Tara Brach - Reflection: The Power of Inquiry - Untangling Emotional Tangles (2016-02-10)

Episode Date: February 13, 2016

Reflection: The Power of Inquiry - Untangling Emotional Tangles (2016-02-10) - This short meditation helps us get unstuck from emotional difficulty with the practice of Inquiry. We use the acronym RAIN as a guide, starting with Recognizing and Allowing what is arising, and then systematically Investigating (through inquiry) the limiting beliefs and reactive feelings that are challenging.  The meditation ends by offering Nourishment to our vulnerability with kindness, and discovering the shift in our own being…in our identity…that expresses increased freedom. (From the end of Part 1: The Power of Inquiry in Spiritual Awakening)

The following meditation is led by Tara Brock. To access more of my meditations or join my email list, please visit tarabrock.com. So this class really we've been exploring, how do we wake up from the interpretive world? Ask the questions that can get us into our body, into our senses, challenge and destabilize the old beliefs, begin to sense what's really going on inside us.

That phrase, Ahi Posico, it's the only way through this kind of come and find out for yourself that we can start to trust the awareness and the love and the goodness of our being. It has to be through our own inquiry, our own attention inside. So I'd like to close with a final practice where you'll have a chance to kind of work with a stuck place and just try out some of these questions and see how it goes for you. knowing that when you have more time and you're on your own, this can be something that's really juicy for you. Okay, so again, closing your eyes,

sitting in a way that allows you to feel awake and relaxed, and scanning through your life right now, and noticing if there's a situation, a place in your life where you're feeling, stuck where you keep kind of reacting in the same way. I encourage you not to pick something that you feel is laced with trauma because it won't serve you as a way of exploring for this time. But someplace where you feel stuck and you keep reacting with feelings of hurt or irritation, anxiety, embarrassment. And as you bring a situation to mind, you know, you know,

You might sense what your most obvious reaction is that you feel isn't so healthy or you wish you could in some way heal or wake up from, whether it's the anger or the fear or whatever it is. Because we begin, we'll use the acronym Raine as a way to explore this just to recognize what's happening. Recognize, okay, this is anger, judgment, blame. whatever it is, and allow it. Allowing it means you're just letting it be there.

You're not trying to fix it or change it right now, giving it some space. And sensing your sincerity as we begin to investigate a little what's happening inside you. And you might notice if there's, when this is going on, if you're living with some belief, and this is the part where we're shining a light of awareness on the mind, we're looking and saying, oh, is there some belief going? on like, oh, you'll never be good enough or you're unlovable or too selfish or some way failing. Is there some belief that you can shine the light of awareness on right now?

There might be, there might not be, but just see. That's the first question. What am I believing? Because when we're suffering, generally we're believing something that's not true and that's limiting. It might be a belief about how another person is experiencing us. that person doesn't respect me, that person doesn't love me. And then when you're believing and experiencing this,

what are you feeling in your body? So just let whatever beliefs there, maybe being unlovable or whatever it is, and what's it like when you're believing that in your body? So inquire into your body, feel your throat, your chest, your belly. What's it like when you're stuck? If you could feel right into where you feel most vulnerable or stuck, most reactive, and sense, well, what is this part of me most need? How does this part want me to be with it?

Stay in your body and just sense, what is this part most need? Does it need for that man, does it need just to accept that it's here? Does it need you to offer more understanding, see what's going on? Does it need love or compassion or forgiveness? What does it need? Just sensing the possibility of your wisest, kindest self, offering what's needed. Sometimes I like to put my hand in my heart and just sense that that which is most awake in me, my awake heart, my awake mind is offering, you know, whatever I've discovered

through inquiry, offering the kindness or the forgiveness or the understanding that's needed. So if you'd like to, you can put your hand on your heart and just offer what's needed. You might sense the presence that's here, the quality of heart and awareness when you're offering care. And just ask yourself, is that stuck self, that self I was reflecting on, is that really the truth of who I am? You might sense, well, who am I if I'm not believing anything's wrong with me? knowing that true inquiry doesn't land on an answer. It opens to a mystery that's meant to be lived.

True inquiry doesn't land on an answer. It opens us to a mystery that's meant to be lived. We'll close with the words of Mary Oliver. Still, what I want in my life is to be willing to be dazzled, to cast aside the weight of facts, and maybe even to float a little above this difficult world, I want to believe I am looking into the white fire of a great mystery. I want to believe that the imperfections are nothing, that the light is everything, that it is more than the sum of each flawed blossom and fading, and I do.

I want to believe I'm looking into the white fire of a great mystery. I want to believe that the imperfections are nothing, that the light is everything, that it is more than the sum of each flawed blossom and fading. And I do. Namaste and thank you. For more talks and meditations, and to learn about my schedule or join my email list,

please visit tarabrock.com.