Meditation: A Witnessing, Kind Presence (20:21 min)

Welcome friends to the Tara Brock podcast. I'm so glad you're here.

Each week I share teachings and guided meditations to help us awaken our hearts and bring healing

to our world.

You can learn more or support this offering by visiting TaraBrock.com where you can also

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Now let's explore together the many ways we can live from the love and presence that's

our deepest essence.

Namaste.

We open our sitting with a very simple reflection on intention.

I'd ask your own heart, you know what is my deepest longing?

What's my real intention for practicing, for meditation, for being here?

Listening inwardly to what feels most sincere in you right now.

Sincereities assign that you're more at home and your intention.

What matters?

Awakening often starts with being awake and present in our bodies.

We'll scan down the body with awareness, mindfully waking up as we go.

You might begin with the area of the brow just softening the eyes, perhaps imagining

a smile spreading through the eyes.

Let the brow be smooth.

You might sense that same slight smile at the mouth, let the inside of the mouth smile,

relaxing the tongue right down to the root of the tongue, letting the tongue just spread

through the lower jaw.

Feel the inside of the mouth awake, the gums, teeth, tongue.

It's aware of sensation, space inside the mouth, allowing the shoulders to relax back

and down some, and since the awareness filling the shoulders, you might imagine a

kind of dissolve in from ice to water, a melting inside the shoulders, ice to water,

and then water to vapor.

See if you can sense the tingling and vibrating and aliveness inside the shoulders.

Let it go.

Let the hands rest in an easy and effortless way, the legs are touching each other.

And soften the hands, see if you can consciously soften, and feel from the inside out, as

you're softening the aliveness that's here.

This is a cup can be filled with water, this whole body can be filled with awareness,

live-ness and awareness.

Let the chest be open, and feel the region of the heart, see if you can feel from the inside

out the heart, whether there's a sense of tightness or flow, tenderness, numbness,

fresher vibration, heat or cool, just let it happen, see if you can sense the aliveness

and space inside the region of the heart, loosening and relaxing down the torso, letting

this next breath be received in a softening belly, this breath.

And now this one.

And again, softening the belly, feeling the breath deep in the torso, and still with a slight

smile at the mouth, and still with the hand saw, feeling the belly from the inside out,

the aliveness of sensation, feeling and imagining a space that sensation arises from,

the space inside the belly.

Feeling the awareness fill the pelvic region, and again, sensing the space and aliveness

that's there, this whole dance of sensation, feeling the length and the volume of the legs,

feeling the feet from the inside out, the tingling and vibrating there, sensing your

aliveness, rooting deep into the earth, and the earth below and around you, this whole

field of energy flowing through your body, through your feet, up your legs, filling

your trunk through the head, just filling you, so that if you widen your attention, you

can feel your body as a whole field of sensation, merging with the universe around you.

Tingling, vibrating, heat, cool, let everything happen, not resisting anything.

Including in this dancing field sounds come and go.

Letting sounds wash through you, listening to and feeling the whole moment.

In the foreground, continuing to sense this dance of sound and sensation,

feelings, and in the background, that alert inner stillness, that timeless presence is always

here. This relax back, being that presence, witnessing, feeling, listening to this change

in life.

In not too long, you might notice the attention, drifts, it's quite natural, so it's

helpful you can gently sheper, detention back, arresting the inflow and outflow of the breath,

it's a way to kind of anchor, stabilize the attention a bit, relaxing with the breath,

feel aware of the sound and sensations, the aliveness that's here.

In the background of this quality of presence, of hearingness, that wakeful openness, moment

moment that's aware.

And if something arises that's difficult, some fear, some physical pain, then let the

presence be a caring kind presence, just bring that added sense of gentleness to contact

what's going on, a soft presence, notice how it is, notice how it changes, breathe with what's going

on, so you're a loving witness, connected and yet big enough to be with what's here.

If nothing's strong is calling the attention to rest, again with the inflow and outflow of the breath,

simply open to the changing flow of life, moment to moment.

You might see if it's possible to relax or let go, just a little bit more right now.

See if there's anywhere in your body that is ready to soften, relax your heart.

Yeah, the resting with the movement of the breath, the senses awake,

aware of this background of presence, of hearingness that's really our home.

We close in the simple way bringing that loving witnessing presence to our own heart,

the sense whatever our own heart needs right now, offering with care, some blessing or message,

whatever's needed to our own human heart.

And sensing from this loving witnessing presence, our larger community, the community of all beings,

and just sensing what most feels natural to offer as your prayer of care to our world.

You