Tara Brach - Meditation: The Aliveness and Space of Presence

Episode Date: August 9, 2013

2013-08-07 - Guided Meditation - The Aliveness and Space of Presence

Please come into stillness, closing your eyes, letting your attention go inward. Gathering your attention, collecting in a very simple way. We'll breathe together and begin with a very long, deep in-breath. So inhaling. And then let the out-breath be slow, very slow, so you can feel the sensations of releasing the breath. Exhale. And again, a deep, full in-breath, filling the lungs. And a slow out breath, letting go, letting go, letting go.

And again, inhaling deeply, filling the chest, filling the lungs. Perhaps when you're filled with breath hold for a moment. And when you hold you might even straighten the spine taller, let the shoulders relax back and down, tuck the chin in slightly. and then slow out breath, letting go, letting go, relaxing the breath outward, and then letting there be a natural rhythm resumed in the breathing, but sense the increased presence with the breath. So a natural breath, relaxing as the air comes in, and relaxing with the release, and letting that relaxed attentiveness come to the heart area.

Just taking stock in a way, sensing whatever the state of your heart is right now. It's noticing whatever mood or emotions or hear. There's a quality of openness and sensitivity or numbness, shut down, without any judgment. Just noticing. Continuing with this listening presence,

You might inquire as to what your intention is for tonight, what it is that most matters to you. This feeling in a sincere way what your heart cares about. It's from this place of sincerity and caring that we bring our voices together chanting. If you'd like to bring the palms together, just to center at the heart, feel that sense of dedication. please do. We'll chant ohm, this sound current of connectedness, belonging.

Chant three times, please inhale deeply. As you relax the hands down, you might feel your awareness really filling your body and just sense the sitting posture, letting it be one that's quite upright

as you might find yourself making some subtle adjustments letting the posture support the quality of attention. And that really brings us to presence, that alert quality. Also sensing the posture at ease, a sense of balance and letting go of unnecessary tension so that the awareness can be both alert and relaxed. You can deepen that sense of ease with the image of a smile.

It's one that's used in a number of different traditions to help relax and open the nervous system to that quality of benevolence and ease. My sense of smile spreading through the sky. Just imagine great open sky, endless, edgeless sky with a curve of a smile spreading through it, just letting your mind merge with that sky. So you can feel that openness right here. Sensing the smile spreading through the mind. And in a very immediate way, sensing that's spreading smile through the eyes.

So the corners of the eyes are slightly lifted. The lids are soft, relaxed. The eyes very receptive. The brow is smooth at ease. Letting the jaws be unhinged and sensing that's smile at the mouth so that the inside of the mouth feels like it's smiling and that the lips themselves are in a very slight but real smile. This directly sends a message to relax the fight-flight response, to be at ease, the eyes smiling, the mouth and sense that you

can smile right into the heart area. Feel the spread of a smile emerging, very naturally spreading through the heart and the chest. So they're not covering over anything but making room, creating space for the life that's here. The eyes soft and a smile, the mouth and the heart. Sensing the openness and space in the heart area, extending outwards so that the shoulders can relax a bit more right now. Just consciously let go of whatever you might have been carrying unconsciously, softening, feeling the awareness inside the shoulders, the space, the aliveness there, free for more flowing and movement. It's like ice melting, ice to water and water to gas.

I might sense through the arms, more energy moving up and down the arms, bringing the awareness right inside the hands. See if you can notice the space and aliveness inside the hands, the tingling. If you soften the hands a bit intentionally, you might notice even more of the vibrating and aliveness there. Just try that. The same intimate presence that the hands can be brought to all parts of the body so that you can feel a kind of dynamic presence. The chest is open. You might explore softening at the belly, letting this next breath be received in a softening belly. This breath, and now this one, again sensing the aliveness and space in the belly, standing that awareness deep into the torso,

filling the hips, buttocks, genitals. Again, sensing the spaciousness, the aliveness, the aliveness, of presence itself. Aware of the legs, feeling the awareness inside the legs, so that if you scan down the legs, you can feel the life there right into the feet, noticing the tingling, the vibrating at the feet, movement of energy in this space of presence. You can widen the lens now. And just discover the experience of all this whole life-life,

of this body simultaneously. Just let everything happen, not stopping anything, sensing the space and dynamism of presence, including an awareness, the play of sound. Nothing to do. Sounds happen on their own. It's received in this vast space of awareness, listening to and feeling the whole moment. Let this awake, dynamic presence be your home base. This play of sound and sensation lets you know that you're right here. Keep relaxing over and over again into what's happening right here. You might even mentally whisper the word here and sense that radical presence, that wakefulness. The mind will naturally leave and drift into thoughts of the future, the past.

That's fine. It's what minds do. And it's also natural that we can begin to notice that more and more and invite our attention right back here. If it helps to be more stable and steady right here by letting the breath be in the foreground, please for sure use the breath. So it's either the breath or sounds or sensations.

What's important is to know that you're here. here, right here, moment to moment. Sense if it's possible to let go and relax just a little bit more right now. They start fresh by bringing a real interest and gentleness to what's right here in this moment. A relaxed attentiveness, sounds, sensations. We'll close this meditation with a reflection on the three gestures or expressions of love. of loving presence. The first is to just scan and sense if there's any judgment right now

about how your meditation is going or about yourself. Just to notice if there's anything going on like that, any conflict with yourself, your experience. And if you find something just to offer a simple gesture of forgiveness or acceptance, you can say the words, I'm sorry, are forgiven, forgiven, or it's okay. Just to let go of that clench of judgment. And just to offer the kindness of love itself,

just letting love wash through you. You can simply say the words, I love you, and direct it towards the life that's right here. See what happens. And the third gesture is simply to say thank you, to feel that appreciation for presence and aliveness.