Homecoming To Wakeful Presence

This meditation begins with mindful movement in standing posture, guiding us in awakening awareness in the body. Then in sitting practice, we open all our senses, resting in the wakeful presence that can include the changing waves of our life. Flute intro by Jonathan Foust.

Transcript

Little drop Many people have been asking me over these last days that have been so painful just for simple direct ways to kind of wake up out of the reactive trance and come home into our bodies and our hearts and our intuition and our wisdom.

And so today we'll start in with our meditation,

A homecoming to wakeful presence.

And we'll start off by standing up.

So wherever you are,

If you will,

Please come to your feet and just find some space where you can stand and you can move your body around a little bit.

And I invite you to stand in a way where your feet are shoulder-width apart.

And then close your eyes.

Take a few full breaths.

Feeling yourself standing here breathing.

And then bring your attention to your feet.

See if you can relax your feet and let them widen so you can feel and imagine and sense your connection to the earth beneath you.

Just become rooted a bit.

And as you do,

Feel up into the knees and soften the backs of your knees.

Now placing one hand on your lower belly and the other on your sacrum,

See if you can soften your belly.

Just like a two-year-old might with an undefended belly,

You know,

We regularly contract.

So it helps us to soften over and over again the bellies where we digest life experience.

So especially when there is a lot of life experience racing through us to soften,

To open.

And keeping your palms there you might invite the tailbone to relax toward the ground.

You may feel only a small movement.

That's fine.

Still breathing deeply into the belly,

Softening.

And now allow your palms to float in space back to the sides.

Allow your shoulders to fall away from the neck.

And then relax the back of your neck and the occipital ridge at the base of the skull.

There might be just a mental suggestion of lengthening.

And you may notice the chin goes parallel to the floor.

The palms are floating in space,

Opening to all your senses,

Aware of the space around you and the sounds.

Again this body standing here breathing.

Now rotating the palms so they are facing out.

And as you breathe in,

Inhale and raise the arms up,

Raise them up so they all the way stretch out above the head,

Rotate the palms out and then exhale down,

Exhale down,

Moving slowly.

And again inhale,

Sweep up.

And exhale,

Sweep down.

Continuing at your own pace matching the in-breath with the sweeping up,

The out-breath with the sweeping down.

And see if you can move slowly enough so you can feel as if you were moving through water,

Feel the sensations of moving through the air.

And now with this last in-breath sweeping up,

Keeping the arms up,

Exhale,

Continue to breathe naturally now stretching up.

And then very,

Very slowly in micro-movements begin to allow the arms to lower,

Let them float slowly down as if someone was watching you right now,

They could barely perceive the motion.

And you with your eyes closed feeling the hands from the inside out floating through space,

Vibration,

Sensation.

And when you have completed and the arms are down again in the stillness feeling aliveness,

Feeling your body as a field of sensation,

Tingling,

Vibrating.

And with mindfulness moving slowly but opening your eyes because you probably need to see as you move,

Please come sitting down for the remainder of our meditation.

And the seated posture sitting alert,

Upright.

Scan gently through your body and notice if there is anything that wants to let go a little more right now.

Pay particular attention to the shoulders,

Perhaps sensing the possibility of relaxing back and down a bit more,

Feeling the shoulders from the inside out,

Letting there be some dissolving or melting there,

Feeling the aliveness in the shoulders,

Allowing the hands to rest in a very easy and effortless way and noticing if you soften the hands and then soften again how much aliveness you can feel,

Sensing that throughout our body the more we relax we are actually relaxing our resistance to feeling the life that's here,

We are opening to the flow of life,

Letting the chest be open and sensing that we can relax the heart,

Feel the aliveness,

The sensation,

The emotion,

The life in the region of the heart.

Again softening the belly,

That undefended belly,

And sense from the inside out the life that's there.

Relaxing through the pelvic region,

Down through the legs,

Again the feet soft,

Awake,

Feeling the sensations and aliveness there.

And again widening to feel this whole body simultaneously,

This whole dance of sensation.

And widening some more,

Listening to the sounds that are here,

Listening to the space that you are in,

And letting the senses be wide open,

Listening to and feeling the whole moment.

And you might be aware of changing sounds,

The sensations in the body,

Perhaps emotions or moods in the heart,

And also aware in the background of that alert inner stillness,

That wakeful presence that's a source of your being,

The source of intuition,

Wisdom and love.

And the quietness now resting in that presence,

Sensing the possibility with whatever waves arise of saying yes,

Of allowing them to be,

The kindness with clarity.

And it's natural that the attention will drift.

And when you notice that,

Choosing presence and gently shepherding the attention back to the life of the moment,

And listening to the sounds that are here,

Perhaps relaxing in the body where there's been tightening the shoulders,

Perhaps the hands,

The belly,

Feeling the life of the body,

Relaxing your heart,

Including whatever tenderness,

Motion,

Mood is here,

Yes,

To the waves of life,

Be the ocean that includes the waves,

Home in this awake presence that's your deepest nature.

As a way of closing you might bring your presence to the area of the heart,

Listening inward with your intuition,

With kindness,

Sense anything within you that might need care,

That might need attention.

And then take some moments to offer some gesture of kindness,

Some message,

Some prayer,

Some wish for your own well-being,

Whatever most resonates in this moment.

And then sensing that caring heart-space as without boundary,

As including our whole world,

As including our hurting and suffering world,

And sense spontaneously whatever prayer,

Whatever wish most resonates for our world right now.

And closing,

Please feel your heart and heart-space joined and belonging to a collective heart-space that wishes our world healing,

Peace,

Justice and freedom.

Namaste.

Reviews

Tara Brach.
Perhaps the most accurate teacher on this app.
I am grateful

That was beautiful. I loved starting with standing and some movement. This was exactly what I needed in my life lately. Thank you.

Thank you for the reminder to move energy through the body.

Beautiful and soothing; for me for the world for the universe. 🙏

Nice, love the combo of standing and sitting practice.

Nice to have some moments of silence mixed in with the guidance.

Love all your meditations, but really loved the beginning with standing 🙏🦋

The opening minutes of standing and movement are very helpful for settling into the session. The guidance brings peace to the sad and frightened parts of me. Thanks so much.

Loved the interplay of standing and sitting meditation; feeling presence and awareness in the body in various ways. Thank you.

I am an embodied presence! Connecting with all other heart spaces in the world made me feel very much “at home.” Thank you, Tara!

Great meditation to get centered and feel reconnected. Wonderful! Tara is my favorite. I keep trying other teachers and many are wonderful but Tara brings something extra to each practice that goes deep.

I love your guidance and choice of words. So easy to feel the flow of energy and relax into it. Thank you.

Sehr erbauend!! Fand ich sehr toll. Thanks, Tara Brach!
Heide-Marie

Amazing loved that it had a movement part to start.

This was absolutely outstanding! If I could give it more stars, I would! The combination of flow from physical movements to quiet, peaceful sitting is a very effective concept for relaxation. I could feel the tightness in my shoulders release in stages as the tension they were holding for days softened. Then closing with a heart centered prayer for me and for all ended it beautifully; allowing it to permeate my day ahead. Thank You so very much 🙏.

I am part of a sangha that meets this evening. We will definitely practice this. It was a very useful way to start the day; I look forward to ending it with this beautiful practice. Namaste

Beautiful and transformative! Thank you as always, Tara. 🙏🏽

Thank you for a beautiful morning practise. Namaste 🙏

Absolutely beautiful gentle movement practice and meditation, bringing me into my body and a sense of true wakeful presence. A lovely way to start the day, thank you. Namaste 🙏🏼🌸

So great for starting the day, but also any other time. I found it moving at the beginning, and touching at the end. Both quite literally.