The following meditation is led by Tara Brach,
Meditation teacher,
Psychologist and author.
In the stillness you might begin by sweeping through the body with your awareness and noticing if there is any areas of obvious tension or tightness.
Take some moments to see what might want to let go a little.
With a mindful awareness sweeping more slowly through the body you might soften your eyes and sensing that you can smile into your eyes letting the outer corners be lifted a bit and let the brow be smooth and feel the sensations of aliveness that come into awareness as you relax that region.
In a similar way you can bring a slight smile to the mouth.
Let the inside of the mouth smile.
See if you can relax your tongue,
Feel down to the root of the tongue relaxing.
Notice the sensations that come alive in the lips,
Tongue,
Gum,
Teeth as you relax that area.
Let yourself be aware of the sensations in the scalp and skull,
The back of the head and the neck.
You might sense the throat filling the neck and allowing the shoulders to relax back and down.
Let the awareness fill the shoulders so you can feel from the inside out the movement of energy,
The aliveness that's there.
Let the awareness spread down the arms so you can feel the energy that flows in and out of the hands and softening the hands.
And see if you can soften again and feel from the inside out the aliveness that becomes available as you soften.
You might feel the aliveness inside the thumbs,
The space and aliveness inside the thumbs,
The aliveness inside the forefinger,
The space and aliveness there.
And can you feel the aliveness and space in the bones and flesh of those fingers and between those fingers?
Can you feel the aliveness in the middle finger,
Space and aliveness inside the finger?
Feeling the ring finger,
Feeling the space and aliveness inside that finger.
And the small finger,
The pinky,
Softened,
Feeling the space and aliveness there.
And feeling the space and aliveness between the fingers.
And feeling the space and aliveness between the palms and the backs of the hands.
And the intimate presence,
Just as a cup is filled with water,
This whole body can be filled with that intimate presence,
That awareness.
The eyes are still soft,
Smiling,
Slight smile at the mouth,
The hands soft and alive.
You might smile into the heart,
Letting the curve and the feeling of a smile spread through the chest.
This is to help you have the space for anything that is right here.
In the region of the heart so you can feel the aliveness,
The mood,
The space that is there.
The eyes are soft and smiling,
The mouth,
The heart.
And you might imagine and feel the curve of a smile through the belly,
Softening,
Opening,
Letting this next breath be received in a softening belly,
This breath,
And now this one,
And again,
And again,
Feeling the space and aliveness that fills the whole abdominal region.
Letting that awake presence extend downward through the pelvic region,
Again you might imagine and feel that sense of a smile and feel the aliveness and space that is there from the inside out.
Aware of the legs,
Their length and volume,
And feeling the feet from the inside,
Tingling,
Relaxing,
Sensing the rootedness,
Part of this earth,
This whole huge,
Vast field of energy,
Letting it flow up through your body,
Filling every cell,
The spaces between the cells,
Relaxing back and letting this aliveness totally live through you,
Vibrating,
Tingling,
There may be light,
Darkness,
Tightness,
Flow,
Just letting it all happen,
Including in the field of awareness the arising of sound,
Disappearing of sound,
Relaxing back,
Resting in the awareness that includes sound and sensation,
Space and aliveness,
Letting everything be just as it is.
You might sense a witnessing of what is happening.
You can relax back again and sense the awareness that is aware of the witnessing,
Vast,
Wakeful openness.
That is.
And before too long there is the natural rising of thoughts and getting lost in them.
Ideas about the future or the past,
Commentary,
Kind of virtual reality.
And the practice is just to notice when you become aware of thoughts simply relax back again.
Just notice the difference between being inside the thought and this mysterious,
Changing,
Living reality right here.
It helps to stay connected to presence with the breath.
You might rest with the inflow and outflow of the breath as a way just to keep a steadiness,
A continuity of attention.
Okay?
Unhooking from thoughts and receiving whatever is right here with interest,
Friendliness,
Aware of the sounds and sensations,
Aware of witnessing the sounds and the sensations,
Just relaxing back and resting in awake awareness,
Letting life be just as it is moment to moment.
Unhooking from thoughts and receiving whatever is right here with interest,
Friendliness,
Aware of the sounds and the sensations,
Aware of the sounds and the sensations,
Aware of the sounds and the sensations,
Aware of the sounds and the sensations,
Aware of the sounds and the sensations,
Aware of the sounds and the sensations,
Aware of the sounds and the sensations,
Awareness as aware of the light of its own presence.
Unhooking from thoughts and receiving whatever is right here with interest,
Friendliness,
Aware of the sounds and the sensations,
Aware of the sounds and the sensations,
Aware of the sounds.
As a way of closing you might sense this awake awareness in the region of the heart.
From that heart-space sensing whatever prayer you'd like to offer to yourself,
Whatever wish for your own well-being arises naturally.
And from that heart-space you might sense your care holding all beings and sense your
