Tara Brach - Meditation: Letting Go into Living Presence (2021-05-05)

Episode Date: May 6, 2021

Meditation: Letting Go into Living Presence (2021-05-05) - We resist reality by tensing our body and contracting into thoughts. This meditation guides us into letting go of resistance by surrendering over and over into the aliveness and presence that is right here.   

The following meditation is led by Tara Brock. To access more of my meditations or join my email list, please visit tarabrock.com. We'll begin together, take a few moments, and find yourself coming into a posture that really support you and feeling very much here. So there's a sense of groundedness. I really think of that as belonging to the earth, feeling the hug of gravity, it's kind of feeling

your body's weighed and that stability and security of being right here. Also sensing the space around you that there's room for whatever arises, letting the posture be such that you're awake, unless you're in the mood to take a nap, that you're alert, and at ease as much as possible. Letting the attention go inward, whether you close your eyes or let the eyes be downcast, or for some even looking up at the horizon and letting the gaze spread out to 180-degree kind of inclusiveness, soft eyes. You feel this body breathing. Let the rhythm or the movement of the breath help to collect your attention. It can help to make the breath a little more full at first to really feel that sense of filling the chest and the lungs,

opening to receive the life that's here. And with the out breath, a real sense of releasing, of letting go, letting the breath be in a natural rhythm and you might continue to feel that movement of the breath as you gently scan through the body and you might sense wherever you're paying attention, that the out breath can help you to release any unnecessary tightness or tension. You might feel the scalp and the skull, the tingling, the vibrating there. Feel the brow, the forehead, and let it be smooth. With the out breath, releasing any tightness or tension around the eyes, letting the eyes be soft. You might bring a very slight smile to the lips. Let the mouth also have a sense of a smile, the inside, relaxing the tongue,

letting it spread through the lower palate. Very receptive to the sensations in the mouth. Letting that receptivity and ease spread through the whole face now. Letting the little micro muscles of the face really soften and be at ease. You might let the shoulders fall away from the neck, letting the awareness fill the shoulders. And feeling the movement of the breath, that gentle rocking of the breath. And with the out breath, let go, let go. Loosening, softening, dissolving tightness. Of the length and the volume and the weight of your arms,

letting the awareness fill the hands. again with the out breath, letting go, letting go, softening the hands so that if you feel from the inside at, you can become increasingly aware of the aliveness there, noticing how letting go of tightness makes room for the more full expression of aliveness. Let there be an openness of the chest, feeling right inside the region of the heart. Again, that gentle rocking of the breath

with the out-breath being a letting go. You might sense that the in-breath helps you contact the life that's right here directly and the out-breath relaxing outward, letting go. Scanning down to the abdominal area, letting this necker, breath be received in a softening belly, this breath, and now this one, and again, awareness fill the belly, continuing to sense with the out breath, a letting go, increasingly aware of the aliveness, the awareness and presence in the belly, and in a similar way scanning down through the pelvic region, with the in-breath contacting the aliveness that's here,

And with the out breath, a softening or releasing of any tightness or tension. Aware of the legs, the length, the volume, the weight, letting awareness fill the feet, where of the places of pressure, contact. And with receptivity fueling into the earth beneath you, feeling the energy of the earth body flowing through you, streaming through you, washing through you,

so that if you widen the attention, you can feel this whole body as a field of sensation, a part of the earth's aliveness, vibrant, dancing, this play of energy. You might continue to sense with the inbreed, in-breath, opening more fully to this whole dance of energy.

And with the out-breath, releasing of any resistance or tension, letting go more fully into the field, letting this living field of aliveness of energy be your home base, knowing that as the mind naturally drifts into a virtual reality, you can notice that and gently relax open. again feeling the movement of the breath and breathing in and feeling this vast dynamic aliveness

play of energy and breathing out letting go to inhabit it fully to be that field of energy and the awareness that includes the dance moment to moment arriving again right here, feeling the movement of the breath, relaxing with what's happening,

and letting go into the aliveness, moment to moment. And this poem is from the poet Dana Faults. Trust the energy that courses through you. Trust, then take surrender even deeper. Be the energy. Don't push anything away. Follow each sensation back to its source in vastness and pure presence.