Tara Brach - Meditation: Living Presence - Experiencing Aliveness and Openheartedness

Episode Date: May 16, 2024

The pathway to experiencing full aliveness and openheartedness is by awakening awareness throughout the body. This meditation begins by establishing a rhythmic inflow and outflow of the breath, in order to calm and collect the mind. Then continuing with the conscious breathing, we are guided through the body – bringing attention to sensations and space. This attention becomes a very vibrant living presence, and we end by experiencing that living presence as a natural openheartedness that includes all of life.

The following meditation is led by Tara Brock. To access more of my meditations or join my email list, please visit tarabrock.com. Do what wants to relax a little. Just sense what inside you wants to soften, what wants to let go a little. See if you can relax your heart and let your attention come to the heart area. helps to feel your breath there. We begin our formal meditation with a simple reflection on aspiration. So the invitation is to sense what it is that brings you here, what's your deepest intention right now for this meditation. See if you can invite or listen to what you feel

most sincere about, feeling the body breathing and with a conscious attention, extending the in-breath so it's long and slow, filling the lungs, and then extending the out-breath so it's long and slow. Releasing the breath so you can feel the sensations of letting go. Again, a long, slow in-breath, you may feel the count of four. and you're going to be matching the out breath again long and slow, the count of four, without pausing between the in-breath and the out-breath. Continuing in this way, sensing with the in-breath or relaxing open to receive, and with the out-breath or releasing outward, letting go.

Continuing with this long, slow in-breath and out-breath, gently bringing the attention and feeling the breath at the brow. So you're breathing in and out and feeling the sensations at the brow and softening the eyes. As if you could smile into the eyes, letting the brow be smooth, breathing in and contacting the sensations that are here, breathing out and softening, releasing, sensing the space that everything's floating in, continuing the breath as you feel a slight smile at the mouth, letting the inside of the mouth smile, relaxing down to the root of the tongue, and feeling the aliveness inside the mouth.

You might sense as you breathe in that you can contact those sensations fully and as you breathe out that you can sense the space they float in, even the interior space they arise from, bringing the attention still breathing to the throat. You might imagine a smile spreading through the throat, that as you breathe in, you can contact the sensations in the throat. And as you breathe out, sensing the space, those sensations move in and floating, letting the shoulders relax back and down, gently falling away from the neck, and still with the breath, feeling the life inside the shoulders,

if you could bring your whole awareness inside the shoulders, breathing in and feeling, contacting the sensations, and breathing out and sensing the space they move in, letting the hands rest in an easy and effortless way, softening the hands and feeling the breath at the hands. So you're breathing in and feeling from the inside out, the aliveness. the energy in the hands and breathing out and sensing the space it's suspended in, feeling an openness at the chest, letting the attention rest in the heart area, breathing in and feeling the aliveness and energy at the heart, and breathing out and sensing the space that energy floats in and moves in,

the space that it arises from, that interior space, space, letting the breath deepen open presence, continuing to scan down the body, feeling the breath and the energy in the belly, softening the belly, breathing in and feeling that aliveness from the inside out, contacting directly the experience and breathing out and sensing space, interior space, the space that life moves through and fling. and continuing to scan down, letting the breath and the awareness fill the whole pelvic region, breathing in and contacting the aliveness that's there, and breathing out, sensing in that relaxed way, that space that this life lives in, and widening the lens now so you can feel this

whole body as a field of sensation, sensing with the in-breath that you can directly contact this aliveness, dynamic presence and with the out breath, are releasing and letting go into the space that everything lives in, the interior space and the space that extends in all directions, a field of sensation, breathing in and feeling the aliveness, vibration, tingling, and breathing out and sensing the space of the field, the spaces between a vivacious, vibration, the space, interior space that arises from.

Sensing that space is filled with the light of awareness, letting the breath come naturally now and simply resting, relaxing back and being that luminous awareness, aware of the changing dance of sensations. It's quite natural if the mind will drift from this wakeful openness, this living presence, into ideas and concepts. When that happens, it's fine to just notice that and reawaken the senses, listening to the sounds that are here, perhaps again feeling the breath in that more conscious way of long, deep in-breadth, long deep out-breath to reconnect, re-contact the aliveness, re-contact the

space, sensing that space as luminous with awareness and resting, just resting back as a way of closing, bringing an awake awareness to the domain of the heart, a gentle breath there to feel the aliveness, feel the heart space. May we come home to the living presence, the loving presence. That's the very ground of our being. And may that loving presence ripple out to touch and bring healing to our world. Namaste.