Tara Brach - Reflection: Deepening the Truths We Share (2016-10-19)

Episode Date: October 23, 2016

Reflection: Deepening the Truths We Share (2016-10-19) - Our capacity for love grows as we practice deepening the truths we share with each other. This short reflection offers guidance in how to bring your presence and heart to truth telling. From "Seeking What's True — Within Ourselves, Beyond our Self, With Each Other - Part 3"  

The following reflection is led by Tara Brock. To access more of my meditations or reflections or to join my email list, please visit tarabrock.com. I'm going to give you a chance to explore deepening truths with someone you value in a meditation. It's a short meditation, but I invite you to practice on your own and then practice in real life. again, someone you value, someone you'd like to nourish your relationship with by playing your edge more, by taking off the mask, by being more real, and to scan inside and sense what, where there might be some unspoken truth, something that you in some way feel you've covered up, that you're not sharing, that might be creating a separation that maybe

you're not even aware of some of the time. It's something that if you spoke might potentially bring more understanding and connection, but it's scary perhaps. Take the moment as you do this to, and this is the self-honesty, the U-turn to really feel inside you, what is the vulnerability, what are the feelings that may be difficult to name out loud that are there that have been as yet not so not so, well expressed. Is it a feeling of your own self-aversion, feeling of insecurity, is it some anger and judgment that you've been carrying? Underneath that, a sense of hurt? What's there?

Is there an unmet need for more loving, for feeling respect, seeping seen? Whatever you're noticing, first bring compassion. and tenderness to it. Making the U-turn means contacting what's inside us with a real full and gentle kindness. You might sense that your own high self or your future self, the most awake part of your heart, really holding that vulnerability with tenderness that will help make it safer to then share it. Sometimes it's taking the moment to put your hand on your heart and feel like you're directly offering kindness to that vulnerable place, can really bring that relationship with your own inner life alive.

It helps you stand behind yourself then when you share with others. You're with yourself. And as you then sense being with the other person, sense your deepest intention in sharing this truth. What's your intention? And you might sense the... the situation, the setting where you'll have the best potential outcome. Imagine that you can bring yourself to that setting and still with that self-compassion,

holding your own being with kindness. And imagine sharing from that place of being aligned in integrity with yourself, from that deep intention towards understanding, connection, sharing your truth. These are the words of poet Mark Nipo. He says, we waste so much energy trying to cover up who we are when beneath every attitude is the want to be loved and beneath every anger is a wound to be healed and beneath every sadness is the fear that there will not be enough time.

When we hesitate in being direct, we unknowingly slip on something, some added layer of protection that keeps us from, feeling the world and often that thin covering is the beginning of a loneliness which if not put down diminishes our chances for joy. It's like wearing gloves every time we touch something and then forgetting we chose to put them on. We complained that nothing feels quite real. In this way our challenge each day is not to get dressed to face the world but to unglove

ourselves so that the doorknob feels cold and the car handle feels wet and the kiss goodbye feels like the lips of another being soft and unrepeatable. Opening the heart to the light of truth is to feel in your heart your own intention towards living from the most true and awake place in your being, imagining and sensing how you can deepen truths with those around you and sensing our shared prayer, those that are gathered here now, those that are in the field and the cyber field are our shared prayer that all beings will unfold, awaken, evolve, to touch the truth that's within them, to express that truth,

to receive each other's truths, and to find that place, that heart space of shared belonging that's our birthright and our freedom. Namaste and thank you.