Tara Brach - Meditation: Letting Go and Letting Be (2020-10-03)

Episode Date: October 9, 2020

Meditation: Letting Go and Letting Be(2020-10-03) - We leave presence by contracting into thoughts and resisting the changing flow of life. This meditation guides us in gently releasing thoughts and opening to this mysterious life, just as it is.

The following meditation is led by Tara Brock. To access more of my meditations or join my email list, please visit tarabrock.com. This is a good time to make any adjustments you'd like to how you're sitting. Make sure you're comfortable and ideally sitting in a way where you're upright enough to be awake and to be alert. but also at ease. You might close your eyes and deepen the settling or if not close your eyes, lower your gaze so the attention can go inward.

Become aware of your body sitting here, aware of the movement of the breath. You might sense the possibility of relaxing with the breath so that as the breath comes in there's a kind of opening to receive it. as if even in a cellular level and the space between the cells, the breath can enter, be received with the out breath, a letting go, so that with each out breath, sense that you can release unnecessary tension or tightness in the body.

And with the out breath, you might sense you can release unnecessary thoughts that have been moving through, that you can create kind of a clearing and to deepen that presence and ease you might scan through the body often start in the area of the brow because when our eyes are tense it actually keeps us thinking so you might consciously soften

the area around the eyes and let the brow be smooth feeling the mouth unhinging the jaw letting there be a slight smile at the lips, letting go through the shoulders, perhaps sensing the shoulders falling away from the neck, and then feeling them from the inside out, imagining the dissolving,

the melting of ice to water and water to gas. So there's a letting go of any clenching, a letting go and a letting be of the life that's here. Let the hands rest in a very easy, effortless way. You might soften the hands and soften again. And then feeling the hands from the inside out. So notice the life that's here. Can you detect the tingling or vibrating, the energy in the hands?

You might sense an openness to the chest. And feeling the region of the heart, let the breath gently enter. be received and leave with the movement of the chest expanding, settling. The breath comes in, helping you contact or connect with the feelings, sensations in the area of the heart, and with the out breath, releasing, letting go of whatever wants to be released. So your breath becomes a support in both connecting with the life, that's here as you breathe in and releasing unnecessary tightness or tension with the out breath. I'm scanning down, feeling the abdominal area and letting this next breath be received

in a softening belly. This breath and now this one and again, continuing to feel the movement of the breath, allowing the belly to be soft. you're breathing in and intimately connecting with the life that's right here and breathing out letting go releasing relaxing outward in a similar way feeling the breath in the pelvic region receiving the breath deep in the torso opening to the life that's here and breathing out releasing any tension or tightness aware of the leg the weight, the volume, the limb, the feet.

And then widening your attention again to this whole breathing body, this field of sensation, breathing in, letting this whole form of aliveness, this dance of sensation be felt in an intimate way, breathing out, letting go, resting, in open awareness, continuing to feel this changing flow of experience, the tear, breathing, the sensations of the breath, the movement of energy, perhaps feelings, sounds, so that you can sense in the foreground, this living universe, this changing river of experience, and sense in the background,

this alert, inner stillness, that which is aware. Quite naturally, the mind gets drawn away from presence and into thought forms, the future, the past, commentary. Let your practice be simple, just to let go gently of what arises in thoughts and come back to the living experience of right now. relax with what's happening right here. You can let this simple Tibetan teaching guide you. Let go of what has passed.

Let go of what may come. Let go of what is happening now. Don't try to figure anything out. Don't try to make anything happen. Relax right now and rest. You can start fresh in any moment. your meditation, really your life. It's reawakening to the senses, letting go of thoughts, listening, feeling, the aliveness in the body, sensations.

Notice what happens when you open to the changing flow just as it is. No controlling, no resisting, just allowing. let go of what has passed, let go of what may come, let go of what is happening now. Don't try to figure anything out. Don't try to make anything happen. Relax right now and rest.