Tara Brach - Meditation: Resting in Knowing (20:43 min.)

Episode Date: September 26, 2024

Behind the activity of thinking, and the ever-changing flow of sounds, sensations and feelings, there is a great and awake silence that holds all that unfolds. This space of awareness is our formless essence, and learning to open and rest into this alert, knowing vastness has the blessings of homecoming.

The following meditation is led by Tara Brock. To access more of my meditations or join my email list, please visit tarabrock.com. Sitting upright, encourages a quality of inner alertness and also at ease, feeling that kind of balance, presence, and relaxed. And in that posture, you might deepen the in breath consciously, fill the lungs, slow out breath, just letting go a bit. And again, purposely deepen the in-breath.

See if you can fill the chest and lungs. And again, a slow out breath, letting go. One more time, inhaling deeply, releasing the breath slowly enough to feel the sensations of the breath at the nostrils as you release. And letting the breath resume in its natural rhythm, just notice the quality of presence that's here. You might feel that presence at your heart. Bring that presence to your heart. Notice the state of your heart right now.

And listen inwardly as you inquire, what is my intention tonight? What's my deepest intention for this meditation, for this class. Be patient and listen for what feels most sincere to you. What is it you really care about? We continue to bring the awareness in an embodied way, to feel the life of this body, to feel our hearts.

And you might begin right at the top of the head by feeling the scalp and the skull. Feel the actual sensations there. Let the brow be smooth. at ease and the eyes soft and again notice sensations, vibrations,

just notice the life that's right there in this region of the eyes feeling the mouth you might bring a slight smile to the mouth maybe sense the inside of the mouse smiling

and then relaxing right to the root of the tongue see what that's like noticing all the sensation and aliveness in the region of the mouth. You might feel the breath at the throat, imagining, and sensing the throat filling the neck. So you can feel from the inside out the aliveness in the area of the neck, allowing the shoulders to fall away from the neck,

relaxing them back and down a bit. And let the awareness be inside the shoulders and see how much you can notice the tingling, the vibrating, the movement of energy inside the shoulders. If it feels very tight, solid, you might imagine a dissolving of ice to water. See, if you can imagine and feel that. Ice to water and then water to vapor. Really loosening loosely. Can you feel the shoulders from the inside out as the play of sensation, movement?

Letting the hands rest in a very easy way, very effortless way, and feeling the hands from the inside out, you might soften a little. See if you can soften the hands. And notice the play of sensations there. Are you aware of tingling or pulsing, places. of pressure are warm, vibrating, let the whole area of the chest be wide open and feel the area of the chest and the heart from the inside out, receptive, presence, just allowing the play of energy, the vibrating, the flow, the tightness, the throbbing, the squeezing, the heat,

the cool, just let it all be there. Continuing to scan down the body, you might let this next breath be received in a softening belly. This breath, and then again and again

letting the awareness go deep into the torso, feeling from the inside out, the belly, the abdominal area. As you're doing so, it helps to keep the hand soft, slight smile at the mouth and the eyes soft, aware of this living, breathing body,

continuing to scan down the torso, filling the whole pelvic region with awareness. Receptive presence, softening any tightness or tension and just receiving the aliveness that's there. Again, a dance of sensation. You might sense the length and the volume of the legs and sense the feet filled with awareness, feeling them from the inside out, feeling the aliveness that's there, feeling places of pressure and contact your feet touch the floor and sensing the earth and the vastness of the earth, this living organism of the earth, and sensing this body is a part of that, filled with energy, filled with aliveness. You can sense the earth energy flowing up through the feet so that you widen the lens and feeling simultaneously this whole body is a

dance of sensation, a vibrant expression of this living earth right here. See how much you can let this life live through you without opposing anything or stopping anything. So you're saying a very profound radical yes to this ever-changing flow of energy that's right here including the aliveness that we experience a sound this whole vibrational field of sound noticing with listening that there's nothing to do you don't aim the mind it's rather pure receptivity sounds are known spontaneously just rest in the knowing moment to moment, where the appearing and disappearing of sound, the bubbling up and moving of sensations.

So you're listening to and feeling the whole moment in the foreground phenomena, sound, sensations, feelings. And in the background, that alert quality of knowing, that stillness that's awake, just rest in the knowing moment to moment. You've probably already noticed that the attention is pretty conditioned to leave presence. So when you become aware of that, aware that you're often a train of thoughts, what really matters most is the quality or the attitude that you come back with. Just to appreciate noticing that you've been in a kind of virtual reality and gently reopen the senses.

Listening again right here to these sounds. Soften a little again in the body, the shoulders, the hands, the belly. It's receptive to the aliveness. It's right here. here in the body. So again you're listening to and feeling the life of the moment, resting in the knowing of what's happening, relaxed and awake.