The following meditation is led by Tara Brach.
You might let the attention come to the natural movement of breath in your body.
And sense that you can feel the breath coming in and out of the heart.
You're bringing your attention to the domain of the heart.
And with an inner listening,
If you could listen to your heart,
Just pose the question what really brings me right now to meditation practice?
What's my deepest intention?
Listen and sense what matters to you.
Listen for what feels most sincere in you.
We begin our practice with a simple chant of the mantra om.
It's a mantra of connectedness.
It's a way that kind of goes past all our thinking and allows our heart to feel awake,
Full.
You might bring the palms together gently in front of the heart so you're bringing your energy there with your attention and with the chanting.
And we'll chant it three times.
Let's begin by taking a nice full in-breath.
Om.
Om.
In this stillness you might scan through your body and sense whatever wants to let go in these moments.
Noticing where there may be some habitual tightening,
Holding.
You might sense a tension in the area of the shoulders and sense if it's possible to just soften a little.
Let whatever is tight float a bit in awareness.
You might sense it's possible to soften the hands a little,
To let them rest in a really easy and effortless way.
Perhaps to loosen the belly,
Soften in the belly.
You might find if you feel the face let it be expressionless and then bring a slight smile to the mouth.
Perhaps smiling into the eyes a little.
And you can begin to sense the flesh around the eyes softening,
The brow smooth.
And then to explore a listening attention,
Opening the awareness to sound.
Sense that you can listen in a global way,
Taking everything in,
Letting sounds wash through you.
You might be aware of the close-in sounds,
Sounds in the room.
You might be aware of the space between sounds,
Listening to the arising and the disappearing of sound.
The sound of these words,
The space between sounds,
Listening to the space in the room.
Listening to the furthest sounds you can hear.
The most distant sounds.
And sensing the spaciousness,
The listening,
Spacious awareness that includes all sound.
So you are listening not just with your ears but your whole awareness.
Realizing that with listening there is nothing to do.
Sounds just arise and they are known spontaneously,
Effortlessly.
Feeling this open,
Receptive presence that moment to moment knows sound.
Sense how you can bring this same listening presence to perceiving sensations.
Aware of the sensations,
The tingling and vibrating in the face,
Receiving,
Listening to,
Feeling the sensations just as they are.
Listening to and feeling the sensations inside the throat,
Places of pressure or movement,
Flow.
Listening to and receiving sensations inside the shoulders.
Letting everything be just as it is,
Received in awareness,
Known by awareness.
Listening to and feeling the sensations inside the hands.
Nothing to do.
And bringing that listening and receptive presence to the area of the heart.
Feeling from the inside out,
Letting life be just as it is.
Feeling the sensations in the area of the belly in awareness,
Listening to and feeling the life that is there just as it is.
Listening to and feeling the sensations in the pelvic region.
And then the energy and aliveness in the legs,
The feet.
Attaining the lens so that you are listening to and feeling this whole dance of aliveness.
The whole body,
The energy body.
Not stopping anything,
Not controlling anything.
Feeling this whole life live through you,
Received in an open,
Awake awareness.
Just resting in that relaxed,
Wakeful openness that is listening to and feeling this changing life,
Moment to moment.
So when the body hums,
Uplifting your body.
And the mind drifts in thought.
And then there is awareness of that.
The practice is to simply relax back.
Again,
Listening to and feeling the changing flow of what is right here.
The movement of the breath,
Sounds,
Tingling,
Vibrating,
Pleasantness,
Unpleasantness.
Listening to and feeling the whole moment.
Theiki Then,
Empty words,
The mind contracts in thoughts,
Gets lost in thoughts,
The body tends to tighten in habitual ways too.
So when you realize there has been the drifting into thinking you can always re-scan the body and sense what might want to let go right now.
Softening the shoulders and the hands.
Slight smile at the mouth.
Relax your heart.
And listening to the sounds that are actually right here instead of the thoughts.
Letting them wash through you.
Listening to and feeling the changing flow.
Not controlling anything.
Enjoying this life in a relaxed,
Wakeful openness.
An euphoria that keeps you awake,
Releasing you from your heaven.
Rel evenly balanced.
The the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the relaxing back and being that awareness awareness awareness awareness awareness knowing that knowing that knowing that wakeful openness as your home home home home home home home home home home home
