Tara Brach

And sensing the vastness of awareness that includes even the most distant sounds.

And so with that same listening, receptive attention,

You can listen inwardly.

Listen to and feel the sensations in the body.

Listen to and feel the movement of the breath.

not controlling anything simply resting in that listening presence receiving moment by moment the changing flow of experience you might explore how intimately you can listen to and feel the breath

Choosing to attend where the breath is easiest to feel might be the inflow-outflow at the nostrils.

Or perhaps it's the rising-falling at the chest.

Or maybe you feel the breath most distinctly a kind of expanding and releasing at the belly.

Or maybe you're feeling your whole body breathing even in a cellular way like a balloon that expands, collapses some.

that receptivity of listening experiencing the moment-to-moment flow of the breath and notice the possibility of relaxing with the breath

that as the breath comes in, you can open to receive.

And as it goes out, there's a relaxing outward, a letting go.

A relaxed, receptive,

interested attention.

Resting with the breath as a raft might rest and move with the waves.

At some point you might notice the attention has drifted and rather than that receptive listening attention that rests with the breath, the mind is off in thoughts about the future or the past, some commentary.

Not a problem.

The noticing is part of waking up.

and the pathway back home to presence is a kind of relaxing back reopening the attention from the thought and listening again listening to the real sounds that are coming and going right here instead of the