Tara Brach - Meditation: Effortless and Wakeful Presence (2019-06-12)

Episode Date: June 13, 2019

Meditation: Effortless and Wakeful Presence (2019-06-12) - Striving in meditation only creates more tension in our psyche and a solidified sense of self. This meditation invites us to awaken our senses and relax back into the presence that is always and already here. From presence we spontaneously notice and allow the changing flow of experience, and sense the openness and wakefulness of our natural awareness.

The following meditation is led by Tara Brock. To access more of my meditations or join my email list, please visit tarabrock.com. Your senses be awake, listening to the sounds around you, and feeling the aliveness in the body, sensing the field of awareness that everything's happening in, this field of wakefulness, of intelligence that's listening, to sound, the awareness that's present to sensation, relax back and just rest in that awareness

that's right here, listening to and feeling the aliveness of the moment, an effortless presence, resting in that presence and scanning through the body, just receiving the sensations in the region of the eyes, the flickering of light, a little vibration sensation there. You might want to soften the eyes a little. You even sense a smile spreading through the eyes, sensing the quality of presence that wakes up in that region. Slight smile at the mouth. Feeling the lips from the inside, the fullness,

letting the tongue fill the lower palate, the jaw unhinged. So you can feel the awareness. awareness inside the mouth, sensitive, receiving sensations there. You might imagine the throat filling your neck and sensing the awareness inside the neck, the space inside the neck, awake, sensitive, alive. Allow the shoulders to relax back and down a little. Feel the shoulders from the inside out, the space and awareness inside the shoulders

or perhaps sensing tightness or tension and if it's there to let it float in awareness. Let the hands be soft and rest in an easy and effortless way and soft and softening again, feeling the hands from the inside out, the fingers, the space between the palms and the back of the hands, the tingling and vibrating. that's happening inside the hands. And just as a cup is filled with water, this whole body is filled with awareness, awareness feeling the sensations,

playing through the hands. Let there be an openness at the chest and sensing from the inside out the space and awareness that fills the chest and the heart area, presence that receives sensations, You might sense this next breath received in a softening belly, this breath, and now this one, and again. See if you can sense from the inside out the space and the awareness that fills the midsection

of your body. Sensations arise and pass in the space of awareness, sensing the pelvic region filled with awareness, aliveness and the legs, the length, the volume, the weight of the legs, and sensing the space and the awareness that fills them, feeling the sensation and vibration in the feet, sensing the space that's happening in, awake space. So if you widen the lens, you can feel the space and awareness that fills this whole body simultaneously, a field of sensation appearing and disappearing in open awareness, including the sounds that are coming and going, listening not just with your ears, but sounds are received

by awareness in the foreground changing sounds, sensations, feelings, and in the background this boundless space of awareness, field of weakfulness that everything's happening in. And relax back and just be that awareness like a vast ocean, sensing the surface waves of sound and sensation, letting everything happen, effortless presence. When you notice you've drifted into thoughts, gently come back to your senses, listening to the sounds that are actually right here, perhaps re-relaxing or softening in the body. So you can feel the sensations in the shoulders, the hands, relaxing the heart. In the foreground, the changing play of sound and sensation, feelings, and in the background,

that great sea of awareness unhooking from thoughts and relaxing back. again and again, a relaxed effortless presence. It's natural to get lost in thoughts and you can learn to notice that and gently unhook. Relax, open and reawaken your senses. So you're aware of the sounds, a receptive listening and aware from the inside out of sensations in your body. You can sense the space that sounds and sensations are happening in, resting in that allowing presence, being the sea of wakefulness, of awareness, allowing the surface waves to come and

go.