Tara: One of the great benefits of mindfulness practice is that you have more and more access to a very spacious quality of mind. Just as a drop of colored dye placed in a lake doesn't affect the lake. When your mind is spacious, it doesn't get disturbed by passing thoughts and feelings or even by what's going on around you. So that means you can be clear and non-reactive even when you're in the midst of difficulties. The colleague who's an emergency room doctor tells me that because she practices mindfulness regularly, she's able to remain spacious and at ease during emergencies. And her work flows well, like an athlete in the flow state. You already know from your own experience, the benefits of creating a sense of space when something difficult comes up.

For instance, when you're caught up in a strong emotion or maybe intense physical pain. Intuitively you might find yourself breathing deeply, relaxing, and allowing some space around it. Or if you're with someone who's in a troubled mood, you might know how to give them space for what's going on to play itself out, rather than maybe intrude with judgments or demands.

A spacious mind allows us to stay connected with our natural intelligence and kindness. And when we have this quality of openness and gentleness, our presence then serves those were with, who might be anxious or scattered or tense. Today, we'll do a mindfulness practice that'll help you access and strengthen

spacious awareness. Rather than starting as we have in our core practice with our breath and body, this meditation begins with simply listening, relaxing, and noticing how sounds arise and pass away on their own.
Okay, let's explore this together. As you have find a sitting posture that allows you to be relaxed and alert, take some moments to feel your breath, and release any tension that might be here with the exhale.
Allow yourself to be still. And now shift your awareness away from the body, and begin to listen to the play of sounds around you. Notice them all, those that are loud, those that are soft, the sounds that are most distant and those that are most near.

Just listen.

Notice how sounds arise and vanish, leaving no trace. Listen for a time in this relaxed, open way.
As you listen, let yourself sense, feel, or imagine in any way you can, that your mind is not limited to the size of your head. Sense that your mind is expanding, becoming huge. An awareness that's open like the sky, clear and vast like space. Sense, picture, or feel in any way you can, that the awareness of your mind opens in every direction, like the sky. Now notice how sounds you hear arise and pass like clouds in the open space of your own mind. Relax in this openness, and just listen. Let the sounds come and go, like clouds in the vast sky of your own awareness, appearing and disappearing without resistance.

Sounds now come and go like clouds or bubbles. You are the space of awareness.

As you rest in this open awareness, notice how thoughts and images also arise and vanish in this space. Just like sounds. Let them come and go without resistance. Spacious awareness has no struggle. Pleasant and unpleasant thoughts, ideas and memories, sorrows, joys, arise and vanish like clouds as you rest in the clear open sky of mind. Rest in this spacious awareness. It's your home.

Now let the spacious awareness notice your body as well. In the space of awareness, the body is felt as a field of changing sensations, pressure and tingling, hard and soft, warm and cool, vibrating and pulsing, all floating in awareness. Relax and let these sensations float and change while you are at ease. Let awareness be vast like sky, open and spacious. Rest in this openness, let sensations float and change. Allow sounds to come and go like clouds in a clear open sky. Let thoughts, images, and feelings arise and pass as they will, like waves or clouds. The mind remains transparent, timeless, and without conflict, allowing all things, but not limited, by them.

Finally, let this spacious awareness be filled with love and compassion, compassion for all those who lose their way. Let the sky be one of loving awareness, relax into it, trust it. It is your own true nature. It is home.

If you find this meditation to be helpful, practice it wherever it serves you. You can try it for a few minutes in a restaurant or workplace and let it bring some spaciousness and ease, or simply bring more spaciousness to your core central practice by taking some time to listen to sounds and sense a sky-like mind.

© Tara Brach and Jack Kornfield
Reprinted by permission.