Tara Brach - Meditation: Simplicity of Presence (2015-09-09)

Episode Date: September 11, 2015

Meditation: Simplicity of Presence (2015-09-09) Free download of Tara’s new 10 min meditation:“Mindful Breathing: Finding Calm and Ease”when you join her email list.

Greetings. I'm Tara Brock, and I'd like to welcome you to these podcasts. While the talks and meditations are offered freely, we'd very much appreciate your support. To make a donation or learn more about my schedule, please visit tarabrock.com and our IMCW.org. Thank you. As you close your eyes, you might find the sitting posture that can best support you in two qualities of presence. being alert, which means you want to be sitting up pretty tall, not slumped, because that'll keep you wakeful and also relaxed at ease. So see right from the start, if it's possible to just relax a bit more. In the stillness, let your attention come to the heart area. And we begin with a very simple reflection, a kind of listening inward, just to ask yourself, what

what your deepest intention is in being here. What is it that your heart longs for? What matters to you in this life? And just listen inward and just to feel the quality of sincerity that arises when you connect with what you care about, whether it's becoming more present, more open-hearted, more trusting,

more able to be. intimate with others, more self-aware, more aware of really who and what you are. It's from that place of sincerity and care that we bring our voices together as community. And you might bring the palms together very lightly at the heart just to feel the quality of open-heartedness and tenderness as you chant the mantra, Ome. We'll chant three times. And, See if you can let that chant come from the sincerity of your heart. Please inhale deeply to begin. The most direct portals to presence and open-heartedness is through waking up through the body.

You can let the awareness sweep through the body, relaxing and opening. You might start in the area of the brow, the region of the brow. Let the eyes soften and the brow be smooth. Letting relaxation spread outward, feeling the scalp and the skull, the tingling, vibrating there. Letting the jaw be unhinged. You can relax the tongue right down to the base. You might find that having a slight smile at the mouth helps to create a whole atmosphere of ease. of friendliness towards your experience.

You might imagine the throat filling the neck and just feel the sensations there, letting the shoulders fall away from the neck, relaxing back and down, and then placing the awareness inside the shoulders, just opening to the sensations that are there. if there's tightness or knots you might imagine that they're floating in awareness

untangling and relaxing in awareness dealing the length, the volume of the arms right into the hands letting the hands rest in a very easy way and effortless way and filling the hands with awareness so that you're feeling them from the inside out can you notice the tingling and the vibrating inside the hands?

You might soften them a little more. Just open to the life that's there. Noticing how the more you relax, the more aliveness you can actually feel. Let there be an openness at the chest and filling the whole heart region with awareness so that you feel from the inside out, the sensations of the heart.

be tightness or squeeze, our flow, our warmth, whatever it is. Perhaps you can let the breath be felt at the heart area, breathing in and just feeling the breath and the heart together, right into the essence of the sensations at the heart and breathing out and sensing the space that they're floating in, relaxed and present, scanning down, feeling the abdominal area, and letting this next breath be received in a softening belly, this breath, and now this one, and again, letting the awareness fill the belly,

feeling the life, the aliveness and sensations there, keeping the hands soft, the belly soft, feeling the aliveness from the inside out, Just as you did with the heart, you might let the breath be felt in the belly moment by moment, keeping the attention there, deepening your presence with the sensations that are arising, continuing to scan down, filling the whole pelvic region with awareness. You're feeling the life there from the inside out, the whole dance of sensations. See how receptive, how present you can be, letting the breath be received deep in the torso.

Just as a cup is filled with water, this whole body can be filled with awareness, the length and the weight, the volume of the legs, right down into the heels and the cells and the cells of the feet, placing the awareness inside the feet. You again can feel the whole dance of sensation. and soft, belly soft, feeling the hands and the feet, the life there, and then widening so you can simultaneously feel this whole energy body, this whole dance of sensation all at once, this field of sensation, not stopping anything or opposing anything, including in this dance of aliveness, the play of sound.

Sounds arise and pass. And they're known spontaneously by awareness. Investing in the awareness that's listening to and feeling this whole moment. Aware of the quality of presence that's right here, right now.

A mindful awareness simply notices what's happening moment to moment changing sounds, sensations. thoughts that come and go, feelings. Just to notice without judgment with the quality of interest

and kindness. Stabilize the attention. It can be useful to have the breath in the foreground. Just a simple inflow-outflow as a kind of anchor or home base to come back to when the mind drifts let your intention be to return again and again to the simplicity of presence,

simply noticing moment-to-moment experience with a non-judging awareness. There are two questions that can strengthen that presence, and one of them is, what's happening inside me right now? Ask and notice, if there's any strong feelings or sensations, calling your attention.

And the second question is, and can I be with this? Are you might say, and can I let this be, which is the inquiry that can connect you with the quality of openness and kindness

towards whatever is here, saying yes to the moment. The simplicity of presence. What is happening inside me right now? And can I be with this? Awake, relaxed, gentle, present. You might ask yourself, is it possible to relax just a little bit more, to let go just a little more,

to relax back into that simplicity of presence, that non-judging awareness that simply notices the arising and passing of experience, moment to moment. As a way of closing this meditation, the formal meditation, you might feel your intention to bring a simple presence into whatever's next so that you gently open your eyes and sense that you're receiving the images the colors, the forms with that same presence.

You might deepen the breath a little. Let it the breath help you come back fully, eyes open. As you begin to move a bit, move mindfully. Feeling your heart's intention to sustain presence for these next moments into whatever is coming

through the day, through the evening, in your life. Namaste.