Tara Brach's "Blessings of Love"

 I've been on a streak of meditation practice.  I've spent 10 minutes each morning for something like 23 of the past 24 days.  This morning I listened to Tara Brach's "Blessings of Love" meditation (from the end of Bodhichitta – the Awakened Heart – Part 1 talk). 

(the original blog post had the notes from under the *** below.  Now I'm revising to give a sense of the whole meditation, in addition to the reflective things I wrote originally)

 Scan through the body "with a sense of kindness."  Let attention come to an area of the the heart.  Feel the breath in this area.  With gentle attention feel the state of your heart. 

What might want attention/acknowledgment?  Is there a vulnerability that you haven't been wanting to feel?  Breath into what feels most vulnerable.    Is there something that you're afraid of? a loss?

Be in relationship with your inner life.  Sometimes we are not feeling at home in ourselvs.  We are turn on ourselves.

Experiment with the phase "please love me."

Picture someone you love.  Bring their image to mind.  They close their eyes.  You gently kiss their brow and say "I love you."  Notice what happens.  "sensing who you are when you give or receive blessings."  (Do this with another person, then a person that is harder to love) 

[this first part updated on 1/8/2021] [when I did this on 1/8, I pictured my mother. Emotion filled me.  Then I pictured J. and my body was quietly overcome.  I noticed myself crying.  It took me some time to adjust.]

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There were several lines that I thought were worth remembering.

"Being in relationship with your inner life."  She says while asking the listener to experience feelings -- where does it feel?  What does it feel like?  I've learned that it's OK to feel and important to have some clarity about what those feelings are because they have an effect on your life.  They condition your experience. So, I like the idea of "being in relationship with" the stuff that's going on.  It's as though that inner you is a separate person that you need to treat with kindness and respect.

Similarly, she talks about "not feeling at home with ourselves" often because of some judgement of ourselves.   In loving kindness meditation, which this meditation feels closely related to, especially towards the end when she asks the listener to "give a blessing" to two or three people we are in relationship with.  (the image is, if I remember, saying "I love you" while bringing the face to mind and "receiving a kiss on the brow and offering one")

The key part of the meditation, I think, is after this blessing, when she instructs the listener to be "sensing who you are when you give or receive blessings."  The "who you are is a being that -- for me at least -- is filled with warmth, confidence, openness.

"Letting whatever is here be here.... this is your true home," she says, reminding the listener to not judge the emotions.  Joseph Goldstein would say that it's appropriate to be curious about those feelings, to investigate them.  

"This is your true home." 

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