliveness in that area.

See if you can let the breath be received in a softening belly. This breath and now this one and again. Feeling the awareness go deep into the torso, filling the whole pelvic cavity. You can feel the aliveness in space, the hips, the genitals, the buttocks. letting the awareness be awake through the legs, right down into the feet. So you can feel the feet from the inside out. See if you can notice the tingling or vibrating in the feet, places of pressure, firmness, where the feet contact the floor.

Feeling the hands soft and awake, the hand soft and awake. And then letting the attention widened, that you can include this whole body simultaneously, sensing the whole field of sensation that's here, and just letting everything happen, relaxing back and letting this whole play of aliveness move through you. Sense what it means to make yourself at home in this essential aliveness, awake and relax. You can widen the lens by including sound. Just letting the sounds wash through. So you're listening not just with your ears,

but with your whole awareness, making yourself at home in this whole mysterious dance of sound and sensation, feelings, this ever-changing play of life, moment to moment. Notice the deep and deep and you know,

the deep and universal conditioning to leave home, to go off in thoughts and cut off this awakeness of the senses, this immediacy of awareness. When you're aware of thinking, it's a beautiful opportunity to practice homecoming, to learn the pathway home again. Just simply pause when you notice you've been off in thoughts about it. the future or the past. Just pause, notice the fact of thinking and contrast that to the immediacy of what's right here. So instead of the tape in the mind or the mental images, again open to this changing flow of sounds, of sensations, and in the background this alert, inner stillness,

our innate wakefulness and openness. Sense the simplicity of this practice as coming home over and over until we truly feel that peace and ease that we know we're here, right here, relaxed and awake. I'd ask yourself, is there anything between me and being at home in this moment? and just offer a very clear and gentle attention to whatever's here. Very kind, very present. As does every other human being to be at home wherever I find myself. These last few moments, just letting go into the love and the presence that's right here,

sensing what it means to truly be at home.