Tara Brach - Meditation: Receiving This Life in Awareness (22:37 min)

Episode Date: September 24, 2025

In our everyday life we are conditioned to feel that life is happening to us, or that we are the doer. This meditation deconditions that self-centrality by bringing attention to the aliveness in our bodies, and then opening to receive the entire play of sounds, sensations and feelings in awareness.

The following meditation is led by Tara Brock. To access more of my meditations or join my email list, please visit tarabrock.com. The sitting posture really is what makes the inner state possible. It makes it kind of conducive to if you're sitting upright, being more alert and awake. And then at ease, see if you can, in the midst of that uprightness, see what can relate. what wants to let go a little. So there's that blend of awake and relaxed, awake and relaxed. You might length the breath lengthen a bit so you have a nice full in-breath and a slow-out breath. And again, nice full in-breath and slow out breath.

Letting the breath be natural, just a little more collected here, feel the attention at the heart, breathing and feeling the heart. We take some moments to sense our intention, the invitation is to really touch into what matters to you. It's a very powerful reflection just to ask, you know, what is it that I really aspire to? What does my heart long for? what matters? And perhaps it's to be more present in your life or more open-hearted. Maybe it's to come to more realization as to who you really are, your true, authentic nature.

Maybe it's to relax, to be more at ease, just to sense what matters to you. We let that be a kind of opening prayer in the stillness and the quietness. we can deepen presence as we wake up through the body and the inside out, feeling the energy that's here. You might begin by simply feeling the eyes. Let the eyes be like orbs and water just floating. You might sense that the outside corners are slightly lifted up. Imagine the curve of a smile spreading through the eyes.

There's a real sense of softness, letting the brow be smooth, aware of the sensations, the felt sense of aliveness in the area of the eyes. You might sense the mouth in a slight smile, in the inside of the mouth smiling. Let the tongue relax, let it fill the lower jaw. See if you can relax down to the root of the tongue. tongue, feeling the sensations in the tongue, the gums, the teeth, the lips. So in a global way you can feel the whole mouth alive vibrating. You might sense the throat filling the neck. Be aware of the aliveness and energy in the area of the neck, allowing the shoulders to fall away

from the neck, relaxing back and down some. Feel the awareness that fills the shoulders. So you're feeling the shoulders from the inside out. And if you notice any tension or tightness, imagine and sense that it can float in awareness, there's space for it to naturally loosen or untangle. It can help to imagine a dissolution, like ice melting to water,

and imagine water evaporating into vapor, feeling from the inside out the shoulders, the aliveness that's there. Be aware of the length and the volume of your arms, sensing the arms running into the wrists, into the hands. You might feel your fingers from the inside out and sense how they're filled with energy and aliveness. Notice what happens if you soften the hands. and again feel from the inside out, vibrating, tingling, a very intimate attention to feel the life that's there. You might sense an openness in the chest and imagine that smile, the curve of a smile, spreading through the chest, spreading through the heart area.

This is to help discover the space that has room for whatever is here. open, receptive, gentle, feeling from the inside out the region of the heart. Discover with that intimate attention, the quality of energy, the movement of energy that's there. The hand's still soft, slight smile at the mouth, the eyes soft, continuing to scan down the body. You might loosen the abdominal. regional region. Let this next breath be received in a softening belly, this breath, and then again receiving the breath in a softening belly and again letting the awareness fill the belly.

You can even imagine the curve of a smile through the area of the navel and sense an ease and an openness there. And feel from the inside out with that intimate attention, the energy that's there, the aliveness, continuing to scan down and letting the awareness now fill the whole pelvic region. And feeling from the inside out, quality of energy, this dance of sensation, a relaxed, receptive presence. Let yourself be aware of the length and the volume of your legs. So awareness is filling the legs, running down into the ankles, the feet.

So you can feel your feet from the inside out, aware of the vibration, the tingling, the aliveness that's there. You might imagine, visualize this vast planet and atmosphere that's below you and around you. Just filled with aliveness and imagine it flowing and pouring into it. to your body, that life, through the feet, filling the legs and the torso, arms, head, just letting life live through you, sensing this body as a field of sensation. The dance of sensation and also the play of sound. It's another frequency of aliveness.

coming and going, sound of these words, spaces that are between sounds, close in sounds, the more distant sounds that you can perceive. You're listening not just with your ears but with your whole awareness, with your whole awareness listening to and feeling this very moment, completely here now. At some point you'll notice that the attention has drifted into thoughts. That's natural. Our practices to notice when we can. You might even mentally make a note, okay, thinking, thinking.

Then relax, open again, back into the senses. Come back home into the aliveness that's right here. You might notice again the sounds that are coming and going, and I bring the awareness again very consciously into the body, feeling the awareness inside the shoulders, and maybe letting go again, softening the hands, feeling the life there, loosening the belly, softening and feeling the aliveness there, and relaxing your heart. So again there's a sense of resting, being the awareness that's right here that's listening to and feeling the moment.

You might check and see if it's possible to let go just a little more right now, letting go of any thoughts that are sticky or clinging, possessing the mind, let go of tension in the body, letting go again into that awareness, that space and awakeness that's right here, that presence is listening to, receiving this moment to moment flow of experience. As a way of closing, you might sense how the awareness that's here, this presence is experiencing this human heart, how awareness is receiving the heart right now, sensing the aliveness, or the vulnerability, the tensions or the flow that's there, sense that you're listening to your life, the life of the heart.

Taking a moment to offer whatever prayer of metta of loving kindness you'd like to your own human heart. And sensing the heart space that's here that's quite inclusive of this human heart and all human hearts and all beings everywhere. So you close by offering your prayer and we'll offer our prayer together. Just holding this whole world in our hearts. May all beings be free from suffering. May all beings touch great and natural peace.

May all beings be happy. May all beings everywhere awaken and be free. Namaste.