Tara Brach - Retreat Meditation: A Liberating Awareness - Embodying Full Presence (2016-12-30)

Episode Date: February 2, 2017

Retreat Meditation: A Liberating Awareness - Embodying Full Presence (2016-12-30) - This vipassana meditation establishes fertile grounds for presence by gladdening the mind, a mindful body scan, collecting the attention and including all that arises in a kind, clear presence.

The following meditation is led by Tara Brock. To access more of my meditations or join my email list, please visit tarabrock.com. It can be helpful as you're settling in to intentionally gladden the mind. And the Buddha gave a number of different pathways for this. One is to simply sense what you're grateful for, to let come to mind what you feel is a blessing or a gift in your life

and then to feel that in a very embodied way in your heart you can also reflect on what you love and in other pathways to bring to mind the heart and mind of an awakened being is to imagine that and sense that awakened heart mind is right here filling and suffusing your being. Sensing a pathway of gladdening the mind

that resonates for you and feeling your sincerity as you are entering this sitting for presence to awaken and open this heart and mind. And it's with that sincerity, that energy of caring that we begin to establish awakefulness in our senses. You might listen to the sounds around you and in the room and to bring that same receptive quality of attentiveness inside the body,

listening to and feeling the aliveness that's here. You might let your attention gently scan through the body, body, feeling the area of the brow, the eyes, and softening the eyes so there's a receptivity there. It's feeling the tingling and vibrating, the play of light, and a slight smile to the mouth, and feeling the inside of the mouth, the tongue, gums, teeth, and the lips, and sensing the space that fills the mouth and the aliveness that's there. You might feel the shoulders from the inside out.

You can imagine a melting or dissolving, ice to water and water to gas. See if you can sense the space and the aliveness inside the shoulders. Let the hands rest in a very easy and effortless way. Soffening the hands. Can you feel the space? space inside the hands and the aliveness inside the hands. Let the chest be open. See if you can feel inside the heart, the space and the aliveness there.

Can you sense the feelings and sensations in the region of the heart as if they're floating in awareness in space? And sense the space, the interior space they arise from, scanning down and letting this next breath be received in a softening belly. This breath and now this one and again. The attention abide in the area of the navel, sometimes described as the dantien. See if you can feel from the inside out the aliveness in space that's there.

Can you sense sensations floating in space, arising out of space in a similar way, sensing the region, the pelvic area, the sensations and aliveness there, unfolding, moving in space, and the interior space they arise from, within the length, the volume of the legs, and placing the awareness inside the feet, sensing the space, the vibration, the tingling, the feet, widening the lens.

Sensing simultaneously this whole energy body is a field of sensation. Sensing the space that everything's floating in and moving in. The interior space everything arises from. And sensing that is continuous space filled with awareness. Sounds appear and disappear. this open field of awareness, sensations, feelings, sensing in the foreground this changing flow of experience and in the background, this alert, awake space that everything's happening in, arises from, dissolves into, because it's so easy to leave presence, to leave this openness

and receptivity can be helpful to have a home base, your breath, the sound or sensation in the foreground, a place to attend to and come back to if nothing strong is calling the attention. So if your home base is the breath, to attend with a receptive presence, as if you are listening to and receiving, the inflow and the outflow, nothing to do or to control, this experiencing the life as it is moment to moment. The mind drifts and there's a noticing

to simply pause, very gently relax back, reawakening the senses, and come back to the breath, or if there's something strong calling the attention. to notice what's here with an honest and gentle attention. Just be with what's arising. When it's no longer calling your attention, again to rest with the breath or sound or sensations,

or if your mind is pretty quiet, just to rest in that wakefulness and openness that arises moment to moment. It's valuable to check and sense, am I dreaming right now? Often there's a veil of ideas and thoughts and commentaries. And sometimes when we check and sense our state of mind, state of heart, state of body, and we notice we've been in kind of a virtual realm, it's not so difficult to relax back.

Just come back and land again gently with the breath or sensations. Or back in that awareness, it simply notices what's happening moment to moment. But at other times you'll sense that the mind is really fixated in charge. There's an energy going on and you're thinking that so that even when you come back you pop right back into the thoughts. And that's a kind of a sign that there's some energy. energetic tangle, something going on inside that wants attention. So at those times it's helpful rather than coming back to the breath or an anchor with a

kind of interest and care to check in your body and sense energetically what's going on. It sense the throat, the chest, the belly. These are areas where there's generally more of an expression of our emotion and our feelings. and breathe with what you find, open to it intentionally with a gentleness. If there's a really strong tangle of, as we talked about last night, the bones are really tangled, you can use the acronym Raine as a very simple guide in untangling the bones. To recognize what's going on.

Oh, okay, there's some fears. or some anger to allow it to be there, not to try to make it go away. Allowing is really saying yes to the actuality of what's here, the eye to investigate, which is not mental, it's really a felt-sense investigation. What's it really feel like? What's it like inside? What's the most vulnerable, tender place in me feel like? And part of investigating since, perhaps what's needed, what kind of attention's most needed.

And the end is nurture to offer that, to offer the acceptance or kindness or forgiveness or simply the company, that kind of message of, I'm here, to the part of you that's tangled. And it's in that full and kind presence that tangles dissolve. that you can rediscover that quality of space and awakeness, it's really your home. So if there's a tangle you might explore rain and if you find there's nothing tangled and it's easy to relax back to the breath or simply to rest in that awakeness, then that's your pathway.