Tara Brach - Meditation: Gateway to Natural Presence (2020-07-22)

Episode Date: July 23, 2020

Meditation: Gateway to Natural Presence (2020-07-22) - We enter a full presence through awakening our senses, and awakening to the awareness that is aware. This meditation guides us as we arouse an embodied presence, let go of any controlling, then discover the natural spaciousness and wakefulness that is the essence of what we are.

The following meditation is led by Tara Brock. To access more of my meditations or join my email list, please visit tarabrock.com. Welcome to each of you. Our practice today is called A Gateway to Natural Presence. And as a way of starting, I invite you to sense how you're sitting and if there's any adjustments you'd like to make

so that you're upright, so that you're at ease, please make those adjustments. You might close your eyes if you choose or let your focus, if your eyes are open, be cast down or spreading so that your eyes aren't fixated or tense. And let your body come into stillness. As you do that, you might feel your body breathing and let your attention be with the breath now as you take a few very full and deep breaths,

breathing in fully and then with the out breath, feel the sensations of the breath, leaving the nostrils, and sense it as a letting go. So there's a deep, full in breath, breathing in, and a slow out breath, letting go, releasing, relaxing. And again, a nice full deep in-breath and a slow, out-breath, relaxing down the length of the body, softening, letting go. One more nice full breath, inhaling deeply, exhaling, releasing, letting go. And then as the breath comes back into its natural rhythm,

Just allow yourself to relax with that. Feeling the inflow and the outflow, sensing with the inflow, there's a kind of opening to receive even on a cellular level and with the outflow are relaxing, letting go. And now taking some moments to allow your awareness to sweep through the body. letting go of areas of obvious tension. The tightness in the body is a way of resisting the life that's here. So you might consider relaxing as a way of releasing the grip, the tension that's pushing away life, and then sweeping through carefully, softening the eyes, and letting the brow be

smooth. You might bring a slight smile to the lips and let the jaw be relaxed. and let the tongue fill the lower palate. See if you can relax right down to the root of the tongue. And letting your whole face be at ease. Even the little micro muscles soft and relaxed. And feeling from the inside out your shoulders. And allowing the shoulders to relax back and down some.

And feeling and noticing if there's any tightness, tension and sensing the possibility of letting whatever is there float in awareness, letting the hands rest in a very easy and effortless way. And you might soften the hands consciously and soften again and notice from the inside out the waking up, the sensitizing of the hands as you soften, perceiving perhaps tingling or vibrating. Let there be an openness to the chest and you might feel the breath in the area of the heart and notice whatever's there. Whether it's physical or emotional tightness or flow, fear or ease, simply breathing with that, sensing a soft, allowing presence,

letting it float in awareness. In the same way you might soften the belly, and soften again and feel the life inside the belly. We often tighten in this area and it's a way of resisting or defending against life but it also stops us from processing, digesting life. So simply softening the belly and just feeling what's there, letting whatever you experience float in awareness, soft and allowing and extending that allowing presence through the whole pelvic region. It's noticing the aliveness that's there.

Any tightness or tension. Relaxing. Opening. Aware of the legs, the length, the volume of the legs. Feeling your feet, feeling the places of pressure, warmth where your feet contact the floor. and from the inside out, the tingling or vibrating in the feet. And then enlarging the scope of awareness,

so you can feel your body all at once simultaneously. Sensing the body is a field of sensation, an energetic field of aliveness. And let everything happen just as it is. So you're not stopping anything. resisting or opposing anything, a changing dance of sensation, pleasant or unpleasant. Just letting everything be as it is. You might include the sounds that you hear in the space around you.

You're listening not just with your ears, but your whole awareness, listening to the sound and listening to the silence. sensing the spaciousness of awareness that includes this whole changing dance of sound, sensation, feelings. So you can be aware in the foreground of the changing dance, aware of the sounds, aware of the aliveness of sensation, and the felt sense of feelings. and in the background aware of that boundless silence that's listening of that wakeful presence

that's our true home continuing to rest in and be that awareness, a boundless sea of awareness, aware of the changing waves on the surface. Notice what happens if you let go of all control and just let everything be. as it is. You might notice when there's no controlling a spaciousness comes into awareness, a space of openness, of wakeful presence. And as a way of closing this meditation, I invite you to gently open your eyes and move around a little bit, staying connected to this natural presence. So it's not like you are stopping meditating. Just bringing into your attention as you open your eyes the forms in light and color around you, perhaps seeing other people

on the screen, keep aware of your breath if that helps to sustain your attention. You can stay in touch with this very precious awareness. That's really our essence. Taking a few full breaths of that helps and feeling yourself right here. Namaste and thank you for practicing.