Tara Brach - Meditation: Spacious, Clear Awareness

Episode Date: February 10, 2022

Meditation: Spacious, Clear Awareness - This meditation begins with a breath that calms and collects the attention, and then a body scan that enables us to awaken our senses. Finally, we relax open fully to include the changing flow of sounds and sensations, in a spacious, clear awareness.

The following meditation is led by Tara Brock. To access more of my meditations or join my email list, please visit tarabrock.com. Awareness to the breath and lengthening the breath, extending the in-breath so it's full and deep, filling the chest and lungs, and lengthening the out-breath so it's slow, slow enough so you can feel the sensations of releasing the breath, releasing, letting go, letting go.

And again, a full deep in-breath, filling the lungs, and a slow, complete out-breath, sensing a kind of relaxing outward and letting go with the out-breath. Please continue in this way, full in-breath, slow out-breath, letting the breath be matched in their length, without a pause between the in-breath and the out-breath. It helps you to count, to count to four slowly. Please feel free so that the breaths are matched.

You might sense with the in-breath and opening to receive, even in a cellular way, with an out-breath releasing outward, letting go and letting go. Long, deep breaths. Then allowing the breath to resume in its natural. rhythm, sensing a quality of collectiveness, relaxing with the in-breath and relaxing with the out-breath, feeling your whole body breathing. We can deepen and awaken presence as we scan through the body, feeling the aliveness and sensations.

If it helps to bring the breath to certain parts of your body to keep your attention there, then you can use the breath in that way. beginning with the top of the head and the whole region of the scalp and skull, just feeling the tingling and the vibrating and the aliveness there, letting the attention scan down to the brow, feeling the brow smooth, the eyes perhaps softening, feel the tingling and vibrating and sensations in that region, and letting the jaw be unhinged,

letting the tongue spread and relax in the lower jaw, relaxing down to the root of the tongue, and feeling the sensations that fill the mouth, allowing the shoulders to fall away from the neck, the arms relax, the hands on the thighs, or touching each other gently, and feeling from the inside out the whole region of the shoulders. and if there's a sense of tightness, contraction there, see if you can let it float in awareness.

You might imagine and sense a kind of dissolving, releasing that can happen naturally with a simple presence, softening the hands, feeling from the inside out, the aliveness inside the hands, letting the chest be open. and feeling right into the heart area, sensing the sensations, the felt sense of aliveness in the heart, letting the sensations be just as they are. As you scan down the torso, you might loosen and soften the belly so that this next breath is received in a softening belly. This breath and now this one.

And again, feeling from the inside out, the dance of sensations, the movement of life inside the belly, letting the attention scan down to the pelvic region, relaxing, and feeling from the inside out, the sensations, the life, appearing, disappearing, this whole dance of sensations. aware of the length and the volume of your legs and feeling the feet from the inside out

the tingling, vibrating that's there and you might imagine since the feet spreading and open and receptive so that the earth energy that's beneath and around can pour in, can be received and move through you and just feel yourself filling with earth energy with the aliveness

that's all around us, always within us, very much in consciousness, opening to the whole dance of sensation, not opposing anything, not trying to control anything, opening and widening the attention to include the play of sound, close-in sounds,

the more distant sounds, sensing the space of awareness that everything's happening, in the appearing and disappearing sounds, the arising dissolving sensations, just open and rest in that great receptive, awake space of awareness, awake awareness noticing this changing flow of sound and sensation, feelings, the life that's moving through us. For some it can help to stabilize presence by having a sense. by having in the foreground the movement of the breath, perhaps the in-flow outflow at the nose,

the rising, falling at the chest or abdomen, maybe the whole body breathing, yet still having the senses awake, aware of the whole play of experience. And if the mind gets carried into thoughts, simply notice that and in the moment of noticing, a natural opening back into presence. Let the senses be awake, just resting in that awake awareness that notices the changing flow moment to moment. Moments that you notice thinking there's already an awakening back to presence. Let the senses be awake.

listening, relaxing and feeling the life of the body, listening to and feeling this whole changing moment to moment flow of experience with presence noticing what's happening, what's predominant in your senses right now, receiving experience with a relaxed and open attention as a way of transitioning from our formal practice, I'd like to invite you to feel the breath gently in the foreground right now as a kind of home base or anchor. And then slowly opening the eyes, just receiving with interest whatever form, shapes, light, darkness.

So you're continuing in presence with your eyes open. your eyes open, and then in your own way, beginning to move, shift your posture, but feel the sensations that are occurring as you do it so that while you're not in a formal meditation any longer, you are continuing to be awake in your body and with your senses. Namaste and thank you.