Tara Brach - Meditation: Embodying Loving Awareness (19:39 min.)

Episode Date: November 14, 2024

Love is often abstract, and not fully alive. In this practice, with the supportive image and felt sense of a smile, we are guided to awaken loving in our body, mind and whole being.

The following meditation is led by Tara Brock. To access more of my meditations or join my email list, please visit tarabrock.com. Today's meditation is a heart meditation, so I hope you enjoy it. Wherever you are, take a few moments to find the posture that most serves you. Typically, it's helpful if there's an upright, because it helps you stay more awakeful, but for some you might decide lying down works. It's important that you're comfortable and at ease.

For many, just to sense what lets you in these moments feel safe and grounded, lets you feel present and at ease, comfortable, relaxed. Your eyes might be downcast or closed, but begin to bring the attention inward, and feel this body breathing. And breathing together now, let's inhale deeply to the count of five, a long, slow in-breath, and exhale to the count of five, a slow out breath. Inhaling, filling the chest and the lungs.

And a very slow out breath so you can feel the sensations of the breath as it leaves the nostrils. Inhaling slowly to the count of five. Slow out breath. feel a sense of releasing, relaxing outward, letting go. One more time, inhaling deeply. And a slow out breath, relaxing. Letting go. Letting go.

And then allowing the breath to resume in its natural rhythm. And as you do, sense the quality of presence that's here. Now to invite you to visualize a wide open, great sky, blue, bright, open. And to visualize the curve of a smile spreading through that sky and getting the felt sense and the image of a smile spreading through the sky. And with it, that kind of receptivity and benevolence, a sense of goodness. And sensing that vast open sky with the smile spreading through it and see if you can let your mind merge with that sky, vast awareness, spacious, receptive, with the atmosphere of benevolence, letting the felt sense of

that warmth and benevolence come to the eyes and allow the eyes to soften and imagine and sense of smile spreading through the eyes so the outer corners are lifting. it a bit. Your eyes are smiling, floating in that open space, emanating that benevolence, that goodwill. And you might feel the lips in a slight smile also and the inside of the mouth smiling. And just allowing that sense of benevolence of goodwill to deepen and it's feeling the whole face relaxing, smoothing. The eyes are smiling. The mouth.

You might sense that you can visualize and feel a smile in the throat and some opening there. Taking some moments to let the shoulders fall away from the neck. To soften inside the shoulders and soften again. To let the hands rest in a very easy, effortless way. and then soften the hands and soften again. So you can feel from the inside out, the tingling and vibrating there, bringing your attention to the chest, let the chest be open.

And you might visualize and have the felt sense of a smile spreading through the chest, spreading through the heart, making room for whatever's there, creating a very spacious, receptive, and tender presence. Again, just scanning and sensing that great open sky of awareness with a smile and letting the mind merge with that. Open awareness, filled with an atmosphere of benevolence, and filling the eyes and a smile and the mouth. So you can feel that sense of goodwill.

of receptivity, of gentleness in the face. Feeling the throat, smiling, and smiling into the heart, feeling that spacious, receptive tenderness in the heart region. As you scan down, let this next breath be received in a softening belly, this breath, and now this one. And in that openness, sensing that smile, spreading through the belly so you can visualize it and have the felt sense of it, making room for the energy and aliveness that's in the belly, opening to that energy through the whole

pelvic region deep into the torso, visualizing and sensing that smile spreading through the torso, making room for the energy that's here, and you might even imagine the earth energy. flowing up through the body, filling the body. The openness of a smile makes room for the fullness of this energy and aliveness. The body, vibrant, loving, present, even in a cellular way, including that sense of the great sky filled with a smile, the mind merged with that great sky, so that your whole being is filled with loving awareness.

of as tenderness suffusing your being. The attention naturally contracts into thoughts and you notice it. Let the intention simply be to gently relax back again. Perhaps feeling and sensing the smile at the eyes, the mouth, the heart, sensing that benevolence and relaxing back and resting in this heart space, vibrant, open, tender, sensing how whatever arises, whatever waves appear can be held in a boundless sea of caring. You can choose to relax back again and again, just noticing what's going on, and then re-relaxing the body some, gently sensing that smile, resting in heart space,

and this is from the radiant sutras. Enter the bowl of vastness that is the heart. Give yourself to it with total abandon. Quiet ecstasy is there and a steady regal sense of resting in a perfect spot. Once you know the way, the nature of attention will call you to return again and again and be saturated with knowing, I belong here.

I am at home here. As a way of re-entering, you might take a few full breaths, if your eyes are closed as you're ready to open your eyes. Take some moments to mindfully move around however will serve you.