Tara Brach - Meditation: Resting as Awareness

Episode Date: June 20, 2014

2014-06-18 Meditation: Resting as Awareness

The following meditation is led by Tara Brock, meditation teacher, psychologist, and author. If you need to reestablish yourself sitting so that you're sitting in a way that lets you be upright, you know, see how tall you can sit without being stiff or tense. The purpose of that is purely to be alert, to be here. And then also, a position that feels balanced. Like if you leaned forward a little right now and then leaned back, find the posture that really feels aligned. If you lean to the left or lean to the right,

what's really center? What feels balanced? As you come into stillness, you might breathe in an extended in breath, inhaling deeply, filling the lungs, and then a very slow out breath. and let it be slow enough so you can feel the sensations of letting go. That's it.

Now, inhaling deeply again. Nice, full in breath, taking in more air than you might normally. And then again, a very conscious slow release. Notice with the release the sensations of letting go. And one more time, inhaling deeply, filling the lungs, go out breath. See if you can relax down the length of the body, softening, releasing. letting go, just allowing the breath to resume in its natural rhythm and being mindful of an increased quality of presence, just even after just a few moments, more of that sense

of heerness, making yourself at home in the moment, relaxing with what's happening, relaxing as the breath comes in, relaxing with the out breath, and then just bringing a very just gentle attention to the heart area. You might notice the state of your heart right now. We don't regularly check in with our hearts and yet if you deepen your attention you can begin to sense whatever mood might be here, maybe a felt sense of either being open or anxious, shaky, vulnerable, at ease, peaceful, maybe not even numb, maybe cut off, not to judge what you notice, but just sense your heart. And with a continued attention, listening in to your heart and sensing what your intention is for the

evening, what's your most sincere wish, what matters to you about being here? As part of creating a gentle or friendly quality of attention, it can be helpful to visualize the curve of a smile. Just to imagine that curve of a smile filling space, just a big blue open sky. Just experiment and sense if you can see that in your mind's eye and feel into it. That openness, brightness of brightness of mind, you can let your mind merge with that open sky, so it's filled with a smile, letting the image and sense of a smile spread through the eyes, so you might soften the eyes, feel the corners of the eyes lifted up a bit, as if you could smile into the eyes, let the brow be smooth, a slight smile at the mouth.

Ticknachthong calls this smile yoga, because it sends a message to the whole nervous system through the vagus nerve, to relax, fight, flight, freeze. So we're really more an attend and befriend. Slight smile at the mouth than the inside of the mouth smiling. And you can visualize and smile into the heart. It's a kind of curve of a smile spreading through the heart and chest area. Not to cover over what's there, but rather to create an openness and a receptivity for whatever we're experiencing, imagining that openness spreading outward,

so that the shoulders are free to relax back and down some, feeling the shoulders from the inside out, just letting whatever tension or tightness might be there, just letting it float in awareness. So you're sensing space and energy and aliveness inside the shoulders, just letting there be a dissolves. or releasing, letting the arms be relaxed. See if the hands are resting in a very easy or effortless way.

Feeling the hands from the inside out, can you perceive the tingling that's there, maybe vibrating, pulsing. You might soften the hands a little bit more and continue to notice what you feel from the inside out. sensing the aliveness and space that fills the hands. Notice how the more you relax the hands, the more awareness is there, the more you can experience the life there. In the same way you can feel the chest area.

Just feel from the inside out the movement of sensation, whether it's squeezed or tight or flowing, heat or cool. Just feel the space and aliveness inside the chest, scanning down further into the belly, softening the belly. You might even visualize and smile into the belly, like imagining that curve of a smile spreading through the abdominal area, loosening, relaxing open. So this next breath is received in a softening belly. This breath, and now this one, and again, feeling that waking up deep in the torso, spreading

through the hips, the whole pelvic region. So the lower torso is filled with that sense of space, aliveness, scanning down through the legs, relaxing, softening and feeling the legs from the inside out. eyes, the calves, shins, right down into the feet. See if you can place your whole awareness inside the feet. Can you feel the aliveness there, tingling, energy, moving, and then widening the lens so that you can simultaneously feel this whole body as a field of sensation. Not stopping anything or opposing anything, relaxing back and allowing the stance of energy of tingling and vibrating heat or cool, tightness or flow.

Pleasant or unpleasant, just letting it all play, letting life live through you, including this symphony of sound so that you're listening not just with your ears but your whole awareness, letting the sounds wash through you, listening to and feeling the whole moment, aware of this changing flow of sound, sensation and feelings, also aware in the background of the space it's happening in, this alert, wakeful openness, your own presence, resting as awareness, spontaneously recognizing the sounds and sensations as they move through. And at some point you'll notice that rather than resting as awareness, the mind is distracted, contracted into thought forms, maybe time traveling into the future

or past. So the practice is quite simple that when you notice that you've gone into, to that thinking trance, a storytelling mind, to simply pause and arrive again. Just gently re-relax. Arriving as a kind of relaxing back, becoming aware again of the sounds that are actually right here, becoming aware of this changing dance of sensation. And if it's helpful to anchor your attention gently with the breath, being aware of the inflow and the outflow as a way of linking into presence,

then you can let that be a kind of home base. No worries about being distracted. Each time it's just an opportunity to deepen your practice with coming home. Relaxing right here with just what's arising moment to moment. You can begin fresh in any moment. and your meditation practice and really your life. Just pause and notice what's happening. Sense the possibility of re-relaxing, of letting go just a little more.

Perhaps relaxing in the shoulders, softening the hands, loosening, relaxing the belly, relaxing your heart, presence, resting with this inflow and outflow of the breath, or relaxing back and just resting, in awareness, resting as awareness, awakeful openness.