Open-Hearted Presence

This practice establishes a kind attention by bringing the imagery and felt sense of a smile into the body scan and then, with the breath as a home base, opens the attention to changing experience. We end with a brief loving kindness reflection.

Transcript

The following meditation is led by Tara Brach.

To access more of my meditations or join my email list,

Please visit TaraBrach.

Com.

You might let your attention,

Feeling of your breath,

Be at the heart area.

And kind of breathing in and out of your heart.

And taking these moments to listen inwardly and ask yourself,

What is my deepest,

Truest intention right now for being here,

For meditating?

What is it your heart most longs for?

See if you can feel where you are most sincere.

It takes a few moments sometimes to even begin to listen in and sense,

What really does matter to me?

That the more you are in touch with your intention,

The more as you meditate you'll be reminded again and again to be right here,

To choose presence.

You might feel our shared intention that as we wake up these hearts and minds with meditation that that ripple out in a way that's healing for our world.

And we'll come together as community with the chanting of Aum as a way to express our heart,

Express our caring.

You might bring the palms together in front of the heart.

We'll chant three times.

And begin by taking a nice full in-breath.

Aum.

Our minds and bodies are most comforted and quiet most naturally when there is a quality of benevolence,

Of kindness,

An atmosphere of caring.

And you can invoke that with the image of a smile imagining around you a vast open sky and then visualizing the curve of a smile spreading through that sky,

The receptivity and openness of a smile filling that vastness warm and inviting.

And imagine that your mind can merge with that open,

Vast sky of awareness.

So your mind is filled with the warm and receptivity of a smile.

And you can sense how that's expressed at the eyes,

The outer corners of the eyes lifted slightly,

Smile spreading through the eyes,

Softening the eyes,

Letting the breath out be smooth,

Sensing a slight but real smile at the mouth.

See if you can feel the inside of your mouth smiling.

And as you do let the tongue fill the lower palate.

See if you can relax down to the root of the tongue.

The eyes are soft and smiling,

The mouth.

You might visualize and have the felt sense of a smile at the throat.

See if you can imagine it,

Sense the throat filling the neck and the curve of a smile spreading through.

And then visualizing and having the felt sense of a smile spreading through the heart,

Through the whole region of the heart.

This isn't to cover over anything but really to create the space that makes it possible to feel the life that's here.

Smiling into the heart.

The eyes are soft and smiling.

The mouth.

The curve of a smile through the throat and spreading through the heart.

You might imagine and sense the rings and rippling out of the smile so that it's spreading through your whole body,

That warmth and receptivity.

Allow your shoulders to fall away from the neck.

And see if you can feel from the inside out the shoulders.

And maybe imagine a melting of ice to water.

Ice to water and water to gas.

Allowing the hands to rest in a very easy and effortless way perhaps on the thighs or touching each other in the lap.

Notice what happens if you bring the awareness and attention inside the hands,

Softening the hands and then feeling from the inside out.

And you sense the tingling there,

The vibrating,

Places of pressure or pulsing.

Bring the chest to be open and again smiling into the heart area.

Feeling the aliveness,

The space that fills the chest.

Sending down the torso,

Letting this next breath be received in a softening belly.

This breath.

And this breath.

And again.

Feeling the belly to stay soft,

Loose,

Allowing the breath to be received deep in the torso.

Breath after breath.

Breathing into the softening belly.

Feeling the hands soft,

Slight smile at the mouth.

Feeling this whole body sitting here breathing.

Aware of the length and the volume of your legs.

Aware of the aliveness in the feet,

Maybe tingling,

Vibrating there.

And you can sense this whole body as a field of sensation.

And in the midst of the field the movement of the breath.

Letting the belly be soft.

Perhaps feeling the expanding and releasing at the belly of the breath.

Breath after breath.

However,

Some it may be easier to feel the breath rising,

Falling at the chest.

For others the inflow,

Outflow at the nostrils.

Wherever it's easiest to feel the breath,

Just resting with the breath.

Relaxing open as the breath comes in.

And relaxing with the letting go and releasing of the breath.

Now you get a more sense of the fabric of the breath.

It's usually not too long before you'll notice that the mind has drifted which is completely natural.

And as you practice you can sense the possibility of opening up or relaxing open from the thoughts.

Listening to the sounds that are here,

Perhaps re-relaxing in the body a little,

Softening the shoulders,

The hands,

A slight smile at the mouth,

Then arriving again gently,

Shepherding the attention back to the next in-breath or out-breath,

Rising breath or falling breath,

Where for whatever reason the breath is not a good home base for you,

Relax back with the senses with perhaps sound or maybe the sensations in your body,

The sensations in your hands or your feet,

Finding some anchor,

Some sensory anchor that helps you know you are here moment to moment,

Relaxed and wakeful presence.

Relax.

No matter how far the mind has drifted,

You can always start fresh in your meditation and in your life by re-choosing presence,

Re-opening the attention to what's actually right here.

So instead of the sounds of the thoughts,

It's the actual sounds right here,

A receptive listening.

You can always re-relax the body noticing what might want to let go right now.

You can sense and invite that smile,

Softening the eyes,

Smiling into the eyes,

A slight smile at the mouth,

Gently resting again with the breath or with whatever your home base is,

Whatever is right here in the senses to be experienced.

Know that you are here.

Sense that quality of here-ness.

And see how much you can relax into it,

Surrender into it.

And that you can find it on middle ground,

As a way of closing the meditation,

I invite you to,

As we started,

To again feel the smile in the eyes.

Perhaps the outer edges lifted and a slight smile at the mouth.

And sense the presence of your own most awake heart.

And from that heart-space offering to yourself whatever message of care most resonates right now,

Just sending that inwardly.

Sensing that awake heart-space as edgeless and open,

As luminous and inclusive,

So you sense all those who are sitting with you right now or sitting anywhere in this world and all those who are not sitting but are moving,

Eating,

Walking,

Dancing,

Living their lives,

All beings,

All species,

The earth or mother and all beings everywhere are part of your heart offering your prayer of care.

OK?

Reviews

Thank you!

The

Tara, I can’t express how grateful I am for your meditations, helping me to dwell in loving presence again and again, thank you so much!

Thank you from Brussels for this meditation very soft and opening the heart ❤️

🙂 I always feel such warmth and compassion in Tara's meditations. I love this one. The whole being smile is a powerful thing.

Loved this meditation! I really enjoyed the joy and relaxation that became amplified throughout the meditation. Thank you!

Tara's meditations are always wonderful. Thank you.

Love the image of the smile floating into the universe. Open, receptive, and good natured

Beautiful meditation, just be ready to jump right in as soon as it starts, meaning be seated and take some breaths then press play. I really loved this one, thank you Tara.

Me he sentido en estado de Amor en esta meditación 🙏

I always love Tara’s meditations. Such a gentle, compassionate and loving voice of an experienced teacher

Though my life is full and practice is hard, the continuous reminder to extend grace to myself and return to the present moment, left me feeling grounded…and present to this moment.

So beautiful!! I loved the smile in the sky especially - thanks!

Wonderful mediation! My new favorite. Tara has a wonderful loving presence and calm voice and tone that takes you into a deep warm happy meditation space.

Beautiful to start the new year with. Thank you. Blessed 🙏❤️

Thank you Tara. I, so appreciate your meditations and the sense of calm I get from listening to you. Be well and be safe!

Sublimely beautiful. Very grateful for this morning exercise. Namaste.

Beautiful practice. Thank you 🙏

Very comforting like always. I always feel my back and shoulders much more flexible after Dr. Tara Brach's guided meditations. The stress we hold in these areas can be released through exercise and meditation and Dr. Brach knows exactly how to breathe in the calm and breathe out the stress.

A gentle, kind and loving meditation- thank you Tara. 🙏