Tara Brach - Meditation: The Silence That is Listening (2016-06-01)

Episode Date: June 2, 2016

Meditation: The Silence That is Listening (2016-06-01) - Listening to sounds is a powerful way to quiet the thinking mind and connect with the natural openness of awareness. This meditation emphasizes the anchor of listening, and guides us to relax through our bodies and let sounds wash through us. In this receptivity we find a homecoming to full presence and peace.

The following meditation is led by Tara Brock. To access more of my meditations or join my email list, please visit tarabrock.com. In the silence and the stillness, let your awareness sweep through your body and just notice if there's any obvious areas of tightness, of tension. I sense what wants to let go a little right now. You might sense a little bit of a loosening

or softening around the shoulders, perhaps a melting or dissolving sensation inside the shoulders, and perhaps a softening of the hands. Let there be an openness to the chest, maybe a softening at the belly, relaxing through the pelvic region. Where of the places of contact where your hands touch each other or the thighs, the legs,

where your bottom touches the cushion or the chair, feet touching the floor, just aware of the sense of pressure and warmth. And if you could feel your whole body from the inside out, just sensing the tingling and the vibrating, the heat or the cool. This whole play of sensation, including sound in your awareness,

the close in sounds in the room, the appearing and the disappearing of these words and the spaces between sounds, listening to the more distant sounds, listening not just with your ears but with your whole awareness, just letting sounds wash through, noticing with listening that there's nothing to do. Sounds appear and are known spontaneously by awareness. sense the edgeless space that all sounds are appearing in, is relaxing into that openness that's listening. Totally receptive.

There's a listening to and a feeling of the whole changing flow moment to moment. It's quite natural for the attention to contract and go inside of thoughts. So you forget the awareness that's listening. And when that happens when you notice thinking, not a problem, just to recognize, oh, okay, inside a virtual reality and then pause and reopen the attention and begin listening again to the sounds you're actually here instead of the thoughts in the mind, listening with your whole awareness, relaxed, receptive. is letting sounds wash through.

Each time the mind drifts into thoughts is an opportunity to practice arriving again in presence. And in this meditation, letting sounds be a home base, this open, relaxed presence, listening to the changing flow of sounds. If you find some strong experience arises, pleasantness or unpleasantness in the body,

to listen to and feel that in a very intimate way, allowing what arises to be there, offering that listening presence, accepting, gentle, if some strong emotion arises, fear, or sorrow, listening to and feeling that with the same receptivity as you might listen to sound,

sound and when it no longer calls the attention, resting again in this openness and the silence that's listening to this life. You can begin fresh in any moment. Just simply noticing where the attention is and choosing to arrive again, bringing that friendliness and interest right back here, opening the attention to listen to the sounds that are appearing and disappearing. Moment to moment you might re-relax in the body some, listening to and feeling the moment. In these last few moments, bringing that listening and receptive attention to the heart. just listening to your own heart

sensing the state of your heart in this moment sensing the intimacy of listening to and feeling the life that's right here offering whatever prayer or blessing wish of well-being to your own heart whatever most resonates in this moment bringing to mind a dear one so that you're listening to and feeling that person that being

their energy and offering whatever prayer, whatever wish or blessing resonates, and then sensing the heart space that holds all beings so that you're listening to the lives, consciousness and beings everywhere, offering your prayer.