Meditation: Letting Life Live Through You

We begin with a body scan, open to sounds, and then to listening to and feeling the moment. From spacious awareness the practice is simply to recognize and allow the changing flow of life. The meditation ends with the poem, “Hokusai Says” by Roger Keyes.

Transcript

The following meditation is led by Tara Brach,

Meditation teacher,

Psychologist and author.

Feeling your body breathing and sensing the breath in particular in the area of the heart,

The kind of inner listening,

Just sensing the state of your heart right now,

And deepening that listening to sense what is your intention for meditation right now,

What's your deepest intention for practice.

This is the inquiry of what really matters to your heart.

Just to feel your own sincerity,

Your longing for presence,

Longing to be open-hearted,

Deep realization,

Waking up,

And to feel our collective intention that these trainings of heart and mind bring a healing that can ripple out to be of benefit to our world.

One of the most direct portals to presence is waking up awareness of the life of the body.

You might begin in a simple way by softening the eyes as if you're smiling into the eyes.

Let the eyes be soft,

Let the brow be smooth,

Just feel the perhaps the fluttering of your lids,

Brightness or darkness,

The sensation of tingling or vibrating,

Let it spread through the face,

You might have a slight smile at the mouth,

Let the inside of the mouth be smiling,

Let the tongue fill the lower palate,

Relaxing if you can down to the root of the tongue,

Feeling the aliveness and vibration through the mouth,

The gums,

The teeth,

The tongue,

The lips,

Radiating out to the cheeks,

Becoming aware of the scalp and skull.

You might feel the area of the throat,

Imagine the throat filling the whole neck so you can feel from the inside out the volume and the space and the aliveness in the neck,

Allowing the shoulders to fall away from the neck,

And sense the awareness that fills the shoulders,

The awareness of aliveness,

So you can feel the shoulders from the inside out,

You might imagine a dissolving of ice to water,

Ice to water,

Kind of melting,

And then water to gas,

Letting whatever tightness or tangles remain float in awareness.

Let the hands rest in an easy and effortless way,

Then explore softening the hands,

Softening again,

And feeling the hands from the inside out.

Can you notice the tingling,

The vibrating,

Perhaps places of warmth,

Coolness,

Pressure?

Just as a cup is filled with water,

This whole body can be filled with awareness,

Letting there be an openness to the chest.

And you might smile into the heart area,

Visualizing and sensing the curve of a smile spread through the heart.

And this isn't to cover over but rather to help open space for whatever is here.

The eyes are smiling,

Soft,

The mouth smiling into the heart,

Feeling from the inside out the movements of energy,

Sensation,

Feelings that fill the heart and the chest cavity,

Letting them be as full as they are,

Loosening and relaxing down the torso,

Letting this next breath be received in a softening belly.

This breath.

And now this one.

And again.

Sensing the aliveness,

Sensing the awakeness of awareness that fills the belly,

Soft and open,

Breath after breath.

And continuing to scan,

Sensing the pelvic region filled with aliveness and energy,

Feeling from the inside out the life that's right here,

Aware of the legs,

The length,

The weight,

The volume,

Feeling right into the feet.

So you can feel from the inside out the feet tingling,

Vibrating.

So that if you widen the lens you can feel this whole body simultaneously as a field of sensation,

Not stopping anything,

Not controlling anything.

Letting this life live through you.

And widening the lens to include sounds.

The soft,

Close-in sounds in the space around you.

The appearing,

Disappearing of these words.

The more distant sounds.

Listening not just with your ears but your whole awareness.

Sensing that boundless listening presence that includes even the most distant sounds.

Just merging and opening into that presence that's listening to and feeling the moment.

The nature of awareness is wakefulness,

Open wakefulness,

Awareness that knows and allows the changing weather,

Emotions,

Thoughts,

Feelings.

At some point you'll notice instead of resting in awareness the mind is contracted and is time traveling perhaps in that virtual reality of thinking,

Remembering,

Planning,

Commentary.

Not a problem.

When there's a noticing of that you can choose to relax open again,

Shifting from the thoughts in the mind to the actual sounds that are here.

Listening.

Re-relaxing the habitual contractions in the body.

Perhaps relaxing the shoulders and softening the hands.

Loosening and softening the belly.

And again listening to and feeling the whole moment.

Noticing where the attention is and if it's been distracted,

Relaxing back into presence,

Relaxing open the attention to listen,

Seeing what wants to let go in the body perhaps a little bit more.

Listening to and feeling the moment.

Letting this life live through you.

We close our meditation with a poem by the poet Roger Keyes called Hokusai Says.

Hokusai says,

Look carefully.

He says,

Pay attention.

Notice.

He says,

Keep looking.

Stay curious.

There's no end to seeing.

He says,

Look forward to getting old.

He says,

Keep changing.

You just get more who you really are.

He says,

Get stuck.

Accept it.

Repeat yourself for as long as it's interesting.

He says,

Keep doing what you love.

He says,

Keep praying.

He says,

Every one of us is a child.

Every one of us is ancient.

Every one of us has a body.

He says,

Every one of us is frightened.

He says,

Every one of us has to find a way to live with fear.

He says,

Everything is alive – shells,

Buildings,

People,

Fish,

Mountains,

Trees,

Wood is alive,

Water is alive.

Everything has its own life.

Everything lives inside us.

He says,

Live with the world inside you.

He says,

It matters that you feel.

It matters that you notice.

It matters that life lives through you.

Contentment is life living through you.

Joy is life living through you.

Satisfaction and strength are life living through you.

Peace is life living through you.

He says,

Don't be afraid.

Don't be afraid.

Look,

Feel,

Let life take you by the hand.

Let life live through you.

Feeling again the presence that's right here.

And as you open your eyes,

Look around and begin to move around a bit.

Sense the possibility of continuing in this presence.

Namaste and thank you.

Reviews

Another great reset for Tara for day to help bring attention back into our bodies.

Even for Tara Brach that was just sublime. Thank you.

Your talks and meditations are so valuable to me. You support me in finding my way home - again and again 🙏

I am in gratitude for life living through me and curious as to what today might bring,

Gentle and sweet-the poem at the end felt meaningful and helpful. Thank you 🙏 🪺🪸🌹🪻🌺🌻

Purpose of this meditation was to be in the moment & it did that👏
Excellent

Excellent powerful meditation. Life affirming. 🙏

Beautiful meditation and the words at the end absolute perfect for me today thankyou

Wondeerfuleven though my hand holding the phone got tired. Thank you .

What a lovely concept! Life living through us. Thanks, Tara, your meditations have improved my life and the lives of those I serve. I appreciate you very much!

How wonderfull 🙏🏼Thank you so much ,Tara B. for guiding . It heals and fullfills me for gracefull moments .☺️
Also the poem is such a beautifull present . Thank you 🙏🏼

A beautiful centring meditation - thank you 🙏🏾

Amazing! Tara’s guidance is beautifully given to create a deep sense of wellbeing and joy. Thank you 🙏❤️

Another wonderful meditation experience. Thank you!

I always love Taras sessions they r so calming and nuturing.❤

I keep finding the meditation so nurturing.. because her gentle approach makes me able to meditate without judgment and opinion.. just coming back with gentle love to what is presence now. Thank you so much Tara 💫sending love to all

Thank you for yet another beautiful meditation. 🙏🏽

Thank you, the Hokusai poem by Roger Keyes is beautiful

What a beautiful message. I will let life live through me today. Thank you Tara 💚

Neither too much, nor too little. Perfectly paced and pitched.