Meditation: Pandemic Times: “Calling On Your Awakened Heart”

In the midst of difficulty, we need access to our deepest wisdom and love. This guided meditation calls forth this loving presence by opening to the heart and spirit of whatever being in our life we most experience as calm, wise and compassionate.

Transcript

The following meditation is led by Tara Brach,

Meditation teacher,

Psychologist and author.

Welcome my friends and Namaste.

And I am really glad for us to be together and we are going to start right in this evening with a guided meditation.

And the title of this guided meditation is Calling on Your Awakened Heart.

So you might keep that in mind as we begin together.

I'd like to invite you to close your eyes and settle in.

Take some moments to make yourself comfortable wherever you are.

Find the sitting posture that most supports you so you are sitting upright,

You can be alert,

But also at ease,

Relaxed.

Invite yourself to be right here.

Sense this whole meditation as a sacred pause,

An opportunity to come home to yourself.

In that spirit you might take a few full breaths gathering and collecting the attention,

Inhaling deeply,

Filling the lungs,

And exhale.

Let the out-breath be slow,

Releasing,

Letting go.

And again nice deep full in-breath.

And a slow out-breath,

Letting go,

Letting go.

And again filling the chest and the lungs,

Breathing in.

And with the out-breath sense a relaxing outward or releasing,

A letting go.

And then as you allow your breath to resume in its natural rhythm just notice the quality of presence that's here.

Let your senses be awake.

So there is listening to the sounds around you,

Listening to the quietness,

The spaces here.

And an inward listening so that you begin to listen to and feel into the state of your heart right now.

Notice how you are.

You might sense these last days or weeks and all that might be contributing to just this moment the way your heart and your body and your mind are being experienced.

So what is the state of your heart right now?

Perhaps there is a numbness,

Perhaps there is an agitation,

Contraction.

Let whatever you feel be here.

For some there may be grief,

Vulnerability,

There may be other emotions,

Sense of sadness,

Anxiety,

Maybe there is excitement,

Maybe there is hopefulness,

Maybe there is anger,

Listening and feeling the state of your heart.

And sense as you do that you can hold and touch all that's present.

In this presence inviting forward whatever deeper levels of vulnerability or fear might want to be felt or known.

A very receptive listening presence.

As you open to what's here and as you sense our world right now and all that we are living through let yourself remember,

Let yourself picture a being who is the calmest,

Wisest,

Most compassionate being you can possibly imagine or that you have ever met.

It might be someone you know,

Perhaps a teacher,

Healer,

Might be someone you have never met but admire like the Dalai Lama,

Perhaps a spiritual figure,

The Bodhisattva of compassion,

The divine mother,

Kuan Yin,

Might be an indigenous healer or perhaps you might choose to call on directly,

Bring to mind your future self or what you might call your high self,

Your own awakened heart in its full manifestation and flowering.

Sense who comes forward,

Who you naturally call on.

As you envision this being of wisdom,

Of great heart,

Feel that you are in their presence,

That you with all the state of your heart just as it is now in these times you are in this being's presence.

And notice what their presence is like,

Their vast understanding,

Their wisdom of how this world is an ever-changing flow of seasons,

Of joys and sorrows,

Losses and how they have this steady wise heart in the midst.

Sense that this being of wisdom,

Of love,

Is gazing at you right now with the profound tenderness.

Just imagine those eyes and sense the tenderness,

The care coming through them to you.

And sense that through their gaze and caring heart that their spirit,

Their courage and love can bathe you,

Actually can fill you and allow yourself to let in fully that loving presence.

Notice what it feels like to experience this spirit,

This energy in a cellular way.

Letting that wisdom and love and energy pour into you and sensing the effect on your body.

How does your body feel?

What's the effect on your heart,

Your mind,

Your spirit?

Sensing the love and presence of this being filling you fully.

You're looking through the eyes of wisdom and feeling the world with the heart of compassion.

Now sense the kind of dissolving.

So you are not other than this beingness.

You are one with this luminous,

Empty,

Beautiful awareness.

And sense how you can allow this stream of natural emotions,

The tears and fears and sorrows of our times,

To move through a vast heart-space.

And sense who you are in the midst of all this.

Now become aware of the movement of your breath.

And sense the particulars of your body sitting here breathing.

Become aware of the space you're in.

And with a kind of openness and receptivity,

Open to receive,

Sense that this wise being that you've embodied,

That you've felt so intimately,

Is now going to offer you a message that can in some way help guide you in the days to come.

So in this quiet,

In this openness,

Listen and receive.

It may be words,

It may be an image,

It may be a felt sense.

Take some moments to receive the message.

And let it into your body,

Your heart,

Your spirit.

Now for these next few minutes we'll be resting,

Resting and feeling the heart-space that's present right here.

Make yourself at home in the changing flow of sensations,

Sounds,

The movement of the breath.

And sensing an open awareness,

A tender awareness,

So that whatever arises can be met with compassion.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Noticing where your attention is.

And if the mind has drifted,

Let this be an opportunity to gently relax open,

To listen again to the sounds that are right here,

To listen to and feel the state of your heart,

To sense the possibility of relaxing what's here with a wakeful and kind presence.

Thank you.

Thank you.

In these final moments I invite you to reflect again,

To again bring to mind the image,

The being that you considered just recently,

The being of wisdom and compassion.

And then consider that you can only imagine a being of loving presence because this is the nature of who you already are and that this entire path is coming to realize and trust that,

That the wisdom and compassion is already here and our path is just to wake up to its presence.

So as you feel right now that presence,

The aliveness in the body,

The tenderness of the heart,

As you sense a quietness in the mind and a listening,

You might take in these words from the poet Lin Unger,

When your body has become still,

Reach out with your heart.

Know that we are connected in ways that are terrifying and beautiful.

You could hardly deny it now.

Know that our lives are in one another's hands.

Surely that has become clear.

Do not reach out your hands,

Reach out your heart,

Reach out your words,

Reach out all the tendrils of compassion that move invisibly where we cannot touch.

Promise this world your love for better or for worse in sickness and in health so long as we all shall live.

Promise this world your love for better or for worse in sickness and in health so long as we all shall live.

Blessings and thank you for your presence.

Reviews

Soo good and nurturing. Thank you.

🙏💛

powerful connection with love

It was a very soothing meditation that fed my soul.

Very good meditation but actually only 25 minutes long with 35 minutes of silence at the end.

Great guidance and appreciated the long period of silence. Thank you!

Such loving awareness present. Thank you. 🙏❤️

Thank you for your loving kindness and helping us remember our way home

Thank you Tara. Very helpful. There was some sort of technical issue. I had to scroll all the way to the end in order to post a review. The actual meditation was about 35 minutes. The length of the post just short of an hour.

Calming and effective - Namaste