Meditation: The RAIN of Compassion (30 min)

Tara Brach

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🗓️ 21 November 2019

⏱️ 30 minutes

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Summary

Meditation: The RAIN of Compassion (30 min) -

The acronym RAIN (Recognize-Allow-Investigate-Nurture) is one of the most powerful tools I know for working with difficult emotions and discovering the freedom of an awake, compassionate presence.

The 4-steps of RAIN are:

Recognize what is happening;
Allow the experience to be there, just as it is;
Investigate with interest and care;
Nurture with self-compassion.

In the moments “After the RAIN,” it’s important to simply notice your own presence and rest in that open, tender space of awareness. When we are no longer identified with passing states like fear or anger, we begin to realize the vastness and mystery of our natural Being.

Transcript

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0:00.0	The following meditation is led by Tara Brock.
0:08.0	To access more of my meditations or join my email list, please visit TaraBrock.com.
0:30.0	As a way of entering the heart practice, you might just take a moment to feel your own intention
0:58.2	or aspiration toward open-hearted awareness.
1:04.2	Whatever language resonates for you.
1:21.2	To feel your own sincerity really sets the grounds.
1:28.2	It draws your heart-mind right to that place of being available.
1:43.2	The body also can be prepared in a way for heart practice with the simple image and felt sense of the smile.
2:03.2	If you'd like to just feel your eyes, let the corners of the eyes, the outside corners, lift a bit, soften the eyes.
2:17.2	And slide smile at the mouth inside of the mouth smiling.
2:29.2	And sensing and inviting a smile to spread through the heart and chest area.
2:43.2	And then just energetically sensing the spirit of the smile, that receptivity and openness spreading through your whole body being.
3:07.2	So we'll do practice that can help to awaken our heart of compassion.
3:17.2	The alchemy of compassion, the dynamic the way it arises is that as we allow ourselves to be touched by suffering, as we have that courage or availability to suffering, there's a natural tenderness that opens up.
3:36.2	That's the tenderness of compassion.
3:43.2	And in this process today as we explore it, we'll be using the acronym RAIN, be using a version that's different than has been taught commonly.
3:56.2	In this version of RAIN, the way it goes is that the R is to recognize the situation, recognize what's going on and the A of RAIN is to allow to let be just as it is, not to try to fix change, avoid.
4:18.2	The eye of RAIN is to investigate with a gentle attention and primarily the investigation is a inquiry into the felt sense, the body.
4:30.2	The end of RAIN is to then nourish what is experienced with compassion.
4:39.2	The key part of the process then is what happens after the activity of RAIN, which is to rest in the experience of what unfolds from that nourishing RAIN.
4:57.2	And that aftermath of RAIN, much like when we have a real RAIN that nourishes the earth, that flowering is really what's described as the shift or enlargement of our sense of our being from a small ego itself that's in some way struggling against something or with something to that open-hearted awareness.
5:24.2	That which is vast and tender, compassionate presence.
	...

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