Tara Brach - Meditation: Healing Shame (2020-07-01)

Episode Date: July 12, 2020

Meditation: Healing Shame (2020-07-01) - This meditation brings the clarity and self-compassion of RAIN to the suffering of self-aversion and/or shame. It helps us see the conditioning that shaped what we judge about ourselves, and helps us remember who we are beyond our habitual and painful self-narrative. This helps us to look with fresh eyes at our conditioning, and align our life more fully with our awakening heart.

The following meditation is led by Tara Brock. To access more of my meditations or join my email list, please visit tarabrock.com. So the key in healing toxic shame and to be guided by healthy shame is self-compassion. And inevitably, this is true for all of us as we're going to be practicing together in a moment. we will continue to feel badness when we encounter the imperfections of our coverings, the habits of in different ways getting caught in anxiety or lashing out or judgment or whatever it is. If we can remember our basic goodness, and I often, my mantra is often just trust the gold, trust the gold, you know. instead of reacting, instead of defending, instead of sinking it a shame, if we can remember that,

we can then respond to what comes up in a way that further aligns our heart. We all need pathways of self-compassion in response to imperfection. We all need ways and we all need to help each other realize that these difficult waves we experience are not our fault. and if we trust the goodness, we can actually become the being that we want to be. So with that, a lot of words, let's practice a little. This meditation is on healing, toxic shame, and trusting the gold. Take a moment, if you will, to pause, let yourself settle.

You might close your eyes. You might feel this body breathing. and you might scan and notice where in your life you might be reacting to imperfection. You might be feeling down on yourself, judging yourself, feeling shame or aversion. And if there's a situation that triggers it, let that be in the foreground. So you might be thinking of a situation where you turn on yourself that has to do with your relationships, personal relationships. or your work, or maybe it's an addictive behavior. Or you might be turning on yourself in relationship to your group identity,

feeling shame about that. Judging others. It could be related to race or sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, ethnicity, some situation where you turn on yourself. You might sense the worst part of this when you're turning on yourself what really feels the worst. and being guided by the rain acronym, we start by just recognizing whatever is predominant when you're turning on yourself,

what are you most noticing? Is it shame? Is it aversion? Is it fear? You might mentally whisper, whatever you notice. That begins to call in the mindful witness. And then allow, and that creates some space. Allow is like saying,

okay, these coverings are here, this belongs. It's a wave in the ocean. Let it be there. And then as you approach investigating, let there be a quality of gentleness and interest. Real curiosity about how reality's playing out through your body mind. You might sense what you're believing. What do you believing when you're turning on yourself?

Is it that you're basically unworthy, that you're, there's a sense of basic bad, is that you'll never be close with others because of this. You're not lovable. What belief comes and as you sense whatever belief is there, let yourself feel the unpleasantness, the pain of shame, of that feeling of badness. And if it helps to put your hand on your heart, just to feel connected with what's going on inside, please do so.

I might imagine you could look right now through the eyes of a bodhisattva, a wise, compassionate being, the self that feels ashamed, not okay. The eyes of a wise grandmother, the eyes of a Buddha, maybe eyes of a wise and loving friend, and see the suffering that's there, the suffering of self-aversion, and also see the story dreams of conditioning that shaped the very behaviors or feelings that you're judging. How did you learn to be the way you are? Is this modeled from caregivers, shaped by messages from others? Whatever you're judging, how did it get there?

You weren't born as a bad person. What's the conditioning here? Was there past trauma in your personal lifetime or past generations? through the eyes of the Bodhisattva seeing the conditioning that created the very thing that you're aversive to. How did the society shape it? Our competitive, overconsuming, aggressive, divided society, how did that shape your inner experience? And sensing the presence of this bodhisattva, this wise and loving being, your inner experience. And sensing the presence of this bodhisattva, this wise and loving being, your own away cart.

You might send the message inward, it's not your fault. Just offer a real compassionate presence. Send care right to the place that's hurting, the place that feels bad. Let it be bathed with a compassionate presence. Sense this possibility of letting in, that loving, that healing,

of letting go into it, becoming one with it. and with after the rain just to rest in that open-hearted presence, that which sees clearly the suffering and holds with love. You might sense, who are you when you're not believing something's wrong with you? Since the possibility of trusting the awareness and compassion that's here is really your essence. And from that place of trusting the gold, trusting the goodness of your essence, You might look at the patterning that you were judging,

averse of to, whatever it is about the coverings that you're not liking, perhaps ways you hurt others, hurt yourself. You might sense, what's my deepest intention? From the gold, what's my deepest intention? And what will help me align with that deep intention? What will help me live from loving awareness? The poet Rumi describes the gold,

this loving awareness as the secret self. He writes, I must have been incredibly simple or drunk or insane to sneak into my own house and steal money, to climb over the fence and take my own vegetables, but no more. I've gotten free of that ignorant fist that was pinching and twisting my secret self.

The universe and the light of the stars come through me. I am the crescent moon put up over, over the gate to the festival. You might take a few full breaths and as you're ready open your eyes. So I want to thank you for your attention, for exploring this together and to wish you all loving blessings as you move through these next days. Namaste.