The following meditation is led by Tara Brach.To access more of my meditations or join my email list, please visit tarabrach.com.
One of my favorite teachings from Thich Nhat Hanh, who's a Zen master, is that it's not enough to suffer, we also have to touch peace, we also have to touch well-being.
So today's meditation is really an invitation as much as is possible for our own body-mind to just let go and relax a bit, to taste that timeless peace that's here when we begin to settle a bit.
And so in that spirit we'll begin in a very simple way where you might just invite your attention inward, invite yourself into the present moment.
And sometimes that means first checking your posture, how you're sitting, and making yourself comfortable, adjusting in the ways that give you a sense of balance and uprightness so you're alert, and also real ease. So settling your body.
And as you become more still physically, allow your attention to go inward.And just notice what it's like right now.Just notice the feelings in your body.Notice that your body is breathing.
Then with a conscious intention begin to lengthen your breath so that it's a long slow in-breath.You might count to five with the in-breath.And then a matched out-breath counting to five with the out-breath.Really slowing down this breath.
A nice full in-breath again counting to five. And then a slow out-breath.And as you release, really become aware of the sensations of letting go.Again, a long, deep in-breath, filling the chest and the lungs.
With the out-breath again, that sense of letting go, of releasing. Continuing with this breath, five counts in, five counts out, and sense with each out-breath that you can let go of what's unnecessary, letting go of unnecessary thoughts,
Allowing your mind to clear and settle with each out-breath just releasing, letting go.You can sense with the out-breath you're just releasing it into the larger world, into the space around you.There's room.
And then allowing your breath to come into a natural rhythm where there's no efforting.And gently begin scanning through your body, sensing what wants to let go in your body.
You might start with the area of the eyes and the brow and sense that you can just release any tension around the eyes, just softening. Sometimes feeling the eyes and a slight smile can help to relax that area.Let the brow be smooth.
And in a similar way letting go around the jaw, mouth, perhaps a slight smile, Feel all those little micro-muscles through the face becoming smooth and calm.
You might allow the awareness to fill the shoulders and just sense that you can soften and release some. Letting go of whatever has habitually collected in the whole region of the shoulders.Let there be a kind of dissolving or melting there.
And you'll know there is a releasing if you feel from the inside out and you begin to sense some movement. some space.Consciously letting go through the hands.You can soften the hands.And soften again.And feel them from the inside out.
Letting go and letting go so you can just feel the tingling and the movement in the hands.Letting there be an openness to the chest. and sense again that you can release and let go of any tightness, any tension in the heart area.
Perhaps feeling the out-breath again and sensing with the exhale or releasing, letting go. Softening the belly.Letting this next breath be received in a softening belly.And yet another breath received in a softening belly.
And then begin sensing with the out-breath that letting go releasing any tightness, any tension in the abdominal area scanning down through the pelvic region Relaxing, releasing, letting go through the legs, the feet.
So if you widen the attention to feel your whole body, you can feel the body as a field of sensation,
and sense the movement inside that field – the tingling and vibrating – and sense the space, the space and aliveness in this field of your own being. Let your senses be awake.Aware of the movement of the sensations.Aware of the changing sounds.
And sensing the field of awareness that everything is happening in. Let yourself rest in that field of presence.Noticing the changing life, the changing ways.You're resting your heart in presence in what's true moment to moment.
And when the mind drifts and it wanders into thoughts as it naturally does you can gently reopen the attention back to this field of presence, noticing the actual sounds of the moment, sensations,
It helps to use your breath and exhale and let go of unnecessary thoughts.Re-release any tightness.And keep letting go back into presence. noticing where your attention is, if there's thoughts going on, to gently open out of the thoughts.
Whenever there's thinking that's kind of a contraction in the mind and there's also a contraction usually that's going on in the body you might sense if it's possible to let go a little more right now.
You might sense if it's possible to really rest in presence in that timeless peace that has room for this changing world. noticing what's happening, re-relaxing, resting your heart in presence, in the aliveness and awareness that's right here,
We'll close our meditation with a poem by Wendell Berry, a much beloved poem called, The Peace of Wild Things.
One despair for the world grows in me and I wake in the middle of the night at the least sound in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be.I go and lie down where the wood drake rests in his beauty on the water and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things who do not tax their lives with forethought of grief. I come into the presence of still water and I feel above me the day-blind stars waiting with their light.
For a time I rest in the grace of the world and am free.For a time I rest in the grace of the world and am free."
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