The following meditation is led by Tara Brach.
To access more of my meditations or join my email list please visit tarabrach.
Com.
It's just as important to open to the moments of goodness in your life as the moments of suffering.
Thich Nhat Hanh,
Many of you know,
A Vietnamese meditation master,
He said,
It's not enough to suffer,
You also have to touch peace and happiness and inner ease.
So that's all to say that we're going to be doing a short meditation that's really how to nourish happiness,
Nourish our hearts with RAIN.
Please find a comfortable position.
You may already be in it but do whatever adjustments allow you to feel perhaps that you're sitting in a way that's alert,
You're upright,
But there's also some ease,
You're comfortable.
You might let your attention go inward,
Take some moments to settle with the breath,
You might sense as the breath comes in that you're receiving this life-breath,
Opening to receive,
Just feel it enter your body,
Enter the cells,
Nourishing.
And then with the out-breath a sense of releasing,
Letting go of whatever is not needed.
It's kind of like a balloon opening to receive,
Expanding.
And then the deflating,
Releasing,
Letting go.
And notice that you can really relax with the breath.
It's a relaxing open and a relaxing as you release.
And you can continue with the breath but notice it's possible to soften the eyes,
Visualize and sense the curve of a smile spreading through your eyes.
Your eyes are smiling,
Softening the eyes,
Letting the brow be smooth.
And continuing to feel that relaxing breath and let there be a slight smile at the lips.
You might feel the inside of your mouth smiling.
And continue this breathing and feel that smile spread through the heart.
So you're visualizing the curve of a smile and actually smiling into your heart.
You might sense some more space in that heart region,
Kind of widening out,
Space for your shoulders to relax back and down.
Still feeling the relaxing breath and perhaps letting go of any tightness or tension that you feel in the shoulder area.
Letting go,
Letting go.
It's such a gift.
Still breathing,
Feeling the presence of the breath,
Softening the hands,
Feeling the movement of the breath,
Letting the chest be open and softening down through the belly,
Letting this next breath be received in a softening belly.
This breath.
Now this one.
And again.
You can visualize and sense the curve of a smile spreading through the belly.
And then through the pelvic region.
So you're relaxing deep in the torso.
Aware of the length,
The volume,
The weight of your legs.
Feeling the pressure,
Places of contact where the feet are on the ground.
And perhaps imagining and sensing this vast earth energy flowing up through the feet,
Through the body,
Up the spine,
Filling your whole body with aliveness.
And sensing the space around you,
Feeling that aliveness filling the space around you.
Imagine the curve of a smile filling space.
So the atmosphere and sense of a smile is inside you and around you.
Relaxed and open.
Still feeling the gentle movement of the breath.
And from this presence you might scan your recent life or an experience where you felt in some way touched by beauty or touched by a sense of gratitude,
Touched by kindness,
Perhaps another person's kindness,
In some way inspired,
Some moment that stands out as a moment of grace or presence or goodness.
It could be simply a moment of connecting with another person where you felt your heart connection.
Let your attention focus in on this situation,
Whatever brought to you that sense of goodness.
If it's a place,
Some beauty,
A sky,
A flower,
Just let yourself see it close in.
If it's a person,
Interaction,
See the person's face.
So you're seeing what's around you,
Hearing if there's words or sounds.
Take a moment to just describe to yourself whatever the feelings are that come with this experience.
It could be presence or gratitude,
Tenderness,
Aliveness.
So you're recognizing,
It's the beginning of RAIN,
What you're experiencing,
Whatever the positive emotion is.
And allow it.
Just consciously let be.
Say,
Okay,
There is space for this.
You can deepen attention with the I,
The investigate,
By inviting those feelings into their fullness.
And you might as if you're creating a sculpture,
Just let your face express what it's like when those feelings are here.
And let your body,
Your posture,
Express the feelings.
Whatever the feelings of goodness are,
Gratitude,
Tenderness,
Care.
So let your body express it,
Your face,
So you're sculpting and expressing.
Invite the feelings just to fill your entire body and beyond,
So you're feeling an intimate presence with them.
And you might notice what feels important or special or memorable about this experience.
In the end,
A nurturing is really an honoring,
Just honoring that in this life there are joys and sorrows and that it's beautiful to honor,
To appreciate the goodness that arises.
You're bowing in some way to experience the sweetness of life.
It could be that you mentally whisper thank you.
And then in the after the RAIN step,
Just to sense the quality of presence that's here right now.
Sense who you are when you're fully open to experience.
The poet Naomi Shaib Nye,
She writes,
It's difficult to know what to do with so much happiness.
With sadness there's something to rub against,
A wound to tend with lotion and cloth.
When the world falls in around you,
You have pieces to pick up,
Something to hold in your hands like ticket stubs or change.
But happiness floats.
It doesn't need you to hold it down.
It doesn't need anything.
Happiness lands on the roof of the next house singing and disappears when it wants to.
Since there's no place large enough to contain so much happiness,
You shrug,
You raise your hands and it flows out of you into everything you touch.
You are not responsible.
You take no credit as the night sky takes no credit for the moon but continues to hold it and share it.
And in that way be known.
These last few moments take a few full breaths.
Thank you.
