Tara Brach - Meditation: Relaxing Back into Natural Awareness (2020-04-22)

Episode Date: April 23, 2020

Meditation: Relaxing Back into Natural Awareness (2020-04-22) - In this meditation we are guided to discover the space and aliveness that fills the body, sense the space in the universe, and then to realize our Beingness as continuous space, filled with the light of awareness. When our attention contracts into thoughts, the pathway to awareness is a relaxing back, reopening to the natural openness, silence and stillness of our true nature.

The following meditation is led by Tara Brock. To access more of my meditations or join my email list, please visit tarabrock.com. This meditation is called relaxing back, pathway to peace. We begin in a simple way by feeling this body sitting here breathing. Now extending the in-breath to a count of five, inhaling and filling the chest and the lungs, and a slow out breath as you release feel a kind of letting go letting go letting go and inhale again a nice long deep in-breath

and a slow smooth out-breath relaxing outward releasing tension tightness letting go and again inhaling deeply filling the chest and lungs exhaling feeling the sensations of the breath as it the nostrils, relaxing outward, letting go. And then allowing the breath to resume in its natural rhythm. Notice the quality of presence it's here. Let your senses be awake. So you're listening to and feeling the life within and around you. Awakening an embodied presence as we gently scan through the body with awareness.

Bringing the attention to the area of the brow and the eyes, softening the eyes. You might allow that smile to spread through the eyes, lifting the outer corners. Letting the eyes be soft, letting the brow be smooth, with a receptive presence, feeling the aliveness, the sensations in that region of the face. A slight smile at the mouth, the inside of the mouth smiling, letting the tongue fill the lower palate, and now relaxing down to the root of the tongue and with a receptive presence feeling the aliveness inside the mouth, the gums, the teeth, the tongue, lips, letting that receptive presence spreads so you can feel the aliveness through the whole face, tingling, vibrating, scalp and skull. Down through the neck,

you might bring that image of a smile, the curve of a smile, and the felt sense of a smile to the throat. And sensing how that can open up space, you can actually feel what's here in the throat. Receptive presence. Relaxing with the aliveness in the throat, allowing the shoulders to fall away from the neck. See if you can feel from the inside out,

the energy, sensation, inside the shoulders, letting whatever tightness or tension might be there, letting it float in awareness, untangle in awareness, dissolve and release in awareness, air of the sensations and the movement of energy in the arms, softening the hands, and softening again. You might feel from the inside out the thumb. Can you notice the tingling, and vibrating in the thumbs

and then the forefinger feeling from the inside out the space and aliveness there sensing the space between the thumb and the forefinger the bone and flesh in space and sensing all the fingers tingling

vibrating and the spaces between the fingers and let there be an openness at the chest and feeling the region of the heart smiling into the heart so that image

of the curve of a smile the felt sense spreads through the heart noticing how that can create some openness and space to feel what's here to breathe with what's here to relax with what's here scanning down the body

again bringing that image and sense a smile to the belly, letting it spread through the belly. Again, creating that space so you can feel more directly the sensations and aliveness in the belly. Letting this next breath we received in a softening belly. This breath. And now this one and again. Belly is still soft, a receptive presence.

relaxing with the aliveness in the belly letting the awareness fill the pelvic region feeling the space and aliveness there receptive presence aware of your legs the length the volume the weight you can feel from the inside out the energy

and aliveness there and feeling the feet from the inside out tingling vibrating imagining and sensing the aliveness and space beneath the feet into the earth, the rootedness, the energy of the earth, and the sense that it can flow up and fill your body with aliveness, vitality. And sensing the space around your body, sensing the space above your head, out to the furthest stars, sensing the space to either side, out and out, past the further stars.

sensing the space that extends in front of you, out and out, beyond the further stars. And sensing the space behind you that extends out and out beyond the further stars. And below you, beyond this earth and out and out, beyond the further stars. Sensing that vast space in all directions. And sensing the space inside you. between the cells, between the particles of atoms, and that inner space and outer space, continuous space filled with the light of awareness.

Outer space, endless inner space, is continuous space, filled with the light of awareness, sensing how all that arises arises in this continuous, Awake space. Thoughts appear and disappear. Sensations arise and dissolve. Sounds come and go. Backs and back, resting in this continuous space filled with the light of awareness that includes everything. All appearances. Resting in that openness and aware of the changing flow. Just letting everything happen. Sensations come and go.

emotions like weather systems in a vast sky appear and disappear thought clouds come and go in the foreground this changing stream of experience and in the background vast continuous space of awareness filled with the light of knowing moment to moment what's happening it's quite natural for the attention to narrow and get fixated inside thoughts, inside the cloud of thought. When you notice that, relax back again. Relax open the attention, so you're listening to the sounds that are here, not just the sounds of the thoughts.

Re-relax open through the body, perhaps relaxing the shoulder some, softening. Sensing again the space and aliveness. inside the shoulders and softening the hands, feeling the space and the aliveness inside the hands, and softening the breath, feeling the breath in the belly, relax belly, soft belly, relaxing the heart, perhaps smiling into the heart, sensing the space and the aliveness there, sensing the space and aliveness through your whole body. and imagining and sensing into the space around you.

Endless space beyond the most distant stars. And sensing this is continuous space. Inner and outer is continuous space. Filled with the light of awareness, an awake openness that includes all the changing experience, the moving thoughts, the changing sensations, the sounds, relaxing back and resting in that waking, faithful openness, letting life be just as it is.

It's a beautiful pathway home to relax back over and over again. Each time there's a noticing that the mind has gotten inside a thought cloud, relaxing open, aware of the sounds, where of the sensations and aliveness. And in the background, that alert stillness, that which is aware, letting everything be just as it is, resting in that wakeful openness that includes the changing flow of experience. You can begin the meditation again fresh and your life again fresh in any moment, simply noticing where your attention is, and gently relaxing open, relaxing back into presence, listening, letting go through the body of whatever you might be holding, opening

to the aliveness that's here, listening to and feeling the changing moment, sensing the thoughts and sensations and sounds in the foreground, and in the background, this wakeful openness, this continuous space filled with the light of awareness. In these last minutes, you might be guided by the words in this Zen poem, Inner peace cannot be attained. Inner peace is your very nature, right here, right now. Look beyond your thoughts,

beyond your body, beyond your emotions. Be absolutely still and notice this experience of pure awareness. This attention is the universal attention. It has no boundaries. It is awake, pure,

alive, and nurturing. So dip into this awareness. Rest in purity for one second, 10 seconds, 30 seconds. Keep relaxing back

in complete surrender, allowing whatever sensations to be and to move. like an ice cube on the sea, you apparently melt into this ocean. Keep resting in this place, in natural great peace. Soon you will see it is your home, your very essence.