Tara Brach - Meditation: Resting in Wakeful Presence (18:55 min.)

Episode Date: July 10, 2025

This meditation scans through the body – arriving in the foreground with sounds, feelings and sensations, like the surface waves of the sea coming and going. And in the background, experiencing an alert inner stillness – a vast presence from which all activity pours forth.

The following meditation is led by Tara Brock. To access more of my meditations or join my email list, please visit tarabrock.com. In the quietness, coming more fully into presence by bringing attention into the body. And you might begin by just sensing the eyes and letting your eyes soften, letting the brow be smooth.

It's almost like you allow a smile to spread through the eyes, lifting the corners of the eyes slightly. So there's a receptivity and a softness there. And again with that image of a smile, you might sense a smile at the mouth. Very slight but real smile there. The inside of the mouth smiling. Ticknhat Han, a Zen Buddhist teacher, describes as a smile yoga because with a smile it actually activates the nerves in a way that we move from fight-flight freeze into more of the attend and befriend.

I sense that friendly attitude towards your experience. You might feel the shoulders and let them fall away a bit from the neck and bringing the awareness inside the shoulders. perhaps sensing a melting or dissolving, ice to water, just kind of letting go, ice to water and water to gas. Feeling the shoulders from the inside out and sensing the movement and aliveness of sensation there. Feeling the arms, the volume, the length of the arms, extending into the hands. See if you can let the hands rest in a very easy and effortless.

way, softening the hands and feeling them from the inside out. What do you notice as you maybe soften even more and feel the life of the hands from the inside out? Letting there be an openness at the chest. Again, feeling the chest from the inside out, the awareness inside the chest, just being aware of the sensations and space that's there and then scanning down feeling the belly and letting the next breath you breathe be received in a softening belly as you begin relaxing deep into the torso. This breath received in a softening belly. And now this one.

And again, being aware of the sensations and aliveness deep in the torso, spreading through the pelvic area, and feeling the body from the inside out, as a field of aliveness. Knowing the legs from the inside out, the volume and the length of the legs. Placing the attention inside the feet, dealing the vibration and tingling play of sensations in the feet. And opening the attention so you can feel simultaneously

the whole body as a field of sensation. You might notice tingling or vibrating, pulsing, coolness, warmth, tightness, flow, pleasantness, unpleasantness. Just let everything happen. This open awareness, including the appearing and disappearing of sounds. You might be aware of the close-in sounds in the room and the more distant sounds. A receptive, open presence. You're listening to and feeling the whole moment, continuing to sense,

in the foreground, this play of sound, sensation, feelings, like the surface waves of the sea coming and going. And sensing in the background, it's alert, inner stillness, this vast presence, that which is listening to the sounds, that stillness from which all this activity pours forth, relaxing back, resting in this wakeful openness. Before long you'll notice the mind is in the habit of moving away from open wakefulness, contracting into thoughts, memories, plans, commentary. It's not a problem just to notice that.

And then gently pause and reconnect with what's actually right here. And that's the practice again and again to notice when the mind's gone into a kind of trance of thinking and relax open again. The sounds that are right here, relax with the sensations, the aliveness that's right here. If it helps to stay connected with this presence right here by letting the mind rest with the movement of the breath, then relaxing with the inflow and relaxing with the outflow. Moment to moment sensing the presence that's right here. close in a simple way by bringing the attention to the heart. Just noticing how your heart

experiences presence, open presence in this moment, offering to your own heart and being whatever prayer or blessing resonates right in this moment to you. And then sensing this heart space that really includes our whole world offering your prayer to all beings. Thank you.