Tara Brach - Meditation: Embodied Awareness (2016-03-09)

Episode Date: March 11, 2016

Meditation: Embodied Awareness (2016-03-09) - This meditation reconnects us to the vibratory aliveness of our bodies, and the space of awareness that suffuses that aliveness. We inhabit embodied awareness in the moments of non-doing, of simply resting as wakeful openness, of pure Being. Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/. With thanks and love, Tara

The following meditation is led by Tara Brock. To access more of my meditations or join my email list, please visit tarabrock.com. In the stillness, let your senses be wide awake, aware of the sounds around you, aware of the sensations and aliveness in the body, and to deepen that wakefulness in the body, letting the awareness scan through the body,

will begin the area of the eyes, the region of the eyes. You might soften the eyes and then let yourself become aware of and receive the sensations that are there. You might also be aware of flickering light and darkness, vibration. You might also sense the space that the vibration is floating in, is happening in, bringing the attention to the mouth, you might let there be a slight smile at the mouth, the inside of the mouth smiling. Let the tongue fill the lower jaw. See if you can relax right down to the root of the tongue. Feeling the sensations, receiving the sensations of aliveness through

the mouth. Bringing the awareness to the area of the throat, you might imagine the throat filling the whole neck and then receiving the aliveness the vibrating or tingling the sensations that are there sensing that you can bring the awareness inside the shoulders so you can feel the shoulders from the inside out

as a way of softening there you might imagine a kind of dissolving from ice to water a melting sensation. And then even further, water to gas, receiving the play of sensations in the shoulders. And see if you can also imagine and feel even the interior space that they're arising out of.

If you imagine the nucleus of an atom, all little particles, they're really appearing out of emptiness and disappearing. huge amounts of space between them, sensing the length and the volume of the arms. Let the hands rest in a very easy, effortless way. And then softening the hands, softening a little more, and feeling them from the inside out, receiving the aliveness, the movement of sensations. You might notice tingling and vibrating, perhaps,

places of warmth, pressure, feeling the hands from the inside out. And also, can you imagine the space this aliveness in the hands is floating in, the interior space it's arising out of, letting there be an openness in the chest area, and feeling the heart, the region of the heart from the inside out, receiving the dance of sensations that's there. It might be pressure, tightness, flow, squeezing, vibrating, tingling. Very intimate attention.

Feeling the aliveness and imagining the space it's happening in. Feeling the sensations throughout the whole chest area and the space that fills the chest. Relaxing through the abdominal area and letting this next breath be received in a sense, softening belly. This breath and now this one and again, loosening the belly, feeling the awareness from the inside out, feeling the life that's there, the movement of sensation, places of heat, tenderness, vibration, pressure. Sensing the space it's floating in,

the interior space, this aliveness, arises from. Scanning now through the pelvic region, relaxing and feeling from the inside out, the sensations there. Receptive, open, aware of the energetic aliveness and the space it's happening in. Aware of the length and the volume of your legs and placing the awareness inside the feet, feeling the feet from the inside out, aware of the tingling, vibrating aliveness that's there, sensing your feet and your body extending downward, outward to really feel the earth body, sensing the aliveness and energy of this earth body flowing into you and filling you. So you can feel your whole body as a field of sensation,

letting this dance of aliveness be just as it is, not opposing anything, not controlling, sensing this elemental dynamism of life, like points of light in the night sky, all received and happening in vast awareness, just rest in this wakeful openness, letting life be just as it is, receiving this changing play of sensations, sounds, aliveness. Moment to moment. The moments when there's an awareness of thinking are really an invitation to relax back home again, to reawaken the senses.

You'll notice that when you're lost in thought, you're not aware of the sounds. that are appearing and disappearing right here. And when we're lost and thought, we lose contact with the physical aliveness, with the felt sense. So come back. Come back with some ease and without any judgment.

Just listen again to the sounds right here. Re-relax a little through the body so you can feel the aliveness and speak, space right here. Again, just letting life be as it is moment to moment, resting in that wakeful openness that receives the changing flow. And if it helps to stabilize the mind some, by having the sensations of the breath and the foreground, that's a fine way to help support your practice. Every time there's a noticing of that drift into a virtual reality into thoughts. And then there's a coming back. You're really strengthening the muscle of remembrance.

You can start fresh in any moment. Arriving right here, these sounds and these sensations. in-flow and outflow of the breath, all received in a wakeful openness, received by awareness, as a way of closing the meditation, let this wakeful openness be felt in the domain of the heart, just sense the heart space that's here. And from that space of tenderness, of warmth, to sense whatever prayer or blessing you'd like to offer to yourself right now. A mental whisper of a prayer to your own being, for your own heart.

To feel the sincerity and care that fills this heart space now, standing in all directions. You can sense how this heart space really includes all beings everywhere, closing by offering your prayer to all beings.