Tara Brach - Meditation: Relaxing into Living Presence (2021-04-07)

Episode Date: April 8, 2021

Meditation: Relaxing into Living Presence (2021-04-07) - This meditation guides us to awaken to sensation using the image of a smile and scanning through the body. We then open to sound and to the entire changing flow of experience. When we connect with the changing flow of sensations, feelings and sounds, we also discover the formless awareness that is our Source… and home. We end with a prayer that includes our own being and all beings.

The following meditation is led by Tara Brock. To access more of my meditations or join my email list, please visit tarabrock.com. Just notice what might let go a little in your body right now, what might soften. And as you bring this presence and attention to what's right here, check into your heart. Just listen a little at the heart.

with the hope to just sense what is it that you bring tonight as an intention, as an aspiration? And there may be some words that come up right away or not, but just keep listening in sense, what is it that really matters to you? What most do you wish for? What does your heart wish for? We open as community with the sound current of Om, this sound current of Connection, this sound current of connectedness. And so as you chant, just feel what you care about, what you long for, sense our shared

aspiration to really wake up these hearts and minds and you might gently bring the palms together in front of the heart just to deepen that sense of tenderness and caring. We'll chant three times. Let's begin by inhaling deeply. We can deepen the quality of presence. by very gently scanning through the body with the awareness. Just feeling from the inside out the life of the body. You might soften the eyes, let the brow be smooth.

A lot of tensions carried around the brow. The more we think, the more there's kind of a knitting and a tightness there. Sensing a smile spreading through the eyes can help to really ease that area, corners of the eyes uplifted, and a slight smile at the mouth, and see if you can sense the inside of the mouth smiling, letting the jaw be unhinged, relaxing down to the root of the tongue, and just feeling the sensations through the whole mouth area

from the inside out, gums, teeth, tongue, lips, slight smile still. Feel the throat, sense the throat filling, the neck area, smile through the throat, just letting that curve of a smile relax the tension, visualizing and feeling it, and then smile through the heart area, not to cover over, but really to help connect with the space that's there. So you can feel the life in the heart and chest. Feel the shoulders from the inside out. You might sense possibility of a dissolving or loosening there.

Let the hands rest in an easy, effortless way. Placing the awareness inside the hands. Just to notice the natural movement of energy, the vibrating or tingling. You might experiment by softening the hands a little more. And seeing what more you notice, how much aliveness is. How much aliveness is there in the palms and the fingers. Let the chest be open. And loosening down, softening the belly, letting this next breath be received in a softening

belly. This breath and this one and again, waking up the awareness deep in the torso. You might sense a smile, the curve of a smile, visualizing and feeling that in the belly. the play of sensations from the inside out, extending deep into the pelvic region, hips, buttocks, genitals, opening to the play of aliveness, movement of sensation, scanning down the legs so that you can bring the awareness inside the legs, right down into the feet. You might sense the feet extending energetically into the earth and sense this whole earth as a field of aliveness.

And since your body is part of that, so you can feel this whole body as a whole changing dance of sensation. Just let everything happen, not stopping anything. Let your only intention be to relax and re-relax opening to this really magical play of vibration, sensation, aliveness, widening out the attention even further to include sound,

so you're not listening with your ears but with your whole awareness, close in sounds, the spaces between sounds, noticing that you don't have to do anything to listen. Sounds are known spontaneously, even the more distant sounds, listening to the most distant sounds you can perceive, sensing how even the most distant sounds are included in this vast, edgeless awareness, resting in that vastness, listening to and feeling the whole moment, aware of the changing play of sound, the arising of sensations, feelings, moods, sensing in the foreground, this whole play of life, and sensing in the background, this sentience, the awareness that

knows, this stillness, this wakeful stillness that's aware of this changing life. It's quite natural to leave this beingness, this awareness, the sense of the aliveness that's right here and go off into the trance of thinking. For most of us it happens again and again. So when you notice that you're in a virtual reality, let your pathway back be a kind of relaxing, open, relaxing back, reopening the mind to notice sound, re-relaxing in the body, opening to sensation, and then back to your senses right here, relaxing back and sensing the awareness, the most subjective reality. of your being right here.

Sometimes the inquiry, am I dreaming, can help to clarify both the trance or the veils that we're hiding behind and what's actually here. Am I dreaming? Just to sense of thoughts, stories, commentary that keeps us one step, removed from this vibrant mystery that's right here and then relax back again, moment to moment relaxing with the life that's right here, this breath, these feelings, these sensations, this life. In these last few minutes you might ask yourself, can I let go just a little bit more,

go of the thoughts, the veils of stories, the tension in the body. Just let go to relax and let this life live through you. And close by bringing the attention to the heart. Just offering your heart whatever blessing or wish most resonates in this moment. And since that this world, this life is part of your heart, offering those around around you, those close to you in your life, and all beings, your blessings.