Tara Brach - Meditation - Relaxing the Heart

Episode Date: August 3, 2013

2009-09-09 - Relaxing the Heart

inhaling long and deep. Now holding the breath for a moment, holding, feel the fullness, and then very slowly, exhaling, and continuing to rest with the breath, relax with the breath. But let it be natural. When the breath comes in, sense the possibility of yielding to the in breath. And as the breath goes out, a settling, letting go.

A sense of collectedness that begins to happen when we're intentional. See if you can in these moments make yourself at home and what's happening by just relaxing a little bit more. Just let go a little bit more in the body.

And just to bring a gentle attention to the heart as you reflect on your intention for the evening taking these moments to sense what matters to you, what brings you here, just to be aware of a quality of sincerity as you reflect right now. You can even ask, is this sincere right now, this reflection? Am I touching what matters? Am I here right now? Paying attention. Perhaps letting what matters be a prayer that's whispered in your heart and your mind.

And it's from this quality of caring of sincerity that we chant together as we open our evening as a sangha, our community. And we chant tonight as many nights the mantra Ome. And Ome is a sound current of connectedness, of the truth of our belonging, of oneness. So if you'd like to gently bring the palms together, centering the attention at the heart, chanting from the heart. I'll chant three times. Please inhale deeply.

One of the direct gateways of presence is to be awake in the body. And it can help to wake up through the body by relaxing a little more where there might be habitual tension. So I'd like to invite you to check your shoulders to begin with. And see if you can feel the shoulders from the inside,

and just loosen loosely. See if there's a natural kind of dissolving, letting go that's possible. Feeling the hands from the inside, very soft attention. And see if you can feel the aliveness that's there. Perhaps it's a slight tingling or vibrating and be aware of the places of pressure

where there's contact between your hands or where your hands touch your legs. And then if you relax a little more in the hand, sense how much more aliveness you can feel. In the same way you can feel the feet from the inside and sense that tingling and that vibrating, that aliveness. You can begin to sense how that aliveness fills your whole body

filling the legs and the arms the torso feel the face and let there be a slight smile and just receive that same aliveness in the face and widening the attention

so that you can feel the whole body all at once a field of aliveness to sense the movement the dancing sensations you might feel the sensations of the inflow and the outflow of the breath right at the center or in the foreground of this field.

Aware again of the presence that's here as you begin to collect the attention as you begin to connect with what's right here in the same way that you receive the sensations. You can receive the sound that are around you. Just this symphony of changing sound

letting it wash through you. Noticing how when listening there's nothing to do sounds are known spontaneously effortlessly. Listening to and feeling the whole moment receiving the moment in awareness.

Sense what it means for you to be right here. You can mentally whisper for the word here, in this now-ness, this quality of right here now, completely letting go and relaxing with what's happening right here, right now. You'll notice the mind is pretty conditioned to drift into thinking. So the practice is just to notice when you do what's sometimes called the trance of thinking. and then gently arrive right back here, sensing the now-ness, the heerness, listening to the sounds

that are actually happening, relaxing with the inflow and the outflow of the breath. With some interest, just notice where your mind is. And if the mind has been off in thoughts, let this be a moment of waking up with kindness, a moment of arriving back home right here, aware of the sounds around you, re-relaxing your body, see if it's possible to let go just a little bit more right now, and relax your heart so that you can honestly connect with the life that's right here, whether it's pleasant or unpleasant, happy, sad, just bring a gentle presence to however, it is.