Tara Brach - Meditation: Saying "Yes" to Reality

Episode Date: September 22, 2022

Meditation: Saying "Yes" to Reality - Our suffering comes from tensing and resisting the life that's here. This meditation guides us to relax and awaken our body and senses, and resting in presence, allow life to be as it is. As our "Yes" to the changing flow becomes full, we discover the freedom of awake awareness itself.

The following meditation is led by Tara Brock. To access more of my meditations or join my email list, please visit tarabrock.com. Finding a posture where you can sit upright and see if you can sit tall because the quality of uprightness will help you be alert and awake. And then in that tallness like a great upright tree, sense that you can relax.

You can relax your limbs. You can let go of unnecessary holding or tightness. Relaxed and alert. Become aware of your breathing and let yourself feel the breath in the area of the heart, breathing in and out of the heart. And you'll notice that helps you listen more deeply to the heart, feeling the energy, the felt sense in the region of the heart, the region of the heart, taking these moments to reflect on what your heart's intention is

for practicing meditation right now. What calls you and whether you've never reflected on this before or you've done this hundreds of times, sense fresh and with sincerity, what is it that most matters to you? what really matters as we sense into what we care about, more presence, waking up our heart, touching peace, realizing our true nature is feeling sincerely what matters, and then in a collective way sensing our shared intention and waking up our own beings and serving the healing of our world. In the stillness,

you might begin to let the awareness scan through your body, sensing where it's natural and easy to let go a bit. You might soften the eyes, let the brow be smooth, letting the eyes float like orbs in a pool of water, perhaps feeling a slight smile at the lips, Zen master Ticknat Han calls this smile yoga because it sends our nervous system a message to let go of the fight-flight-freeze reaction to rest in more comfort and ease.

It's a slight smile, eyes soft. You might let the shoulders fall away from the neck and see if you can feel from the inside out the energy, the sensations in the shoulders. You might sense the possibility of a dissolving, of ice melting to water. See if you can feel that. A kind of melting ice to water and water to gas. Letting whatever feelings that remain of any tightness or tension float in awareness. allowing the hands to rest in a very easy and effortless way.

You might soften the hands and feel them from the inside, softening the hands. See if you can detect the tingling and vibrating, the movement and aliveness of energy inside the hands. Let there be an openness at the chest and sense the awareness filling the area of the heart. might smile into the heart, sense the curve of a smile spreading through the heart, to create some space for what's ever there, feeling the play of energy, sensation, emotion, in the region of the heart, and letting it be just as it is, scanning down to the mid-section of the body, and letting this next breath be received in a softening belly. This breath,

And now this breath and again and again. Feeling the awareness fill the belly. So you can feel from the inside out the life that's here. Still sensing the breath deep in the torso. Continuing to scan down, letting the awareness fill the whole pelvic region. Aware of the aliveness of sensation, energy there. Feeling the legs, sensing the leg. length, the weight, the volume of the legs, and feel the aliveness right down into the feet,

and opening the attention to feel simultaneously now, this whole dance of sensations through the body, let everything happen. This whole play of tingling and vibrating, coolness or warm, flow, tightness, pain. pleasure, let it all happen. To open into presence is to say yes to the aliveness that's right here. You might include sounds so you're aware of the changing sounds, this kind of symphony, letting the sounds wash through you. In the foreground, this changing flow of sound and sensation, feelings. And in the background, this open wakefulness, allowing everything to happen, including everything, moment to moment.

For some as a way of steadying the mind, you might want to rest in the simplicity of the inflow and outflow of the breath, relaxing fully with the movement of the breath. And as something strong arises that draws your attention, strong sensations, whether they're pleasant or unpleasant or emotions, sounds, to include what arises saying yes, letting the life be just as it is moment to moment. It's very natural for the attention to drift and you can notice that when you do and let that be an opportunity to strengthen the path way back home. You might just note, oh, thinking, thinking, not with any judgment, just noticing it. And then reopen the attention to what's here right now. These sounds opening and relaxing

again in the body see what might want to let go a little bit. Maybe the shoulders could relax a bit more. Soften, slight smile at the mouth and softening the hands and feeling the inside, the tingling there, softening your belly, feeling the breath received deep in the torso and relaxing your heart. Again, resting in that presence that can notice what's arising and let it be there. saying yes to the reality, the changing flow of this life. You might experiment, notice whatever you're carrying in your heart right now,

perhaps whatever you might not have been willing to feel, and notice what happens when you sense whatever vulnerability is right here, if you meet it with that quality of yes, with the kindness and the spaciousness and acceptance of yes. This belongs. Notice what happens when you say yes to the life that's here. Notice the experience of your own being when there's an unconditional yes to life.