Tara Brach - Meditation: Wakeful, Open Awareness (2019-06-19)

Episode Date: June 20, 2019

Meditation: Wakeful, Open Awareness (2019-06-19) - When we awaken our senses, we can sense in the background a wakeful openness that is our true home. This meditation guides us by first attending to the space, aliveness and awareness that fills the body, and then by sensing how interior and exterior space is continuous, and suffused with the light of awareness. Join Tara's email community at http://eepurl.com/6YfI, to receive exclusive updates, events, and meditations. - Get a free download of Tara's new 10 min meditation: "Mindful Breathing: Finding Calm and Ease," - plus a bonus gift: "8 Essential Tips to Nourish Your Meditation Practice."

The following meditation is led by Tara Brock. To access more of my meditations or join my email list, please visit tarabrock.com. As you sit in the stillness, let your senses be awake, aware of listening, aware of the sounds around you, aware of the sensations and feelings in your body, aware of any strong emotions that might be here, and aware in the background of that presence, that openness that's noticing what's happening. You can deepen and awaken that presence as we gently scan through the body, sensing the awareness and aliveness in the body. You might soften the eyes and let the brow be smooth, aware of the body,

aware of the flickering of light, aware of the sensation and vibration in that region of the face. You can wake up the area of the mouth and bringing a slight smile to the mouth. You feel the inside of the mouth smiling. Let the tongue fill the lower palate. See if you can relax down to the root of the tongue. Aware of the sensations and the gums, the teeth, the lips, sensing the space inside the mouth and the alive. mouth and the aliveness and awareness that's there.

Letting the throat fill the neck. Feeling the space inside the neck, the sensations, the aliveness, the awareness that's there. Feeling the shoulders from the inside out, sense how they're filled with space, awareness and aliveness. letting the hands rest in an easy, effortless way, softening the hands and try softening again. And feeling them from the inside out, can you notice the tingling and vibrating there? And can you sense the space that that aliveness is happening in, the space that it's emanating out of, sense the awareness that's experiencing.

the aliveness inside the hands. Let there be an openness at the chest and a feeling from the inside out the sensations and the felt sense of the area of the heart. As you feel the sensations and emotions in the area of the heart sense the space that's happening in, the space that sensations emanate from. Suffused with awareness,

And just as a cup is filled with water, this whole body is filled with awareness. See if you can let this next breath be received in a softening belly. This breath and now this one and again, feeling the midsection of your body filled with aliveness, the movement of sensation, sensing the space that's happening in, the awareness that fills the and sensing the awareness filling the whole pelvic region, the movement of aliveness, space, aliveness and awareness, filling the whole torso, the arms, the legs. You might sense the length and the volume of the legs.

You feel the feet from the inside out, sensing the space that fills the feet, the aliveness there. And if you open the attention, you can feel simultaneously, feels simultaneously this whole body as a field of sensation. Sensing the space that everything's happening in, the interior space that everything emanates from, including sounds, the vibration and aliveness of sound. So you can sense the openness, the boundlessness that includes all experience,

sensation, interior space and vast boundless space all continuous, all filled with the light of awareness, it's relaxed back, resting, that openness of awareness, sensation, vibration, tingling, all coming and going, sound, feelings. this wakeful openness. The nature of awareness is openness, wakefulness, sensitivity or tenderness. Yet we leave home, we leave that natural awareness and can find our attention inside thoughts over and over. It's completely natural and you can choose when you notice your you've been drifting in thoughts, to unhook, to step out, relax out, relax back. Start listening again.

Simple listening to the sounds that are here. Reopen the senses directly. Listening and feeling the life in the body again, you might soften the hands. You might loosen and soften your belly, letting the breath go deep inside you. You might relax your heart, feeling the aliveness and the sound that's right here and sensing the space that's happening in, the interior space that's here, really continuous space filled with the light of awareness, relaxing back again and again, resting. Pathway home begins with waking up your senses again so that you're aware of the sounds

that are here, aware of the sensations, the aliveness in your body, perhaps the movement of the breath, intimacy with whatever feelings are here in the area of the heart, relaxing back and resting again in the awareness that's listening to and feeling the whole moment. In these last few moments you might see if it's possible to let go just a little bit more unhooking from thoughts letting go of any resistance to the aliveness in your body, letting go and letting be the life that's here, relaxing with the moment-to-moment experience, and sensing in the background that alert stillness that's aware,

open, wakeful, and tender.