Tara Brach - Meditation - Relaxing Back into Wakeful Openness (2015-07-22)

Episode Date: July 24, 2015

Meditation - Relaxing Back into Wakeful Openness (2015-07-22) - Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time. With thanks and love, Tara www.tarabrach.com

The following meditation is led by Tara Brock, meditation teacher, psychologist, and author. Let your attention come to the area of the heart, as if you could feel the breath at the heart and feel the state of your heart. Notice perhaps whatever mood is here right now. And listening to your heart, asking yourself, what is my deepest intention for this meditation? What is it our most longing for? What matters?

See if you can sense that sincerity that is really linked to our deep sense of aspiration when we're really sincere about something about being more open-hearted or more present in our lives. To experience a full presence, we often need to consciously enter the body with awareness. I'd like to invite you to scan down the body and begin with the region of the eyes.

When we're thinking a lot, the eyes tighten, all the micro muscles get tense around the eyes. So you might imagine a smile spreading through the eyes. The outside corners of the eyes lifted up a bit. softening around the eyes and letting the brow be smooth in a similar way we can relax the mouth the stress that causes the jaw to clench

by bringing a slight smile to the mouth letting the inside of the mouth have the felt sense of a smile see if you can relax the tongue right down to the root letting it gently press against the roof of the mouth the eyes are soft A slight smile at the mouth, letting the shoulders fall away from the neck.

Let the awareness fill the shoulders. So you can feel them from the inside out. See what's possible to relax. You might feel a melting sensation. Imagine and sense that. From ice to water. And then from water to gas. Sensing movement, flow, space inside the shoulders.

letting tension float in awareness. See if your hands are resting in an easy way, an effortless way, and soften the hands. And as you soften, just let the awareness experience from the inside out, the sensations in the hands. Can you feel the subtle tingling or vibrating there? Perhaps you might soften and let go a little more. Feeling from the inside out, places of warm,

of pressure where there's contact, pulsing, aliveness. Let there be an openness to the chest. Let the awareness fill the chest in the heart area. See if you can feel the heart from the inside out, the play of sensations, whether it's flowing or squeezing, heavy or light, heat or cool, tense or loose. Flay of sensations just float in awareness. Continuing to awaken through the body, scanning down, feeling the belly and softening the belly. See if you can feel this next breath received in a softening belly.

This breath and again this breath and again feeling this breath, letting the awareness fill the belly, waking up a sense of presence deep into the pelvic area. is feeling the play of aliveness there. Feeling from the inside out, the dance of sensation. You might sense down to the base of the spine and sense your connection with the earth, sensing earth energy,

flowing into your body, your being right through the base of the spine, flowing up and filling your whole body with energy and aliveness, so that if you open your attention wide open, and you can feel this whole body as a play of sensation, a field of sensation. See how fully you can say yes to this aliveness, not stopping anything, not opposing anything, fully letting this life live through you, just as it is, including not just sensations,

but the whole play of sound, the symphony of sound, perhaps the close-in sounds in the room, and the more distant sounds, letting the sounds wash through you, sounds and sensations flowing through, living through you, sensing the changing flow, just letting everything happen, just as it is.

You might sense in the foreground this changing play of sound, sensations, feelings. And since in the background, this alert inner stillness, your own presence, the practice is just to relax back again and again, just be that presence,

the openness that everything is happening in, this open wakefulness. And when the mind leaves into thoughts, as it naturally does. Practice relaxing back. Just re-relaxing. Relaxing open to listen to sound. Relaxing the body open to feel more fully,

the aliveness that's here. Relaxing back into that open wakefulness right here, moment to moment. And if you find it helps to stabilize your attention by resting in a light way on the inflow and outflow of the breath, a kind of anchor to presence. Please feel free to let that be in the foreground. Notice the mind has drifted, gone back into that habitual trance of thinking.

The most important part of coming back is really your attitude. Can you relax back with a quality of friendliness, and interest, re-relaxing the mind open, just receptive, listening. Re- relaxing the areas of contraction in the body so you can receive the aliveness that's here. Relaxing your heart, resting again in a quality of wakefulness and openness, in the sea of awareness. Just noticing the different waves that come and go, the meditation by bringing your attention to your own heart,

bringing a quality of gentleness and interest, to sense whatever's right here, whatever you might be carrying in your heart, whatever needs attention, and just offering the wish or prayer that most resonates in this moment to your own heart, your own life. and widening the tension to sense how this heart space really includes this world. You can sense whatever prayer right now most resonates you'd like to offer to all beings.

May all beings learn to relax back into the awakeness and openness and love. That's our true nature. May all beings be free from suffering. May all beings awaken to peace, happiness and freedom.