Tara Brach - Retreat Meditation: Radiant Empty Heart (2015-10-15)

Episode Date: October 17, 2015

Retreat Meditation: Radiant Empty Heart (2015-10-15) - an open focus meditation given at the 2015 IMCW Fall 7-day Residential Retreat

Greetings. I'm Tara Brock, and I'd like to welcome you to these podcasts. While the talks and meditations are offered freely, we'd very much appreciate your support. To make a donation or learn more about my schedule, please visit tarabrock.com and our IMCW.org. Thank you. Today's guided practice will explore another pathway that really reveals that the the awakened heart. And the awakened heart is often characterized as both

being empty and radiant. And the quality of emptiness comes from that sense of true openness and the radiance from full aliveness. So

in this particular practice today, the pathways are both through the body, feeling the aliveness of the body, but also space, really discovering the spaciousness that's possible and feeling that in the heart. I'd like to invite you to begin by just checking your posture and making whatever subtle adjustments will help to serve you

and feeling awake and at ease. And as you come into stillness, briefly scanning through the body to let go of any obvious areas of tightness or tension, simply by bringing your awareness to those areas. And just like if you were clenching a fist, sense the possibility of unclenching, loosening, softening. The style of this particular practice, which is adapted from a meditation called open focus,

meditation uses inquiry, so I'll be asking a question and then pausing, and just an invitation to deepen your attention in that area. Can you imagine the space between your eyes, the receptive, open attention. Can you imagine the space between your eyes? Can you imagine the space that fills the nostrils? You imagine the space that fills the tongue, feeling the aliveness in the tongue, sensations in the space or volume of the tongue. You might imagine sensations as points of light in a night sky and sense the space around

them and the space that they're emerging from, the interior space. Can you imagine the space that fills the lips? Again, aware of sensation, space between. sensations, interior space. Can you imagine the space inside the scalp and the skull, the space that fills the brain, letting the throat fill the neck. Can you imagine the space that fills the neck,

feeling the sensations and letting them float, the space that sensations are floating in, space they arise out of and dissolve into, and feeling inside the shoulders, shoulders, can you imagine the aliveness that's there and the space it's floating in, the space sensations are floating in? Can you imagine the length and the volume of the arms? Can you imagine the space inside the thumbs, the aliveness of sensation, the space it floats in? Can you feel inside the four fingers and feel the aliveness there? And the space that

fills the forefingers. Can you imagine the space between the thumb and the forefinger, including those fingers, flesh and bone, filling inside the middle finger. Can you imagine, feel the aliveness there, and the space that sensations are floating in, the space that sensations appear out of and dissolve into? Can you imagine and feel the sensations inside the ring finger and the space that they're appearing and disappearing in? Feeling inside the pinkies, the little finger.

Can you imagine and feel the sensations there and the space that fills these fingers? Can you imagine and feel the space between the palms and the backs of the hands, the play of sensation and the space that it's floating in? and then feeling the whole hand, both hands simultaneously. Can you imagine and feel the space inside your hands, a weak space, letting the chest be open, feeling inside the region of the heart, feeling the sensations that are there,

the energies. Can you imagine and feel the space inside the heart, the space that sensations float in, the space that they arise and disappearing. You may keep in mind the image of atomic particles just appearing and disappearing in space, feeling the region of the belly, softening and imagining and feeling space inside the belly.

This correlates with the dantian or the chakra, naval chakra. They're feeling the aliveness there and imagining the space that fills the belly. Imagine the sensations they're floating in space, appearing, passing, disappearing in space, bringing the awareness to the pelvic region, the genitals. Can you imagine and feel the aliveness there and the space it's floating in?

Going down to the base of the spine, perineum, the root chakra, feeling the aliveness, sensation there. Can you imagine the space that those sensations float in? Right at the base of the spine. And the interior space, space out of which sensations arise and disappear. You may continue to feel that area and sense the earth energy pouring into you through it, still feeling the liveliness of sensation and the space that it's living in, appearing in, disappearing in. in. Can you imagine the length and the volume of the legs? And can you imagine the space inside

the feet, the aliveness there and the space that's floating in interior space that life arises and dissolves out of and into? Can you widen the attention and feel the aliveness that fills this whole body and the space that fills this body? a space that everything's floating in. Can you imagine the space that extends out in front of you farther than the most distant stars? Can you imagine the space that extends behind you farther than the most distant stars?

Can you imagine a space that extends to your left out endlessly past the most distant stars? And can you imagine the space that extends to your left the space that extends out endlessly to the right, beyond the most distant stars. Can you imagine the space it extends below you endlessly past the most distant stars? Can you imagine the space it extends above you past the most distant stars? Can you imagine that this boundless space around you is continuing? continuous with the space within you.

It's all continuous space, interior and external, continuous space. You imagine this entire universe of aliveness is floating in, appearing out of dissolving into continuous space. Can you imagine that this vast, continuous space is filled with the light of awareness. Can you imagine how the wisdom mind experiences continuous space filled with the light of awareness? And again, can you imagine how the wisdom mind experiences continuous space filled with the light of awareness? Can you imagine how this awakened heart experiences continuous space filled with the light of awareness.

Imagine that every human heart experiences continuous space filled with the light of awareness. This is the essence experience of every human heart. Imagine surrendering even more into that radiant, empty, tender space of awareness. And you imagine that this radiant, tender field of awareness is always here, allowing someone that's dear to you to arise in awareness and consciousness

and sense how they belong, just as waves belong in the ocean, belong in this radiant, open heart, allowing the particulars of their beings, to float in this radiant tenderness, and bringing to mind yet another person in your life, sensing them too, belonging to floating in this sacred and open heart, this heart space that's so inclusive, and continuing in the silence to bring to mind others in your life, each to be held, to float in, to be included in the empty, radiant heart, including your own

humanness in this open, tender heart space. Can you imagine how all of life, this entire creation, lives in and belongs to, floats in, this vast, tender heart space? Can you imagine that this empty radiant heart is the deepest truth of what you are, continuing into silence to explore what it means to relax back into and be that radiant heart space. That's your true home. In the Radiant Sutras, there is a place in the heart where everything meets. Go there if you want to find me.

Mind, senses, soul, eternity, all are there. Are you there? Enter the bowl of vastness that is the heart. Give yourself to it with total abandon. Quiet ecstasy is there and a steady regal sense of resting in a perfect spot. Once you know the way, the nature of attention will call you to return again. and again and be saturated with knowing I belong here I am at home here namaste