Tara Brach - Meditation: Openhearted Presence

Episode Date: March 21, 2024

This meditation guides us in embodying loving presence through a body scan, and then meeting whatever arises with a tender heart. "Resting in the awareness that includes this changing life, regarding the changing waves with care, moment-to-moment. The moments of waking up out of thought are actually profoundly transformational. If you notice thinking and then plant the seeds of kindness, that becomes the habit of the heart." ~Tara We close with a beautiful blessing-poem from John O'Donohue, from Beauty – The Invisible Embrace.

The following meditation is led by Tara Brock. To access more of my meditations or join my email list, please visit tarabrock.com. Today's meditation is on open-hearted presence. And I invite you to begin in that spirit with sensing your intention to bring a kind and gentle attention to whatever arises. You might become aware of this body sitting here breathing. Let the breath be long and deep and full.

Inhaling and filling the chest and the lungs. And with the out breath, a slow out breath, relaxing. See if it's possible to let go, let go. Again, inhaling deeply, filling the chest and the lungs. And with the out breath, softening down the length of the body. letting go, letting go. One more time, a nice, full, deep in-breath, and a slow out-breath, relaxing, releasing, letting go.

Allowing the breath to resume in its natural rhythm, you might envision around you a great open sky and sense the curve of a smile spreading through that sky, Just visualize that. The receptivity and vast openness of a smile spreading through the sky and letting your mind merge with that great sky. Sensing a smile spreading through the mind. Just feeling the spirit or energy of a smile,

the lightness, the brightness, the receptivity. And with that, you might soften your eyes, sensing a smile spreading through the eyes, lifting up the outer corners of the eyes, and then feeling that whole region of the eyes, the brow, just imagine and sense that you can offer kindness right into that part of your body. Just bringing a kind presence,

letting it saturate the brow, the eyes, slight smile at the lips and feel the face relaxing, the tingling and vibrating through the face. Again, imagine and sense just bathing the face with kindness, with a gentle, warm attention, aware of the scalp and the skull, letting that sense of a smile spread through the whole head. permitting the head with warmth and friendliness. You might imagine the curve of a smile and visualize at the throat, letting the throat fill the neck, letting that smile create a sense of openness.

Again, bringing that loving kindness, what we call meta, the meta and attention to throat. relaxing, softening, allowing the shoulders to fall away from the neck, and filling the shoulders with awareness and allowing the shoulders too to be filled with that loving presence. So you can soften and relax and let go through the shoulders, a healing, caring energy to the shoulders and bringing that same healing attention through the arms. feeling the arms awake, tingling, vibrating, filling the hands. And see if you can soften the hands.

Softening again and again. Letting the hands be filled with awareness. Feeling you can bring that loving presence into the hands. Feeling their full aliveness. Again, visualizing and sensing the curve of a smile this time spreading through the heart. and sensing how that smile can create a kind of openness to feel what's there, bringing loving presence to the heart, as if you could hold very tenderly the heart, embrace the heart with loving kindness.

Sense that loving presence filling the upper back, relaxing the muscles and attention that's there, moving down the body, visualizing that curve of a smile, spreading through the belly, sense how it can create an openness, allowing you to feel the aliveness in the belly, and filling that belly, that space with tenderness.

So if you can infuse loving presence into the belly, and sense it's spreading through the back and the side, loving yourself into healing, into awakeness, into wholeness, and bringing that loving presence to fill the pelvic region, feeling the aliveness there, and down through the legs, feeling the energy, the aliveness in the legs, and the feet, feeling the feet from the inside out, and feel the feet and the weight of the feet and the contact with the ground, so you could sense your rootedness in the earth, the openness to the earth, and where you're sitting, feeling at the base of the spine, the curve of a smile, like a vase that you're sitting in, allowing

the earth's energy to flow up through you, to fill you, through the feet, to the base of spine, filling the body. Feel this nourishment from the earth. Loving presence, nourishment, filling the whole body, as if that curve and sense of a smile creates the whole atmosphere of benevolence that fills your body and beyond,

including sounds in this presence, sensing the most distant sounds that you can detect, and sensing the awareness that includes all those sounds. Can you imagine and sense that awareness filled with the curve of a smile, with the presence of love? A loving, vast awareness

that's listening to sound, a vast loving stillness that's feeling the play of sensation, a vast loving presence that's tenderly holding your heart moment to moment, You are the loving awareness that includes with tenderness this changing world. Just rest back and let your practice be simple, resting in loving presence

and sensing the possibility of including whatever arises with care, witnessing the inflow and the outflow of the breath with a quiet listening and receptive and if a difficult wave of experience arises, very intentionally regarding with kindness, this belongs, just offering care. At some point you'll notice that the mind has drifted. It's quite natural that our attention goes into thoughts of the future or the past. Let the pathway back to open-hearted presence be without an judgment, to notice thinking, and then reopen your attention, listening to the sounds that are

right here, reopen the attention in the body with care, perhaps sensing what might want to let go again. Maybe the shoulders can relax a little, bringing kindness to the shoulders, softening the hands, smiling again into your heart, relaxing your heart. And with the gentle presence, again, listening to and feeling the changing moments, letting the intention be to allow whatever arises to be here. And when there's difficulty to offer kindness, You might send a message to any difficult physical pain or emotional pain. This belongs. You sense the possibility of bathing it with gentleness, kindness.

It's okay. Resting in the awareness that includes this changing life regarding the changing waves with care. moment to moment. The moments of waking up out of thought are actually profoundly transformational. If you notice thinking and then plant the seeds of kindness, that becomes the habit of the heart. So waking up from thinking, letting your senses be awake. and again sensing that intention to be with the life that's here with a gentle accepting clear and kind presence this breath and these physical sensations

these emotions of the heart all belong as a way of closing closing and as a way of closing and as a a way of nourishing, open-hearted presence. We'll share this poem from the poet John O'Donohue. It's a blessing poem. You might just feel the breath coming in and out of the heart and letting in these blessings. May the beauty of your life become more visible to you that you may glimpse your wild divinity.

May the wonders of the earth call you forth from all your small secret prisons, and set your feet free in the pastures of possibilities. May the light of dawn anoint your eyes that you may behold what a miracle a day is. May the liturgy of twilight shelter all your fears and darkness within the circle of ease. May you allow no dark hand

to quench the candle of hope, in your heart. May you discover a new generosity towards yourself and encourage yourself to engage your life as a great adventure. May the outside voices of fear and despair find no echo in you. May you always trust the urgency and wisdom of your own spirit. And when love finds the path to your door, may you open like the earth to the dawn and trust your every hidden color towards its nourishment of light. May you find enough stillness and silence to savor the kiss of the divine on your soul and delight in the eternity that shaped you, that

holds you and calls you. And may you come to see your life as a quiet sacrament of service where doubt gives way to the grace of wonder. may divine beauty bless you for these last few moments letting go of any doings with the simple intention to open to whatever arises with a tender heart