The following meditation is led by Tara Brach,
Meditation teacher,
Psychologist and author.
Sitting in a way that allows you to be tall so there is a quality of alertness that your posture encourages and also relaxed so you sense that kind of inner ease,
Feeling balanced,
Comfortable.
We'll begin in the simplicity of breathing together.
You might take a full,
Very conscious and deep in-breath.
So breathing in and fill your chest,
Fill your lungs.
And then a slow out-breath.
Slow enough so you can feel the sensations of the breath as it leaves the nostrils.
Slow out-breath.
And then again inhaling a nice,
Deep,
Full in-breath.
And a slow out-breath,
Releasing consciously and with the releasing,
Sense of letting go,
Letting go,
Letting go.
And again inhaling deeply.
And that slow out-breath,
Relaxing outward,
Releasing,
Letting go.
Allowing the breath now to resume in its natural rhythm and just feel a sense of relaxing with the inflow,
Relaxing with the outflow.
Noticing the quality of presence,
Perhaps the difference in presence from when you first started and just this moment.
Sense is awake.
And as you rest in presence,
Take some moments to reflect and sense what your deepest intention is for being here tonight.
Your deepest intention for this meditation.
What does your heart wish for?
Let yourself connect with that quality of sincerity,
Realizing what really matters to you.
It's from that sense of open-heartedness,
Of caring about life,
About presence,
That we chant together in a simple way to open as sangha,
As community.
We'll chant the mantra om and we'll chant it three times.
If you'd like to bring the palms together,
Gently touching,
Centering at the heart and letting the sound current come from the heart,
We begin by inhaling nicely and deeply,
Nice strong in-breath.
Taking some moments now to gently scan through the body with awareness,
Relaxing and waking up from the inside out.
You might begin by softening the eyes,
Letting the brow be smooth.
The eyes are receptive,
Like orbs floating in a pool of water.
You can sometimes sense smiling into the eyes,
Let the corners of the eyes be,
Outside corners be lifted up a bit.
Very relaxed.
You might sense a slight smile at the mouth,
The inside of the mouth smiling.
Relax right down to the root of the tongue.
Just feel the sensations in the inside of the mouth,
Tongue,
Gums,
Teeth,
Lips.
Letting the throat fill the whole neck area.
Just feel the neck from the inside out.
Allow the shoulders to fall away from the neck,
Relaxing back and down.
See if you can place the awareness inside your shoulders.
Very receptive.
Just feel the life inside the shoulders.
Perhaps you can imagine a melting sensation from ice to water,
A kind of dissolving.
And then water to gas.
Let the hands rest in a very easy and effortless way.
Softening the hands,
Feeling the hands from the inside out.
Can you notice the tingling that's there?
The vibrating.
You might try softening the hands a little bit more.
Feeling from the inside out.
Noticing that the more you relax,
The more aliveness you can perceive.
Let the chest be open.
Let the awareness fill the heart area,
The chest.
Just feel again from the inside out the play of aliveness.
Continuing to scan down the body,
Bringing the awareness inside the belly.
You might let this next breath be received in a softening belly.
This breath.
And now this one.
And again.
Relax,
Soft belly.
Filled with awareness.
See if you can feel from the inside out the play of sensations and energy.
Extending down to the whole pelvic area.
Just letting that region be filled with awareness.
Relaxing.
Opening to the play of sensation of energy.
And gently reconnecting with the area of the eyes,
Softening the eyes,
Smiling into the eyes.
Slight smile at the mouth.
Hands soft,
Belly soft.
Just feeling and scanning down through the legs.
Feeling the feet.
Feeling the feet from the inside out.
So you're aware of the sensations,
The movement of energy in the feet.
And then opening the attention so that you can feel your whole body now as a field of sensation.
Feeling everything simultaneously.
This whole dance of energy.
Not stopping anything or opposing anything.
Letting this whole life live through you.
Noticing the play of heat or cool.
Pulsing,
Vibrating.
Perhaps tightness,
Flow.
Maybe pleasantness or unpleasantness.
Letting this life live through you.
Widening to include the play of sound.
The close in sounds in the room.
And the more distant sounds.
Listening not just with your ears but your whole awareness.
So that you're listening to and feeling the whole moment.
Sensing in the foreground the changing play of sound,
Sensation.
And sensing in the background that alert inner stillness.
The awakeness,
Space of awakeness that's your deepest nature.
Just being that presence.
Awake,
Open,
At ease.
Letting this life live through you.
Letting this life live through you.
Letting this life live through you.
Letting this life live through you.
Letting this life live through you.
Letting this life live through you.
Letting this life live through you.
It's really natural that the attention gets distracted.
When you notice that,
It's an opportunity to practice this pathway of coming back.
Just invite your attention to reopen to sense the sounds around you,
The actual sounds right in the moment.
To reopen in the body and relax areas that might have tightened.
Maybe soften the shoulders a little.
Soften the hands again,
The belly.
Know that you're here,
Right here.
You might let the breath be a kind of anchor or home base if that's helpful.
Just feeling the inflow and the outflow.
Start resting with the changing phenomena,
Sounds and sensations.
Just know that you're here,
Right here.
Letting this life live through you.
Letting this life live through you.
Letting this life live through you.
Letting this life live through you.
Letting this life live through you.
Letting this life live through you.
Letting this life live through you.
Letting this life live through you.
Letting this life live through you.
Letting this life live through you.
Letting this life live through you.
Letting this life live through you.
Letting this life live through you.
You might ask yourself if you can let go or relax just a little bit more right now.
Rest and awake.
Just noticing the moment-to-moment flow of experience.
Just noticing the moment-to-moment flow of experience.
Just noticing the moment-to-moment flow of experience.
Just noticing the moment-to-moment flow of experience.
Just noticing the moment-to-moment flow of experience.
