Tara Brach - Meditation: Opening to the Mystery

Episode Date: December 28, 2023

Meditation: Opening to the Mystery - This guided meditation includes a body scan and invites the receptivity and letting-go of whole body breathing. Once we have awakened the vitality and presence throughout the body, we have access to the formless dimension, the awareness that is our source. The meditation closes with "Walk Slowly", from the poetry of Danna Faulds.

The following meditation is led by Tara Brock. To access more of my meditations or join my email list, please visit tarabrock.com. Your attention go inward and feel your breath at the heart area. As you breathe, just feel your heart and as you feel your heart, listen inward and listen for what you sense is your most sincere aspiration right now. what most matters to you as you sit here and begin a formal practice. What most matters, what is it you really care about in your life? Listen to your heart and sense your heart's intention right now.

Let yourself be aware of this body breathing, lengthening and extending the in-breath so that you're breathing in a nice full breath, filling the chest and lungs. and breathing out very slowly, slow enough to feel the sensations of releasing the breath. And again, nice, full in-breath and a slow-out breath, softening down the length of the body, releasing slowly, letting go, letting go. And one more time, breathing in fully, filling the chest and lungs, slow release of the breath, feeling the sensations of the exhale, relaxing outward, letting go. Letting the breath resume in its natural rhythm.

Just aware of the quality of presence it's here, just in a few moments of collecting with the breath. Noticing if there's any parts of the body that want to relax just a little bit more right now, I'll just let go. You might scan the body a bit, softening the eyes and letting the brow be smooth, letting the jaw be unhinged, and relaxing down to the root of the tongue can help to have a slight smile at the mouth, the half-smile of the Buddha, which actually sends a message to the nervous system, to just ease that fight-flight-flight-free response. to be at rest, letting the shoulders relax back and down some.

If you place the awareness inside the shoulders, just let whatever's there float a bit in awareness. If there's tension or tightness, you might sense the possibility of a little dissolving, releasing, letting the hands rest in a very easy and effortless way. Bringing the awareness inside the hands, so you're feeling from the inside out and then softening the hands and notice as you soften what you feel, softening a bit more. Can you sense the tingling, the vibrating in the hands, perhaps the pulsing, places of pressure or warmth, where your hands compact, your legs or each other, and in place. intimate close-in attention, letting the chest be open, and feeling the heart area, the region

of the heart from the inside out, with the same intimate attention, sensing if there's pressure or squeezing, tightness or flow, lightness, darkness, sensing the aliveness of the liveliness of the heart area from the inside out, scanning down into the belly and letting this next breath be received in a softening belly, this breath, and now this one, and again, feeling the aliveness, the movement of sensation, deep in the belly, and continuing to scan down, feeling the whole region of the pelvis, it's feeling from the inside out, the movement of aliveness of sensation, receptive and open. Scanning again to check that the eyes are soft, slight smile at the mouth.

Let the hands rest in an easy, soft way. Chest open, the belly soft. Feeling the aliveness, the dance of sensation deep into the torso, and the volume of your legs, feeling right into the feet. feeling the feet from the inside out, the aliveness of sensation there, and opening the field of attention to include in a simultaneous way this whole play of sensation, this whole energy body. They're not stopping or resisting anything.

Imagine and sense life living through you, relaxing back into that space that includes this whole play of sensation. sensation, including sound, where of the sounds washing through moment by moment so that you're listening to and feeling the whole moment, sensing this whole play of aliveness, sound, sensation, feelings, all appearing and disappearing in this great space, this vast space of awareness. I'd sense the inflow and outflow of the breath as a kind of home base that lets you return to and stabilize in this vast awareness that lets you have some sort of a portal when you drift and forget to come back right here into this mysterious play of life.

you notice that you've left presence. To simply pause and gently arrive again, reopening the senses, sound, sensation, relaxing back into this mysterious flow of life right here. The poetry of Dana Falls, it only takes a reminder to breathe, a moment to be still, and just like that something settles, softens, make space for imperfection. The harsh voice of judgment drops to a whisper and we can remember again that life isn't a relay race that will all cross the finish line, that waking up to life is what we were born for. As many times as we forget, catch ourselves charging forward without even and knowing where we're going, that many times we can make the choice to pause, to breathe

and be and walk slowly into the mystery.