Tara Brach - Meditation: Suffering and Compassion (2020-10-28)

Episode Date: October 29, 2020

Meditation: Suffering and Compassion (2020-10-28) - This brief meditation is a version of the Tibetan Tonglen practice: With the support of the breath we allow ourselves to open to the realness of suffering, and then offer it into a boundless heartspace…a shared and compassionate awareness.

The following meditation is led by Tara Brock. To access more of my meditations or join my email list, please visit tarabrock.com. Close your eyes. And to gently do that scanning of the body and sense, if there's anywhere where there's unnecessary tension or tightness, that you can take a nice in-breath and then with the out-breath, just let go some.

Such a gift to ourselves to let go where we can. softening the shoulders, the hands, softening the belly, relaxing the heart. And this practice is in the Tibetan tradition's Tonglin is a very simple way of connecting with where there's vulnerability, hurt and sorrows, and offering it into a bigger, more spacious, loving presence. and we begin with ourselves, invite you to scan and sense if there's any place in you right now that wants that healing attention, a place that feels reactive, vulnerable, unsafe, hurting, perhaps feels numb and cut off.

And I find it can help when you're bringing compassion practice inward to put your hand on your heart or wherever you feel emotion right now. You're already right from the start offering a gesture of kindness. And feel your breath. And without any strain, you might lengthen it a bit. So you're really letting in with the in breath and with the out breath letting go some. You might sense as you breathe in,

you're letting in and letting yourself honestly contact what's here. So with the in-breath, there's kind of a courage to connect with the vulnerability. But since there's a container, your hands on your heart or wherever, and there's space for it, so you're breathing in and touching what's here, the anger or the grief, the fear, the confusion, the numbness. So if you're breathing in and saying, yes, this is here, this is reality. the waves of the moment, and you can begin to notice with the out breath that you're letting that vulnerable place be held in a larger heart space. You might imagine that. So you're breathing in and touching what's here. But with the out breath, you're sensing

the truth of a vast sky of awareness, a vast and formless presence that's tender. It's really the whole of your being. You're letting this be held in the whole of being, breathing in and touching what's difficult, breathing out, letting it rest in something larger. And as you breathe, you might bring to mind all the others who could be feeling just what you're feeling right now. And you can trust that here we are, this satsun, there are many that are and many around the world. Because it's not our fear, it's the world's fear living through us. Breathing in and touching what's here for all of us. This fear, anger, grief, and breathing out and sense that you can breathe out into that heart that's as wide as the world, the true

vastness of loving presence. So you're breathing for all of us, with all of us. And you might sense those who are suffering in a very direct, immediate way that you'd like to take these last moments to include in your heart perhaps differently than you, and sense that you have the spaciousness of heart and mind to breathe for them, to breathe in and say, yes, I can touch this suffering, and to breathe out and know it can be held in a large, vast, boundless container of care. It's as if your hearts have flow through, connecting you with the world, in the most beautiful way, in letting go of any intentional directing of the breath, to sense the quality of presence that's here, the connectedness, the tenderness, and the reality of what

floats in it, the pain that's here, the pain of our world, sensing the possibility of remembering the shared heart space as you move forward knowing that you can touch the reality of what's here and there's room for it and in that loving presence you can then find the way to respond to our world that most resonates for you may all beings be filled with loving kindness and be held in loving kindness may all beings touch great and natural peace. May there be peace on earth. Peace, justice, understanding, and love. May all beings awaken and be free.