Tara Brach - Meditation: The Mystery of Aliveness - from retreat (2016-05-09)

Episode Date: June 10, 2016

Meditation: The Mystery of Aliveness (2016-05-09) - This meditation from the morning of spring retreat begins with a body scan, then widens to include sounds, senses and open energetic awareness. Includes an application of the RAIN of Compassion to close. (from a morning guided meditation at the IMCW 2016 Spring Retreat)

The following meditation is led by Tara Brock. To access more of my meditations or join my email list, please visit tarabrock.com. Your senses be wide awake, aware of the sounds around you, the same kind of listening that you bring to sound, listening to and feeling the life of the body, gently scanning through the body with your awareness, so you can relax.

and wake up from the inside out, softening the eyes, let the brow be smooth. In a receptive way, just feel the aliveness of sensation in that region of the face. I might relax the mouth by having a very slight smile and a feeling of a smile on the inside of the mouth. And then again, receptively feeling the sensations and aliveness in the mouth. shoulders to relax back and down some, to fall away from the neck. Filling the area of the shoulders with awareness, feel the movement of sensation. And if there feels like tightness, any sort of clenching, see if you can let it float some in awareness, naturally untangle in awareness.

Letting the hands rest in a very easy, non-effortful way, really relaxed and soft. Feeling the hands from the inside out, if you could notice the tingling, vibrating, aliveness there. Just as a cup is filled with water, this whole body is filled with awareness. Awareness inside the heart area, very receptive, soft, attentiveness there,

an intimate attention, just feeling the... sensations, the movement, perhaps areas of pressure or warmth, squeezing, flow, scanning down to the area of the belly, loosening, softening there, letting this next breath be received in a softening belly, this breath, and now this one, and again and again, letting that region be filled with awareness. It's receiving the play of sensations, an intimate presence, sensing the pelvic region filled with awareness, receiving and opening to the aliveness that's there, of the length, the volume of the legs,

awareness that's inside the feet, receiving the sensations of pressure, warmth, tingling, vibrating. You might sense the feet spreading, receptive, and open to this earth energy. energy, just letting the energy of the earth flow through you, fill you, widening the lens. You can feel this bodily being, this energetic being, as a field of sensation, not stopping anything, not opposing anything. Just letting this life live through you, including an awareness, the appearing, disappearing of sound, wide open to this changing dance of sound and sensation, feeling, movement of energy, sensing as you're listening, feeling the space that everything's happening in, continuing

with this receptive, open presence, becoming aware in the foreground of your particular anchor or home base, maybe the stream of the breath, the sensations of the in-flow, outflow. No need to control or do anything, simply receiving the changing sensations. Maybe the sense of the whole body breathing, resting in an open presence that receives the changing sensations of the breath. Relaxed, open, intimate. Right here. moment to moment, and when there's a noticing that the mind has drifted, which it quite

naturally does again and again, that's when we have the opportunity to practice reawakening. The key qualities that will allow us to seed the next moments with presence are to reawaken with a sense of ease, not judging, but rather with interest, gentleness. It's a reopening of the attention. You'll notice when you've been in thoughts that the senses are cut off. So you're reopening the senses, reopening the attention to listen again to the sounds that are here, reopening and relaxing in the body to be able to pre-opening. receive the sensations that are here, relaxing the heart.

So there's a sensitivity to the feelings that are here, listening to and feeling the moment-to-moment experience. And noticing the difference between this and any thought that we're inside of. Just noticing the vividness or the immediacy, really the mystery of this aliveness right here. And in this open, awake presence, again, allowing in the foreground that sense of your anchor or your home base, if you notice some other strong experience in some way competing or calling for your attention. Then letting the waves of the breath or whatever your anchor is recede and bringing a full presence to whatever wants your attention.

if there's strong, pleasant or unpleasant sensations in the body, to let them be in the foreground. And the practice is simply to contact and notice what's here in an honest, direct, immediate way and to allow it to be as it is. In some way you're learning to say yes, not the yes that I like this or want this, but yes, this is the actuality, right, this moment. letting there be a heart space that includes, bringing an interest to what's here, noticing sensations as they move, as they change, where perhaps the center of intensity is, recognizing and allowing until whatever's been calling your attention is no longer predominant.

Gently re-experiencing, re-re-re-experiencing, re-researching. receiving the breath or your anchor in the foreground. And in a similar way of strong emotions arise this morning or through your day, you let the anchor recede. Or if it's there, if you want to keep feeling the breath, breathing with whatever's calling your attention can be a very helpful way of being present to what's here. of sadness or fear, excitement, restlessness appear, letting them be in the foreground. Noticing what they're like is a constellation of sensations, feeling them and allowing,

saying yes to what's here with a soft and kind attention. So the practice in its simplicity is to be with the anchor, to quiet and and collect and stabilize. And then when something else calls our attention to include that with the interest and friendliness, the heart that we have here, moment to moment, noticing what's happening and allowing it. You might ask yourself if there's anything between you and full presence right now. One teacher put it, am I dreaming? Is there a train? Is there a trance of thinking. Sometimes we notice that there's a very thin veil of thoughts. Just our mind's talking to itself, that we weren't aware it's so familiar. Sometimes the

thinking is more charged. And if you notice charge repetitive thinking, and that's an invitation to sense what's really going on in your body, your heart. And if there's some emotion, strong motion, some reactivity. Let's explore just how natural rain can be. You're just simply recognizing, oh, okay, let's say it's anxiety, anxious. Naming can help to bring the attention closer in, noticing what it's really like, allowing it to be there, just letting it be. Not trying to fix, not trying to get rid of. It's the beginning of saying yes. and then investigating, deepening your attention, primarily noticing what this is really like as sensations, moving, changing sensations in the body, perhaps the throat or the chest, the belly,

investigating. And then the nourishing is simply offering some quality of kindness or tenderness to what's here. just the intention to regard with kindness begins to soften and deepen our presence. And when you've done that, when you've offered the kindness to rest for some moments, and just notice the quality of presence that's here. Is there more freedom? Is there more of a sense of inhabiting a larger space of wakefulness, of tenderness, less identified?

If something's still calling your attention, then again, just to rest. recognize it, allow it, deepen that presence with some investigating, some inquiry into the body, regard with kindness. For this final part of the sitting you might ask yourself if it's possible to let go just a little bit more, to relax, to soften, just a little more. Can't let go of any doings for these final few minutes. and just sense the possibility of awareness naturally noticing what's happening and the space that's here for it, just resting in that awake space, letting this life live through you.