Tara Brach - Meditation: Relaxing Back into Open Wakefulness

Episode Date: June 16, 2022

Meditation: Relaxing Back into Open Wakefulness - This meditation begins by relaxing through the body and connecting with inner aliveness and space. We then include sounds and sense the openness to life. At the center of the practice is a relaxing back and inhabiting spacious awareness. The meditation ends as we experience the heart from the vantage of spacious awareness and offer prayers to our inner life and all life.

The following meditation is led by Tara Brock. To access more of my meditations or join my email list, please visit tarabrock.com. Be awareness inside your body. Just notice if there's any areas of particular tightness or tension. And see if there might be a natural letting go. You might consciously sense the region around the eyes and soften there. and let the brow be smooth, feeling the mouth, letting the jaw be unhinged, feeling the tongue just spread and relax in the lower jaw, the palate, feeling down to the root of the tongue

and letting that be relaxed. You might sense the throat filling the neck area, just feeling from the inside out, the the aliveness, the sensation, space inside the neck. Allow the shoulders to fall away from the neck, relaxing back and down. Let the shoulders be filled with awareness. See if you can feel from the inside out, tingling or vibrating, places of tension are flow inside the shoulders. continuing to attend in that region of the shoulders,

sense the space that sensations are floating in, see if there can be a natural melting or dissolving in that space. Notice if it's possible to let the hands rest more easily, letting them be quite soft, feeling the full awareness inside the hands. Can you notice the vibrating, the tingling, the aliveness inside the hands. You might sense an openness at the chest, placing the awareness inside the area of the heart.

And again, just noticing the felt sense, the movement of sensations, pressure, tightness, flow, heat, whatever's there. And also include the space that the space that the those sensations are moving in, floating in, scanning down to the abdominal area and letting this next breath be received in a softening belly. This breath and now this breath and again and again. Feeling from the inside out, sensing the aliveness, the movement of sensation, space and aliveness inside the belly, scanning down now to include the pelvic region.

Again feeling from the inside out the movement of sensation and sensing the space that sensations unfolding in, appearing in. See if you can notice the tingling, the vibrating, places of pressure or warmth where your feet contact the floor. the feet and again softening and feeling the hands and widening the attention to include this whole body. So you're aware of this whole dance of sensation, this field of sensation, letting everything happen. So relax back again and again and just be the space that's happening in, including the sounds

that are here, sounds and sensation all received in a very open, awake awareness. It's quite natural that the mind will contract from this open wakefulness, go into thoughts, talking to ourselves, it's an incessant inner dialogue. It's also natural that you'll notice at some point. Oh, okay, back in that virtual reality. And in that noticing there's a choice to pause and to relax open again. Let's notice the difference between being inside the thoughts and opening again into this mystery, this vividness of now, these sounds, this whole field of living sensation,

this openness, this wakeful openness that everything's happening in, letting the practice be simple, one of noticing, thinking, and relaxing open again. relaxing back into this wakeful openness that includes the changing life, sounds, sensations, feelings. And if the mind feels very busy, keeps tugging at you, and it's helpful you might let the breath, the inflow and outflow of the breath, be in the foreground as a way of steadying the attention,

having an anchor for presence. Just a simple relaxing with the breath. Relaxing and knowing that the breath is flowing in, relaxing, and mindful that the breath is flowing out. Other senses still awake, aware in the background of the sounds, the aliveness, the presence that's right here, taking a moment to notice, where's your attention? The mind has been drifting without any judgment, rather with interest, with friendliness.

Relax open again. Let the senses be awake, noticing the sounds that are right here. You might re-relax through the body a bit, softening the shoulders, softening the hands, relaxing your heart, receiving the aliveness of the body, where of the sounds, the sensations, feelings, and aware of the space that all of this aliveness is happening in. Just relaxing back, being that wakeful openness that's aware of this changing dance of life. So we close in a simple way, letting this wakeful openness,

receive the life of the heart right now, sensing how this open awareness experiences heart space and from that tender openness offering whatever prayer of metta of loving kindness you'd like to your own life experience. And sensing how this heart space includes all of life, we close as you offer whatever prayer resonates to all beings.