Tara Brach

Cultivating a Courageous Heart - Part 2 Oct 31, 2024

In the face of violence, hatred and loss, how do we handle the reactivity we feel? Our own anger, hatred and fear? These two talks offer guidance and practice in letting our own vulnerability be a portal to responding—to ourselves, each other and our world-- with courageous, wise hearts.

Meditation: Living Loving Awareness (20 min.) Oct 31, 2024

By bringing our full attention to the aliveness in the body, we can open to the experience of interior space and the space that includes all sensations and sounds. This then allows us to perceive continuous space filled with the light of awareness. This meditation attunes us to these dimensions of awareness: continuous open space, heart space and full aliveness. We end with a Zen poem that invites us to rest in this living, loving awareness, and know it as home.

Cultivating a Courageous Heart - Part 1 Oct 24, 2024

In the face of violence, hatred and loss, how do we handle the reactivity we feel? Our own anger, hatred and fear? These two talks offer guidance and practice in letting our own vulnerability be a portal to responding - to ourselves, each other and our world - with courageous, wise hearts.

Meditation: Relaxing Back into Awareness (20:12 min.) Oct 24, 2024

When we fully inhabit our body, we discover the space and wakefulness of awareness itself. In this meditation, we rest in this open awareness, and when the attention narrows into thoughts, we practice relaxing back into the openness that includes passing sounds, sensations and feelings. We close with a brief offering of lovingkindness to our own hearts and our world (with community OMs - no bell at end).

Freedom Beyond the Trance of Self Oct 18, 2024

The gift of meditation is awakening to the vast, radiant ever-creative beingness that is beyond the confines of a constricting self-sense. This talk explores how awake awareness can directly meet the clench of selfing - the thoughts, emotional tensions and core self-sense. When this occurs there’s a spontaneous releasing into the full love, wakefulness and aliveness of our being.

Meditation: Resting Your Heart in Presence (20:13 min.) Oct 17, 2024

When we’re having difficulty, we typically tense up our body and mind, and armor our heart. This practice offers a pathway of relaxing that tension and tasting the peace that comes from resting in presence.

Timeless Heart Wisdom for our Times – Tara Brach and Dan Harris Oct 10, 2024

How do we meet the violence and suffering in our world with a quality of openheartedness and wisdom? In this interview, Dan and Tara look at the teachings from the Bodhisattva path (path of awakening beings), Tara’s early draw to this path, and the perspectives and practices that can help us all in responding to our world with as much clarity, equanimity and love as possible.

Learn more about Dan Harris and subscribe to his new substack platform at https://www.danharris.com

Guided Meditation: Disarming Our Hearts Oct 10, 2024

Most of us know the suffering of feeling separate from others. In this guided meditation, we explore how we can re-open our hearts by intentionally bringing a caring mindful presence to our own vulnerability, and then extending that presence to include others. When inhabiting that presence, we are able to respond to relational conflict and distance with a growing creativity and love.

Meditation: Embodying Acceptance and Care (15:34 min.) Oct 03, 2024

This guided meditation helps us cultivate a friendly relationship with our experience. Using the image of a smile, we bring a gentle presence alive in our bodies, and then open to the heartspace that includes all facets of life. The meditation closes with a verse from poet, Dorothy Hunt, “Peace is this Moment Without Judgment.”

The Courage to Say Yes - A Conversation with Tara and poet, Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer Oct 02, 2024

I ran across acclaimed poet, Rosemerry Trommer, several years ago in a volume where she shares about the loss of her son, Finn, who took his life at age 16. I had never read anything on grieving that touched me so deeply, that held so much wisdom, such a deep affirmation of love. I went on to read her collection All the Honey, and now her new one, The Unfolding. These books are filled with Post-its: I didn’t realize how much I needed Rosemerry’s words to remind me of what most matters. In our interview we talk about the key themes in her poems: grief, love, opening to what’s difficult and what’s beautiful… saying yes to life.

The Sacred Work of Bridging Divides - Teachings from Roshi Joan Halifax and Tara Brach Sep 26, 2024

There is no more relevant exploration than how we awaken to our connection as family, as belonging to this precious web of life. In their talks, Tara and Roshi Joan look at the cause of divides and their healing through wise contemplation, courageous engagement and the power of imagination. Each lead short reflections that help us bring our own hearts and spirit into this sacred work.

Meditation: Resting in Knowing (20:43 min.) Sep 26, 2024

Behind the activity of thinking, and the ever-changing flow of sounds, sensations and feelings, there is a great and awake silence that holds all that unfolds. This space of awareness is our formless essence, and learning to open and rest into this alert, knowing vastness has the blessings of homecoming.

Waking up from Bias: A conversation with Tara and Anurag (Anu) Gupta Sep 19, 2024

Given how our biases create separation and unfold into violence and suffering, this is a crucial domain for each of us to explore. In this interview, author and teacher Anurag Gupta offers his wise perspectives and invites Tara to share some of what she has learned in navigating this terrain. We explore how to come into a healing relationship with unhealthy thoughts; forgiving ourselves for bias (it’s impersonal); the inner freedom that arises from releasing bias and how to awaken compassion and deep respect for those we have habitually dehumanized. The interview closes with Tara leading a brief reflection on undoing bias.

Anu’s recent book is: Breaking Bias: Where Stereotypes and Prejudices Come From - and the Science-backed Method to Unravel Them. You can pick up your copy here: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/760282/breaking-bias-by-anu-gupta/ or on Anu's website at: https://www.bemorewithanu.com.

Meditation: Collecting, Unifying and Opening the Mind (25:06 min.) Sep 19, 2024

Collecting, unifying and opening the mind, we begin with a listening attention, noticing sounds that are here. Relaxing open and letting sounds wash through. With the same receptivity to sounds, listen to and feel the aliveness of the body. Listening to the breath as if you’re listening to the voice of a quiet loved one – really close in, tender attention – and including the background sounds. Not pushing away anything – a very open and relaxed, receptive attention.

Sensing what’s actually happening in this moment – perhaps the sensations of the breath, the other sensations through the body, the play of light and dark in the eyes, sounds… Closing by sensing all in the foreground and in the background – that alert inner stillness, that light of awareness, that which is our deepest, formless nature.

Inner and Outer Democracy: The Practice of True Inclusion Sep 12, 2024

Happiness and freedom arise as we include all parts of our being in a loving awareness. In this talk we explore how this inner work of inclusion is the grounds of democracy, and how it enables us to participate in our relationships and society in a way that fosters communications, belonging and realization of the greater good.

Meditation: A Witnessing, Kind Presence Sep 12, 2024

Starting with scanning through the body and awakening the senses, we then rest in presence, with the breath as a home base. The meditation invites an openness to whatever arises, and a gentle kind attention if we encounter physical or emotional pain. We end with a prayer that includes our own being and all beings.

What is Love Asking from Us? Reflections on Palestine and the Bodhisattva Path With Tara Brach & Gabor Mate Sep 05, 2024

In this conversation, Tara Brach and Gabor Maté come together to explore the heart-wrenching situation in Gaza through the lens of the Bodhisattva path. Drawing from the Bodhisattva path - the commitment to alleviate suffering for all beings - they explore the importance of compassion and engaged spirituality in responding to the oppression and trauma experienced by the Palestinian and Israeli people.

This conversation is an invitation to examine our own spiritual practices and to consider how we can embody the Bodhisattva spirit in today's world, breaking the silence and standing in solidarity with all who are suffering. It was offered as part of a series of conversations that accompany a poignant and heartbreaking film - “Where Olive Trees Weep” - about the struggles and resilience of Palestinian people under Israeli occupation. whereolivetreesweep.com

Meditation: Touching Peace Sep 05, 2024

This guided meditation offers a pathway to quieting our mind and calming anxiety. We begin with long deep breathing, and with the breath, engage the image of a smile and relax through the body. Then we practice resting in relaxed awareness, allowing waves of thoughts, feelings and sensations to come and go.

The meditation ends with a beautiful verse from poet Philip Booth:

As you float now, where I held you and let go, remember when fear cramps your heart what I told you: lie gently and wide to the light-year stars, lie back, and the sea will hold you.

Poem: First Lesson,” by Philip Booth from Lifelines: Selected Poems 1950-1999 (Viking).

Trusting Your Basic Goodness: Part 2 Aug 29, 2024

This talk continues the exploration of what causes our distrust of ourselves, others and life, and the pathways to realizing and trusting who we are. We explore the steps of awakening from limiting beliefs, dissolving the resistance to direct embodied presence, and discovering the space and tenderness – the formless dimension – that is indivisible and whole.

Meditation: Awake, Relaxed and Open Aug 28, 2024

This meditation includes a full body scan, and then opens the senses to all experience, allowing life to be just as it is. The training is a relaxing back, noticing the sounds that are here, feeling the aliveness of the body sitting here. We call on the two wings of wakefulness and openness, noticing what's happening moment-to-moment with a kind, allowing attention.

We rest and relax back, discovering the presence that's here – our senses awake… in wide open awareness… awake, relaxed, open.

Basic Trust - Part 1 Aug 22, 2024

One of the expressions of an awakened heart-mind is a basic trust in reality. These talks explore the severed belonging that gives rise to mistrust, and two primary pathways to realizing and trusting the indivisible field of loving awareness that is our source (a favorite from the archives).

Meditation: Entrusting Yourself to the Waves Aug 22, 2024

By not resisting, by letting the waves wash through us, we begin to relax. Rather than fighting the stormy surges, we rest in an ocean of awareness that embraces all the moving waves. We arrive in a sanctuary that feels large enough to hold whatever is going on.

Desire and Addiction (Part 2): Voices of Longing Calling You Home Aug 15, 2024

Desire is intrinsic to all living forms – the urge to exist and flourish. It turns to suffering when, due to unmet needs, it contracts, intensifies and separates us from our full aliveness and awareness. These two talks guide us in awakening from this trance, and discovering how within desire is the longing that can carry us to true belonging.

"All you need is already within you, only you must approach yourself with reverence and love. Self-condemnation and self-distrust are grievous errors. Your constant flight from pain and search for pleasure is a sign of the love you bear for yourself. All I plead with you is this – make love of yourself perfect. Deny yourself nothing. Give yourself infinity and eternity and discover you do not need them. You are beyond." ~ Sri Nisargadatta

Meditation: Meeting Fear with a Healing Breath Aug 15, 2024

This meditation guides us through a relaxing body scan and then explores how we can allow the breath to calm our body and bring peace to our heart.

Desire and Addiction (Part 1): Voices of Longing Calling You Home Aug 08, 2024

Desire is intrinsic to all living forms – the urge to exist and flourish. It turns to suffering when, due to unmet needs, it contracts, intensifies and separates us from our full aliveness and awareness. These two talks guide us in awakening from this trance, and discovering how within desire is the longing that can carry us to true belonging.

Meditation: The Blessings of Yes (20:12 min.) Aug 08, 2024

When our hearts open to the life that is here, just as it is, we discover vast loving presence. This meditation engages the smile as we scan through and awaken to our body and senses. Then we practice meeting the changing flow of life with a full allowing, wakeful and open awareness. We close with a verse from e.e. cummings.

Love is Always Here Aug 01, 2024

One expression of suffering is forgetting that we are intrinsically lovable and worthy. This talk looks at the pathway to trusting our belonging, and focuses on the healing that comes from letting in love and mirroring others goodness.

Talk includes quotes from Henri Nouwen, The Return of the Prodigal Son: A Story of Homecoming

Meditation: Living Presence – Awakening with a Smile (18:45 min) Aug 01, 2024

This practice uses the image and felt sense of a smile as we scan through the body, include sound and relax back into the awareness that is the source of all experience. By letting life be just as it is, we become pure living presence – wakeful, open and tender.

From Ego to Eco-Identity - Homecoming to Sacred Relationship Jul 25, 2024

Our human loneliness and suffering arise from getting identified in a mental ego, and separating ourselves from the living web of our natural world. This talk explores the pathway back to sacred relationship, and offers reflections and practices that awaken intimacy with the non-human world.

Meditation: Embodied Awareness Jul 25, 2024

This guided meditation includes a full body scan, and the recognition of the formless awareness that includes and is the source of all experience. By recognizing that awareness we discover the silence and stillness that is the ground of all experience.

From Head to Heart Jul 18, 2024

If we are suffering, we are believing an interpretation of reality that is limiting and untrue. At these times we are imprisoned in a painful looping of fear-driven thoughts and feelings. This talk explores the ways our practices of mindfulness, compassion and loving presence can guide us from addictive thinking to perceiving life with a wise heart.

Meditation: Awareness and Flow Jul 18, 2024

This guided practice awakens all the senses with an embodied presence, allowing an opening to the moment-to-moment changing flow of experience. We then relax back, resting as the changeless open awareness that is conscious of the flow, and includes all life.

Embodied Presence (Part 2) – Planting Our Roots in the Universe – Working with Pain Jul 11, 2024

In describing our human predicament and dis-ease, D.H. Lawrence says we are like a great tree with our roots in the air. We need to replant ourselves—in our bodies, hearts and spirit. These two talks are guides to replanting ourselves. In Part 1, we explore how we are so often dissociated from the life of our body, and the pathways home. Part 2 looks at the challenges of pain, fear and trauma, and how we can gradually and skillfully reconnect with a wholeness of being.

Meditation: A Listening Presence (20 min.) Jul 11, 2024

The receptivity of listening awakens us to the living stream of life. This meditation guides us in listening to sounds, and then listening to and feeling the aliveness of our bodies and the movement of the breath. We close with a simple offering of lovingkindness to our inner life and our world.

Embodied Presence (Part 1) – Planting Our Roots in the Universe Jul 04, 2024

In describing our human predicament and dis-ease, D.H. Lawrence says we are like a great tree with our roots in the air. We need to replant ourselves—in our bodies, hearts and spirit. These two talks are guides to replanting ourselves. In Part 1, we explore how we are so often dissociated from the life of our body, and the pathways home. Part 2 looks at the challenges of pain, fear and trauma, and how we can gradually and skillfully reconnect with a wholeness of being.

Meditation: Portal to Sacred Presence (22:01 min.) Jul 04, 2024

This meditation includes a full body scan, and then opens the senses to all experience, allowing life to be just as it is. Awakening to the life of our body reveals the mysterious formless presence that is our source. We close with a poem from Danna Faulds.

For the Love of Dogs…and All Beings Jun 27, 2024

The focus of this conversation is on our relationships with dogs, and more broadly, all beings. We look at what Thich Nhat Hanh called interbeing, and what happens when we shift our attention from self to who are we together.

Tara is joined by Mark Drucker, an animal lover who works in digital media and is founder of lovedog.com, and Drew Webster, a dog behavior consultant par excellence.

In this recording, Tara is being interviewed for their podcast and found herself deeply impacted by the conversation. She reports that she and her 6-month-old pup, Niki, play more. Her attention has deepened and she is more awake in their relationship, and of course that extends out to the world of relationships.

So whether you have a dog, cat, favorite tree, or human to practice on, bringing attention to interbeing means more belonging, aliveness, and love. lovedog.com

Meditation: Lighting Up Your Energy Body Jun 27, 2024

Our being has many frequencies of aliveness and as we attend to the more subtle, we discover a portal to the radiant awareness that is always here. This meditation guides us in using the breath and attention as we scan through the body and awaken an inner luminosity. We then open the attention to rest in the whole field of awake awareness.

Beloved Community Jun 20, 2024

Martin Luther King’s term, “Beloved Community,” points to our potential for living together with love, justice and respect. This talk explores the often hidden expressions of racism that fuel separation and violence, and pathways toward healing and freeing our collective hearts.

NOTE: At the same time as the tragic killings in Charleston, SC, Tara’s Wednesday night class was reflecting on racism and the aspiration for Beloved Community. “May we awaken our hearts from the prison of separation; may we seek to end the daily violence, injustice and oppression faced by African Americans.”

Transcript available here: “Beloved Community” – talk by Tara Brach

Meditation: Relaxing Open into Full Presence Jun 20, 2024

The pathway to presence does not involve efforts or striving. As you will find in this simple, gentle meditation, a vibrant and healing presence is possible as we wake up all our senses and intentionally relax with our changing experience. The gift is a true sense of homecoming, and with that openheartedness and peace.

Disarming Our Hearts - Part 2: Guidance from the Bodhisattva Path Jun 13, 2024

Meditation: Awareness is Our Home Jun 13, 2024

This guided practice helps us come into our senses through a body scan. We then rest in the awareness that is listening to and feeling the changing flow of experience. When the mind drifts, the return is a relaxing back to our senses, and to the sea of awareness that includes and experiences the waves of life.

From the meditation closing:

As part of closing this meditation, sensing whatever wish or blessing you’d like to offer to yourself right now. What would bring healing happiness your life? Widening that heart space to include someone who is dear to you. Sensing your appreciation for that person’s goodness. Offering your wish, your blessings to them. Sensing the heart as edgeless… boundless… open… including all of life everywhere.

May all beings everywhere be filled with loving presence, held in loving presence. May all beings everywhere find great and natural peace. May all beings everywhere be happy, know the natural joy of being alive. May all beings everywhere awaken and be free.

Namaste

Disarming Our Hearts - Part 1 Jun 06, 2024

If we realized how profoundly our chronic judgment creates separation and blocks the flow of love, we’d dedicate more deeply to disarming our hearts. Drawing on practices from the Bodhisattva path, these two talks explore the process of disarming—bridging divides with those close in, and opening our hearts to those at a distance who we consider a ‘bad other” or enemy. As we cultivate the capacity for true disarming, we experience a growing sense of belonging, Oneness and the freedom of an awakened heart.

Meditation: Body and Spirit Jun 06, 2024

As we relax and awaken through our physical body, we discover the formless dimension of awareness or spirit that permeates all of life. This meditation includes a poem, "the spirit likes to dress up," from Mary Oliver.

Three Blessings in Spiritual Life – Part 3: A Mirror May 30, 2024

This 3- part series explores three capacities we all have, that when cultivated, bring spiritual awakening and serve the healing of our world. Drawing on an ancient teaching story from India, we explore together the power of a forgiving heart, the inner fire that expresses as courage and dedication, and the inquiry of “who am I” that reveals our deepest nature. The three qualities often described as the essence of awareness: wakeful, open, tender.”

Meditation: Listening to Life May 30, 2024

The attitude of meditation is one of engaged listening – a relaxed, receptive yet intimate attention. This meditation explores how we can listen to sounds, listen to and feel sensations, and then relax back into the ocean of awareness that includes and perceives the changing waves. In this relaxing back, we realize the peace and freedom of inhabiting our wholeness and essence.

Three Blessings in Spiritual Life – Part 2: Inner Fire May 23, 2024

This 3- part series explores three capacities we all have, that when cultivated, bring spiritual awakening and serve the healing of our world. Drawing on an ancient teaching story from India, we explore together the power of a forgiving heart, the inner fire that expresses as courage and dedication, and the inquiry of “who am I” that reveals our deepest nature.

Meditation: Reconnecting to Silence and Presence May 23, 2024

Only in silence and presence do we realign with what matters to our hearts. This simple practice of arriving in an embodied awareness supports us in touching the grounds of true transformation and healing. It closes with a powerful poem by Gunilla Norris, “Sharing Silence.”

Three Blessings in Spiritual Life – Part 1: Forgiveness May 16, 2024

This 3-part series explores three capacities we all have, that when cultivated, bring spiritual awakening and serve the healing of our world. Drawing on an ancient teaching story from India, we explore together the power of a forgiving heart, the inner fire that expresses as courage and dedication, and the inquiry of “who am I” that reveals our deepest nature.

Meditation: Living Presence - Experiencing Aliveness and Openheartedness May 16, 2024

The pathway to experiencing full aliveness and openheartedness is by awakening awareness throughout the body. This meditation begins by establishing a rhythmic inflow and outflow of the breath, in order to calm and collect the mind. Then continuing with the conscious breathing, we are guided through the body – bringing attention to sensations and space. This attention becomes a very vibrant living presence, and we end by experiencing that living presence as a natural openheartedness that includes all of life.

Living with a Courageous Heart in Times of Crisis: A Conversation with Tara Brach & Oren Jay Sofer May 09, 2024

The pace of change is speeding up and much of the news we receive is alarming. More than ever, we need the inner reflections and meditations that help us connect with our capacities for clarity, bravery and openheartedness. This is what Tara explores with Oren Jay Sofer, in his book entitled: Your Heart Was Made For This: Contemplative Practices to Meet a World in Crisis with Courage, Integrity, and Love (2023.) Oren teaches mindfulness, meditation and non violent communication, and his prior book is bestselling Say What You Mean: A Mindful Approach to Nonviolent Communication (2018.) Learn more about Oren Jay Sofer and order books at: https://www.orenjaysofer.com

Guided Meditation: Letting Life Be As It Is May 09, 2024

When we learn to listen to our inner life without interference, we open to a tender and full experience of presence. This meditation guides us in awakening an intimate quality of listening, as we attend to sensations, moods, sounds and the entire dance of life.

Homecoming to Loving Awareness (Retreat talk) May 02, 2024

We have strong conditioning to identify as a separate self, and to feel all the fears and attachments that arise from not realizing our true belonging. This talk includes teachings and several experiential reflections that help us wake up from the trance of separation. As we grow familiar with the awareness and love that is our shared true nature, we naturally live from that loving, and experience a growing freedom and joy. [Spring Retreat, April 2024 - Art of Living Retreat Center]

Meditation: Open Awareness – Relaxing Back into Presence May 02, 2024

This practice brings attention to the continuous space within and around the body, and the aliveness of sound, sensation and feeling that lives through us. While it’s natural for attention to get distracted, the pathway home is a relaxing back into the awake space that is aware of this changing life.

Cherishing Each Other: A Conversation with Tara Brach and Father Gregory Boyle Apr 25, 2024

Many are familiar with the Dali Lama’s words “My religion is kindness.” In this conversation you will sense the gritty and real way that we struggling humans can learn to cherish one another. We talk about the relationship between boundaries and compassion; the unshakeable goodness at our core; how we belong to each other, and how judgments arise from delusion and blind us to the blessing of that belonging.

Father Greg Boyle is an American Catholic priest of the Jesuit order. He is the founder and director of Homeboy Industries, the world's largest gang intervention and rehabilitation program, author of several books, including Tattoos on the Heart; Barking to the Choir; and in 2023, The Whole Language: The Power of Extravagant Tenderness.

Father Greg’s life and work are a huge inspiration: he is dedicated to living from love and cultivating loving community with a marginalized population of ex inmates, gang members and their families. You can find out more about Father Greg and Homeboy Industries at: https://homeboyindustries.org/our-story/father-greg/

2024-04-24 - Meditation: Awakening through the Inner Body Apr 25, 2024

When we attune to the inner body, we discover a field of energy and aliveness that is the portal to pure presence. This meditation guides our attention to the inner body, opens to the play of sound and invites us to rest in the awake awareness that includes and is the grounds of this living world.

Spiritual Reparenting: Loving Ourselves into Healing (from retreat) Apr 18, 2024

Mindfulness and compassion, when brought to our wounded heart, have the capacity to rewire our brain and free our spirit. This talk explores the ways we get trapped in the trance of feeling unworthy and unlovable, and how, with a wise attention, we can profoundly transform our relationship with our inner life. NOTE: this talk was given at the 5-day "The Undivided Heart" residential retreat on 2024-04-09.

Meditation: Inner Refuge of Calm Apr 18, 2024

In times of stress, it’s crucial that we have pathways to quiet our minds, relax our bodies and rest in a calm, steady presence. This meditation guides us in using the breath, body scan, and a home base of presence to find that inner refuge that can carry us through difficult times.

The Sacred Art of Listening Apr 11, 2024

Just as presence is the heart of meditation, so deep listening is at the center of all conscious, loving relationships. This talk explores how our wants and fears block listening, ways we can deepen our capacity for listening, and the healing that unfolds when we truly feel heard by another. What happens when you’re really listening?

Meditation: Listening to Life Apr 11, 2024

The attitude of meditation is one of engaged listening – a relaxed, receptive yet intimate attention. This meditation explores how we can listen to sounds, listen to and feel sensations, and then relax back into the ocean of awareness that includes and perceives the changing waves. In this relaxing back, we realize the peace and freedom of inhabiting our wholeness and essence.

You might ask, "Is it possible to let go just a little more right now?" Include what arises, sounds, whatever reactions to the sounds, sensations in the body. Let life live through you, resting in that wakefulness, openness, silence that's listening.

2024-04-03 - Relating Wisely to our Inner Life: Tara and Lee C Camp Apr 04, 2024

In this conversation, recorded for the acclaimed podcast, No Small Endeavor, award winning theologian Lee C. Camp interviews Tara about radically accepting and loving our being, just as we are. The conversation includes an unpacking of the RAIN meditation, and stories of navigating difficulty from Tara’s life.

No Small Endeavor, produced by Great Feeling Studios and PRX, brings you thoughtful conversations with artists, theologians and philosophers about what it means to live a good life. You can find the No Small Endeavor Podcast on your favorite podcast app or listen to more episodes here: https://link.chtbl.com/LN08h4po?sid=TaraBrach

Meditation: A Present Heart Apr 04, 2024

One translation of mindfulness, in Chinese, is “present heart.” In this guided meditation we begin by awakening through the body and the senses, and then open the attention to the changing flow of experience. The intention is to meet whatever arises with a wakeful and kind presence.

It's so helpful to say, "What's happening inside me right now?" Then, “Can I meet this with kindness, with a present heart?"

An Invitation to Freedom: A conversation between Tara and Connirae Andreas Mar 28, 2024

Connirae Andreas was one of the first trainers in neurolinguistic programming (NLP), developed and wrote a book on the Core Transformation Process, and more recently, the Wholeness Process. Her new book, The Wholeness Work Essential Guide: Level I—Healing and Awakening is the focus of our conversation.

Connirae’s teachings and practices are deep and impactful. She is gifted in communicating and guiding our inner unfolding in a way that makes accessible the domains of deep awakening and freedom pointed to by great mystics, poets and teachers over the centuries. And as this conversation reveals, the Wholeness Work can be transformational for new and seasoned meditators alike.

To learn more about Connirae Andreas and The Wholeness Work, visit: https://www.thewholenesswork.org

Meditation: Widening Rings of Being Mar 28, 2024

If we can recognize thoughts as thoughts, it becomes possible to open from virtual to living reality. This meditation guides us in awakening the senses and discovering the freedom, the awake space of Being, that is beyond the confines of thoughts.

2024-03-20 - Do you feel Overwhelmed? Turning Stress into a Gateway of Awakening Mar 21, 2024

Stress and overwhelm are spiking around the globe. This talk explores how we can practice with the arising of stress in ways that calm our body and tap our capacity for full presence, wisdom and love.

Meditation: Openhearted Presence Mar 21, 2024

This meditation guides us in embodying loving presence through a body scan, and then meeting whatever arises with a tender heart.

“Resting in the awareness that includes this changing life, regarding the changing waves with care, moment-to-moment. The moments of waking up out of thought are actually profoundly transformational. If you notice thinking and then plant the seeds of kindness, that becomes the habit of the heart.” ~Tara

We close with a beautiful blessing-poem from John O’Donohue, from Beauty – The Invisible Embrace.

Navigating the Dark Ages Mar 14, 2024

How do we process and respond to increasing societal oppression and violence? What helps us transform the energies of fear, hatred and delusion? This talk offers ways we can draw on our spiritual path to steady our heart and engage with presence, wisdom and care.

Meditation: Cultivating a Gentle, Kind Attention Mar 14, 2024

This meditation calls on the image and felt sense of a smile as we scan through the body, and invites a receptive and caring presence, as we open our attention to the changing flow of life.

"Our freedom comes not from what is happening, but from how we are relating to it. See if you can relate with the spirit of yes, allowing whatever arises to be here. And if it feels difficult, painful, then bringing some real kindness, a 'yes' with gentleness and kindness."

Part 2: Healing Depression with Meditation Mar 07, 2024

Most people get depressed at times, and many suffer greatly from bouts of major depression. At the heart of the suffering is the experience of severed belonging—of being imprisoned in the pain of separation, unworthiness, unlovability and hopelessness.

These two talks explore several meditation practices that reconnect us with our natural aliveness, openheartedness and awareness. They empower us to develop our inner resources, energize us to awaken, free us from rumination and remind us that we are not our depressive thoughts and feelings. The growing realization of the loving awareness that is our home heals the very roots of depression.

Meditation: Letting Go of Doing Mar 07, 2024

Meditation becomes truly freeing in the moments when there is no controlling whatsoever; when nothing is resisted or grasped after. This guided meditation begins with a simple body scan, relaxing and awakening to sensations in the body and then including the play of sound.

We then let go of any doing, and simply notice and allow the changing flow of experience, letting life be just as it is. In this pure allowing presence we become aware of the background silence that is listening. The invitation is to relax and be the awareness that is conscious of all that is unfolding.

Part 1: Healing Depression with Meditation Feb 29, 2024

Most people get depressed at times, and many suffer greatly from bouts of major depression. At the heart of the suffering is the experience of severed belonging—of being imprisoned in the pain of separation, unworthiness, unlovability and hopelessness.

These two talks explore several meditation practices that reconnect us with our natural aliveness, openheartedness and awareness. They empower us to develop our inner resources, energize us to awaken, free us from rumination and remind us that we are not our depressive thoughts and feelings. The growing realization of the loving awareness that is our home heals the very roots of depression.

Meditation: Refuge in Living Presence Feb 29, 2024

We spend great swaths of time in a trance that removes us from awareness of our body and senses. This meditation reconnects us by scanning through the body, including sounds and then resting in the field of awareness and aliveness. We practice relaxing and gently arriving again when thoughts carry us away; learning the pathway home to living presence.

“Getting Over Yourself”: A conversation with Tara Brach and Stephen Josephs Feb 22, 2024

Executive coach and author Stephen Josephs has worked with many top business leaders, guiding them in transcending the egoic conditioning that limit their impact on other people, and on societal change. In this conversation we look at what he’s learned about inner freedom and awakening from his own trauma, from 60 years of spiritual practice, from models of adult development, and from the poetry of Lao Tzu. Stephen and Tara have been close friends for over 50 years, and she considers him her first inspiration for a dedicated practice of meditation. His website is stephenjosephs.com.

Meditation: A Welcoming Heartspace Feb 22, 2024

Our pathway to peace and happiness is through opening, with tenderness, to our moment-to-moment experience. This meditation guides us first to be awake in our body and senses, and then to include the changing flow of life in a spacious, kind heart. We close with a short verse from poet Dorothy Hunt - Peace Is This Moment Without Judgment.

Letting Go of Controlling – Part 2: The Path of Freedom Feb 15, 2024

While it’s natural to try to control our life experience, our chronic controlling cuts us off from presence and obscures the loving awareness that is our essence. This series of talks explores how we can let go in four key domains of controlling: clinging to thoughts, resisting feelings, holding tight to beliefs and armoring our heart. We look at how egoic controlling manifests individually and as a society; the process of awakening from exclusive identification with a separate ego/self; what it means to die into a larger reality and the similarities of psychedelics and meditation in the process of letting go. The gift of releasing the grip of controlling is true freedom; inhabiting the intrinsic beauty of our beings, and having our lives be an expression of creativity, wisdom and love.

Guided Meditation: The Center of Now Feb 15, 2024

This meditation awakens our senses, then guides us to rest in the changing flow of experience. When the mind drifts, we are invited to relax back into full living presence, into that Beingness that is the center of now.

“Listening to and feeling, the changing flow - right here, right in the center of now.”

What is the Path to Peace? A conversation with Tara Brach and Assaf Katz Feb 08, 2024

What is the Path to Peace? A conversation with Tara Brach and Assaf Katz - Assaf Katz is an activist and Buddhist teacher in Israel who opposes the Israeli governments’ devastating military action and long occupation in Palestine, and is dedicated to finding a path to peace. This conversation was part of an event for the Tovana mediation community in Israel. We talk about the inner process behind my circulation of a short piece responding to the violence in the West Bank, Gaza and Israel; how we can work with strong reactive emotions and trauma; what helps us to speak and act in a way that is truly serves the greater good, and what can give us hope for eventual peace. This offering includes the recording of a question/response period and a sharing of prayers.

Read the article "What is Love Asking From Us?": https://www.tarabrach.com/blog-what-is-love-asking-from-us/

Meditation: Relaxed and Alert Feb 07, 2024

This meditation begins with a period of relaxing and collecting our attention with intentional long, deep breathing. We then deepen embodied presence, and widen to the awareness that includes sounds, sensations, feelings, breath, and all experience. When the mind drifts from this open, awake awareness, we gently return, re-relaxing and resting in an easeful, alert presence. Recorded at Tara’s Wednesday night class, the meditation ends with a sense of melting into community – relaxed and alert.

Letting Go of Controlling – Part 1: The Path of Freedom Feb 01, 2024

Letting Go of Controlling – Part 1: The Path of Freedom - While it’s natural to try to control our life experience, our chronic controlling cuts us off from presence and obscures the loving awareness that is our essence.

This series of talks explores how we can let go in four key domains of controlling: clinging to thoughts, resisting feelings, holding tight to beliefs and armoring our heart. We look at how egoic controlling manifests individually and as a society; the process of awakening from exclusive identification with a separate ego/self; what it means to die into a larger reality and the similarities of psychedelics and meditation in the process of letting go.

The gift of releasing the grip of controlling is true freedom; inhabiting the intrinsic beauty of our beings, and having our lives be an expression of creativity, wisdom and love.

Meditation: Letting Go… Letting Be Feb 01, 2024

Meditation: Letting Go… Letting Be - This guided meditation invites us to imagine a clenched fist relaxing open, and explores this in releasing contractions in the body as well as the grip of thoughts. When we deeply let go and let be, our energy flows freely. We reconnect with our natural aliveness, love and awareness.

Changing Unhealthy Habits of Eating - A Conversation between Tara and Judson Brewer Jan 25, 2024

Changing Unhealthy Habits of Eating - A Conversation between Tara and Judson Brewer - Countless people live with shame and distress about their eating. Dr. Judson Brewer, scientist, professor and author of “The Hunger Habit” (https://drjud.com/the-hunger-habit/) and many other groundbreaking books, is a thought leader in the field of habit change. He’s also a decades long practitioner of mindfulness, and a dear colleague and friend. In this conversation we explore how combining mindfulness practice with a basic understanding of habit change science can free us from unhealthy eating habits. We also look at the larger societal forces that drive overconsumption, as well as the shame that eating behaviors can evoke.

Meditation: Listening to our Heart Jan 25, 2024

Meditation: Listening to our Heart - True listening arouses an open receptive presence that can be truly healing. This meditation awakens a listening presence; first bringing that receptive awareness to sensations and sounds, and then offering that presence to the tenderness and vulnerability of our heart.

How Hope Can Heal and Free Us – Part 2 Jan 18, 2024

How Hope Can Heal and Free Us – Part 2 - The mature expression of hope includes three elements: the aspiration for manifesting our full potential, a trust that this is possible, and an energy that engages to serve this unfolding. In this talk, we explore the importance of hope on the spiritual path, its shadow side, and how we can nourish hope through these three elements in a way that serves inner freedom and the healing of our world.

Let the beauty we love be what we do. There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground. ~ Rumi

Meditation: Receiving Life in Open, Awake Awareness Jan 17, 2024

Meditation: Receiving Life in Open, Awake Awareness - This meditation awakens a receptive attention to the senses, starting with physical sensations and opening to sound. Then we sense how open awake awareness is receiving the moment-to-moment arising and passing life. In the final part of the practice, we explore how awake awareness is receiving the experience of our heart and offer blessings to our inner life and all living beings.

How Hope Can Heal and Free Us – Part 1 Jan 11, 2024

How Hope Can Heal and Free Us – Part 1 - The mature expression of hope includes three elements: the aspiration for manifesting our full potential, a trust that this is possible, and an energy that engages to serve this unfolding. In this talk, we explore the importance of hope on the spiritual path, its shadow side, and how we can nourish hope through these three elements in a way that serves inner freedom and the healing of our world (a 2-part special favorite from the archives).

Meditation: Awakening Our Full Aliveness Jan 11, 2024

Meditation: Awakening Our Full Aliveness -

We cut off from our aliveness when we are lost in thoughts and on auto pilot. This meditation arouses a receptivity to sensation from “the inside out,” opens the awareness to sound, and then invites a full resting in receptive, dynamic presence (from the archives).

It doesn’t matter how many times the mind drifts. It’s the gentle re-arriving that retrains your heart and mind. Just to choose to come back… Perhaps to sense what might let go a little more… If there’s something that might want to relax a bit more right now… To listen to and feel the changing moment-to-moment experience with an awake, open awareness. ~ Tara

Coming Home to True Refuge Jan 04, 2024

Coming Home to True Refuge - While we habitually try to control our life, our true refuge—the source of peace, safety and freedom—is in the direct realization of reality itself. This talk explores three archetypal portals to true refuge—awareness (buddha), truth (dharma) and love (sangha.) With each we practice short reflections that help bring the particular gateway to refuge alive.

Meditation: Energy and Source Jan 04, 2024

Meditation: Energy and Source - Our incessant thinking removes us from the full aliveness, vastness and mystery of Being. This guided practice helps us inhabit our energetic forms, and rest in the vast, formless stillness that gives rise to this ever-creative living world.

The Sacred Pause Dec 29, 2023

The Sacred Pause - When we are lost in the trance of doing, our lives are on automatic, and contracted by sense that something’s wrong or missing. This talk explores the challenges of learning to pause, and the blessings that arise when we step out of our incessant mental and physical activity and reconnect with the being-qualities of presence, wisdom and love (a favorite from the archives).

“The deepest expression of love is this non-doing presence because that’s when we are inhabiting who we really are.”

Meditation: Opening to the Mystery Dec 28, 2023

Meditation: Opening to the Mystery - This guided meditation includes a body scan and invites the receptivity and letting-go of whole body breathing. Once we have awakened the vitality and presence throughout the body, we have access to the formless dimension, the awareness that is our source. The meditation closes with “Walk Slowly”, from the poetry of Danna Faulds.

Finding True Belonging in the Midst of Stress Dec 21, 2023

Finding True Belonging in the Midst of Stress - Our deepest longing is to feel our belonging to each other and all life. This reflection examines the primary forces that keep us trapped in a trance of separation. We then explore two powerful dimensions of spiritual practice that can undo trance and reveal the sentience and love that is our shared essence.

Meditation: Relaxed and Awake Dec 21, 2023

Meditation: Relaxed and Awake - This guided meditation helps us find ease and wakefulness in our body and mind. With the breath as our home base, we offer a gentle and full attention to the changing waves. We close with a beautiful poem, “Walk Slowly,” by Danna Faulds.

Awakening from Trance – Embracing Unlived Life Dec 14, 2023

Awakening from Trance – Embracing Unlived Life - When physical or emotional pain is too much, our conditioning is to pull away and avoid direct contact with raw feelings. The result is a trance – we are split off from the wholeness of our aliveness, intelligence and capacity to love. This talk explores how this dissociation shows up in our lives and how mindfulness enables us to integrate cut-off parts of our being in a powerful way, and awaken from this trance.

Meditation: Opening to the Sea of Presence Dec 14, 2023

Meditation: Opening to the Sea of Presence - When our body and mind is relaxed, we become filled with a very awake, dynamic quality of presence. This meditation guides us in relaxing, opening our senses and resting in the vastness and inherent freedom of our own natural awareness.

Basic Goodness and Awe: A conversation between Tara Brach and Dacher Keltner Dec 07, 2023

Basic Goodness and Awe: A conversation between Tara Brach and Dacher Keltner - Our conversation covers the biological, evolutionary and cultural bases of human goodness and the centrality of awe in the human experience. We explore the blocks to experiencing our full potential, and ways we can cultivate our innate capacity for finding wonder, love, creativity and beauty in our daily lives.

Dacher Keltner, Ph.D. is a professor of psychology at the University of California, Berkeley, a scientist and the co-director of the Greater Good Science Center. He has authored a number of books, including bestselling "Born to be Good" and most recently "Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How it Can Transform Your Life".

Learn more about Dacher's latest book at: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/622175/awe-by-dacher-keltner/

Guided Meditation: Whole Body Breathing Dec 07, 2023

Guided Meditation: Whole Body Breathing - This guided meditation includes a body scan and invites the receptivity and letting-go of whole body breathing. Once we have awakened the vitality and presence throughout the body, we have access to the formless dimension, the awareness that is our source.

How Do We Bridge the Divides? Nov 30, 2023

How Do We Bridge the Divides? - The divides in our world can only exist if we humans are divided from our own full being and habituated to divides with others. In this reflection we explore bridging inner and relational divides as the grounds for evolving consciousness in our species and awakening to more connectedness and love in our world.

Meditation: Breathing Our Way to Peace & Freedom Nov 30, 2023

Meditation: Breathing Our Way to Peace & Freedom - This meditation guides us in collecting attention with an intentional long deep breath, and awakening a full relaxed presence as the breath resumes in its natural rhythm. Resting fully in this presence is the gateway to deep peace and inner freedom.

“Little breath breathe me gently, row me, for I am the river I am learning to cross.” – W.S. Merwin

A Generous Heart Nov 23, 2023

A Generous Heart - Our deep potential is to live from an awake, loving heart. This talk looks at how, with a kind and mindful attention, we can decondition habitual tendencies toward grasping and self-centeredness, and nourish the sense of connectedness and care that gives rise to generosity. As we bring these heart practices alive in our most immediate relationships, they have the power to evolve consciousness in widening circles across the world.

Meditation: The Space of Loving Awareness Nov 23, 2023

Meditation: The Space of Loving Awareness - This meditation begins by guiding us through a scan: opening to inner space and aliveness, then to outer space, and then continuous space, filled with the light of awareness. We explore how every experience belongs to this infinite awake space of our Being, and can be held with tenderness and love.

Conversation with Tara Brach and Arthur Brooks: Becoming Happier Nov 16, 2023

Becoming Happier: Conversation with Tara Brach and Arthur Brooks - The Dalai Lama regularly says that everyone wants to be happy, nobody wants to suffer. Arthur Brooks, in his new book on getting happier (co-authored with Oprah Winfrey) digs into the practical and science-based approaches that increase deep well-being. In this conversation Tara and Arthur discuss the ingredients of happiness, the role of unhappiness in our lives, how to work with core ego-fears, the power of metacognition, the necessity of transcendence of small self and the love that is the grounds of true happiness.

Build the Life You Want: The Art and Science of Getting Happier

Meditation: Refuge of Living Presence Nov 16, 2023

Meditation: Refuge of Living Presence - Our thoughts keep us removed from this living world. This guided practice invites us to open and relax with the moment-to-moment experience of our senses. It includes a poem by Ingrid Goff-Maidoff, “Wherever you are, Find a Trail.”

The Wise Heart of Radical Acceptance Nov 09, 2023

The Wise Heart of Radical Acceptance - When we are caught in self-judgment, we forget the truth of who we are – our wholeness, awareness and love. This talk examines how we take the imperfect waves of our being personally, and become imprisoned in the trance of unworthiness, a limited and distorted reality. We then look at how the practice of Radical Acceptance enables us to come home to a fullness of being, and live from a growing sense of loving connectedness with all beings.

Meditation: Relaxing Back and Saying Yes to the Moment Nov 09, 2023

Meditation: Relaxing Back and Saying Yes to the Moment -

When we are stressed, our conditioning is to tighten our body. We tense against our moment-to-moment experience. This meditation is a powerful practice of de-conditioning this reactivity by learning to relax back into presence, and to respond to difficulty by saying “yes.” Through relaxing back and saying “yes,” we discover our heart’s capacity for unconditional love.

…Exploring what it means to unconditionally say “yes” to the life that’s here… In the moment when that “yes” becomes full, our hearts awaken in love. ~ Tara

Mindful Glimpses: A Conversation with Tara Brach and Loch Kelly Nov 02, 2023

Mindful Glimpses: A Conversation with Tara Brach and Loch Kelly - Loch Kelly is an author, psychotherapist and highly respected meditation teacher known for his instructions for effortless mindfulness. Our rich and wide-ranging conversation includes themes of interconnectedness, the natural weaves of psychology and meditation, the healing of self-compassion, the power of short glimpses into the nature of reality, RAIN, prayer, awakening through social identities, turning toward dying, centering joy and much more!

Loch is offering Tara's listeners a special discount code of 20% off an annual subscription for the Mindful Glimpses App when you use this link: https://mindfulglimpses.com/tara

Meditation: The Sea of Awareness Nov 02, 2023

Meditation: The Sea of Awareness - Our attention habitually fixates on the foreground of thoughts and feelings, and fuels an unconscious identification with a sense of separate self. This meditation guides us in recognizing the awareness that is the background and source of all experience. By resting in and as the awareness that we are, all sense of separation dissolves revealing the vastness and oneness of Being.

A Conversation with Tara and Stephen Fulder: What is our Refuge in the Midst of Crisis Oct 26, 2023

A Conversation with Tara and Stephen Fulder: What is our Refuge in the Midst of Crisis - Stephen Fulder is a senior Buddhist teacher, author and peace activist who lives and teaches in Israel. In this conversation Stephen shares about his experience during the unfolding violence in the Middle East, and what he and his community are doing to tend to the huge trauma people are feeling. He talks about being with intense fear and emotions, and how to talk with those who have very different views. And he shares about the past decades of the deep and powerful work he’s been involved in, bringing groups of Israeli and Palestinian people together to find their shared hearts and humanity. Together Stephen and Tara look at what our true refuge is in the midst of a world in crisis and pathways that can carry us to that precious space of equanimity, compassion and love. Stephen is author of "The Five Powers: A guide to personal peace and freedom" www.stephenfulder.com

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Meditation: Awake and Alive Oct 25, 2023

Meditation: Awake and Alive - This guided practice includes a body scan, and an opening to the awareness that includes all of life. From that wakeful openness we offer a relaxed attentiveness to the changing flow, and close with loving kindness to ourselves and our world.

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Four Spiritual Inquiries: Finding Heart Wisdom in Painful Times Oct 19, 2023

Four Spiritual Inquiries: Finding Heart Wisdom in Painful Times - When we get stuck in difficult emotions like hatred, anger and fear, we are in a trance of separation - disconnected from the whole of our inner experience, each other and the web of life. This talk explores four inquiries that help us reconnect with presence and heart. Rather than reacting with aggression or blame, these inquiries allow us to respond to our struggling world with our naturally wise and caring heart.

Meditation: Relaxing with Life Oct 19, 2023

Meditation: Relaxing with Life - This meditation includes a mindful body scan and guidance in relaxing with the changing waves of experience. When we say “Yes” to the moment, we open to the sea of awareness that can include, with care, whatever arises.

Radical Self-Forgiving Oct 12, 2023

Radical Self-Forgiving - When we can’t forgive ourselves, we remain imprisoned and separate from our world. This talk explores forgiving as a process of relaxing open the clenched fist of self-blame. As forgiving becomes deep and full, we discover the freedom of a spacious, awake and loving heart.

Meditation: Living Presence – with Body Scan Oct 12, 2023

Meditation: Living Presence with Body Scan - A key pathway to full presence is awakening through the body. This meditation guides us through a body scan, relaxing and receiving the play of sensations. We then deepen attention to the breath, and rest with the rhythmic waves of breathing, experiencing the background of the whole domain of physical aliveness.

Longing for Freedom: A conversation with Tara Brach and Lama Rod Owens Oct 05, 2023

Longing for Freedom: A conversation with Tara Brach and Lama Rod Owens - In his recent book, The New Saints, Lama Rod Owens offers teachings and practices that awaken our longing for freedom, and help us realize the truth of who we are.

This week, I sat down with Lama Rod to talk about how an authentic path of liberation must include the often unexamined layers of our personal and societal existence.

Pre-order the book: The New Saints: From Broken Hearts to Spiritual Warriors

Meditation: Letting Thought Clouds Come and Go Oct 05, 2023

Meditation: Letting Thought Clouds Come and Go - This meditation guides us through a body scan and into a relaxed, open presence. When we realize we are lost in a thought cloud, our practice is to relax open, listening to and feeling the life of the present moment. We are training to become increasingly aware of the gap between thoughts, the space where the light of awareness shines through.

"It’s in that gap between thoughts that the light shines through – this mystery, this living mystery of what’s right here… opening to and relaxing into the life that’s right here." ~ Tara

Awakening from the Trance of Self-Centeredness Sep 28, 2023

Awakening from the Trance of Self-Centeredness - At the core of our suffering is our universal human predicament: an illusion that we are a separate self. This talk explores how this identification as a self obscures our belonging to loving awareness, and offers a powerful set of practices that shine a light on self-centeredness and relaxes its grip.

Meditation: Continuous Space Suffused with Awareness Sep 28, 2023

Meditation: Continuous Space Suffused with Awareness - By learning to inhabit the body, we discover the space and aliveness that fills the universe. In this meditation we are guided through the body, filling different domains with presence. We then open into the continuous awake space that is both within and surrounds the body. When we notice the mind drifts, we relax back to be that awake space, aware of the changing flow of sensations, thoughts, feelings and sounds.

Saying Yes (Part 2): A Conversation with Tara Brach & Jane Hirshfield Sep 21, 2023

Saying Yes (Part 2): A Conversation with Tara Brach & Jane Hirshfield - In this rich and full two-part interview, Tara speaks with renowned poet Jane Hirshfield about the interface between poetry and meditation, the centrality of acceptance, and the pathways of remembrance that reveal our belonging to this world and open us to caring. Here’s a link to Jane’s most recent book: The Asking: New and Selected Poems. The interview includes readings from this beautiful collection.

Meditation: Opening to the Flow Sep 21, 2023

Meditation: Opening to the Flow - This meditation begins with gathering awareness of the breath. We then reflect on our deepest intention, sensing what most matters. With a listening attention, becoming aware of sounds that arise and pass away. We scan through the body, sensing the changing experience of energy and aliveness. Letting everything happen… not opposing anything… not controlling… moment to moment. Listening to and feeling this moment as an ever-changing river of experience. Opening to this changing flow and letting life flow through us.

Saying Yes: A Conversation with Tara Brach & Jane Hirshfield Sep 14, 2023

Saying Yes: A Conversation with Tara Brach & Jane Hirshfield - In this rich and full two-part interview, Tara speaks with renowned poet Jane Hirshfield about the interface between poetry and meditation, the centrality of acceptance, and the pathways of remembrance that reveal our belonging to this world and open us to caring. Jane’s most recent book is “The Asking: New and Selected Poems” and the interview includes readings from this beautiful collection. Order your copy of "The Asking" at: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/715681/the-asking-by-jane-hirshfield/

Meditation: Everything Belongs Sep 14, 2023

Meditation: Everything Belongs - This guided meditation awakens an embodied presence through a body scan, and invites us to rest in the breath, while allowing the different waves of sensations, feelings and sounds to come and go. When difficult experiences arise, we breathe with them, feeling them fully and mentally whispering, “this belongs,” or “this too.” By not resisting, we discover the sea of awareness that has room for all the waves.

Path of Sacred Relatedness - Undoing the Blocks to Loving Presence Sep 07, 2023

Path of Sacred Relatedness - Undoing the Blocks to Loving Presence - We long for soul friends, and yet often engage with each other in reactive ways - caught inside the experience of a wanting, guarded, fearful self. This talk explores practices that release identification with these scales that confine us, so we can remember the sacredness living through ourselves and all beings.

Meditation: At Home in the Moment Sep 07, 2023

Meditation: At Home in the Moment - This meditation cultivates a gentle, wakeful presence in the body, with the “smile down” and then guides us to resting in a home base of sensations or the breath. We then open to whatever arises with a clear and inclusive attention, saying “Yes” to the life that is here.

The Honesty Challenge - Getting more truthful with ourselves and our world Aug 31, 2023

The Honesty Challenge - Getting more truthful with ourselves and our world - Most of us value honesty yet are not aware of how regularly we avoid facing what’s difficult inside us, and how we are less than truthful with others. This talk explores the practice of radical self-honesty as the grounds of being more honest with others, and bringing more love and freedom to our lives. We close with a quote, “What’s True Here,” from Danna Faulds.

Meditation: Vipassana – The Practice of Seeing Clearly Aug 31, 2023

Meditation: Vipassana – The Practice of Seeing Clearly - Vipassana, also known as insight meditation, is training in bringing a clear mindful attention to our moment to moment experience. We begin by relaxing through the body and then resting attention with the breath – or some other sensory anchor – and allowing the mind to settle. Then we open to whatever is predominant or calling our attention – sensations, emotions, sounds – meeting each arising experience with a clear, kind attention. The gift of this process is discovering balance in the midst of the changing flow, and gaining deep insight into the nature of reality.

The Superpower of Mindful Witnessing Aug 24, 2023

The Superpower of Mindful Witnessing - The capacity to witness what is happening inside us with a non-judging attention allows us to respond to life from our full intelligence and heart. This talk looks at the role of witnessing in spiritual practice, and how we can cultivate this superpower in a way that reveals the light or spirit that lives through all beings.

Meditation: Being a Kind Witness Aug 24, 2023

Meditation: Being a Kind Witness - Learning to witness what is going on inside us is the gateway to inner freedom and deep realization. This meditation guides us in witnessing our experience with a non-judging and kind awareness. "A witnessing awareness like a kind grandmother watching children - that simply notices what's happening without judgment.”

Conscious Prayer – Finding Refuge in Loving Awareness Aug 17, 2023

Conscious Prayer – Finding Refuge in Loving Awareness - Prayer is a communing with our enlarged being. This talk examines less conscious forms of prayer, and how we can evolve the power of our prayers by opening into the depth of our longing, and reaching toward our true belonging.

(a special talk given at the 2016 IMCW Spring Retreat)

Meditation: Openhearted Presence Aug 17, 2023

Meditation: Openhearted Presence - This meditation guides us to arouse mindfulness through attention to our senses, and to rest in that wakefulness with a receptive and tender presence.

Part 2: Rewiring for Happiness and Freedom Aug 10, 2023

Part 2: Rewiring for Happiness and Freedom - The Buddha said, “I would not be teaching this (a path of awakening) if genuine happiness and freedom were not possible.” While this is our potential, we each have deep conditioning to get stuck in feelings of fear, deficiency and separation from others. These talks explore the two interdependent pathways of undoing the conditioning that blocks our potential. In Part I we will look at how we can intentionally arouse states of well-being, and with practice, develop them into ongoing traits that bring presence and joy to our lives. In Part II, we will investigate how to cultivate an unconditional presence, and the radical acceptance and love, that are the grounds of true happiness and inner freedom.

Meditation: Relaxing Back into the Mystery Aug 09, 2023

Meditation: Relaxing Back into the Mystery - All true meditation guides us back to presence, and the mystery that is our source. In this guided meditation we awaken the senses, collect with the breath, and when lost in thought, practice relaxing back into the aliveness and awareness that is always here. We close with a beautiful poem from poet Danna Faulds.

Part 1: Rewiring for Happiness and Freedom Aug 03, 2023

Part 1: Rewiring for Happiness and Freedom - The Buddha said, “I would not be teaching this (a path of awakening) if genuine happiness and freedom were not possible.” While this is our potential, we each have deep conditioning to get stuck in feelings of fear, deficiency and separation from others. These talks explore the two interdependent pathways of undoing the conditioning that blocks our potential. In Part I we will look at how we can intentionally arouse states of wellbeing, and with practice, develop them into ongoing traits that bring presence and joy to our lives. In Part II, we will investigate how to cultivate an unconditional presence, and the radical acceptance and love, that are the grounds of true happiness and inner freedom.

Meditation: Coming Home with the Breath Aug 03, 2023

Meditation: Coming Home with the Breath - Our breath is always available as a pathway back to presence. This simple meditation guides us to relax and awaken in the body, and then establishes the breath as a home base for our attention. Our practice is to notice when the mind becomes distracted, and gently return to our breath and senses. This helps the mind to become increasingly settled, calm and clear. We close with a short heart blessing.

Intimacy with Life (Part 2) Jul 27, 2023

Intimacy with Life (Part 2) - Zen master Dōgen teaches that enlightenment is intimacy with all things. These two talks explore teachings and practices that cultivate intimacy - a liberating experience of relatedness and oneness with our living world.

Guided Meditation: Intimacy with the Flow of Life Jul 27, 2023

Guided Meditation: Intimacy with the Flow of Life - The meditation begins with a body scan, filling the body with aliveness. Then we widen attention, becoming aware of the sounds that are happening moment-to-moment, aware of the sensations, feelings, or emotions that are here. Again and again, the invitation is to relax back into presence, intimate with the life living through you. In allowing life to be just as it is, we inhabit pure Beingness, at home in the dynamic and tender awareness that is our shared essence.

Intimacy with Life - Part 1 Jul 20, 2023

Intimacy with Life (Part 1) - Zen master Dōgen teaches that enlightenment is intimacy with all things. These two talks explore teachings and practices that cultivate intimacy - a liberating experience of relatedness and oneness with our living world.

Meditation: Relaxing Back into Presence Jul 20, 2023

Meditation: Relaxing Back into Presence - When we are stressed, our body and mind contract, and energetically we resist the life in the present moment. This meditation helps de-condition the stress reaction by guiding us to relax open from thoughts, relax physical tension, and gently relax back over and over into living presence.

Being with Love, Death and Grief: Tara Brach and Frank Ostaseski Jul 13, 2023

Being with Love, Death and Grief - Grief is our natural way of expressing loss for what we love, and learning to open to grief serves the deepening and widening of our loving. This event, given at the Upaya Zen Center on June 25, 2023, includes short meditations and talks by Frank Ostaseski and Tara, and a powerful session of questions and responses.

Meditation: Present Heart Jul 13, 2023

Meditation: Present Heart - We awaken a present heart by relaxing with the breath and bringing the kindness of a smile into our bodily experience. This meditation ends with offering blessings to our inner life and all beings.

Ask Me Anything with Tara and Jonathan (Part 2) Jul 06, 2023

Ask Me Anything with Tara and Jonathan (Part 2) - Tara responds to your questions, with Jonathan Foust, her husband and known meditation teacher, as the interviewer.

Meditation: From Head to Full Being Jul 06, 2023

Meditation: From Head to Full Being - When we are lost inside thoughts we lose connection with our heart, aliveness and spirit. This meditation guides us to a wakeful presence and invites us to return over and over from virtual reality into the mysterious, tender vastness that is our true being.

Be empty of worrying. Think of who created thought! Why do you stay in prison when the door is so wide open? Move outside the tangle of fear-thinking. Live in silence. Flow down and down in always widening rings of being.

Rumi

Three Core Reminders for Spiritual Practice Jun 29, 2023

Three Core Reminders for Spiritual Practice - This talk explores three powerful ways you can direct your attention when you find yourself emotionally stuck: wake up from thoughts; feel your feelings; and remember love. We explore both the habits blocking these basic movements toward freedom, and what nourishes them. Together they can serve to open your mind, awaken aliveness and heal your heart.

Meditation: Loving What Is Jun 29, 2023

Meditation: Loving What Is - While we might not directly love what is, there is a pathway to this inner freedom. As we explore in this meditation, we begin with allowing the changing sensations and emotions to move through us, just as they are. As this allowing presence deepens, it becomes suffused with the tenderness of love.

Ask Me Anything with Tara and Jonathan (Part 1) Jun 22, 2023

Ask Me Anything with Tara and Jonathan (Part 1) - Tara responds to your questions, with Jonathan Foust, her husband and known meditation teacher, as the interviewer.

Meditation: Meeting Life with a Kind Presence Jun 22, 2023

Meditation: Meeting Life with a Kind Presence - This practice guides us to a receptive, kind presence by starting with listening, and moving through a body scan. We then rest in open awareness, responding to whatever arises with gentle attention.

Unwinding Anxiety with Awareness (Part 2): A conversation with Tara and Dr. Judson Brewer Jun 15, 2023

Unwinding Anxiety with Awareness (Part 2): A conversation with Tara and Dr. Judson Brewer - Anxiety is spiking around the world and we need the radical medicine of awareness to unwind it. In this two-part conversation, Tara and Judson Brewer look at how anxiety is a habit that can be unlearned as we cultivate a curious and kind mindful presence. Jud offers the scientific grounds for this “unwinding”, drawing on his experience as a pioneer and leading researcher in the field of mindfulness and addiction. Together they explore the power of particular mindfulness-based strategies, including noting what is happening, recognizing our habit loops, arousing curiosity and cultivating self-care. They shine a light on the genesis of worrying, how it perpetuates anxiety and ways we can become disenchanted with the habit.

If you’d like to join an online community that is dedicated to reducing stress and easing anxiety with the power of renowned neuroscientist, Judson Brewer’s 3-step methodology, check out the new Mindful Friends Groups at Cloud Sangha.

Meditation: Resting in Breath, Relaxing into Life Jun 15, 2023

Meditation: Resting in Breath, Relaxing into Life - This meditation invites us to collect our attention with a calming breath, and then with the senses as a home base, settle into presence. The reminders encourage a letting go of thoughts, shifting from virtual reality into the aliveness of moment-to-moment experience. In that letting go into life we find the stillness, wakefulness and openness of our true nature.

Unwinding Anxiety with Awareness (Part 1): A conversation with Tara and Dr. Judson Brewer Jun 08, 2023

Unwinding Anxiety with Awareness (Part 1): A conversation with Tara and Dr. Judson Brewer - Anxiety is spiking around the world and we need the radical medicine of awareness to unwind it. In this two-part conversation, Tara and Judson Brewer look at how anxiety is a habit that can be unlearned as we cultivate a curious and kind mindful presence. Jud offers the scientific grounds for this “unwinding”, drawing on his experience as a pioneer and leading researcher in the field of mindfulness and addiction. Together they explore the power of particular mindfulness-based strategies, including noting what is happening, recognizing our habit loops, arousing curiosity and cultivating self-care. They shine a light on the genesis of worrying, how it perpetuates anxiety and ways we can become disenchanted with the habit.

If you’d like to join an online community that is dedicated to reducing stress and easing anxiety with the power of renowned neuroscientist, Judson Brewer’s 3-step methodology, check out the new Mindful Friends Groups at Cloud Sangha.

Meditation – Cultivating a Relaxed Attention Jun 08, 2023

Meditation – Cultivating a Relaxed Attention - In this meditation we engage a relaxed and alert attention by scanning through the body, opening to sound, and resting in the awareness that includes all the senses. This presence is stabilized with the use of a home base, for many the breath, and reminders to “relax back” when the mind naturally drifts.

Facing Fear (Part 2) – Awakening Your Fearless Heart Jun 01, 2023

Facing Fear (Part 2) – Awakening Your Fearless Heart - Fear is a natural and universal part of our incarnation, and, when it goes on overdrive, we get imprisoned in the suffering of separation. These two talks explore how the RAIN meditation can help us face fear, and discover the boundless loving awareness that includes but is not contracted by currents of fear.

Meditation: Relaxing with Life Jun 01, 2023

Meditation: Relaxing with Life - This meditation begins with a body scan, and then we practice opening to and relaxing with our changing experience. The sitting closes with a beautiful poem by Danna Faulds, “Just for Now.”

Facing Fear (Part 1) – Awakening Your Fearless Heart May 25, 2023

Facing Fear (Part 1) – Awakening Your Fearless Heart - Fear is a natural and universal part of our incarnation, and, when it goes on overdrive, we get imprisoned in the suffering of separation. These two talks explore how the RAIN meditation can help us face fear, and discover the boundless loving awareness that includes but is not contracted by currents of fear.

Meditation: Open-Hearted Presence May 25, 2023

Meditation: Open-Hearted Presence - This meditation establishes a kind attention by bringing the imagery and felt sense of a smile into the body scan and then, with the breath as a home base, opens the attention to changing experience. We end with a brief loving kindness reflection.

Releasing the Habits That Imprison Your Spirit (Part 2) May 18, 2023

Releasing the Habits That Imprison Your Spirit (Part 2) - Addictions of all levels of intensity arise from disconnection and are spiking globally. Humans are experiencing epidemic levels of loneliness, and this combined with engineered products and substances that are highly addictive leads to great suffering. In these two talks, we explore how we get hooked on behaviors that we know cause harm, and how mindfulness and self-compassion can serve our freedom. Key to this process is reconnecting

Meditation: Letting Life Live through You May 18, 2023

Meditation: Letting Life Live through You - This meditation awakens the senses and then guides us into the wakeful openness that includes the whole play of sensations, feelings and sound. We become fully awake and alive as we open to the awareness that allows life to live through us.

Pt1 - Releasing the Habits That Imprison Your Spirit May 11, 2023

Pt1 - Releasing the Habits That Imprison Your Spirit - Addictions of all levels of intensity arise from disconnection and are spiking globally. Humans are experiencing epidemic levels of loneliness, and this combined with engineered products and substances that are highly addictive leads to great suffering. In these two talks, we explore how we get hooked on behaviors that we know cause harm, and how mindfulness and self-compassion can serve our freedom. Key to this process is reconnecting with our inner life, and remembering we are in this together, awakening together.

Meditation: Receiving This Life in Awareness May 11, 2023

Meditation: Receiving This Life in Awareness - In our everyday life we are conditioned to feel that life is happening to us, or that we are the doer. This meditation deconditions that self-centrality by bringing attention to the aliveness in our bodies, and then opening to receive the entire play of sounds, sensations and feelings in awareness.

Radical Acceptance – Gateway to Love, Wisdom and Peace May 04, 2023

Radical Acceptance – Gateway to Love, Wisdom and Peace - Acceptance is radical because it undoes our resistance to reality. This talk explores how our meditation practice can cultivate a liberating acceptance, a heartspace that includes all of life and enables us to respond to our world with deep intelligence and compassion. all life.

Meditation: Embodying Acceptance and Care May 04, 2023

Meditation: Embodying Acceptance and Care - This guided meditation helps us cultivate a friendly relationship with our experience. Using the image of a smile, we bring a gentle presence alive in our bodies, and then open to the heartspace that includes all facets of life. The meditation closes with a verse from poet, Dorothy Hunt, “Peace is this Moment Without Judgment.”

Cultivating Loving Kindness – Seeing the Goodness Apr 27, 2023

Cultivating Loving Kindness – Seeing the Goodness - The ground of loving kindness is seeing the basic goodness in ourselves, each other and our world. This is what gives rise to pure appreciation, friendliness, love and the felt-sense of belonging. In this talk we explore what obscures and contracts our perceptual field, and the pathway of purposefully awakening this transformational capacity of cherishing all life.

Meditation: Embodied Spirit Apr 27, 2023

Meditation: Embodied Spirit - Experiencing our aliveness through our senses is the gateway to resting in formless loving presence. This meditation guides us to awakening through our body, and recognizing the backdrop of silence, of awake awareness, that is the source of all being.

Realizing True Nature: A conversation with Hameed Ali and Tara Brach Apr 20, 2023

Realizing True Nature: A conversation with Hameed Ali and Tara Brach - Hameed Ali is an author, spiritual teacher and founder of the Diamond Approach to Self-Realization. In this interview we explore ways of approaching awakening to who we are, and look at the importance of befriending the experience of separate self, and actively investigating the blocks - our contracted sense of identity - that obscure the goodness and love of our true nature. Our time weaves in the inspiration of Hameed’s most recent book, Nondual Love, (his pen name A.H. Almaas is listed as author.)

Meditation: Inhabiting Awake Awareness Apr 20, 2023

Meditation: Inhabiting Awake Awareness - This meditation begins with collecting attention with the breath, and awakens us to the experience of aliveness and inner space by scanning the body. We then open to receive all the senses in awake awareness, and to inhabiting that boundless receptive awareness that is our home.

Finding True Refuge in This Living Dying World - Part 1 Apr 13, 2023

Finding True Refuge in This Living Dying World - Part 1 - This week, I began a two-part series inspired by Pema Chödron's newest offering, How We Live is How We Die. It's a powerful book that I highly recommend!

One of our deepest inquiries is how to find happiness and peace in an inherently insecure world. In these talks, we'll explore the ways we habitually try to control our lives, and the practices of presence that allow us to cherish this living world and find freedom in the midst of change and loss.

Finding True Refuge in This Living Dying World - Part 2 Apr 13, 2023

Finding True Refuge in This Living Dying World - Part 2 - Last week, I began a two-part series inspired by Pema Chödron’s newest offering, How We Live is How We Die. It’s a powerful book that I highly recommend!

One of our deepest inquiries is how to find happiness and peace in an inherently insecure world. In these talks, we’ll explore the ways we habitually try to control our lives, and the practices of presence that allow us to cherish this living world and find freedom in the midst of change and loss.

Meditation: Living Presence Apr 13, 2023

Meditation: Living Presence - The pathway to experiencing full aliveness and openheartedness is by awakening awareness throughout the body. This meditation begins by establishing a rhythmic inflow and outflow of the breath, in order to calm and collect the mind. Then continuing with the conscious breathing, we are guided through the body - bringing attention to sensations and space. This attention becomes a very vibrant living presence, and we end by experiencing that living presence as a natural openheartedness that includes all of life.

Meditation: Vast and Timeless Presence Apr 06, 2023

Meditation: Vast and Timeless Presence - The pathway to inhabiting our full presence is including, with mindfulness all parts of experience. This guided meditation explores how we can open, without resistance to the changing flow of sensations, feelings, thoughts and sounds, and discover the boundless awareness that is our true home.

The Power of Deep Listening – Part 2 Mar 30, 2023

The Power of Deep Listening – Part 2 - Listening deeply is the gateway to realizing connection. It’s what allows us to move through life with a wise, loving and healing presence. These two talks explore our blocks to true listening, and offer teachings and practices that can directly cultivate this invaluable capacity.

Meditation: Cultivating Deep Listening Mar 30, 2023

Meditation: Cultivating Deep Listening - Deep listening expresses the purity and presence of our true nature. This meditation guides us to come into a state of listening that is spacious, receptive and profoundly wakeful and present. We close with the poem “lost” by David Wagoner.

The Power of Deep Listening – Part 1 Mar 23, 2023

The Power of Deep Listening – Part 1 - Listening deeply is the gateway to realizing connection. It’s what allows us to move through life with a wise, loving and healing presence. These two talks explore our blocks to true listening, and offer teachings and practices that can directly cultivate this invaluable capacity.

Meditation: Aliveness and Presence Mar 23, 2023

Meditation: Aliveness and Presence - This meditation guides us to wake up our senses and full aliveness through a body scan, and then to rest in the formless presence that is aware of this changing dance of life. We close with a poem by Robert Hall.

Compassion for All Living Beings Mar 17, 2023

Compassion for All Living Beings - We often talk of widening the circles of compassion. This talk explores the qualities of mature compassion, what blocks us from this embodied and inclusive caring, and how each of us can awaken a heart that responds to our world’s suffering.

Meditation: Say “Yes” to Life Mar 16, 2023

Meditation: Say “Yes” to Life - This guided practice awakens a relaxed and friendly attention that rests in the breath and opens to whatever is arising. We deepen that presence with the intention to truly say “Yes” to experience, allowing life to be just as it is.

The Wings of Awakening – Self-Honesty & Love (retreat talk) Mar 09, 2023

The Wings of Awakening – Self-Honesty & Love (retreat talk) - We evolve our consciousness by bringing a clear and kind attention to the tangles of suffering. This talk explores how the “second arrow” of self-judgment imprisons us in emotional reactivity, and the pathways of awakening awareness that reconnect us with our full human potential. (This talk was given at the 2016 IMCW fall silent retreat.)

Meditation: Spacious Sky of Awareness Mar 09, 2023

Meditation: Spacious Sky of Awareness - This meditation begins with a body scan that enables us to awaken our senses. We relax open fully to include the changing flow of sounds and sensations, in a spacious, open awareness. (from a morning on the 2015 New Year's silent retreat)

Making the Whole World Your Friend Mar 02, 2023

Making the Whole World Your Friend - A wonderful translation of the Pali word Metta is friendliness. This talk looks at friendliness through an evolutionary lens, and explores ways we can cultivate a more open heart.

Meditation: Befriending Your Inner Life Mar 02, 2023

Meditation: Befriending Your Inner Life - This meditation establishes a gentle and caring presence through bringing the image and felt sense of a smile to various domains in the body. We then settle with the breath, and practice relaxing with whatever arises, letting life be just as it is. The underlying intention is to regard all experience with a clear, interested and friendly attention. The gift is a homecoming to our naturally loving presence.

Refuge in the Wilderness – Pt 2 - Coming Home to Embodied Presence Feb 23, 2023

Refuge in the Wilderness - Pt2 – Coming Home to Embodied Presence - When we live from our mental control towers, we are in a trance that confines our life. These two talks look at the primary ways we are conditioned to leave embodied presence, and the consequence of unlived life—being cut off from our vitality, intelligence and compassion. We then explore the teachings and practices that guide us to reconnect to our senses, and the sacred presence that underlies all lived experience.

Meditation: Homecoming to Our Life Breath Feb 23, 2023

Meditation: Homecoming to Our Life Breath - Perhaps the most universal place to collect and deepen attention is the breath. This meditation begins with an intentional breath that calms the nervous system, and then opens to a clear, intimate presence with our natural breathing. With breath as our home base, we practice returning again and again when the mind becomes distracted. As presence grows, we can let the breath be in the foreground, and include whatever waves of life come and go. This brings a quiet mind, and a peaceful, happy heart.

Refuge in the Wilderness - Part 1 Feb 16, 2023

Refuge in the Wilderness - Part 1 - When we live from our mental control towers, we are in a trance that confines our life. These two talks look at the primary ways we are conditioned to leave embodied presence, and the consequence of unlived life—being cut off from our vitality, intelligence and compassion. We then explore the teachings and practices that guide us to reconnect to our senses, and the sacred presence that underlies all lived experience.

Meditation: Opening to Full Aliveness Feb 16, 2023

Meditation: Opening to Full Aliveness - This meditation includes relaxing and awakening through the body, widening the lens to include sound and then letting life live through us, receiving all that arises in open awareness.

The RAIN of Forgiveness Feb 09, 2023

The RAIN of Forgiveness - The capacity to release the armoring of hatred and blame is intrinsic to our evolving consciousness. This talk explores the process of authentic forgiveness, and how we can use the mindfulness-based tool of RAIN to heal and free our hearts.

Meditation: Vipassana – Practice of Seeing Clearly Feb 09, 2023

Meditation: Vipassana – Practice of Seeing Clearly - Vipassana, also known as insight meditation, is training in bringing a clear mindful attention to our moment-to-moment experience. We begin by relaxing through the body and then resting attention with the breath – or some other sensory anchor – and allowing the mind to settle. Then we open to whatever is predominant or calling our attention – sensations, emotions, sounds – meeting each arising experience with a clear, kind attention. The gift of this process is discovering balance in the midst of the changing flow, and gaining deep insight into the nature of reality.

How to Stop the War Against Yourself - A conversation with Tara Brach & Dan Harris Feb 02, 2023

How to Stop the War Against Yourself - A conversation with Tara Brach & Dan Harris - It’s possible to actually be addicted to self-criticism, especially as a way to keep yourself safe. But evidence shows that rather than safety, this pervasive habit in our society creates deep suffering.

This conversation between Tara and Dan Harris dives into strategies to deal with your own self-hatred and cultivate a forgiving heart. (Note: This was initially created as an episode for 10% Happier Podcast)

Meditation: Opening to the River of Aliveness Feb 02, 2023

Meditation: Opening to the River of Aliveness - This meditation guides us to awaken to sensation using the image of a smile and scanning through the body. We then open to sound and to the entire changing flow of experience. When we connect with the changing flow of sensations, feelings and sounds, we also discover the formless awareness that is our Source… and home.

Trauma Sensitive Mindfulness - The Power of Self-Nurturing Jan 26, 2023

Trauma Sensitive Mindfulness - The Power of Self-Nurturing - While we all need to customize meditation, this is particularly important for those living with PTSD or strong, potentially overwhelming emotions. This talk explores how trauma cuts us off from wholeness, and is accompanied by a deep and painful experience of shame. We look at the ways meditation can be adapted to cultivate sufficient safety for the full transformational healing of mindfulness to unfold. The gift of processing trauma is that the place of woundedness becomes a gateway into profound love, healing, and freedom.

Meditation: Relaxing into Presence or Sleep Jan 26, 2023

Meditation: Relaxing into Presence or Sleep - This meditation can help us to access a relaxed attentiveness, or alternately, serve as a pathway to ease-filled sleep.

Meditation, Psychedelics, Mortality: A conversation with Tara and Roland Griffiths Jan 19, 2023

Meditation, Psychedelics, Mortality: A conversation with Tara and Roland Griffiths - Roland is a long-term meditator, a psychopharmacologist and professor at Johns Hopkins, and a leader in researching the clinical effects of psychedelics, including their impact on those struggling with cancer, depression or addiction. At the end of 2021, he discovered he had incurable stage 4 Colon Cancer. This conversation explores the relationship between meditation and psychedelics, and how they both can serve profound spiritual awakening and deep inner freedom in the face of mortality.

Information about the endowment fund: The Roland R. Griffiths, Ph.D. Professorship Fund in Psychedelic Research on Secular Spirituality and Well-Being

Meditation: The Silence That is Listening Jan 19, 2023

Meditation: The Silence That is Listening - Listening to sounds is a powerful way to quiet the thinking mind and connect with the natural openness of awareness. This meditation emphasizes the anchor of listening, and guides us to relax through our bodies and let sounds wash through us. In this receptivity we find a homecoming to full presence and peace.

Trusting the Gold - Realizing Our Basic Goodness Jan 12, 2023

Trusting the Gold - Realizing Our Basic Goodness - Can you imagine a world where humans are able to look at each other and all of life, and see the light of the sacred shining through? This talk explores our potential for trusting the love and awareness that animate our living world. We investigate the suffering of othering, how the trance of separateness blinds us to our basic goodness, and then explore the practices that open our eyes to the larger truth of our shared belonging.

Meditation: Relaxing with a Smile into Living Presence Jan 12, 2023

Meditation: Relaxing with a Smile into Living Presence - This meditation guides us to awaken to sensation using the image of a smile and scanning through the body. We then open to sound and to the entire changing flow of experience. When we connect with the changing flow of sensations, feelings and sounds, we also discover the formless awareness that is our Source… and home. We end with a prayer that includes our own being and all beings.

The Dalai Lama’s Guide to Happiness - Part 1 - with Dan Harris Jan 06, 2023

Tara shares a podcast from Dan Harris: The Dalai Lama’s Guide to Happiness - Part 1 -

Dan Harris (host of Ten Percent Happier) flies to Dharamsala, India to spend two weeks in the orbit of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. This is the first installment of a five-part audio documentary series, something we’ve never done before now. Over the course of the episodes, we talk to His Holiness about practical strategies for thorny dilemmas, including: how to get along with difficult people; whether compassion can cut it in an often brutal world; why there is a self-interested case for not being a jerk; and how to create social connection in an era of disconnection. We also get rare insights from the Dalai Lama into everything from the mechanics of reincarnation to His Holiness’s own personal mediation practice.

In this first installment, Dan watches as a young activist directly challenges His Holiness: In a world plagued by climate change, terrorism, and other existential threats, is the Dalia Lama’s message of compassion practical — or even relevant?

Want more of The Dalai Lama’s Guide to Happiness? Download the Ten Percent Happier app wherever you get your apps.

Realizing Your Deepest Intention Jan 05, 2023

Realizing Your Deepest Intention - The Buddha taught that this whole life – including our thoughts, feelings and actions – arise from the tip of intention. While our intentions are usually marbled with wanting and fear, when intention comes into the light of consciousness, it unfolds into its most pure essence. This talk explores ways that when we are stuck in reactivity, we can become aware of intention, and find our way to the aspiration that expresses our most awake and loving heart.

Meditation: Awake Awareness is Our Home Jan 05, 2023

Meditation: Awake Awareness is Our Home - This meditation guides us in awakening our awareness by opening to all our senses and recognizing the alert presence that is always, already here. By relaxing back into the presence over and over, we become familiar with the reality that is truly our home.

Freedom Beyond Selfing Dec 29, 2022

Freedom Beyond Selfing - We spend many moments in a trance of selfing - preoccupied with the stories, wants and fears of what feels to be a separate self. The suffering is that this self-fixation obscures the depth and mystery of our being. In this talk we explore how to relate wisely to selfing, and discover the light and love that express our true nature.

Meditation: Letting Go and Letting Be Dec 29, 2022

Meditation: Letting Go and Letting Be - We leave presence by contracting into thoughts and resisting the changing flow of life. This meditation guides us in gently releasing thoughts and opening to this mysterious life, just as it is.

Let go of what is past Let go of what may come Let go of what is happening now Don’t try to figure anything out Don’t try to make anything happen Relax right now and rest

~ Tibetan teaching

IntraConnected – Part 2: Conversation with Tara and Dan Siegel Dec 22, 2022

IntraConnected – Part 2: Conversation with Tara and Dan Siegel - In this conversation, Tara interviews Dan about the themes in his new book, IntraConnected. They explore how our identity gets formed, and the profound healing and freedom that come with widening our sense of identity from me to what Dan terms "Mwe" (me plus we.) The principles they touch on come from indigenous wisdom, the contemplative or wisdom traditions, neuroscience and quantum physics.

Meditation: "Yes" to Our Moments Dec 22, 2022

Meditation: "Yes" to Our Moments - When we open without resistance to the changing flow of aliveness, we discover the formless presence that is our true home. This meditation guides us through a body scan and then opening to all sounds, sensations and emotions with the energetic allowing of “Yes.” We close with a poem by Danna Faulds, “White Dove.”

IntraConnected – Part 1: Conversation with Tara and Dan Siegel Dec 15, 2022

IntraConnected – Part 1: Conversation with Tara and Dan Siegel - In this conversation, Tara interviews Dan about the themes in his new book, IntraConnected. They explore how our identity gets formed, and the profound healing and freedom that come with widening our sense of identity from me to what Dan terms "Mwe" (me plus we.) The principles they touch on come from indigenous wisdom, the contemplative or wisdom traditions, neuroscience and quantum physics.

Meditation: Body and Spirit Dec 15, 2022

Meditation: Body and Spirit - As we relax and awaken through our physical body, we discover the formless dimension of awareness or spirit that permeates all of life. This meditation includes a poem (the spirit likes to dress up) from Mary Oliver.

Our True Nature – Emptiness Dancing (retreat talk) Dec 08, 2022

Our True Nature - Emptiness Dancing (retreat talk) - The most profound question in spiritual life is “who (or what) am I?” This talk explores ways of inquiring into the nature of awareness, and the blessings of embodying the realization of our radiant, empty essence. This audio talk was first offered at the 2011 IMCW Fall Weeklong Retreat, and it includes several guided reflections.

Meditation: Receiving Life in Open Awareness Dec 08, 2022

Meditation: Receiving Life in Open Awareness - Our habit is to try to manage our experience from a mental control tower. This meditation awakens us through the body, and then invites us to rest in that vast presence that includes the changing flow of life. When we inhabit that openness, there’s a natural arising of peace, wakefulness and tenderness.

Embracing Life and Realizing the Nature of Awareness - Tara and Mingyur Rinpoche in Conversation Dec 01, 2022

Embracing Life and Realizing the Nature of Awareness - Tara and Mingyur Rinpoche in Conversation -

In this interview, Mingyur Rinpoche shares about his 4 1/2 years on a wandering retreat and the lessons he learned from a near-death experience. The two then talk about what it means to befriend panic as well as other strong emotions, and the qualities that express our intrinsic awareness. They also talk about compassion for our world, the evolution of consciousness, and the value of hope.

About Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche and his meditation community: https://tergar.org/

Meditation: Being the Ocean and Opening to the Waves (from retreat) Dec 01, 2022

Meditation: Being the Ocean and Opening to the Waves (from retreat) - We can’t truly open to the waves of life unless we recognize our Oceanness, the formless awareness that is our source. This meditation begins with awakening the senses and then invites us to discover the spacious presence in the background of all experience. NOTE: Given on the 4th morning of the 2018 IMCW New Year’s Retreat. It’s especially enjoyed when the mind is a bit quieter.

You might reflect on these words from the Tibetan tradition: "Utterly awake, senses wide open. Utterly open, non-fixating awareness."

A Grateful, Giving, Happy Heart Nov 24, 2022

A Grateful, Giving, Happy Heart - Gratitude is like breathing in – letting ourselves be touched by the goodness in others and in our world. Generosity is like breathing out – sensing our mutual belonging and offering our care. When we are awake and whole, breathing in and out happens naturally. But these beautiful expressions of our heart become blocked when we are dominated by the fear and grasping of our survival brain. This talk explores how we can facilitate the evolution of consciousness with the deliberate cultivation of generosity, and ends with a guided meditation on gratitude and generosity.

Meditation: Touching Peace Nov 24, 2022

Meditation: Touching Peace - This guided meditation offers a pathway to quieting our mind and calming anxiety. We begin with long deep breathing, and with the breath, engage the image of a smile and relax through the body. Then we practice resting in relaxed awareness, allowing waves of thoughts, feelings and sensations to come and go. The meditation ends with a beautiful verse from poet Philip Booth.

The Calling of These Times - Part 2 Nov 17, 2022

The Calling of These Times - Part 2 - The Dalai Lama invites us to trust in the power of heart and awareness to awake through all circumstances. What does that look like in the midst of our current global crises? These two talks explore what these times are drawing forward in us individually and collectively, and how we can live true to the full wisdom and love of our beings.

Meditation: Calling on Your Awakened Heart Nov 17, 2022

Meditation: Calling on Your Awakened Heart - In the midst of difficulty we need access to our deepest wisdom and love. This guided meditation calls forth this loving presence by opening to the heart and spirit of whatever being in our life we most experience as calm, wise and compassionate.

The Calling of These Times - Part 1 Nov 10, 2022

The Calling of These Times - Part 1 - The Dalai Lama invites us to trust in the power of heart and awareness to awake through all circumstances. What does that look like in the midst of our current global crises? These two talks explore what these times are drawing forward in us individually and collectively, and how we can live true to the full wisdom and love of our beings.

Meditation: Being the Ocean and Opening to the Waves Nov 10, 2022

Meditation: Being the Ocean and Opening to the Waves - We can’t truly open to the waves of life unless we recognize our Oceanness, the formless awareness that is our source. This meditation begins with awakening the senses and then invites us to discover the spacious presence in the background of all experience (from the 2018 IMCW New Year’s Retreat). It’s especially enjoyed when the mind is a bit quieter.

You might reflect on these words from the Tibetan tradition: Utterly awake, senses wide open. Utterly open, non-fixating awareness.

Three Practices for Nurturing Wise Hope Nov 03, 2022

Three Practices for Nurturing Wise Hope - Wise or spiritual hope includes the aspiration to manifest our full potential, individually and collectively, and the trust that this is possible. This talk explores how, especially in stressful times, this hope gets clouded over by fear; and how when it is alive, wise hope energizes and guides all spiritual transformation. We look at three practices - 3 A’s - that help us nurture hope: Aspiration for what we love, Attending to what we love, and Actively serving what we love. This talk includes several poems by poet Danna Faulds.

Meditation: Befriending Our Experience Nov 03, 2022

Meditation: Befriending Our Experience - We begin the meditation with a sense of befriending our experience - with an intention towards gentleness and kindness as the attention goes inward. We scan the body, opening to sounds and the senses, resting in the awareness that includes this changing life. When the mind drifts, as it naturally does, we notice, then relax back into a receptive, listening presence. There’s nothing to do, simply letting life be as it is. Resting in the freedom of awake, open awareness.

Cultivating Inner Strength – A Conversation with Tara Brach and Lori Deschene Oct 27, 2022

Cultivating Inner Strength – A Conversation with Tara Brach and Lori Deschene -

What gives us the inner strength to meet life’s challenges with resilience, heart and wisdom? Drawing on themes in Lori’s new book, "The Tiny Buddha’s Inner Strength Journal," Tara and Lori explore the mindset that is conducive to growth, working with negative beliefs, ways of transforming fear, and what it means to have inner strength in facing loss and death. We also talk about what can most empower and energize us in responding to a world struggling with multiple crises.

Find Lori Deschene’s “The Tiny Buddha’s Inner Strength Journal” here: tinybuddha.com/strong. Lori also created several free companion resources, available at tinybuddha.com/strength-tools.

Meditation: At Home in the Moment Oct 27, 2022

Meditation: At Home in the Moment - This meditation cultivates a gentle, wakeful presence in the body, with the “smile down” and then guides us to resting in a home base of sensations or the breath. We then open to whatever arises with a clear and inclusive attention, saying "Yes" to the life that is here.

Beyond the Controlling Self - Part 2 Oct 20, 2022

Beyond the Controlling Self - Part 2 - It’s natural that we do what we can to ward off danger and further ourselves. While our control strategies – such as aggression, judging, planning, seeking approval, pretending – have a developmental role, they are not a recipe for happiness, intimacy and freedom. An essential part of our evolution is to recognize when we are over-managing our lives, and learn to let go of the controls. These talks explore how we can release the grip of the over-controller, and the profound awakening of our hearts and minds that is possible in the shift from doing to being.

Meditation: Letting Life Be Oct 20, 2022

Meditation: Letting Life Be - This meditation establishes an atmosphere of loving kindness with the “smile”; relaxes and awakens through the body; and guides us into a spacious presence. We then rest in that presence, letting go of any controlling, and simply allow life to be as it is. It’s in “letting be” that we come home to the luminosity and tenderness of natural awareness. We close with a verse from Mary Oliver…

Beyond the Controlling Self - Part 1 Oct 13, 2022

Beyond the Controlling Self - Part 1 - It’s natural that we do what we can to ward off danger and further ourselves. While our control strategies – such as aggression, judging, planning, seeking approval, pretending – have a developmental role, they are not a recipe for happiness, intimacy and freedom. An essential part of our evolution is to recognize when we are over-managing our lives, and learn to let go of the controls. These talks explore how we can release the grip of the over-controller, and the profound awakening of our hearts and minds that is possible in the shift from doing to being.

Meditation: Letting Go into Living Presence Oct 13, 2022

Meditation: Letting Go into Living Presence - This guided meditation starts with a scan that invites relaxing and awakening through the body. We then allow life – sounds, sensations, aliveness – to live through us, resting in open presence. When there is tightening, holding or confinement in thoughts, we recognize and re-open, letting go into the presence that is always here.

The Liberating Power of Conscious Intention – Part 2 Oct 06, 2022

The Liberating Power of Conscious Intention – Part 2 - While we can’t change our past, we have the capacity in this moment to remember our deepest intention and seed the future. Intention can become the compass of our heart, guiding and creating our life experience. In these two talks we explore how we awaken mindfulness of intention and how, when we are caught in habits that create suffering, we can find our way home to the deep intention that heals and frees us. These two talks include reflections and practices that can bring the power of intention alive in your life.

Meditation: Resting in the Center of Now Oct 06, 2022

Meditation: Resting in the Center of Now - This meditation awakens our senses and then guides us to rest in the changing flow of experience. When the mind drifts, we are invited to relax back into full living presence, into that Beingness that is the center of now.

The Liberating Power of Conscious Intention – Part 1 Sep 29, 2022

The Liberating Power of Conscious Intention – Part 1 - While we can’t change our past, we have the capacity in this moment to remember our deepest intention and seed the future. Intention can become the compass of our heart, guiding and creating our life experience. In these two talks we explore how we awaken mindfulness of intention and how, when we are caught in habits that create suffering, we can find our way home to the deep intention that heals and frees us. These two talks include reflections and practices that can bring the power of intention alive in your life.

Meditation: Calling on Your Future Self Sep 29, 2022

Meditation: Calling on Your Future Self - We have within us the wisdom and compassion that can carry us through the most challenging times. This meditation guides us in accessing these inner resources by calling on the most evolved part of our being.

Radical Acceptance - Our Gateway to Love and Freedom Sep 22, 2022

Radical Acceptance - Our Gateway to Love and Freedom - Our capacity to realize the truth of who we are and to love fully, arises from moments of true acceptance. This means meeting our unfolding life with an unconditional, open and tender presence. This talk on Radical Acceptance explores how the trance of unworthiness contracts us away from presence, and how activating mindfulness and self-compassion with RAIN loosens the grip of self-aversion and awakens our hearts.

Meditation: Saying “Yes” to Reality Sep 22, 2022

Meditation: Saying “Yes” to Reality - Our suffering comes from tensing and resisting the life that’s here. This meditation guides us to relax and awaken our body and senses, and resting in presence, allow life to be as it is. As our “Yes” to the changing flow becomes full, we discover the freedom of awake awareness itself.

Navigating Conflict with a Wise Heart – Part 2 Sep 15, 2022

Navigating Conflict with a Wise Heart – Part 2 - This series of talks offers guidance in transforming conflict into a portal for awakening your understanding, flexibility and compassion. We look at how to heal our own unmet needs and not be dependent on others changing; and how to engage with another person when both are dedicated to mindful communication. We also extend our exploration to societal conflict. The talks are accompanied by reflections and meditations that can directly enhance your capacity to respond to conflict from the most wise and caring part of your being.

Meditation: Relaxing with Life Sep 15, 2022

Meditation: Relaxing with Life - This meditation includes a mindful body scan and guidance in relaxing with the changing waves of experience. When we say “Yes” to the moment, we open to the sea of awareness that can include, with care, whatever arises.

Navigating Conflict with a Wise Heart – Part 1 Sep 08, 2022

Navigating Conflict with a Wise Heart – Part 1 - This series of talks offers guidance in transforming conflict into a portal for awakening your understanding, flexibility and compassion. We look at how to heal our own unmet needs and not be dependent on others changing; and how to engage with another person when both are dedicated to mindful communication. We also extend our exploration to societal conflict. The talks are accompanied by reflections and meditations that can directly enhance your capacity to respond to conflict from the most wise and caring part of your being.

Meditation: Resting in a Sea of Presence Sep 08, 2022

Meditation: Resting in a Sea of Presence - This mindful body scan leads us into a practice of relaxing back into awareness, and recognizing the changing waves of sensations, sounds and feelings in the foreground. As we let go into the sea of presence, we discover am increasing sense of wholeness and peace. The meditation ends with a brief lovingkindness prayer.

Concern for All Beings: Plant-Based Eating Sep 06, 2022

Concern for All Beings: Plant-Based Eating – A conversation with Tara Brach and Tricycle‘s editor-in-chief, James Shaheen -

A vegetarian diet, while encouraged in most schools of Buddhism, isn’t a requirement of the Buddhist path. But there are powerful spiritual opportunities in embracing a plant-based diet. Following a vegetarian or plant-based diet is one way to practice compassion, reduce harm, and recognize our interconnectedness with all living beings and the earth itself. So what does the dharma say about vegetarianism? How might plant-based eating support our spiritual practice?

Tara and James discuss these and other important questions at the intersection of our dietary choices and spiritual path.

Survival of the Nurtured – Our Path to Belonging Sep 01, 2022

Survival of the Nurtured – Our Path to Belonging - We flourish when nurtured with love and understanding. Yet for so many, the violence of our society and lack of attuned caretakers has severed trust and belonging. This talk explores how meditation and conscious relating with each other can restore the connections so vital to healing and spiritual freedom.

“We are not the survival of the fittest. We are the survival of the nurtured.” Louis Cozolino

Meditation: The Presence Beyond Thoughts Sep 01, 2022

Meditation: The Presence Beyond Thoughts - We spend many life moments in a trance of thinking. This meditation awakens the senses through a body scan, and attention to sound. We then rest in the presence that can come alive in the gap between thoughts—the presence that is our true home.

Awakening through Difficult Emotions Aug 25, 2022

Awakening through Difficult Emotions: "The Poison is the Medicine" - Most of us know the pain of getting stuck in fear, anxiety, anger or shame. This exploration looks at how the emotion that takes over, when we attend with mindfulness and care, can become a place of deep transformation and freedom. Included in the talk is a guided RAIN meditation.

Meditation: Breath by Breath Aug 25, 2022

Meditation: Breath by Breath - Our breath can be a home base that allows us to meet life with a relaxed, wakeful presence. This meditation helps us calm and settle the mind with long deep breathing, and then establishes a mindful presence with our natural breathing. When distracted, we learn to relax back again and again, learning the pathway of homecoming to the aliveness, openness and mystery that is always Here.

Three Blessings in Spiritual Life – Part 3: A Mirror Aug 18, 2022

Three Blessings in Spiritual Life – Part 3: A Mirror - This 3-part series explores three capacities we all have, that when cultivated, bring spiritual awakening and serve the healing of our world. Drawing on an ancient teaching story from India, we explore together the power of a forgiving heart, the inner fire that expresses as courage and dedication, and the inquiry of “who am I” that reveals our deepest nature.

Meditation: Listening to Life Aug 18, 2022

Meditation: Listening to Life - The attitude of meditation is one of engaged listening – a relaxed, receptive yet intimate attention. This meditation explores how we can listen to sounds, listen to and feel sensations, and then relax back into the ocean of awareness that includes and perceives the changing waves. In this relaxing back, we realize the peace and freedom of inhabiting our wholeness and essence.

Three Blessings in Spiritual Life – Part 2: Inner Fire Aug 11, 2022

Three Blessings in Spiritual Life – Part 2: Inner Fire - This 3- part series explores three capacities we all have, that when cultivated, bring spiritual awakening and serve the healing of our world. Drawing on an ancient teaching story from India, we explore together the power of a forgiving heart, the inner fire that expresses as courage and dedication, and the inquiry of “who am I” that reveals our deepest nature.

Meditation: Open Awareness – Relaxing Back into Presence Aug 11, 2022

Meditation: Open Awareness – Relaxing Back into Presence - This practice brings attention to the continuous space within and around the body, and the aliveness of sound, sensation and feeling that lives through us. While it’s natural for attention to get distracted, the pathway home is a relaxing back into the awake space that is aware of this changing life.

Three Blessings in Spiritual Life – Part 1: Forgiveness Aug 04, 2022

Three Blessings in Spiritual Life – Part 1: Forgiveness - This 3-part series explores three capacities we all have, that when cultivated, bring spiritual awakening and serve the healing of our world. Drawing on an ancient teaching story from India, we explore together the power of a forgiving heart, the inner fire that expresses as courage and dedication, and the inquiry of “who am I” that reveals our deepest nature.

Meditation: Living Presence Aug 04, 2022

Meditation: Living Presence - The pathway to experiencing full aliveness and openheartedness is by awakening awareness throughout the body. This meditation begins by establishing a rhythmic inflow and outflow of the breath, in order to calm and collect the mind. Then continuing with the conscious breathing, we are guided through the body – bringing attention to sensations and space. This attention becomes a very vibrant living presence, and we end by experiencing that living presence as a natural openheartedness that includes all of life.

Awakening from the Landlocked Self Jul 28, 2022

Awakening from the Landlocked Self - The Buddha taught that our suffering arises from forgetting who we are. This talk explores the trance of identifying as Somebody, and the compassionate witnessing that allows us to discover the freedom of our natural being.

Meditation: Befriending and Opening to Life Jul 28, 2022

Meditation: Befriending and Opening to Life - This meditation establishes a gentle and caring presence through bringing the image and felt sense of a smile to various domains in the body. We deepen the intention to befriend and relax with whatever arises moment-to-moment, letting life be just as it is. We offer a brief lovingkindness reflection, sensing our heart and mind, and offering whatever wish most resonates right now to ourselves and others.

2022-07-20 - Homecoming to Your True Nature Jul 21, 2022

2022-07-20 - Homecoming to Your True Nature: Awakening beyond the separate, fearful self - Most of us unconsciously identify as a separate, threatened, deficient self. This talk shines a light on this conditioning and explores the ways that mindfulness, compassion and self-inquiry reveal the freedom of our true nature.

Meditation: The Breath – Portal to Presence Jul 21, 2022

Meditation: The Breath – Portal to Presence - The meditation begins with breathing mindfully to collect and calm the body and mind. Then the attention opens to include the changing flow in a spacious natural presence.

From Dragons to Schmoos – Meeting Life with Compassionate Presence Jul 14, 2022

From Dragons to Schmoos – Meeting Life with Compassionate Presence - The trance of unworthiness is sustained by our aversion to the dragons – the difficult emotions and related behaviors that are a deeply conditioned part of the human experience. In this talk we explore the awakening that is possible as we recognize our reactive patterns and instead of judgment, offer a loving and healing presence (a favorite from the archives).

Meditation: Resting in Wakeful Presence Jul 14, 2022

Meditation: Resting in Wakeful Presence - This meditation scans through the body - arriving in the foreground with sounds, feelings and sensations, like the surface waves of the sea coming and going. And in the background, experiencing an alert inner stillness – a vast presence from which all activity pours forth.

Navigating the Dark Ages Jul 07, 2022

Navigating the Dark Ages - How do we process and respond to increasing societal oppression and violence? What helps us transform the energies of fear, hatred and delusion? This talk offers ways we can draw on our spiritual path to steady our heart and engage with presence, wisdom and care.

Meditation: Cultivating a Gentle, Kind Attention Jul 07, 2022

Meditation: Cultivating a Gentle, Kind Attention - This meditation calls on the image and felt sense of a smile as we scan through the body, and invites a receptive and caring presence, as we open our attention to the changing flow of life.

The Path of Spiritual Surrender: Part 2 Jul 02, 2022

The Path of Spiritual Surrender: Part 2 - Cultivating a surrendering presence allows us to release the identity of a small, separate self, and open to the truth and fullness of who we are. These two talks explore misunderstandings about surrender (such as the fear that we will become passive or condone injustice) and the practices that create the grounds for surrender, emotional healing, transformational activism and spiritual freedom.

Meditation: Letting Go Jun 29, 2022

Meditation: Letting Go - One way of understanding meditation is a letting go of the habitual clenching of thoughts, the clenching that resists emotions and pulls away from aliveness itself. This meditation guides us in letting go, first through the body, and then practicing letting go of thoughts and relaxing and resting in the changing flow of experience. The blessing of letting go is a homecoming into the truth and wholeness of what we are, a realization of reality, and freedom.

The Path of Spiritual Surrender: Part 1 Jun 23, 2022

The Path of Spiritual Surrender: Part 1 - Cultivating a surrendering presence allows us to release the identity of a small, separate self, and open to the truth and fullness of who we are. These two talks explore misunderstandings about surrender (such as the fear that we will become passive or condone injustice) and the practices that create the grounds for surrender, emotional healing, transformational activism and spiritual freedom.

Meditation: Befriending Your Inner Life (16:11 min.) Jun 23, 2022

Meditation: Befriending Your Inner Life (16:11 min.) - This meditation establishes a gentle and caring presence through bringing the image and felt sense of a smile to various domains in the body. We then settle with the breath, and practice relaxing with whatever arises, letting life be just as it is. The underlying intention is to regard all experience with a clear, interested and friendly attention. The gift is a homecoming to our naturally loving presence.

The Three Steps of Letting Go Jun 16, 2022

The Three Steps of Letting Go - A wonderful inquiry is, “What is between me and openhearted presence?” This talk explores the profound healing and transformation that arises when we release the blocks to our natural and loving awareness.

Meditation: Relaxing Back into Open Wakefulness Jun 16, 2022

Meditation: Relaxing Back into Open Wakefulness - This meditation begins by relaxing through the body and connecting with inner aliveness and space. We then include sounds and sense the openness to life. At the center of the practice is a relaxing back and inhabiting spacious awareness. The meditation ends as we experience the heart from the vantage of spacious awareness and offer prayers to our inner life and all life.

Cultivating a Courageous Heart – Part 2 Jun 09, 2022

Cultivating a Courageous Heart – Part 2 - In the face of violence, hatred and loss, how do we handle the reactivity we feel? Our own anger, hatred and fear? These two talks offer guidance and practice in letting our own vulnerability be a portal to responding—to ourselves, each other and our world– with courageous, wise hearts.

Meditation: Refuge of Living Presence Jun 09, 2022

Meditation: Refuge of Living Presence - Our thoughts keep us removed from this living world. This guided practice invites us to open and relax with the moment to moment experience of our senses. It includes a poem by Ingrid Goff-Maidoff, “Wherever you are, Find a Trail.”

Cultivating a Courageous Heart – Part 1 Jun 02, 2022

Cultivating a Courageous Heart – Part 1 - In the face of violence, hatred and loss, how do we handle the reactivity we feel? Our own anger, hatred and fear? These two talks offer guidance and practice in letting our own vulnerability be a portal to responding – to ourselves, each other and our world – with courageous, wise hearts.

Meditation: Reconnecting to Silence and Presence Jun 02, 2022

Meditation: Reconnecting to Silence and Presence - Only in silence and presence do we realign with what matters to our hearts. This simple practice of arriving in an embodied awareness supports us in touching the grounds of true transformation and healing. It closes with a powerful poem by Gunilla Norris, “Sharing Silence.”

Nourishing Our Spirit in Times of Collective Fear May 26, 2022

Nourishing Our Spirit in Times of Collective Fear -

Meditation: Whole Body Breathing May 26, 2022

Meditation: Whole Body Breathing - This guided meditation includes a body scan and invites the receptivity and letting-go of whole body breathing. Once we have awakened the vitality and presence throughout the body, we have access to the formless dimension, the awareness that is our source.

Self Forgiveness with RAIN May 19, 2022

Self Forgiveness with RAIN - Our inability to forgive ourselves blocks healing and freedom. As we explore in this talk, the habit of judging and blaming ourselves traps us in fears, prevents intimacy with our world, and veils over the goodness and mystery of who we are. This talk includes several reflections that can support us as we cultivate a wise and forgiving heart.

Meditation: Awake and Alive May 19, 2022

Meditation: Awake and Alive - This guided practice includes a body scan, and an opening to the awareness that includes all of life. From that wakeful openness we offer a relaxed attentiveness to the changing flow, and close with loving kindness to ourselves and our world.

Equanimity – Part 4 of Present Heart: Universal Expressions of Love May 12, 2022

Equanimity – Part 4 of Present Heart: The Universal Expressions of Love

Meditation: The Space and Aliveness of Presence May 12, 2022

Meditation: The Space and Aliveness of Presence - We arrive in presence by deepening attention in the body; relaxing and awakening through a body scan. That presence deepens as we bring our attention to the space of awareness that includes the changing flow of sounds, sensations and feelings. In that wholeness of formlessness and form, we discover our natural being - open, awake and tender.

Joy – Part 3 of Present Heart: The Universal Expressions of Love May 05, 2022

Joy – Part 3 of Present Heart: The Universal Expressions of Love - Part 3: Joy – blossoms in the moments our hearts open boundlessly to reality, to the 10,000 joys and sorrows. This series reflects on four primary expressions of an awake, wise heart: lovingkindness, compassion, joy and equanimity. In each talk we explore the habitual patterning that blocks our full realization of these innate capacities, and the understandings and practices that nurture their unfolding.

Meditation: The Heartspace Where All is Welcome May 05, 2022

Meditation: The Heartspace Where All is Welcome - This meditation scans through the body, and awakens attention to the open, inclusive awareness that all life arises in. We then explore experiencing that openness in the region of the heart, saying yes to life and including whatever is here with unconditional presence (a favorite "open space" meditation from the archives).

Compassion – Part 2 of Present Heart: The Universal Expressions of Love Apr 28, 2022

Compassion – Part 2 of Present Heart: The Universal Expressions of Love -

Part 2: Compassion – the tender resonance of heart – awakens as we allow ourselves to be touched by our shared vulnerability.

This series reflects on four primary expressions of an awake, wise heart: lovingkindness, compassion, joy and equanimity. In each talk we explore the habitual patterning that blocks our full realization of these innate capacities, and the understandings and practices that nurture their unfolding.

Meditation: Awareness Is Our Home Apr 28, 2022

Meditation: Awareness Is Our Home - This guided practice helps us come into our senses through a body scan. We then rest in the awareness that is listening to and feeling the changing flow of experience. When the mind drifts, the return is a relaxing back to our senses, and to the sea of awareness that includes and experiences the waves of life.

Lovingkindness – Part 1 of Present Heart: The Universal Expressions of Love Apr 21, 2022

Lovingkindness – Part 1 of Present Heart: The Universal Expressions of Love - We awaken our natural lovingkindness by learning to attend to and take in the goodness of this life.

This series reflects on four primary expressions of an awake, wise heart: lovingkindness, compassion, joy and equanimity. In each talk we explore the habitual patterning that blocks our full realization of these innate capacities, and the understandings and practices that nurture their unfolding.

Meditation: Path of Love Apr 21, 2022

Meditation: Path of Love - This heart practice opens with the intention to bring a kind presence to whatever arises. After arriving with a body scan, we are guided to meet all experience with an open tender awareness. The practice ends with a poem by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer called “Is this the Path of Love?”

Responding with Heart to Painful Times: Conversation with Tara & Frank Ostaseski Apr 14, 2022

Responding with Heart to Painful Times: A Conversation with Tara & Frank Ostaseski - This event includes short talks addressing the suffering so many are experiencing, and questions and engagement with participants

Meditation: Present Heart Apr 14, 2022

Meditation: Present Heart - We awaken a present heart by relaxing with the breath and bringing the kindness of a smile into our bodily experience. This meditation ends with offering blessings to our inner life and all beings.

Relationships - from Reactivity to Rechoosing Love Apr 08, 2022

Relationships - from Reactivity to Rechoosing Love - Most of us have habitual ways we create separation from others. This talk takes a look at the roots of our emotional reactivity and ways our meditation practice can foster more loving connection in our lives.

Meditation: Meeting Life with a Spacious Heart Apr 07, 2022

Meditation: Meeting Life with a Spacious Heart - Especially when we’re stressed, we need pathways to an allowing, kind presence. This meditation guides us to relax and open through our bodies, and then meet changing waves of experience with a sea of awareness that is intrinsically allowing and tender.

Compassion toward Non-Human Animals - A Conversation between Konda Mason and Tara Brach Mar 31, 2022

Compassion toward Non-Human Animals - A Conversation between Konda Mason and Tara Brach - The medicine our world most needs is compassion, and it is crucial that this include all living beings. Our societal conditioning blinds us to the horror of suffering experienced by non-human animals through our cruel system of factory farming. This conversation looks at how facing and responding to this suffering is necessary for the freedom of our own hearts, and the healing of the world.

Meditation: Entrusting Yourself to the Waves Mar 31, 2022

Meditation: Entrusting Yourself to the Waves - By not resisting, by letting the waves wash through us, we began to relax. Rather than fighting the stormy surges, we rest in an ocean of awareness that embraces all the moving waves. We arrive in a sanctuary that feels large enough to hold whatever was going on.

Being Embodied: Gateway to Aliveness and Spirit – Part 2 Mar 24, 2022

Being Embodied: Gateway to Aliveness and Spirit – Part 2 - All that we cherish—creativity, love, wisdom, realization—arises from an embodied presence. Yet as we know, the wounds and trauma of our society and individual lives leads toward dissociation. These two talks look at the challenges to awakening through our bodies, and the practices and teachings that guide us on the path.

Meditation: Inhabiting Our Body, Realizing Wholeness Mar 24, 2022

Meditation: Inhabiting Our Body, Realizing Wholeness - Awakening awareness in the body is the portal to resting in boundless and dynamic presence. This guided practice scans the body from feet up, and helps us inhabit all parts of our body. As we open to the aliveness and space inside the body, we discover a permeability that allows us to inhabit the universe of aliveness and space, form and formlessness. With this homecoming to whole beingness is an intrinsic experience of freedom.

Being Embodied: Gateway to Aliveness and Spirit – Part 1 Mar 17, 2022

Being Embodied: Gateway to Aliveness and Spirit – Part 1 - All that we cherish—creativity, love, wisdom, realization—arises from an embodied presence. Yet as we know, the wounds and trauma of our society and individual lives leads toward dissociation. These two talks look at the challenges to awakening through our bodies, and the practices and teachings that guide us on the path.

Meditation: Embodied Spirit Mar 17, 2022

Meditation: Embodied Spirit - Experiencing our aliveness through our senses is the gateway to resting in formless loving presence. This meditation guides us to awakening through our body, and recognizing the backdrop of silence, of awake awareness that is the source of all being.

Engaged Spirituality during Times of Upheaval Mar 11, 2022

Engaged Spirituality during Times of Upheaval - Engaged spirituality means responding to our world’s suffering with wisdom and deep care. This talk looks at three blocks to aligning our actions with our heart – “bad othering,” dissociation and overwhelm. We explore how we can awaken from each reaction to suffering by drawing on our practices of presence and remembering our larger belonging.

Meditation – Compassion Practice – Tonglen Mar 10, 2022

Meditation: Compassion Practice – Tonglen - Our deepest wisdom and purest actions arise out of open-hearted presence. This meditation, “Awakening Compassion,” is drawn from the Tibetan tradition and carries us home to the vastness of loving presence (re-mastered from the 2013 IMCW fall 7-day silent retreat).

Equanimity: The Gifts of Non-Reactive Mindful Presence Mar 04, 2022

Equanimity: The Gifts of Non-Reactive Mindful Presence - If we want to bring our intelligence, creativity and love into our relationships and world, we need to be able to access an inner refuge of presence. This talk explores how, when we’re reacting from anger, clinging or fear, to pause, reconnect to the immediate experience of “just this” and remember the love and awareness that has room for the changing waves of life.

Meditation: Being a Kind Witness Mar 03, 2022

Meditation: Being a Kind Witness - Learning to witness what is going on inside us is the gateway to inner freedom and deep realization. This meditation guides us in witnessing our experience with a non-judging and kind awareness.

Radical Acceptance - Gateway to Love, Wisdom and Peace Feb 24, 2022

Radical Acceptance - Gateway to Love, Wisdom and Peace - (2022-02-23) - Acceptance is radical because it undoes our resistance to reality. This talk explores how our meditation practice can cultivate a liberating acceptance, a heartspace that includes all of life and enables us to respond to our world with deep intelligence and compassion.

Meditation: Embodying Acceptance and Care Feb 24, 2022

Meditation: Embodying Acceptance and Care - This guided meditation helps us cultivate a friendly relationship with our experience. Using the image of a smile, we bring a gentle presence alive in our bodies, and then open to the heartspace that includes all facets of life. The meditation closes with a verse from poet Dorothy Hunt.

Cultivating Loving Kindness Feb 17, 2022

Cultivating Loving Kindness - The ground of loving kindness is seeing the basic goodness in ourselves, each other and our world. This is what gives rise to pure appreciation, friendliness, love and the felt-sense of belonging. In this talk we explore what obscures and contracts our perceptual field, and the pathway of purposefully awakening this transformational capacity of cherishing all life.

Heart Meditation: Loving Kindness – Befriending our Lives Feb 17, 2022

Heart Meditation: Loving Kindness – Befriending our Lives - This heart meditation guides us in how to cultivate a deep quality of friendliness in relating to our inner life and each other. The gift of this practice is a direct sense of belonging – knowing that we can never be alone (given at the Fall 2019 IMCW 7-Day Silent Retreat).

Love in Action: Realizing Interbeing Feb 10, 2022

Love in Action: Realizing Interbeing - The suffering in our world arises out of a sense of separation—from our own bodies and hearts, each other, and this living web. These two talks explore this trance of separation and how it's led humans to destroying our larger body, Earth. We then look at the pathways of awakening to the truth of “interbeing” and responding to our precious world with love.

Meditation: Spacious, Clear Awareness Feb 10, 2022

Meditation: Spacious, Clear Awareness - This meditation begins with a breath that calms and collects the attention, and then a body scan that enables us to awaken our senses. Finally, we relax open fully to include the changing flow of sounds and sensations, in a spacious, clear awareness.

The Earth is Crying in our Hearts Feb 03, 2022

The Earth is Crying in our Hearts - The suffering in our world arises out of a sense of separation—from our own bodies and hearts, each other, and this living web. These two talks explore this trance of separation and how it's led humans to destroying our larger body, earth. We then look at the pathways of awakening to the truth of “interbeing” and responding to our precious world with love.

Meditation: Breathing Through Feb 03, 2022

Meditation: Breathing Through - Drawn from a classic Tibetan Buddhist compassion practice, this guided meditation invites us to open to the sufferings of the world, and let it move through our hearts and out again. The blessing of this offering of presence is that our hearts become a transformer of sorrow.

Living with Courageous Presence Jan 27, 2022

Living with Courageous Presence - The essence of courage is to willingly feel our vulnerability; this is what allows us to respond to life with an undefended, wise heart. This talk explores the ways we resist opening to vulnerability, and three key steps in cultivating a courageous presence.

Meditation: Know That You're Here Jan 27, 2022

Meditation: Know That You're Here - We spend many moments in a trance, time traveling to the past and future, lost in a virtual reality. This meditation helps us collect our attention with our breath, awaken through the body, and open the senses. We then rest in the wakeful openness that includes changing experience, aware of the mystery and vividness of being Here.

Resilience and Wisdom in an Uncertain World (Conversation: Tara & Trisha Stotler, IMCW) Jan 20, 2022

Resilience and Wisdom in an Uncertain World (Conversation: Tara & Trisha Stotler, IMCW) - The Buddhist scriptures describe a mind that “no longer shakes, in a world where everything is shaking.” Our times are deeply stressful and troubling, and we need individual and collective ways of responding from our deepest understanding and care. In this interview, Tara reflects on the perspectives and ways of practicing that allow us to engage in relationships and our larger society from an awake compassionate heart.

Meditation: Silence, Presence and Care (2022-01-19) Jan 20, 2022

Meditation: Silence, Presence and Care (2022-01-19) - Quieting our busy bodies and minds brings alive our heart and spirit. This practice begins with a reading on silence by Gunilla Norris, and then includes guidance in letting go of tension, opening to aliveness and resting in a caring and wakeful awareness.

Compass of Our Heart Jan 13, 2022

Compass of Our Heart - All of our actions, our entire life experience, arises from the energy of intention. While it’s natural that our intentions are shaped by egoic wants and fears, when we bring this into conscious, compassionate awareness, we can discover the deep aspiration that guides and energizes our awakening hearts and minds. This talk explores the movement from egoic intention to liberating intention…the movement from “my will” to “my heart’s will” (a favorite from the archives).

Meditation: Relaxing Back into Awareness (2022-01-12) Jan 13, 2022

Meditation: Relaxing Back into Awareness (2022-01-12) - When we fully inhabit our body, we discover the space and wakefulness of awareness itself. In this meditation, we rest in this open awareness, and when the attention narrows into thoughts, we practice relaxing back into the openness that includes passing sounds, sensations and feelings. We close with a brief offering of lovingkindness to our own hearts and our world (with community OMs – no bell at end).

Finding True Refuge: Pathways of Remembering Jan 06, 2022

Finding True Refuge: Pathways of Remembering - This talk explores the three archetypal refuges of awareness (Buddha-nature), truth (Dharma) and love (Sangha) through stories, illustrations and reflections. We end with a Refuge ceremony that can be done by anyone who feels drawn (to participate you will need a 20” red string.)

A verse from Ryokan, an eighteenth-century Zen poet, came to mind: “To find the Buddhist law, drift east and west, come and go, entrusting yourself to the waves.”

Meditation: Letting Go… Letting Be (2022-01-05) Jan 06, 2022

Meditation: Letting Go… Letting Be (2022-01-05) - This guided meditation invites us to imagine a clenched fist relaxing open, and explores this in releasing contractions in the body as well as the grip of thoughts. When we deeply let go and let be, our energy flows freely. We reconnect with our natural aliveness, love and awareness.

Meditation: What Matters to your Heart? Jan 02, 2022

Meditation: What Matters to your Heart? - Entering a new year is a wonderful opportunity to clarify our purpose. In this guided visualization, we are invited to attune to the state of our heart and our deepest aspiration.

Loving Ourselves into Healing - Part 3 Dec 30, 2021

Loving Ourselves into Healing - Part 3 - We are often at war with our difficult emotions—judging and hating ourselves for our fear, anger, clinging or shame. And as a society, we turn on others as lesser or bad, as the enemy. These talks explore how, in both domains, our continued evolution, healing and freedom depends on learning how to embrace what we have pushed away.

Meditation: Awakening an Intimate Presence (2021-12-29) Dec 30, 2021

Meditation: Awakening an Intimate Presence (2021-12-29) - This guided meditation cultivates a relaxed, gentle presence with whatever expressions of life are arising in the moment. We begin by releasing and opening through the body, and then include all sensations, feelings and sounds in an intimate, allowing presence.

Loving Ourselves into Healing - Part II (2021-12-22) Dec 23, 2021

Loving Ourselves into Healing - Part II (2021-12-22) - We are often at war with our difficult emotions—judging and hating ourselves for our fear, anger, clinging or shame. And as a society, we turn on others as lesser or bad, as the enemy. These talks explore how, in both domains, our continued evolution, healing and freedom depends on learning how to embrace what we have pushed away.

Meditation: Awakening Loving Presence (2021-12-22) Dec 23, 2021

Meditation: Awakening Loving Presence (2021-12-22) - Loving presence is an innate capacity, and it can be cultivated. This meditation begins with a scan arousing a relaxed tender presence in the body, then brings loving attention to our inner life, and in widening circles, to our world.

Loving Ourselves into Healing - Part I (2021-12-15) Dec 17, 2021

Loving Ourselves into Healing - Part I (2021-12-15) - We are often at war with our difficult emotions—judging and hating ourselves for our fear, anger, clinging or shame. And as a society, we turn on others as lesser or bad, as the enemy. These talks explore how, in both domains, our continued evolution, healing and freedom depends on learning how to embrace what we have pushed away.

Meditation: Collecting and Quieting the Mind (2021-12-15) Dec 16, 2021

Meditation: Collecting and Quieting the Mind (2021-12-15) - Our conditioned mind is filled with distractions, including worry-thoughts that continually create anxiety in the body. This meditation guides us in relaxing the body, and then establishing the breath as a home base. By gathering and collecting the attention, the mind can settle and allow for a relaxed, wakeful presence.

Awakening from the Trance of Unworthiness - Interview with Tara and Dr. Mark Hyman Dec 09, 2021

Awakening from the Trance of Unworthiness - Interview with Tara and Dr. Mark Hyman (2021-12-09) - Our healing and freedom unfolds as we bring radical acceptance - a mindful, allowing presence - to our moments. This interview looks at how we wake up out of the stories that keep us in fear and self-doubt, and discover a true intimacy with ourselves and our world.

Meditation: Refuge in Presence (2021-12-08) Dec 09, 2021

Meditation: Refuge in Presence (2021-12-08) - We arrive in presence through the gateway of the body, scanning through with awareness, and then resting with the breath and body sensations. As we include whatever arises with a gentle and kind attention, our inner refuge becomes increasingly stable and openhearted. This meditation ends with a brief loving-kindness prayer.

Preparing our Hearts for the Holidays (2021-12-01) Dec 02, 2021

Preparing our Hearts for the Holidays (2021-12-01) - While the holidays can be times of loving celebration, they can also highlight relational conflicts and challenges. This talk explores how, given the stress of the season, we can bring grace and openheartedness to ourselves and others.

Heart Meditation: Taking in the Goodness (2021-12-01) Dec 02, 2021

Heart Meditation: Taking in the Goodness (2021-12-01) - Taking in the Goodness: Rumi said, “Whenever some kindness comes to you, turn that way – toward the source of kindness.” This meditation guides us to look for the source of loving and to turn in that direction. It begins with a lovingkindness practice that spreads the image of a smile into the body, then continues with a practice of seeing the goodness of ourselves and others.

Gratitude: Entering Sacred Relationship Nov 25, 2021

Gratitude: Entering Sacred Relationship - Gratitude arises when we are in sacred relationship with life—present, open and receptive. This talk explores how central gratitude is to our physical, emotional and spiritual wellbeing, and then looks at the ways we can directly gladden our minds with gratitude. We end with a guided meditation that includes sharings from the group, and a poem of blessing by John O’Donohue with a brief cut from Robert Gass – Om Namaha Shivaya (from the archives).

Meditation: Energy and Source (2021-11-24) Nov 25, 2021

Meditation: Energy and Source (2021-11-24) - Our incessant thinking removes us from the full aliveness, vastness and mystery of Being. This guided practice helps us inhabit our energetic forms, and rest in the vast, formless stillness that gives rise to this ever creative living world.

Recevoir la bonté présente (Méditation de retraite) (de-TaraBrach-traduite-par-Dominique-Fugère) Nov 21, 2021

Recevoir la bonté présente - Méditation de retraite - Rumi à dit : « À chaque fois que vous recevez une gentillesse, tournez-vous vers sa source, la source de la bienveillance. » Cette méditation nous guide à chercher la Source de l’amour et à nous tourner vers elle. Cette méditation débute avec une pratique de bienveillance qui répand l’image du sourire dans tout notre corps pour continuer avec une pratique de reconnaitre la bonté en nous et chez les autres.

Cette méditation est de Tara Brach. Elle est traduite et dite avec sa permission par Dominique Fugère (Québec, Canada).

Conversation: Facing the Truths That Keep Us from Love Nov 18, 2021

Facing the Truths That Keep Us from Love: Conversation between Rev Angel Kyodo Williams and Tara Brach - Our happiness and capacity to love fully arise as we face and embrace all domains of our existence. In this conversation we look at the often unexamined societal conditioning that, when unseen, perpetuates caste systems that harm ourselves and all involved. Our inquiry: For the sake of freedom, how do we deepen our attention to see the forces that cut us off from wholeness, from belonging, from living from an awake, compassionate heart?

Meditation: Filling Our Body with Love (2021-11-17) Nov 18, 2021

Meditation: Filling Our Body with Love (2021-11-17) - When we are fully awake, love shines through our entire body and being. This meditation awakens that embodied love through the image and felt sense of the smile, scanning through the body, resting in loving presence and offering loving prayer.

Meditation: RAIN of Compassion (9 min.) Nov 17, 2021

Meditation: RAIN of Compassion (9 min.) - In this short practice we are guided in bringing the mindfulness and self-nurturing of RAIN to a difficult emotion. This helps us shift from feeling stuck and reactive to the tender and spacious presence that is our true home.

Fear and Love (retreat talk) Nov 11, 2021

Fear and Love (2021-11-01) - Only when we face our fears can we discover the freedom to love without holding back. This talk looks at how unprocessed fear contracts our body, heart and mind, and on a societal level is the cause of othering and violence. We then explore how arousing mindfulness, compassion and prayer can enlarge our basic sense of Being. As we deepen attention to the nature of awareness, we discover a refuge that is timeless…a refuge that is our true home (given at the IMCW 2021 Fall Retreat).

Meditation: Awakening Self-Compassion (2021-11-10) Nov 11, 2021

Meditation: Awakening Self-Compassion (2021-11-10) - This RAIN meditation helps us explore pathways to nurturing ourselves in a way that brings profound transformation and healing.

After the RAIN: Part 2 - The Flowering of Awake Awareness (2021 -11 -03) Nov 05, 2021

After the RAIN: Part 2 - The Flowering of Awake Awareness - (2021 -11 -03) - The blessing of the spiritual path is homecoming to our essential nature—wakeful, loving awareness. These two talks explore the grounds of that awakening, which is a shift of identity from that of a separate self to realizing the formless luminous presence that, like a boundless ocean, includes all the waves or expressions of our being. This two-part series includes several guided reflections and invites us into the dimensions of the path that lead to true freedom.

Meditation: The Return to Presence - Rest Your Mind in What Is (2021-11-03) Nov 04, 2021

Meditation: The Return to Presence - Rest Your Mind In What Is (2021-11-03) - It’s natural that our attention wanders, and the more we relax back, the more that becomes our habit…returning to presence. This meditation opens with conscious breathing and awakening through the body. We then rest in open awareness, and when the attention drifts, guide ourselves to rest our minds, over and over, in the aliveness and presence that is right here.

After the RAIN: Part 1 - The Flowering of Awake Awareness Oct 28, 2021

After the RAIN: Part 1 - The Flowering of Awake Awareness - The blessing of the spiritual path is homecoming to our essential nature—wakeful, loving awareness. These two talks explore the grounds of that awakening, which is a shift of identity from that of a separate self to realizing the formless luminous presence that, like a boundless ocean, includes all the waves or expressions of our being. This two-part series includes several guided reflections and invites us into the dimensions of the path that lead to true freedom.

Meditation: The Space of Loving Awareness (2021-10-27) Oct 28, 2021

Meditation: The Space of Loving Awareness (2021-10-27) - This meditation begins by guiding us through a scan: opening to inner space and aliveness, then to outer space, and then continuous space, filled with the light of awareness. We explore how every experience belongs to this infinite awake space of our Being and can be held with tenderness and love.

Wise Investigation: Dissolving the Trance Oct 21, 2021

Wise Investigation: Dissolving the Trance - If we are suffering, it is because we are believing something that is not true and caught in emotional reactivity. A key tool in meditation is investigation–actively inquiring into what is happening inside us. When we investigate with sincere interest and care, the light of our attention untangles difficult emotions and nourishes intimate relationships. As this light is turned toward awareness itself, it reveals the radiance and emptiness of our true nature.

Meditation: Widening Rings of Being (2021-10-20) Oct 21, 2021

Meditation: Widening Rings of Being (2021-10-20) - If we can recognize thoughts as thoughts, it becomes possible to open from virtual to living reality. This meditation guides us in awakening the senses and discovering the freedom, the awake space of Being, that is beyond the confines of thoughts.

Grieving and Timeless Love Oct 15, 2021

Grieving and Timeless Love - How we relate to change and loss is directly connected to how fully we live and love. This talk looks at the classic ways we avoid opening to the realness of loss, and how our sorrows and grief can become a portal to awakening our heart and spirit.

Meditation: A Practice of RAIN Oct 14, 2021

Meditation: A Practice of RAIN - The acronym RAIN – Recognize, Allow, Investigate, Nurture – guides us in bringing mindfulness and compassion to difficult emotions. With practice, we can find our way home to open-hearted presence in the midst of whatever arises.

“Don’t turn away. Keep your gaze on the bandaged place. That’s where the light enters you.” ~ Rumi

Realizing Your Deepest Desires Oct 08, 2021

Realizing Your Deepest Desires - This talk differentiates between egoic intentions (driven by wants and fears), and our true aspiration (deepest desires) to manifest our full potential for awake awareness and love. We explore ways to realize and open to our deepest desires when we are stuck in self-promotion, grasping and conflict, so that our aspiration becomes a compass of the heart that can guide us in living with wisdom and compassion.

Meditation: Letting Thought Clouds Come and Go Oct 07, 2021

Meditation: Letting Thought Clouds Come and Go - This meditation guides us through a body scan and into a relaxed, open presence. When we realize we are lost in a thought cloud, our practice is to relax open, listening to and feeling the life of the present moment. We are training to become increasingly aware of the gap between thoughts, the space where the light of awareness shines through.

Facing Fear in a Traumatized World Sep 30, 2021

Facing Fear in a Traumatized World (2021-09-29) - Unprocessed fear cuts us off from our full aliveness and spirit, and it separates us from others. This talk looks at how we bring healing to the trauma and deep fears that cause us to dissociate from our body. We focus on ways we increase safety, diminish shame and then, with a courageous, embodied and compassionate presence, learn to contact and integrate fear into our larger awareness.

Meditation: The Heart-Wisdom of Your Future Self (2021-09-29) Sep 30, 2021

Meditation: The Heart-Wisdom of Your Future Self (2021-09-29) - In this meditation, we relax and open our body and mind, and then explore an encounter with our Future Self - facing Fear in a Traumatized World is the expression of our most evolved and awakened heart.

Anger: Responding, Not Reacting (2021-09-22) Sep 24, 2021

Anger: Responding, Not Reacting (2021-09-22) - Anger is natural, intelligent and necessary for surviving and flourishing. Yet when we are hooked by anger, it causes great personal and collective suffering. This talk explores how to transform patterns of reactivity by bringing a mindful and compassionate attention to the unmet needs that underlie angry reactivity. When we learn how to pause and connect honestly with our inner experience, we are then able to respond to others from our full intelligence and heart.

Meditation: Present Heart (2021-09-22) Sep 23, 2021

Meditation: Present Heart (2021-09-22) - We awaken a present heart by relaxing with the breath, and bringing the kindness of a smile into our bodily experience. This meditation ends with offering blessings to our inner life and all beings.

Radical Friendship: Conversation between Tara Brach and Kate Johnson Sep 17, 2021

Radical Friendship: Conversation between Tara and Kate Johnson - The often unseen cause of our difficulties in relationships is the societal structures that are marked by violence and domination. This conversation looks at what blocks authentic and loving connectedness, and ways to intentionally cultivate authentic, openhearted awake relationships.

Meditation: Sitting Like a Mountain (2021-09-15) Sep 16, 2021

Meditation: Sitting Like a Mountain (2021-09-15) - Meditation can empower us as we learn to access our potential for stability, strength and openness. This meditation calls on the image of a mountain as we awaken our body and mind to a full, vibrant presence. Closes with a metta (loving-kindness) prayer.

A Conversation Between Tara and Mark Nepo Sep 10, 2021

A Conversation Between Tara and Mark Nepo - Mark is a spiritual teacher, wonderful poet, and author of many books including best selling "The Book of Awakening." In this wide-ranging and rich conversation, Tara and Mark explore shedding our defenses, faith, compassion for ourselves and others, spiritual practice, and facing illness, aging and death.

Meditation: Receiving Life in Open, Awake Awareness Sep 09, 2021

Meditation: Receiving Life in Open, Awake Awareness (2021-09-08) - This meditation awakens a receptive attention to the senses, starting with physical sensations and opening to sound. Then we sense how open awake awareness is receiving the moment to moment arising and passing life. In the final part of the practice, we explore how awake awareness is receiving the experience of our heart and offer blessings to our inner life and all living beings.

The Wise Heart of Radical Acceptance Sep 03, 2021

The Wise Heart of Radical Acceptance - When we are caught in self-judgment we forget the truth of who we are - our wholeness, awareness and love. This talk examines how we take the imperfect waves of our being personally, and become imprisoned in the trance of unworthiness, a limited and distorted reality. We then look at how the practice of radical acceptance enables us to come home to a fullness of being, and live from a growing sense of loving connectedness with all beings.

Meditation: Relaxing Back and Saying "Yes" to the Moment Sep 02, 2021

Meditation: Relaxing Back and Saying "Yes" to the Moment - When we are stressed, our conditioning is to tighten our body. We tense against our moment-to-moment experience. This meditation is a powerful practice of de-conditioning this reactivity by learning to relax back into presence, and to respond to difficulty by saying “yes.” Through relaxing back and saying “yes,” we discover our heart’s capacity for unconditional love.

The Blessings of “Enough” - Discovering Contentment in Daily Life (PT 2) Aug 27, 2021

The Blessings of “Enough” - Discovering Contentment in Daily Life (Part 2) - One of the great gifts of mindful awareness is access to true contentment. These two talks look at the universal blocks to contentment - habits of fixating on what's wrong and what’s missing. We then explore the practices of presence that awaken us from wanting life to be different, reveal our intrinsic wholeness and offer a profound sense of well-being.

Meditation: Resting Your Heart in Presence Aug 26, 2021

Meditation: Resting Your Heart in Presence - When we’re having difficulty, we typically tense up our body and mind, and armor our heart. This practice offers a pathway of relaxing that tension and tasting the peace that comes from resting in presence.

The Blessings of “Enough” - Discovering Contentment in Daily Life (Part 1) Aug 20, 2021

The Blessings of “Enough” - Discovering Contentment in Daily Life (Part 1) - One of the great gifts of mindful awareness is access to true contentment. These two talks look at the universal blocks to contentment—habits of fixating on what's wrong and what’s missing. We then explore the practices of presence that awaken us from wanting life to be different, reveal our intrinsic wholeness and offer a profound sense of well-being.

Meditation: Saying “Yes” to Life Aug 19, 2021

Meditation: Saying “Yes” to Life - We are conditioned to scan for “what’s wrong” and contract our body and mind in anticipation of danger. This meditation helps us undo these primal survival habits, and frees us to inhabit the full aliveness, creativity and love our natural being.

Humility Aug 13, 2021

Humility - In Buddhism and most faiths, humility – feeling that we all share common ground, feeling neither superior or inferior to others – is both a prerequisite to awakening and an expression of mature spirituality. This talk explores how our conditioning and culture reinforce a swing from ego-inflation (self-importance, feeling special, better than others) to ego-deflation (feeling unworthy). We then look at how a wise and kind attention opens us to who we are beyond these confining egoic states, and enables us to live with humility and grace.

Meditation: Dedicated to Maya Angelou - Being Home Aug 12, 2021

Meditation: Dedicated to Maya Angelou - Being Home (2021-08-11) - This meditation cultivates a gentle, wakeful presence - arriving into our bodies and meeting the present moment with the image of a smile. When the mind drifts, we relax back to our senses…into the openhearted awareness that is our true home.

Taking ‘The Exquisite Risk': An Undefended Heart Aug 06, 2021

Taking ‘The Exquisite Risk’: An Undefended Heart - Poet Mark Nepo uses the phrase “exquisite risk” to describe our willingness to be fully alive, open, available, living true to our heart. This talk explores the challenges and blessings of taking the exquisite risk, both in becoming more intimate with our inner life, and in engaging with others from full authenticity (a favorite from the archives).

Meditation: Relaxing Back into Full Presence Aug 05, 2021

Meditation: Relaxing Back into Full Presence (2017-03-22) - This guided practice begins with a conscious breath that relaxes the body and mind, and then a body scan to awaken to the aliveness of the present moment. We then open into the natural awareness that includes the changing flow of sounds, feelings and sensations, and practice “relaxing back” when the mind gets lost in thought.

Writing and Haiku as Spiritual Practice (Tara Brac Interviews Natalie Goldberg) Jul 30, 2021

Writing and Haiku as Spiritual Practice (Tara Brach Interviews Natalie Goldberg) -

Meditation: The Space of Loving Awareness Jul 29, 2021

Meditation: The Space of Loving Awareness - This meditation begins by guiding us through a scan: opening to inner space and aliveness, then to outer space, and then continuous space, filled with the light of awareness. We explore how every experience belongs to this infinite awake space of our Being, and can be held with tenderness and love (remastered favorite from the archives).

The Power of Spiritual Hope Jul 23, 2021

The Power of Spiritual Hope (2021-07-21) - The openness to possibility is essential on a path of awakening and freedom. In this talk we explore what makes up mature or spiritual hope, and how two meditation practices of presence can nourish our hope.

Meditation: Nourishing Happiness with RAIN Jul 22, 2021

Meditation: Nourishing Happiness with RAIN - While RAIN is regularly used for untangling suffering, it is also a powerful tool for deepening our access to positive states like happiness, gratitude, wonder and love. This meditation guides us in nourishing the goodness that is an intrinsic part of living and essential in realizing our full aliveness. The practice ends with a poem by Naomi Shahib Nye.

Mindful Leadership: A Conversation between Tara Brach and Michelle Maldonado (2021-07-14) Jul 16, 2021

Mindful Leadership: A Conversation between Tara Brach and Michelle Maldonado (2021-07-14) - The principles of mindful leadership are relevant for all of us—they bring out the best of who we are in our work, with our family, with our friends. Especially in these times of mistrust and dividedness, our world desperately needs each of us to cultivate the qualities of focus, presence, care, respect, clarity, and curiosity that mark a true leader. Michelle Maldonado is a brilliant teacher of mindful leadership, and she embodies the compassion and skillfulness she invites forward in others.

Meditation: Living Presence – with Body Scan (2021-07-15) Jul 15, 2021

Meditation: Living Presence – with Body Scan (2021-07-15) - A key pathway to full presence is awakening through the body. This meditation guides us through a body scan, relaxing and receiving the play of sensations. We then deepen attention to the breath, and rest with the rhythmic waves of breathing, experiencing the background of the whole domain of physical aliveness.

Three Core Reminders for Spiritual Practice Jul 09, 2021

Three Core Reminders for Spiritual Practice - This talk explores three powerful ways you can direct your attention when you find yourself emotionally stuck: Wake up from thoughts; feel your feelings and remember love. We explore both the habits blocking these basic movements toward freedom, and what nourishes them. Together they can serve to open your mind, awaken aliveness and heal your heart.

Meditation: Relaxed and Alert Jul 08, 2021

Meditation: Relaxed and Alert (2021-07-07) - This meditation begins with a period of relaxing and collecting our attention with intentional long deep breathing. We then deepen embodied presence, and widen to the awareness that includes sounds, sensations, feelings, breath, and all experience. When the mind drifts from this open, awake awareness, we gently return, re-relaxing and resting in an easeful, alert presence. Recorded at Tara’s Wednesday night class, the meditation includes chanting of OM’s and ends with a sense of melting into community.

Trusting the Gold: A Conversation - Tara Brach and Jonathan Foust Jul 02, 2021

Trusting the Gold: A Conversation - Tara Brach and Jonathan Foust - In this interview-style conversation, Jonathan asks Tara questions about key themes in her new book, Trusting the Gold. They include their own relationships and ways we work with our inner life and others, in cultivating the capacity to see basic goodness and realizing a mature and liberating quality of trust.

Heart Meditation: Taking in the Goodness (2021-06-30) Jul 01, 2021

Heart Meditation: Taking in the Goodness (2021-06-30) - Taking in the Goodness: Rumi said, “Whenever some kindness comes to you, turn that way – toward the source of kindness.” This meditation guides us to look for the source of loving and to turn in that direction. It begins with a lovingkindness practice that spreads the image of a smile into the body, then continues with a practice of seeing the goodness of ourselves and others.

Shifting from Limbic to Liberating Intention Jun 25, 2021

Shifting from Limbic to Liberating Intention - Becoming conscious of our intentions is the first step to truly aligning our life with our heart. This talk explores identifying when we are being driven by grasping and fear, and ways we can bring compassion to unmet needs and discover the deeper longing – the liberating intention – that guides us to freedom.

Meditation: The Heartspace of Gratitude Jun 23, 2021

Meditation: The Heartspace of Gratitude - When gratitude for our life arises, we enter the sacred space of an open heart. This meditation guides us in arriving in presence and awakening the blessings of gratitude.

Fierce Self-Compassion - A conversation - Tara Brach & Kristin Neff Jun 18, 2021

Fierce Self-Compassion - A conversation between Tara Brach and Kristin Neff - Kristin Neff is a pioneer in self-compassion research and a leader in bringing practices of self-compassion alive in our world. This conversation is on her latest book, Fierce Self-Compassion, which helps women awaken both receptive and active dimensions of compassion - tenderness and fierceness.

Meditation: The Heartspace Where All is Welcome (2021-06-16) Jun 17, 2021

Meditation: The Heartspace Where All is Welcome (2021-06-16) - This meditation scans through the body, and awakens attention to the open, inclusive awareness that all life arises in. We then explore experiencing that openness in the region of the heart, saying yes to life and including whatever is here with unconditional presence.

Trusting the Gold - A Celebration of Tara’s New Book, with guest, Rick Hanson Jun 13, 2021

Trusting the Gold - A Celebration of Tara’s New Book, with special guest, Rick Hanson - The essence of the spiritual path is realizing, trusting and living from our natural awareness and love. This talk explores the two key pathways that help us awaken from the trance of identifying as a limited, separate self. It includes several guided meditations and a period of questions and response.

Meditation: The Presence Beyond Thoughts (2021-06-09) Jun 12, 2021

Meditation: The Presence Beyond Thoughts (2021-06-09) - We spend many life moments in a trance of thinking. This meditation awakens the senses through a body scan, and attention to sound. We then rest in the presence that can come alive in the gap between thoughts—the presence that is our true home.

Meditation: Blessings of Love Jun 11, 2021

Meditation: Blessings of Love - A blessing is whatever reminds us of the sacred loving presence that shines through all of us. The image of receiving a kiss on the brow, and offering one, is suggested as a powerful channel for the blessings that awaken our heart.

Part 2 - Being Embodied: Gateway to Aliveness and Spirit Jun 04, 2021

Part 2 - Being Embodied: Gateway to Aliveness and Spirit (2021-06-02) - All that we cherish—creativity, love, wisdom, realization—arises from an embodied presence. Yet as we know, the wounds and trauma of our society and individual lives leads toward dissociation. These two talks look at the challenges to awakening through our bodies, and the practices and teachings that guide us on the path.

Meditation: Inhabiting Our Body, Realizing Wholeness Jun 03, 2021

Meditation: Inhabiting Our Body, Realizing Wholeness (2021-06-02) - Awakening awareness in the body is the portal to resting in boundless and dynamic presence. This guided practice scans the body from feet up, and helps us inhabit all parts of our body. As we open to the aliveness and space inside the body, we discover a permeability that allows us to inhabit the universe of aliveness and space, form and formlessness. With this homecoming to whole beingness is an intrinsic experience of freedom.

Part 1 - Being Embodied: Gateway to Aliveness and Spirit May 28, 2021

Part 1 - Being Embodied: Gateway to Aliveness and Spirit - All that we cherish—creativity, love, wisdom, realization—arises from an embodied presence. Yet as we know, the wounds and trauma of our society and individual lives leads toward dissociation. These two talks look at the challenges to awakening through our bodies, and the practices and teachings that guide us on the path.

Meditation: Embodied Spirit May 27, 2021

Meditation: Embodied Spirit - Experiencing our aliveness through our senses is the gateway to resting in formless loving presence. This meditation guides us to awakening through our body, and recognizing the backdrop of silence, of awake awareness, that is the source of all being.

Entering the Mystery May 21, 2021

John O’Donahue writes, “We are so busy managing our lives, we forget this great mystery we are involved in.” This talk looks at the ways we pull away from the mystery and the path of “beginner’s mind” that enables us to encounter this living world with freshness, courage and wonder (Tara chose this talk to share from the archives).

Meditation: Yes to Life (2021-05-19) May 20, 2021

Meditation: Yes to Life (2021-05-19) - In the moments we release all resistance, we relax open to inhabit the fullness of our Being. This meditation guides us to an embodied, openhearted presence that welcomes the changing flow of life.

Bridging the Divide: Learning to Tend and Befriend May 14, 2021

Bridging the Divide: Learning to Tend and Befriend - One of the great sufferings facing us is the growing divide between humans with different views, different realities. This talk looks at several levels of divides—being at war with ourselves, creating separation in our personal relationships, and societal divides. We then reflect on how we can evolve consciousness from the trance of “Fight, Flight, Freeze” to the wholeness that arises with “Tend and Befriend.”

Meditation: Being Here for Life (2021-05-08) May 13, 2021

Meditation: Being Here for Life (2021-05-08) - It’s easy to race through our seasons and miss the mystery and preciousness of unfolding moments. This meditation invites us into an embodied, openhearted presence and includes a poem by Pat Schneider called “Instructions for the Journey."

Three Dimensions of Conscious Prayer May 07, 2021

Three Dimensions of Conscious Prayer - Prayer can be a creative, vibrant and infinitely tender part of our spiritual awakening. This talk explores the dimensions of embodied presence, sincere expression and silence that bring transformational power to our prayers.

Meditation: Letting Go into Living Presence (2021-05-05) May 06, 2021

Meditation: Letting Go into Living Presence (2021-05-05) - We resist reality by tensing our body and contracting into thoughts. This meditation guides us into letting go of resistance by surrendering over and over into the aliveness and presence that is right here.

Méditation: Rencontrer la colère avec conscience (de-TaraBrach-traduite-par-Dominique-Fugère) May 05, 2021

Méditation: Rencontrer la colère avec conscience - (de-TaraBrach-traduite-par-Dominique-Fugère) -

Lorsque notre colère est contenue avec conscience, elle peut être une force, une énergie, pour répondre avec sagesse aux situations difficiles de la vie. Cette méditation nous guide pour aller à la rencontre de la colère personnelle et\ou sociale qui nous habite, avec l’aide de RAIN, l’acronyme du Reconnaître, Autoriser, Investiguer et Nourrir.

Cette méditation est de Tara Brach. Elle est traduite et dite avec sa permission par Dominique Fugère (Québec, Canada).

Namaste: Honoring the Light in All Beings Apr 30, 2021

Namaste: Honoring the Light in All Beings - The ritual of Namaste - bowing to the sacred in ourselves and others - helps us live from the loving awareness that is our true nature. This talk looks at how we suffer because we forget this basic goodness, and explores the pathways of remembering that carry us home.

Meditation: From Head to Full Being (2021-04-28) Apr 29, 2021

Meditation: From Head to Full Being (2021-04-28) - When we are lost inside thoughts we lose connection with our heart, aliveness and spirit. This meditation guides us to a wakeful presence and invites us to return over and over from virtual reality into the mysterious, tender vastness that is our true being.

Belonging to the Earth Apr 23, 2021

Belonging to the Earth (2021-04-21) - As a species, forgetting our belonging to our larger body of Earth is causing suffering for this entire living web. In this talk we look at what causes and sustains this trance of forgetting. We then explore the ways we each can awaken a sense of loving connectedness and active caring toward our natural world.

Meditation: Opening to Full Aliveness (2021-04-21) Apr 22, 2021

Meditation: Opening to Full Aliveness (2021-04-21) - Our tension is a way of defending against the aliveness that is here and now. This meditation guides us in relaxing tension, awakening our senses and discovering the vitality and presence that express our natural being.

“Make Love of Your Self Perfect” - Retreat talk Apr 16, 2021

“Make Love of Your Self Perfect” - retreat talk (2021-04-14) - Like a dense fog, chronic self -judgment blocks the light of our true nature. This talk explores the challenges to loving the life within us, and the pathways of practice that lead to holding our own being and all life in a boundless tender heart (a talk from the IMCW Spring 2021 online weeklong silent retreat).

Meditation: Coming Home with the Breath (2021-04-14) Apr 15, 2021

Meditation: Coming Home with the Breath (2021-04-14) - This guided practice has a short period of relaxing the body, and establishes the breath as a home base for attention. We practice arriving again and again, deepening the pathway of homecoming. The meditation ends with lovingkindness for ourselves and our world.

Radical Self-Honesty: The Joy of Getting Real Apr 09, 2021

Radical Self-Honesty: The Joy of Getting Real - Our suffering arises from the unseen, unfelt, resisted parts of our psyche. This talk explores ways we can deepen self-honesty and reconnect to a wholeness of being that enables us to live with spontaneity, confidence, wisdom and love (a favorite from the archives).

A quote by Elizabeth Lessor from the talk: “My prayer to god every day: Remove the veils so I might see what is really happening here and not be intoxicated by my stories and my fears.”

Meditation: Relaxing into Living Presence (2021-04-07) Apr 08, 2021

Meditation: Relaxing into Living Presence (2021-04-07) - This meditation guides us to awaken to sensation using the image of a smile and scanning through the body. We then open to sound and to the entire changing flow of experience. When we connect with the changing flow of sensations, feelings and sounds, we also discover the formless awareness that is our Source… and home. We end with a prayer that includes our own being and all beings.

Part 2 - Fear of Aging: Finding Freedom in this Impermanent World Apr 02, 2021

Part 2 - Fear of Aging: Finding Freedom in this Impermanent World (2021-03-31) - While it’s natural to have fears of what’s ahead, when we learn to face the inevitability of change and loss without resistance, we discover true peace and freedom in the midst. In a very direct way, our awareness of impermanence awakens unconditional loving. These two talks explore the ways we habitually deny or resist reality, and the three interrelated pathways—refuge in the present moment, love and awareness—that liberate us.

Meditation: Relaxing Back into Presence (2021-03-31) Apr 01, 2021

Meditation: Relaxing Back into Presence (2021-03-31) - When we are stressed, our body and mind contract, and energetically we resist the life in the present moment. This meditation helps de-condition the stress reaction by guiding us to relax open from thoughts, relax physical tension, and gently relax back over and over into living presence.

Transforming Two Fears - FOF and FOMO (2021-03-24) Mar 26, 2021

Transforming Two Fears - FOF and FOMO (2021-03-24) - There are two common fears that can block us from our full potential - fear of failure (FOF), and fear of missing out (FOMO). This talk explores how to meet these fears with mindful presence, and discover within them the essence energies of loving awareness and full aliveness.

Meditation: Embodying Loving Awareness (2021-03-24) Mar 25, 2021

Meditation: Embodying Loving Awareness (2021-03-24) - Love is often abstract, and not fully alive. In this practice, with the supportive image and felt sense of a smile, we are guided to awaken loving in our body, mind and whole being.

Fear of Aging - Finding Freedom in this Impermanent World – Part 1 (2021-03-17) Mar 19, 2021

Fear of Aging - Finding Freedom in this Impermanent World – Part 1 (2021-03-17) - While it’s natural to have fears of what’s ahead, when we learn to face the inevitability of change and loss without resistance, we discover true peace and freedom in the midst. In a very direct way, our awareness of impermanence awakens unconditional loving. These two talks explore the ways we habitually deny or resist reality, and the three interrelated pathways—refuge in the present moment, love and awareness—that liberate us. NOTE: The quoted prayer "And all shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well" is from 14th century mystic, Julian of Norwich, in her work “Revelations of Divine Love.”

Meditation: A Kind and Allowing Presence (2021-03-17) Mar 18, 2021

Meditation: A Kind and Allowing Presence (2021-03-17) - When we’re stressed our hearts tighten and we try to control our life. This meditation guides us to relax the controlling and discover the open, tender awareness that allows life to be as it is.

The Power of Deep Listening - Part 2 (2012-03-10) Mar 12, 2021

The Power of Deep Listening - Part 2 (2012-03-10) - Listening deeply is the gateway to realizing connection. It’s what allows us to move through life with a wise, loving and healing presence. These two talks explore our blocks to true listening, and offer teachings and practices that can directly cultivate this invaluable capacity.

Meditation: Cultivating Deep Listening (2021-03-10) Mar 11, 2021

Meditation: Cultivating Deep Listening (2021-03-10) - Deep listening expresses the purity and presence of our true nature. This meditation guides us to come into a state of listening that is spacious, receptive and profoundly wakeful and present. We close with the poem “lost” by David Wagoner.

The Power of Deep Listening - Part 1 (2021-03-03) Mar 05, 2021

The Power of Deep Listening - Part 1 (2021-03-03) - Listening deeply is the gateway to realizing connection. It’s what allows us to move through life with a wise, loving and healing presence. These two talks explore our blocks to true listening, and offer teachings and practices that can directly cultivate this invaluable capacity.

Meditation: Aliveness and Presence (2021-03-03) Mar 04, 2021

Meditation: Aliveness and Presence (2021-03-03) - This meditation guides us to wake up our senses and full aliveness through a body scan, and then to rest in the formless presence that is aware of this changing dance of life. We close with a poem by Robert Hall.

Namaste: Seeing the Truth of Who We Are (2021-02-24) Feb 26, 2021

Namaste: Seeing the Truth of Who We Are (2021-02-24) - A gift of evolving consciousness is the capacity to recognize and honor the sacred awareness that lives through our own and all beings. This capacity is blocked by our identification with our “mask” or ego self, and not seeing past other people’s masks. In this talk we reflect together on some key filters of superior/inferior and good/bad that shape the trance of a narrowed identity, and then explore how mindfulness and kindness free us to inhabit the vastness of our natural awareness. We close with tasting the possibility of bringing the spirit of Namaste to ourselves, others and all beings.

Meditation: Continuous Space Suffused with Awareness (2021-02-24) Feb 25, 2021

Meditation: Continuous Space Suffused with Awareness (2021-02-24) - By learning to inhabit the body, we discover the space and aliveness that fills the universe. In this meditation we are guided through the body, filling different domains with presence. We then open into the continuous awake space that is both within and surrounds the body. When we notice the mind drifts, we relax back to be that awake space, aware of the changing flow of sensations, thoughts, feelings and sounds.

Awakening Our Body’s Awareness – Part 2 (2021-02-17) Feb 19, 2021

Awakening Our Body’s Awareness – Part 2 (2021-02-17) - Mindful awareness of our bodies is a portal to full aliveness, wisdom and love. These two classes will explore the trance that takes us away from our body, the pathways home, ways of working with pain, and the gifts of an embodied presence.

Meditation: A Welcoming Heartspace (2021-02-17) Feb 18, 2021

Meditation: A Welcoming Heartspace (2021-02-17) - Our pathway to peace and happiness is through opening, with tenderness, to our moment-to-moment experience. This meditation guides us first to be awake in our body and senses, and then to include the changing flow of life in a spacious, kind heart. We close with a short verse from poet Dorothy Hunt

The Superpower of Mindful Witnessing (2021-02-10) Feb 12, 2021

The Superpower of Mindful Witnessing (2021-02-10) - The capacity to witness what is happening inside us with a non-judging attention allows us to respond to life from our full intelligence and heart. This talk looks at the role of witnessing in spiritual practice, and how we can cultivate this superpower in a way that reveals the light or spirit that lives through all beings.

Meditation: Being a Kind Witness (2021-02-10) Feb 11, 2021

Meditation: Being a Kind Witness (2021-02-10) - Learning to witness what is going on inside us is the gateway to inner freedom and deep realization. This meditation guides us in witnessing our experience with a non-judging and kind awareness.

Awakening Our Body’s Awareness – Part 1 Feb 05, 2021

Awakening Our Body's Awareness - Part 1 - Mindful awareness of our bodies is a portal to full aliveness, wisdom and love. These two classes will explore the trance that takes us away from our body, the pathways home, ways of working with pain, and the gifts of an embodied presence (a favorite from the archives).

Meditation: Homecoming with the Breath Feb 04, 2021

Meditation: Homecoming with the Breath - This meditation focuses on the breath as an anchor for homecoming. We begin with an intentional breath (coherence breathing) and then establish the natural breath as a home base. The instructions are to rest in the breath, offering a relaxed, intimate intention. Other waves of sensation or emotion are included when they ask for attention as we cultivate an open and full mindful presence. Our freedom arises as we recognize the formless awareness that is our home, and the natural and ever-changing waves that live through us (a favorite from the archives).

Spiritual Hope (2021-01-27) Jan 29, 2021

Spiritual Hope (2021-01-27) - Spiritual hope opens us to possibility and energizes us to manifest our potential for love and wisdom. In contrast to attachment or egoic hope, which is the grasping for what will benefit a separate self, spiritual hope arises from trust in the openhearted awareness (bodhichitta) that is always and already within us. This talk explores how, as individuals and as a society, we can nourish spiritual hope, and create the grounds for healing and radical transformation.

Meditation: Sacred Presence (2021-01-23) Jan 28, 2021

Meditation: Sacred Presence (2021-01-23) - This meditation guides us to wakefully relax with the changing flow of moment to moment experience. As we open our senses fully, we discover the sacred living presence that is our very essence.

Cultivating a Courageous Heart - Part 2 (2021-01-20) Jan 22, 2021

Cultivating a Courageous Heart - Part 2 (2021-01-20) - In the face of violence, hatred and loss, how do we handle the reactivity we feel? Our own anger, hatred and fear? These two talks offer guidance and practice in letting our own vulnerability be a portal to responding—to ourselves, each other and our world-- with courageous, wise hearts.

Meditation: Refuge of Living Presence (2021-01-30) Jan 21, 2021

Meditation: Refuge of Living Presence (2021-01-30) - Our thoughts keep us removed from this living world. This guided practice invites us to open and relax with the moment to moment experience of our senses. It includes a poem by Ingrid Goff-Maidoff, “Whereever you are, Find a Trail.”

Cultivating a Courageous Heart - Part 1 (2020-01-13) Jan 15, 2021

Cultivating a Courageous Heart - Part 1 (2020-01-13) - In the face of violence, hatred and loss, how do we handle the reactivity we feel? Our own anger, hatred and fear? These two talks offer guidance and practice in letting our own vulnerability be a portal to responding - to ourselves, each other and our world - with courageous, wise hearts.

Meditation: Reconnecting to Silence and Presence (2021-01-13) Jan 14, 2021

Meditation: Reconnecting to Silence and Presence (2021-01-13) - Only in silence and presence do we realign with what matters to our hearts. This simple practice of arriving in an embodied awareness supports us in touching the grounds of true transformation and healing. It closes with a powerful poem by Gunilla Norris, “Sharing Silence.”

The Three Refuges - Gateways to Awakening (2021-01-06) Jan 08, 2021

The Three Refuges - Gateways to Awakening (2021-01-06) - We all seek refuge, a sense of safety or homecoming amidst the uncertainties of life. Our way of finding refuge can either imprison or free us. This talk explores the false refuges that entrap us in feeling separate and endangered, and the refuges of Awareness (Buddha,) Truth (Dharma) and Love (Sangha) that reveal our true nature. This evening gathering includes a ceremony with candles, reflection and music.

Meditation: A Present Heart (2020-01-06) Jan 08, 2021

Meditation: A Present Heart (2020-01-06) - One translation of mindfulness, in Chinese, is “present heart.” In this guided meditation we begin by awakening through the body and the senses, and then open the attention to the changing flow of experience. The intention is to meet whatever arises with a wakeful and kind presence.

Repairing Our Hearts - Healing with the RAIN of Compassion (2020-12-30) Dec 31, 2020

Repairing Our Hearts - Healing with the RAIN of Compassion (2020-12-30) - Living in a fear-based society fuels the trance of separation and unworthiness. This talk explores how we can bring an engaged compassionate presence to the suffering of this trance—in our inner work, and more broadly, in healing our culture (from the IMCW 2020 New Year Silent Retreat).

Meditation: RAIN of Self-Compassion (2020-12-30) Dec 31, 2020

Meditation: RAIN of Self-Compassion (2020-12-30) - One of the great sufferings is turning on ourselves with judgment and/or self-aversion. This practice brings the acronym RAIN to this pain. It helps us cultivate a healing self-compassion, and the realization of who we are beyond any limiting story of self.

“Good Othering” – Helping Each Other Trust the Gold (2020-12-23) Dec 25, 2020

“Good Othering” – Helping Each Other Trust the Gold (2020-12-23) - One of the great gifts we can offer is being a mirror of goodness, reminding one another that we can trust our essential awareness, light and love. Because our conditioning is to fixate on flaws, “good othering” takes intention and practice. This talk explores how we can develop the habit of seeing goodness, and importantly, learn to communicate our appreciation and love to others.

Meditation: Meeting life with a Kind Presence (2020-12-23) Dec 24, 2020

Meditation: Meeting life with a Kind Presence (2020-12-23) - This practice guides us to a receptive, kind presence by starting with listening, and moving through a body scan. We then rest in an open awareness, responding to whatever arises with a gentle attention.

Heart to Heart: A Conversation Between Dan Gottlieb and Tara Brach (2020-12-16) Dec 18, 2020

Heart to Heart: A Conversation Between Dan Gottlieb and Tara Brach (2020-12-16) - This very real and human interchange touches on pain, loss, love, gratitude and much more.

Meditation: Coming Home to Heartspace (2020-12-16) Dec 17, 2020

Meditation: Coming Home to Heartspace (2020-12-16) - Our pathway to our hearts is through presence. This meditation helps us awaken presence through our body and all our senses. We then open to the awareness that can meet whatever arises with tenderness and kindness. This meditation includes a reading from the Radiance Sutras, interpreted and translated by Lorin Roche

Remembering Our Belonging – Part 2 (2020-12-09) Dec 12, 2020

Remembering Our Belonging – Part 2 (2020-12-09) - Our deepest suffering comes from feelings of separation, and as a species, our great task is realizing our belonging—to our bodies and hearts, to each other, to the living web of all beings, to formless loving awareness. These two talks explore how healing and true belonging become possible as we deepen our capacity to face truth – within ourselves and with each other – and hold that truth with compassion.

Meditation: Yes to Our Moments (2020-12-09) Dec 10, 2020

Meditation: Yes to Our Moments (2020-12-09) - When we open without resistance to the changing flow of aliveness, we discover the formless presence that is our true home. This meditation guides us through a body scan and then opening to all sounds, sensations and emotions with the energetic allowing of “Yes.” We close with a poem by Danna Faulds, “White Dove.”

Remembering Our Belonging, Part 1 (2020-12-02) Dec 04, 2020

Remembering Our Belonging, Part 1 (2020-12-02) - Our deepest suffering comes from feelings of separation, and as a species, our great task is realizing our belonging—to our bodies and hearts, to each other, to the living web of all beings, to formless loving awareness. These two talks explore how healing and true belonging become possible as we deepen our capacity to face truth - within ourselves and with each other - and hold that truth with compassion.

Meditation: Embodied Love (2020-12-02) Dec 03, 2020

Meditation: Embodied Love (2020-12-02) - This meditation guides us through a scan, to awaken a healing and openhearted presence throughout our body. We then widen to our full field of awareness, including whatever wants attention in an open, inclusive loving presence.

Authentic Thanks Giving (2020-11-25) Nov 27, 2020

Authentic Thanks Giving (redux) - How do we awaken our natural capacities for gratitude and generosity? This talk explores the pathways of honest presence and purposeful cultivation, and offers several reflections that guide us in contacting and expressing our love (a favorite Thanksgiving talk from the archives).

Meditation: Yes to Life (2020-11-25) Nov 26, 2020

Meditation: Yes to Life (2020-11-25) - After relaxing our bodies and quieting our minds, this meditation guides us to open to the changing experience of being alive. We ask ourselves two questions: “What is Happening Inside me?” and “Can I be with this?” By learning to bring an unconditional presence and an accepting Yes to our lives, we begin to touch openheartedness and freedom.

The Stories that Empower Us: A Conversation between Tara Brach and Elizabeth Lesser (2020-11-18) Nov 20, 2020

The Stories that Empower Us: A Conversation between Tara Brach and Elizabeth Lesser (2020-11-18) - Whether we know it or not, our daily lives take direction from myths and tales that are hundreds, even thousands of years old. During their time together, Tara and Elizabeth will speak about how these origin tales have shaped our psyches and perpetuated the violence and suffering that marks our world. They will then explore how we can create fresh stories that guide our collective awakening to peace, compassion and healing.

Meditation: The “Do No Harm and Take No S***” Practice, by Guest Elizabeth Lesser (2020-11-18) Nov 19, 2020

Meditation: The “Do No Harm and Take No S***” Practice, by Guest Elizabeth Lesser (2020-11-18) - This practice - based on an ancient Buddhist meditation - bears the name of needlepoint I found in my sister's office after she died. She was a nurse, and as such had taken the oath all medical practitioners take: to do no harm. She added the next line, "take no s***," because as we all know life requires us to be both kindly and strong.

The following meditation is a training in both, because being kind and being strong are not mutually exclusive. Doing no harm and taking no s*** is not an either/or choice. It’s the marriage of the two that will make a difference in your life and will change the story in the world.

This meditation was recorded on Zoom during Tara's live-stream on 2020-11-18, and was followed by a conversation between Tara and Elizabeth.

“Play a Greater Part” – Bodhisattva for Our Times Nov 13, 2020

“Play a Greater Part” – Bodhisattva for Our Times - During scary and uncertain times, the habitual reflex is to try to find ground by creating stories about what’s happening and hardening into us-them blame. This only perpetuates the aggression and violence that is so prevalent in our societies. This talk is a reflection on how we as awakening bodhisattvas can evolve our consciousness in a way that serves authentic societal healing and transformation (a favorite from the archives).

Meditation: Vipassana – Opening Our Hearts to Life as It Is (2020-11-11) Nov 12, 2020

Meditation: Vipassana – Opening Our Hearts to Life as It Is (2020-11-11). This meditation awakens the senses with a mindful scanning of the body, establishes an anchor for presence, and invites us to arrive again and again, deepening the pathway home. When difficult or intense experience arises, the practice is to learn to open to what is here with a clear, allowing and kind attention (a favorite from the archives).

Our Refuge of Heartspace (2020-11-04) Nov 07, 2020

Our Refuge of Heartspace (2020-11-04) - Amidst the great emotional reactivity of our times, this talk looks at: How do we hold this? What will allow us to respond wisely to our hurting world? How can we widen the circles of compassion? Our time includes a guided meditation, sharing of responses to several inquiries and a period of question/response.

Meditation: Refuge in Living Presence (2020-11-04) Nov 05, 2020

Meditation: Refuge in Living Presence (2020-11-04) - This meditation guides us to rest in the aliveness of the changing stream of sensations, sounds and feelings. As we open to the awareness that includes all life, we touch the peace, stillness and wakefulness that is our essence. We close with Wendell Berry’s beautiful poem, “The Peace of Wild Things.”

Change, Loss and Timeless Love (Part 2) (2020-10-28) Oct 30, 2020

Change, Loss and Timeless Love (Part 2) (2020-10-28) - Our capacity to live and love fully is entirely intertwined with how we relate to change and loss. These two talks are an invitation to look honestly, and without judgment, at the ways, we resist facing our fears and grieving our losses. We then explore how to bring mindfulness and compassion to processing what we’ve resisted, and opening to the timeless love that is our true nature (given on the IMCW 2020 Fall 7-Day Virtual Retreat).

Instruction and Meditation: Pathway to Non-Doing Presence (2020-10-27) Oct 30, 2020

Instruction and Meditation: Pathway to Non-Doing Presence (2020-10-27) - While meditation begins with purposeful collecting of attention, it leads to non-doing presence, to Being. In this guided practice, we arrive in presence through a body scan and attention to the breath, open the attention to changing experience, and then explore the freedom of not controlling anything, and letting life be just as it is.

Meditation: Suffering and Compassion (2020-10-28) Oct 29, 2020

Meditation: Suffering and Compassion (2020-10-28) - This brief meditation is a version of the Tibetan Tonglen practice: With the support of the breath we allow ourselves to open to the realness of suffering, and then offer it into a boundless heartspace…a shared and compassionate awareness.

Healing Racialized Trauma: A Conversation with Resmaa Menakem and Tara Brach (2020-10-21) Oct 24, 2020

Healing Racialized Trauma: A Conversation with Resmaa Menakem and Tara Brach (2020-10-21) - The body is where our instincts reside and where we fight, flee, or freeze, and it endures the trauma inflicted by the ills that plague society. Resmaa Menakem speaks in a compelling way how this destruction will continue until Americans learn to heal the generational anguish of white body supremacy, and create a truly anti-racist culture. This conversation includes a powerful and provocative guided reflection.

Meditation: Letting Life Live Through You (2020-10-21) Oct 22, 2020

Meditation: Letting Life Live Through You (2020-10-21) - We unconsciously tense against the energetic life of the present moment. This meditation guides us in relaxing and opening to the full aliveness and awareness that animates our being.

Change, Loss and Timeless Love (Part 1) (2020-10-14) Oct 16, 2020

Change, Loss and Timeless Love (Part 1) (2020-10-14) - Our capacity to live and love fully is entirely intertwined with how we relate to change and loss. These two talks are an invitation to look honestly, and without judgment, at the ways we resist facing our fears and grieving our losses. We then explore how to bring mindfulness and compassion to processing what we’ve resisted, and opening to the timeless love that is our true nature.

Meditation: Listening to Our Heart (2020-10-14) Oct 15, 2020

Meditation: Listening to Our Heart (2020-10-14) - True listening arouses an open receptive presence that can be truly healing. This meditation awakens a listening presence; first bringing that receptive awareness to sensations and sounds, and then offering that presence to the tenderness and vulnerability of our heart.

Meditation: Uprooting Limiting Beliefs with RAIN (2020-09-23) Oct 09, 2020

Meditation: Uprooting Limiting Beliefs with RAIN - This short reflection guides us in using RAIN (recognize-allow-investigate-nurture) when we discover we are caught in a limiting belief. Who would you be if you didn’t believe there was something wrong with you? (an excerpt from the full talk, Freedom from the Prison of Limiting Beliefs, given on 2020-09-23)

Meditation: Letting Go and Letting Be (2020-10-03) Oct 09, 2020

Meditation: Letting Go and Letting Be(2020-10-03) - We leave presence by contracting into thoughts and resisting the changing flow of life. This meditation guides us in gently releasing thoughts and opening to this mysterious life, just as it is.

Your Future Self: Turning Towards Your Awakened HeartMind Oct 08, 2020

Your Future Self: Turning Towards Your Awakened HeartMind - Our lives are shaped by our evolutionary past – the fears and wants that arise from a separate self sense – and the pull of our evolutionary potential – our awakened heart and mind. This talk explores the power of these pulls, and the teachings and reflections that make us most available and responsive to the calling of our future self (enjoy from the archives).

Equanimity: The Gifts of Non-Reactive Mindful Presence (2020-09-30) Oct 02, 2020

Equanimity: The Gifts of Non-Reactive Mindful Presence (2020-09-30) - If we want to bring our intelligence, creativity and love into our relationships and world, we need to be able to access an inner refuge of presence. This talk explores how, when we’re reacting from anger, clinging or fear, to pause, reconnect to the immediate experience of “just this” and remember the love and awareness that has room for the changing waves of life.

Meditation: Pathway to Inner Peace (2020--09-30) Oct 01, 2020

Meditation: Pathway to Inner Peace (2020--09-30) - “Peace is this moment without judgment,” writes poet Dorothy Hunt, “this moment in the heart-space where everything that is, is welcome.” This meditation is a guide to opening to the truth of what’s here, and meeting it with a gentle, allowing presence. As we do, we can touch the inner peace of non-judging awareness, and source our actions in that balance and wisdom.

Freedom from the Prison of Limiting Beliefs (2020-09-23) Sep 25, 2020

Freedom from the Prison of Limiting Beliefs (2020-09-23) - (dedicated to Ruth Bader Ginsburg) - We suffer when we are caught in beliefs of our own or other's badness, unworthiness, or lack of value. These beliefs hurt our bodies, lead to violent and/or addictive behaviors, and separate us from our own heart and each other. This talk explores how we can discover who we are beyond these beliefs by recognizing when we are trapped, and learning how to turn to presence and love.

Meditation: Refuge in Presence (2020-09-23) Sep 24, 2020

Meditation: Refuge in Presence (2020-09-23) - The movement from virtual reality – thoughts - to the awareness of sense-based reality is true homecoming. This meditation guides us in awakening our senses, and returning again and again to the freedom of embodied presence. We close with part of a poem “Come Home” by Jane Hooper.

The Four Remembrances (2020-09-16) Sep 18, 2020

The Four Remembrances (2020-09-16) - When we attune to the reality of impermanence and death, we remember what most matters to us. But in daily life we can lose precious swaths of time in a reactive trance, on our way somewhere else, and lost in problem solving, judgment and worry. This talk reflects on four remembrances or practices—Pausing, Yes to life, Turning toward love, and Resting in awareness—that help us awaken from trance and live true to the loving presence that is our essence.

Meditation: Loving What Is (2020-09-12) Sep 18, 2020

Meditation: Loving What Is (2020-09-12) - While we might not directly love what is, there is a pathway to this inner freedom. As we explore in this meditation, we begin with allowing the changing sensations and emotions to move through us, just as they are. As this allowing presence deepens, it becomes suffused with the tenderness of love.

Meditation: Loving What Is (2020-09-12) Sep 18, 2020

Meditation: Loving What Is (2020-09-12) - While we might not directly love what is, there is a pathway to this inner freedom. As we explore in this meditation, we begin with allowing the changing sensations and emotions to move through us, just as they are. As this allowing presence deepens, it becomes suffused with the tenderness of love.

Awakening from the Trance of Bad-Othering (2020-09-09) Sep 11, 2020

Awakening from the Trance of Bad-Othering (2020-09-09) - Great spiritual leaders of social movements teach that true transformation arises from realizing our interconnectedness, and the light of the divine in each being. Sadly, through human history, much suffering has come from perceiving others as bad-others, flawed humans who are excluded from our heart. This talk looks at how our stories and mistrust of others—in personal relationships and in our society—can lead to cycles of violence, harm and deepening alienation. We then explore the inner process that helps us shift to “bad behavior, not bad human” and allows us to respond to suffering with love-in-action.

Meditation: Meeting Life with a Spacious Heart (2020-09-09) Sep 10, 2020

Meditation: Meeting Life with a Spacious Heart (2020-09-09) - Especially when we’re stressed, we need pathways to an allowing, kind presence. This meditation guides us to relax and open through our bodies, and then meet changing waves of experience with a sea of awareness that is intrinsically allowing and tender.

Guided Reflection: The RAIN of Compassion – What Is It Like to Be You Sep 10, 2020

Guided Reflection: The RAIN of Compassion – What Is It Like to Be You - Compassion is hard wired in our organism, and can be cultivated. We have the capacity for affiliative care, to tune into each other and to hold each other in our hearts. Developing this innate potential is the hope of our world.

Using the acronym R-A-I-N (Recognize, Allow, Investigate, Nurture), this meditation offers guidance in mindfully attuning to the emotional experience of others and awakening our natural tenderness and care.

Transforming Your Relationship with Anxiety (2020-09-02) Sep 04, 2020

Transforming Your Relationship with Anxiety (2020-09-02) - Strong anxiety frequently triggers fight-flight-freeze, our survival brain’s strategy for dealing with threats. This can become a trance that dominates our thoughts, feelings, behaviors and deepest experience of who we are. This talk explores how we get caught in this reactive trance, and ways of calming anxiety and radically shifting our way of relating to the experience of threat. The gift is discovering an inner freedom in the midst of life, and the capacity to respond to what arises with love-in-action.

Meditation: Relaxing Back into Awareness (2020-09-02) Sep 03, 2020

Meditation: Relaxing Back into Awareness (2020-09-02) - When we are in our daily trance, we are often leaning forward, on our way somewhere else. In this meditation we are guided to relax back into the awareness that is always, already here. We explore relaxing back through a body scan, and then with all our senses wide open. With practice we increasingly find our pathway home by relaxing the clench of doings, and resting in what is.

Meditation: Listening to our Life (2020-08-15) Aug 31, 2020

Meditation: Listening to our Life (2020-08-15) - A receptive listening attention brings intimacy with our inner experience and our world. This meditation guides us in listening to sounds, states of mind, sensations and the deepest aspiration of our heart.

Meditation: Waking up from the Dream (2020-07-25) Aug 29, 2020

Meditation: Waking up from the Dream (2020-07-25) - We spend many life moments in a virtual reality of thoughts. This guided practice helps us reconnect with our senses and discover in the space between thoughts the light of awareness, the mystery of what we are.

Worrier Pose – Finding Freedom from the Body of Fear (retreat talk) Aug 28, 2020

Worrier Pose – Finding Freedom from the Body of Fear (retreat talk) - While fear is a natural part of our make up, many of us suffering when the “on” button gets jammed. This talk looks at how our fears generate habitual patterns of physical tension, anxious thinking, emotions and behaviors; and how this constellation prevents us from inhabiting our full wisdom and love. We then explore two interrelated pathways of healing—unconditional presence, and resourcing, or cultivating access to safety and belonging (from the Fall 2018 IMCW Silent Retreat).

Meditation: Resting in Awake Awareness Aug 27, 2020

Meditation: Resting in Awake Awareness - This practice opens with a body scan, employing the image and felt sense of a smile to awaken awareness through the body. We then open to all the senses, and rest in the awareness that includes this changing life.

Radical Love 2: Loving Ourselves into Healing (2020-08-19) Aug 21, 2020

Radical Love 2: Loving Ourselves into Healing(2020-08-19) - Radical love sees and cherishes the sacred that lives through all beings. In this talk, we’ll look at the barrier to loving the life that is right here—what we call self—and how we can call on the light and warmth of awareness to awaken that love.

Meditation: A Present Heart (2020-08-19) Aug 20, 2020

Meditation: A Present Heart (2020-08-19) - This guided practice emphasizes bringing a gentle and kind attention to our bodies, and then including all experience with a receptive presence. We close by identifying a part of our being that is asking for a healing attention, and offering loving presence to ourself and then to others.

Learning to Respond, Not React Aug 14, 2020

Learning to Respond, Not React - When stressed, we often react with looping fear-thoughts, feelings and behaviors that cause harm to ourselves and/or others. This talk offers three interrelated strategies that can serve us when we’re triggered by stress, and help us find our way back to our natural wisdom, empathy and wholeness of being. By de-conditioning habitual reactivity, we are increasingly able to respond to our life circumstances in ways that serve healing and awakening.

Please enjoy this remastered audio version of one of Tara's most popular talks, originally published on 09/02/2015.

Meditation: Cultivating an Intimate Presence Aug 13, 2020

Meditation: Cultivating an Intimate Presence - This guided meditation cultivates a relaxed, gentle presence with whatever expressions of life are arising in the moment. We begin by releasing and opening through the body, and then include all sensations, feelings and sounds in an intimate, allowing presence.

Radical Love: Part 1 - Reflections that Awaken our Heart (2020-08-05) Aug 07, 2020

Radical Love: Part 1 - Reflections that Awaken our Heart (2020-08-05) - Radical love arises from the purity of our awake awareness, and cuts through the delusion of being separate and not OK. It comes from and brings out our intrinsic goodness. These talks explore the barriers to this embodied, inclusive and active loving, and include reflections that can help us to free our own hearts and bring true healing to our world.

Guided Meditation: Openhearted Presence (2020-08-05) Aug 06, 2020

Guided Meditation: Openhearted Presence (2020-08-05) - This meditation guides us to arouse mindfulness through attention to our senses, and to rest in that wakefulness with a receptive and tender presence.

Meditation: Tonglen - Discovering the Boundless Space of Compassion (2020-07-25) Aug 04, 2020

Meditation: Tonglen - Discovering the Boundless Space of Compassion (2020-07-25) - This short version of the Tibetan Tonglen practice guides us in courageously opening to the suffering within us and all beings, and allowing that suffering to be held in the formless heartspace that is our true belonging (recorded during Tara's livestreamed Satsang QA session).

Your Awake Heart Is Calling You Jul 31, 2020

Your Awake Heart Is Calling You - As individuals and societies, we are pulled by both the insecurity of our evolutionary past, and by our awake heart, our capacity for mindfulness and compassion. This talk explores the ways we can listen to and respond to the call of our awake heart, by training ourselves to open to vulnerability (our own and others) and widen the circles of compassion (a favorite from the 2017 archives).

Meditation: A Witnessing, Kind Presence Jul 30, 2020

Meditation: A Witnessing, Kind Presence - Starting with scanning through the body and awakening the senses, we then rest in presence, with the breath as a home base. The meditation invites an openness to whatever arises, and a gentle kind attention if we encounter physical or emotional pain. We end with a prayer that includes our own being and all beings. (original recording 2017-01-18)

Love and Fear During Times of War: Interview with Lama Rod Owens Jul 24, 2020

Love and Fear During Times of War: An Interview with Lama Rod Owens (2020-07-22) - This is a time of darkness and war. Fear lies at the heart of much of the violence we are experiencing. How do we befriend our fear and offer it permission to teach us how to move through it into a state of freedom? How do we use our fear to connect to the fear so many other people are experiencing? Ultimately, how do we begin to love what is unlovable, especially our fear? We will call on the teachings of Buddhadharma as well as our own intrinsic wisdom to lean into our fear with love.

Meditation: Gateway to Natural Presence (2020-07-22) Jul 23, 2020

Meditation: Gateway to Natural Presence (2020-07-22) - We enter a full presence through awakening our senses, and awakening to the awareness that is aware. This meditation guides us as we arouse an embodied presence, let go of any controlling, then discover the natural spaciousness and wakefulness that is the essence of what we are.

The Sacred Art of Listening Jul 17, 2020

The Sacred Art of Listening - Just as presence is the heart of meditation, so deep listening is at the center of all conscious, loving relationships. This talk explores how our wants and fears block listening, ways we can deepen our capacity for listening, and the healing that unfolds when we truly feel heard by another (a special talk from the archives).

What happens when you’re really listening?

Meditation: Listening to Life (2014-11-12) Jul 16, 2020

Meditation: Listening to Life (2014-11-12) - The attitude of meditation is one of engaged listening – a relaxed, receptive yet intimate attention. This meditation explores how we can listen to sounds, listen to and feel sensations, and then relax back into the ocean of awareness that includes and perceives the changing waves. In this relaxing back, we realize the peace and freedom of inhabiting our wholeness and essence.

This meditation ends with a tribute to Thich Nhat Hanh’s life and a reading from his writings on death and life.

Meditation: Healing Shame (2020-07-01) Jul 12, 2020

Meditation: Healing Shame (2020-07-01) - This meditation brings the clarity and self-compassion of RAIN to the suffering of self-aversion and/or shame. It helps us see the conditioning that shaped what we judge about ourselves, and helps us remember who we are beyond our habitual and painful self-narrative. This helps us to look with fresh eyes at our conditioning, and align our life more fully with our awakening heart.

The Heart Crosses the Abyss - Three Inner Trainings (2020-07-08) Jul 10, 2020

The Heart Crosses the Abyss - Three Inner Trainings (2020-07-08) - In the moments when we either resist or get possessed by our strong emotions, we are in a trance, and cut off from openhearted awareness. This talk explores the truth that “it’s not what’s happening, it’s how we’re relating.” We look at three key trainings that help us relate to difficult emotions with a wise and compassionate presence.

Meditation: The Space of Loving Awareness (2020-07-08) Jul 09, 2020

Meditation: The Space of Loving Awareness - This meditation begins by guiding us through a scan: to open to inner space and aliveness, then to outer space, and then continuous space, filled with the light of awareness. We explore how every experience belongs to this infinite awake space of our Being, and can be held with tenderness and love.

Shame, Healing and Transformation (2020-07-01) Jul 03, 2020

Shame, Healing and Transformation (2020-07-01) - Being at war with ourselves blocks us from evolving our consciousness and living from our hearts. This talk distinguishes between toxic and healthy shame, as well as shame about our individual self and our group identity. We explore how, with self-compassion and courageous honesty, we can respond to negative, painful feelings about ourselves in a way that serves awakening and alignment with our deepest values.

Meditation: Calling on Our Inner Bodhisattva (2020-07-01) Jul 02, 2020

Meditation: Calling on Our Inner Bodhisattva (2020-07-01) - We each have within us the very source of wisdom and love. This meditation calls forward that essence, our awakening heart, so we can seek guidance and nurturing for the parts of us that need a healing attention.

Spiritual Hope (2020-06-24) Jun 26, 2020

Spiritual Hope (2020-06-24) - Spiritual hope opens us to possibility and energizes us to manifest our potential for love and wisdom. In contrast to attachment or egoic hope, which is the grasping for what will benefit a separate self, spiritual hope arises from trust in the openhearted awareness (bodhichitta) that is always and already within us. This talk explores how, as individuals and as a society, we can nourish spiritual hope, and create the grounds for healing and radical transformation.

Meditation: Body and Spirit (2020-06-24) Jun 25, 2020

Meditation: Body and Spirit (2020-06-24) - As we relax and awaken through our physical body, we discover the formless dimension of awareness or spirit that permeates all of life. This meditation includes a poem from Mary Oliver.

Sustaining Our Caring (2020-06-17) Jun 19, 2020

Sustaining Our Caring (2020-06-17) - All transformation arises out of love; it is the energy of caring about life that moves us toward inner, relational and societal healing. With a primary focus on our radically re-enlivened movement for racial justice and equity, this talk looks at ways of remembering what matters and consciously nourishing our care.

Meditation: Embodied Metta (2020-06-17) Jun 18, 2020

Meditation: Embodied Metta (2020-06-17) - Lovingkindness becomes full when it is energetically experienced in our bodies. This meditation guides us in awakening the receptivity, warmth and openness of metta through our body, and then invites us to rest in the space of loving presence, as we open to whatever arises.

Meditation: Meeting Anger with Awareness (2020-06-10) Jun 15, 2020

Meditation: Meeting Anger with Awareness (2020-06-10) - When anger is held in mindfulness, it can energize us to respond wisely to challenging situations. This meditation guides us in meeting personal or societal anger with RAIN - recognize, allow, investigate and nurture. [NOTE: this meditation was given at the end of Tara’s "Anger and Transformation" talk on 2020-06-10.]

Anger and Transformation (2020-06-19) Jun 12, 2020

Anger and Transformation (2020-06-19) - The purpose of anger is to let us know there’s an obstacle to our wellbeing, and to energize us to act. While natural and necessary for survival and thriving, this powerful energy often possesses us and leads to suffering. This talk explores how we can use the RAIN meditation in our personal and societal life, to meet anger with a mindful, compassionate presence. Freed from the identification with a limited, separate reactive self, we can listen to the message of anger, draw on the purity of its energy, and respond from our natural intelligence, creativity and care.

Meditation: Inner Refuge of Calm (2020-06-10) Jun 11, 2020

Meditation: Inner Refuge of Calm (2020-06-10) - In times of great stress, it’s crucial that we have pathways to quiet our minds, relax our bodies and rest in a calm, steady presence. This meditation guides us in using the breath, body scan and a home base of presence to find that inner refuge that can carry us through difficult times.

A Courageous Presence with Racism (2020-06-03) Jun 05, 2020

A Courageous Presence with Racism (2020-06-03) - Anti-Black racism is the core wound of American culture, and we each have a role to play in fighting racism, a medicine to bring to these times. This talk explores how we can offer an honest and courageous presence to key domains of this suffering. We then look at affirming that Black lives truly matter with our dedicated and wise action.

Meditation: Homecoming to Wakeful Presence (2020-06-03) Jun 04, 2020

Meditation: Homecoming to Wakeful Presence (2020-06-03) - This meditation begins with us standing in mindful movement, guiding us in awakening awareness in the body. Then in sitting practice, we open all our senses, resting in the wakeful presence that can include the changing waves of our life.

Remembering Goodness: Three Gestures of Love May 29, 2020

Remembering Goodness: Three Gestures of Love - Tara offers this favorite talk from the archives. It explores the power of forgiveness, love and gratitude in re-connecting to our light and awareness, and being able to see the sacredness that shines through everyone. Within times of crisis practicing these gestures of love can truly feel like a pathway home. This talk explores a simple yet powerful way of arousing loving presence and dissolving the narrow identification that keeps us from inhabiting our awakened heartmind.

Meditation: Spacious, Loving Awareness (from retreat) May 28, 2020

Meditation: Spacious, Loving Awareness (from retreat) - When our awareness is awake and open, we naturally respond to this changing life with warmth, tenderness and love. This practice helps us discover the spaciousness of awareness by realizing the space and aliveness that is in the body, and then sensing the continuous space that holds all life. We then sense how this continuous space is filled with the light of awareness and pervaded by love. Includes a short talk that contexts the meditation.

Meditation: Light RAIN in Difficult Times (2020-05-23) May 27, 2020

Meditation: Light RAIN in Difficult Times (2020-05-23) - This meditation guides us in bringing the mindfulness and self-compassion of RAIN to a challenging part of our life, and particularly, to places of self-judgment or feelings of failure.

Embracing Uncertainty: Sheltering in Love - Part 9 (2020-05-20) May 22, 2020

Embracing Uncertainty: Sheltering in Love - Part 9 (2020-05-20) - How we tolerate uncertainty - during current times and throughout our lives - has a powerful effect on our capacity for presence, aliveness and love. This talk explores the conditioned ways of reacting to insecurity that contract us, and pathways of letting go of resistance, opening to Beginner's mind and discovering a timeless, wise and loving presence in the midst of inevitable change.

Meditation: The Art of Letting Go (2020-05-20) May 21, 2020

Meditation: The Art of Letting Go (2020-05-20) - Letting go means releasing the resistance we have to experiencing the present moment. This meditation guides us to let go of the thoughts that block our immediate sensory experience, the tension in the body that reduces aliveness and the armoring around the heart that dulls our sensitivity and tenderness toward life itself.

Meditation: Calling on Your Future Self (2020-05-09) May 21, 2020

Meditation: Calling on Your Future Self (2020-05-09) - We have within us the wisdom and compassion that can carry us through the most challenging times. This meditation guides us in accessing these inner resources by calling on the most evolved part of our being.

Sheltering in Love – Part 8: Finding Freedom in the Midst of Failure (2020-05-13) May 15, 2020

Sheltering in Love – Part 8: Finding Freedom in the Midst of Failure (2020-05-13) - Everyone faces personal failure, and it’s an extremely raw and painful feeling. If we have the courage to stay with the feelings, failure can become a portal to the realization of who we are beyond the imperfect separate self. This talk calls on Samuel Beckett’s wonderful quote (referenced by Pema Chödron), “Fail, Fail again, Fail better,” and offers guidance on finding freedom as we move through some of our most difficult moments.

Meditation: Living, Embodied Presence (2020-05-13) May 14, 2020

Meditation: Living, Embodied Presence (2020-05-13) - This practice begins with a full body scan and then guides us to return again and again to our senses. What we find is a dynamic presence, a Hereness that feels like home. The meditation ends with a beautiful poem by David Wagoner called, “Lost.”

Sheltering in Love – Part 7: Awakening from the Prison of Blame (2020-05-06) May 08, 2020

Sheltering in Love – Part 7: Awakening from the Prison of Blame (2020-05-06) - A key way stress disconnects us from ourselves and each other is through the limbic reactivity of blame. This talk helps us to recognize the suffering of chronic blame, resentment and anger, and to bring a healing presence to the vulnerability that underlies blame.

Meditation: Openhearted Presence (2020-05-06) May 07, 2020

Meditation: Openhearted Presence (2020-05-06) - This meditation guides us in embodying loving presence through a body scan, and then meeting whatever arises with a tender heart. We close with a beautiful blessing-poem from John O’Donahue

Sheltering In Love - Part 6: Loneliness as a Portal to Sacred Presence - Part 2 May 01, 2020

Sheltering In Love - Part 6: Loneliness as a Portal to Sacred Presence - Part 2 of 2 (2020-04-29) - The root of suffering is the pain of separation, the fears and loneliness that arise when we have forgotten our intrinsic belonging to each other and to all of life. These two talks look at the epidemic of loneliness predating the pandemic, and how loneliness is exacerbated in our current global crisis for those living alone, and for those feeling disconnected to themselves and others. We then explore how a courageous practice of compassionate presence - with our inner life, and in relationships - can turn the energy of loneliness into a current of healing and freedom.

Meditation: Vipassana - Seeing Life As It Is (2020-04-29) Apr 30, 2020

Meditation: Vipassana - Seeing Life As It Is (2020-04-29) - This classic Buddhist meditation trains us to wake up out of thoughts and to attend to our changing experience with a balanced, clear and open presence.

Meditation: Awakening Through the Animal-Headed Deities (2020-04-15) Apr 27, 2020

Meditation: Awakening Through the Animal-Headed Deities (2020-04-15) - This short meditation guides us in engaging with challenging emotions with presence and compassion. By opening to the “deities” we discover an open heartspace that can hold and respond to our hurting world (from the closing meditation of "Sheltering in Love - Part 4").

Sheltering in Love (Part 5): Loneliness as a Portal to Sacred Presence Apr 24, 2020

Sheltering in Love (Part 5): Loneliness as a Portal to Sacred Presence (2020-04-22) - The root of suffering is the pain of separation, the fears and loneliness that arise when we have forgotten our intrinsic belonging to each other and to all of life. These next two talks look at the epidemic of loneliness pre-dating the pandemic, and how loneliness is exacerbated in our current global crisis for those living alone, and for those feeling disconnected to themselves and others. We then explore how a courageous practice of compassionate presence - with our inner life, and in relationships - can turn the energy of loneliness into a current of healing and freedom.

Meditation: Relaxing Back into Natural Awareness (2020-04-22) Apr 23, 2020

Meditation: Relaxing Back into Natural Awareness (2020-04-22) - In this meditation we are guided to discover the space and aliveness that fills the body, sense the space in the universe, and then to realize our Beingness as continuous space, filled with the light of awareness. When our attention contracts into thoughts, the pathway to awareness is a relaxing back, reopening to the natural openness, silence and stillness of our true nature.

Sheltering In Love - Part 4 (2020-04-15) Apr 17, 2020

Sheltering In Love - Part 4 (2020-04-15) - During this time of pandemic, we need, more than ever, to feel our connectedness—true belonging with our own being, each other and all life. These talks explore the bodhisattva path – practices of an awakening being dedicated to living from love. The invitation is to let this season of close-in and global suffering deepen our collective commitment to creating a more compassionate world. Part 4 explores how the difficult emotions we all face can become direct portals to an inner refuge of sacred space.

Meditation: Refuge in Sacred Presence (2020-04-15) Apr 16, 2020

Meditation: Refuge in Sacred Presence (2020-04-15) - Our experience includes a foreground of changing experience - sounds, sensations, feelings, thoughts. In the background is an alert inner stillness, the awareness that is our true nature. This meditation guides us in opening to the moment-to-moment flow through our senses, and learning to relax back to inhabit the mystery and vastness of awake awareness.

Sheltering In Love (Part 3) (2020-04-08) Apr 10, 2020

Sheltering In Love (Part 3) (2020-04-08) - During this time of pandemic, we need, more than ever, to feel our connectedness—true belonging with our own being, each other and all life. These talks explore the bodhisattva path – practices of an awakening being dedicated to living from love. The invitation is to let this season of close-in and global suffering deepen our collective commitment to creating a more compassionate world.

Meditation: A Calm Refuge - with the Rain (2020-04-08) Apr 09, 2020

Meditation: A Calm Refuge - with the Rain (2020-04-08) - This meditation includes a relaxing body scan and guidance on finding a space of peace and balance in the midst of whatever life brings us. Also enjoy the Virginia springtime rain that accompanies us halfway through the meditation.

Sheltering In Love - Part 2 (2020-04-01) Apr 03, 2020

Sheltering In Love - Part 2 (2020-04-01) - During this time of pandemic, we need, more than ever, to feel our connectedness—true belonging with our own being, each other and all life. These talks explore the bodhisattva path - practices of an awakening being dedicated to living from love. The invitation is to let this season of close-in and global suffering deepen our collective commitment to creating a more compassionate world.

Meditation: Meeting Fear with a Healing Breath (2020-04-01) Apr 02, 2020

Meditation: Meeting Fear with a Healing Breath (2020-04-01) - This meditation guides us through a relaxing body scan and then explores how we can allow the breath to calm our body and bring peace to our heart.

Meditation: Embracing Life with an Open Heart (2020-03-25) Mar 31, 2020

Meditation: Embracing Life with an Open Heart (2020-03-25) - In this short practice we connect with our aspiration to live from love, and then bring a caring presence to our own vulnerability, to a dear one, and to all beings everywhere.

Sheltering in Love - Part 1 (2020-03-25) Mar 27, 2020

Sheltering in Love - Part 1 (2020-03-25) - During this time of pandemic, we need, more than ever, to feel our connectedness—true belonging with our own being, each other and all life. These talks explore the bodhisattva path - practices of an awakening being dedicated to living from love. The invitation is to let this season of close-in and global suffering deepen our collective commitment to creating a more compassionate world.

Meditation: Touching Peace (2020-03-25) Mar 26, 2020

Meditation: Touching Peace (2020-03-25) - This guided meditation offers a pathway to quieting our mind and calming anxiety. We begin with long deep breathing, and with the breath, engage the image of a smile and relax through the body. Then we practice resting in relaxed awareness, allowing waves of thoughts, feelings and sensations to come and go. The meditation ends with a beautiful verse from poet Phillip Booth.

Short Talk and Guided Meditation: Bringing RAIN to Fear Mar 23, 2020

Short Talk and Guided Meditation: Bringing RAIN to Fear (2020-03-18) - In this practice we explore how the mindfulness and compassion of RAIN can free us from the grip of fear. This is an excerpt from the full talk: Facing Pandemic Fears with an Awake Heart. Video available via tarabrach.com and Tara’s YouTube channel.

Facing Pandemic Fears with an Awake Heart (2020-03-18) Mar 19, 2020

Facing Pandemic Fears with an Awake Heart (2020-03-18) - While it’s natural to feel fear during times of great collective crisis, our challenge is that fear easily takes over our lives. This talk explores how the mindfulness and compassion of the RAIN meditation can help us find an inner refuge in the face of fear, and deepen our loving connection with each other.

Guided Meditation for Times of Pandemic: “Calling on Your Awakened Heart” Mar 19, 2020

Guided Meditation for Times of Pandemic: “Calling on Your Awakened Heart” (2020-03-18) - In the midst of difficulty we need access to our deepest wisdom and love. This guided meditation calls forth this loving presence by opening to the heart and spirit of whatever being in our life we most experience as calm, wise and compassionate (offered online via livestream).

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks and meditations freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation: Bring RAIN to the Wanting Mind (2020-03-04) Mar 16, 2020

Meditation: Bring RAIN to the Wanting Mind - (2020-03-04) -

We begin the meditation by briefly scanning through the body and sensing awareness of being here. We scan our life and use the acronym RAIN to Recognize a feeling of wanting, Allow it to be there, and Investigate how we’re holding the experience in our body. As we trace back to our longing for belonging, we Nurture a feeling of belonging as warmth, openness and tenderness that’s already here.

This is the final meditation from the full talk given on March 3, 2020, Desire and Addiction (Part 1): Voices of Longing Calling You Home.

Guided Heart Meditation: Loving Kindness - Befriending our Lives Mar 12, 2020

Guided Heart Meditation: Loving Kindness - Befriending our Lives - This meditation guides us in how to cultivate a deep quality of friendliness in relating to our inner life and each other. The gift of this practice is a direct sense of belonging - knowing that we can never be alone (a retreat meditation).

Desire and Addiction (Part 2): Voices of Longing Calling You Home (2020-03-11) Mar 12, 2020

Desire and Addiction (Part 2): Voices of Longing Calling You Home (2020-03-11) - Desire is intrinsic to all living forms - the urge to exist and flourish. It turns to suffering when, due to unmet needs, it contracts, intensifies and separates us from our full aliveness and awareness. These two talks guide us in awakening from this trance, and discovering how within desire is the longing that can carry us to true belonging.

Desire and Addiction: Voices of Longing Calling You Home (2020-03-04) Mar 06, 2020

Desire and Addiction: Voices of Longing Calling You Home (2020-03-04) - Desire is intrinsic to all living forms - the urge to exist and flourish. It turns to suffering when, due to unmet needs, it contracts, intensifies and separates us from our full aliveness and awareness. These two talks guide us in awakening from this trance, and discovering how within desire is the longing that can carry us to true belonging.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks and meditations freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at tarabrach.com/donation/. With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation: The Blessings of Yes (2020-03-04) Mar 05, 2020

Meditation: The Blessings of Yes (2020-03-04) - When our hearts open to the life that is here, just as it is, we discover vast loving presence. This meditation engages the smile as we scan through and awaken to our body and senses. Then we practice meeting the changing flow of life with a full allowing, wakeful and open awareness. We close with a verse from e.e. cummings.

Facing Fear (Part 2) - Awakening Your Fearless Heart (2020-02-26) Feb 28, 2020

Facing Fear (Part 2) - Awakening Your Fearless Heart (2020-02-26) - Fear is a natural and universal part of our incarnation, and, when it goes on overdrive, we get imprisoned in the suffering of separation. These two talks explore how the RAIN meditation can help us face fear, and discover the boundless loving awareness that includes but is not contracted by currents of fear.

Meditation: Relaxing with Life (2020-02-26) Feb 27, 2020

Meditation: Relaxing with Life (2020-02-26) - This meditation begins with a scan, and then we practice opening to and relaxing with our changing experience. The sitting closes with a beautiful poem by Danna Faulds - Just for Now.

Join Tara's email community at http://eepurl.com/6YfI, to receive exclusive updates, events, and meditations. - Get a free download of Tara’s 10 min meditation: “Mindful Breathing: Finding Calm and Ease," - plus a bonus gift: "8 Essential Tips to Nourish Your Meditation Practice."

Working with Trauma: Tara Interviews Jim Gordon, MD (2020-02-19) Feb 21, 2020

Working with Trauma: Tara Interviews Jim Gordon, MD (2020-02-19) - Dr. Jim Gordon is author of the new book, The Transformation: Discovering Wholeness and Healing After Trauma. In this interview with Tara, he talks about his work with populations around the globe struggling with trauma, and some of the most powerful practices that can be done on our own in healing trauma. Jim's organization is the Center for Mind-Body Medicine in Washington, DC - CMBM.org.

Meditation: Letting Life Live Through You (2020-02-19) Feb 20, 2020

Meditation: Letting Life Live Through You (2020-02-19) - We begin with a body scan, open to sounds and to listening to and feeling the moment. From spacious awareness the practice is simply to recognize and allow the changing flow of life. The meditation ends with the poem, “Hokusai Says,” by Roger Keyes.

Join Tara's email community at http://eepurl.com/6YfI, to receive exclusive updates, events, and meditations. - Get a free download of Tara’s 10 min meditation: “Mindful Breathing: Finding Calm and Ease," - plus a bonus gift: "8 Essential Tips to Nourish Your Meditation Practice."

Facing Fear (Part 1) - Awakening Your Fearless Heart - Feb 14, 2020

Facing Fear (Part 1) - Awakening Your Fearless Heart - Fear is a natural and universal part of our incarnation, and, when it goes on overdrive, we get imprisoned in the suffering of separation. These two talks explore how the RAIN meditation can help us face fear, and discover the boundless loving awareness that includes but is not contracted by currents of fear.

Meditation: Open-Hearted Presence (2020-02-12) Feb 13, 2020

Meditation: Open-Hearted Presence (2020-02-12) - This meditation establishes a kind attention by bringing the imagery and felt sense of a smile into the body scan, and then with the breath as a home base, opens the attention to changing experience. We end with a brief loving kindness reflection.

Embodied Presence (Part 2) - Planting our Roots in the Universe - Working with Pain (2020-02-05) Feb 07, 2020

Embodied Presence (Part 2) - Planting our Roots in the Universe - Working with Pain (2020-02-05) - In describing our human predicament and dis-ease, D.H. Lawrence says we are like a great tree with our roots in the air. We need to replant ourselves—in our bodies, hearts and spirit. These two talks are guides to replanting ourselves. In Part 1, we explore how we are so often dissociated from the life of our body, and the pathways home. Part 2 looks at the challenges of pain, fear and trauma, and how we can gradually and skillfully reconnect with a wholeness of being.

Meditation: A Listening Presence (2020-02-05) Feb 06, 2020

Meditation: A Listening Presence (2020-02-05) - The receptivity of listening awakens us to the living stream of life. This meditation guides us in listening to sounds, and then listening to and feeling the aliveness of our bodies and the movement of the breath. We close with a simple offering of lovingkindness to our inner life and our world.

Being Truthful - How Honesty Nourishes Love Jan 31, 2020

Being Truthful - How Honesty Nourishes Love - The grounds of happiness, loving relationships and a just and flourishing society is honesty. And yet our current times are characterized by a plethora of deception – both societally, and often in more subtle ways, in our personal lives. This talk examines the deep conditioning we have to deceive others, and to avoid facing and acknowledging our own vulnerability. We then explore how we can commit ourselves to deepening our truth telling, and in so doing, creating a climate of integrity and trust that can lead to a more compassionate world (from the 2017 archives).

Guided Heart Meditation: Releasing Blame (retreat) (2019-12-30) Jan 30, 2020

Guided Heart Meditation: Releasing Blame (retreat) (2019-12-30) - Our self-protective habits of resentment and blame block intimacy and connection with ourself and others. This short talk and meditation are an invitation to deepen our understanding of the suffering of blame, and to release the armoring to loving freely. (recorded at the IMCW 2019 New Year's 5-day Silent Retreat)

Part 1: Embodied Presence - Planting our Roots in the Universe (2020-01-22) Jan 24, 2020

Part 1: Embodied Presence - Planting our Roots in the Universe (2020-01-22) - In describing our human predicament and dis-ease, D.H. Lawrence says we are like a great tree with our roots in the air. We need to replant ourselves—in our bodies, hearts and spirit. These two talks are guides to replanting ourselves. In Part 1, we explore how we are so often dissociated from the life of our body, and the pathways home. Part 2 looks at the challenges of pain, fear and trauma, and how we can gradually and skillfully reconnect with a wholeness of being.

Meditation: Portal to Sacred Presence (2020-01-22) Jan 23, 2020

Meditation: Portal to Sacred Presence - This meditation includes a full body scan, and then opens the senses to all experience, allowing life to be just as it is. Awakening to the life of our body reveals the mysterious formless presence that is our source. We close with a poem from Danna Faulds, Trusting Prana.

Shifting From Limbic to Liberating Intention (2020-01-15) Jan 17, 2020

Shifting From Limbic to Liberating Intention (2020-01-15) - Becoming conscious of our intentions is the first step to truly aligning our life with our heart. This talk explores identifying when we are being driven by grasping and fear, and ways we can bring compassion to unmet needs and discover the deeper longing - the liberating intention - that guides us to freedom.

Meditation: Coming Home with the Breath (2020-01-15) Jan 16, 2020

Meditation: Coming Home with the Breath - This guided practice has a short period of relaxing the body, and establishes the breath as a home base for attention. We practice arriving again and again, deepening the pathway of homecoming. The meditation ends with lovingkindness for ourselves and our world.

The Three Refuges - Gateways to Belonging and Freedom (2020-01-08) Jan 10, 2020

The Three Refuges - Gateways to Belonging and Freedom (2020-01-08) - We all need ways to guide our attention that allow us to find wisdom, love and freedom in the midst of our lives. This talk reviews three archetypal gateways—Buddha/awareness, Dharma/truth, and Sangha/loving community. Through teachings, guided meditations and a traditional refuge ritual, we engage together in bringing alive these pathways to healing and peace. (Note: Includes Refuges string tying ceremony and chanting the Refuges at end)

Meditation: Relaxed and Awake (2020-01-08) Jan 09, 2020

Meditation: Relaxed and Awake - This guided meditation helps us find ease and wakefulness in our body and mind. With the breath as our home base, we offer a gentle and full attention to the changing waves. We close with a beautiful poem, “Walk Slowly,” by Danna Faulds.

Join Tara's email community at http://eepurl.com/6YfI, to receive exclusive updates, events, and meditations. - Get a free download of Tara’s 10 min meditation: “Mindful Breathing: Finding Calm and Ease," - plus a bonus gift: "8 Essential Tips to Nourish Your Meditation Practice."

The Power of Awake Awareness (retreat talk) (2019-12-28) Jan 03, 2020

The Power of Awake Awareness (retreat talk) (2019-12-28) - We all encounter “demons” of fear, anger, hurt, craving and shame. This talk explores our key ways of resisting difficult emotions, and how “when the resistance is gone, the demons are gone.” We look at the power of mindfulness and compassion to undo resistance, and open us to the loving presence that can handle whatever energies arise. This special talk was given at the 2019 IMCW 5-Day New Year’s Silent Retreat.

Introductory Meditation Instructions - Guided Practice from Retreat Jan 03, 2020

Introductory Meditation Instructions - Guided Practice from Retreat - This guided session includes an overview of the primary components in meditation practices, and then guidance in awakening the senses, collecting the attention, and opening mindfully to changing experience.

Short Talk and Guided Heart Meditation - Releasing Blame (retreat) Dec 31, 2019

This meditation explores the meaning of forgiveness and its role in healing and transformation. We then are guided in a forgiveness practice that helps us release the armoring of blame, and inhabit an inclusive and open heart (from the 2019 Fall IMCW 7-day Silent Retreat).

Trusting Who We Are (retreat talk) Dec 27, 2019

Trusting Who We Are (retreat talk) - When we are suffering, we are believing something untrue - usually a limiting story about who we are. This talk explores the roots of our self-doubts, and the teachings and practices that remind us of our basic goodness - the loving awareness that is our source.

Short Talk and Guided Heart Meditation - Loving Kindness - Befriending our Lives (retreat) Dec 26, 2019

Short Talk and Guided Heart Meditation - Loving Kindness - Befriending our Lives (2019-11-02) - This short talk and meditation introduces the domain of “heart practices” and then guides us in how to cultivate a deep quality of friendliness in relating to our inner life and each other. The gift of this practice is a direct sense of belonging - knowing that we can never be alone (from the Fall 2019 IMCW 7-Day Silent Retreat).

Radical Compassion - Part 3 - Loving Ourselves and Our World into Healing (2019-12-18) Dec 20, 2019

Radical Compassion - Part 3 - Loving Ourselves and Our World into Healing (2019-12-18) - Drawn from Tara's new book, Radical Compassion (2020), these three talks explore how the RAIN practice (Recognize, Allow, Investigate, Nurture) awakens the active, embodied caring that heals and frees our hearts. Check www.tarabrach.com for more information on Tara's new book, Radical Compassion.

A Brief Meditation: Gathering and Arriving in Presence (2019-12-18) Dec 20, 2019

A Brief Meditation: Gathering and Arriving in Presence (2019-12-18) - A brief meditation to gather the attention, loosen and soften the body, sense your intention for being here, and to feel the quality of presence of an awakening heart.

Radical Compassion - Part 2 - Loving Ourselves and Our World into Healing Dec 13, 2019

Radical Compassion - Loving Ourselves and Our World into Healing – Parts 1, 2, 3 - Drawn from Tara’s new book, Radical Compassion (2020), these three talks explore how the RAIN practice (Recognize, Allow, Investigate, Nurture) awakens the active, embodied caring that heals and frees our hearts.

Check www.tarabrach.com for more information on Tara's new book, Radical Compassion.

Meditation: Surrender into Living Presence (2019-12-11) Dec 12, 2019

Meditation: Surrender into Living Presence - In this guided meditation we begin with a body scan, and rest in awareness with our senses awake. The key practice is to recognize when the mind immerses in virtual reality, reawaken our senses, and surrender again and again into the immediacy, vibrance and mystery of living presence.

Join Tara's email community at http://eepurl.com/6YfI, to receive exclusive updates, events, and meditations. - Get a free download of Tara’s 10 min meditation: “Mindful Breathing: Finding Calm and Ease," - plus a bonus gift: "8 Essential Tips to Nourish Your Meditation Practice."

Radical Compassion - Part 1 - Loving Ourselves and Our World into Healing Dec 06, 2019

Radical Compassion - Loving Ourselves and Our World into Healing – Parts 1, 2, 3 - Drawn from Tara’s new book, Radical Compassion (2020), these three talks explore how the RAIN practice (Recognize, Allow, Investigate, Nurture) awakens the active, embodied caring that heals and frees our hearts.

Check www.tarabrach.com for more information on Tara's new book, Radical Compassion.

Meditation: Cultivating a Gentle, Kind Attention (2019-12-04) Dec 05, 2019

Meditation: Cultivating a Gentle, Kind Attention - This meditation calls on the image and felt sense of a smile as we scan through the body, and invites a receptive and caring presence, as we open our attention to the changing flow of life.

Join Tara's email community at http://eepurl.com/6YfI, to receive exclusive updates, events, and meditations. - Get a free download of Tara’s 10 min meditation: “Mindful Breathing: Finding Calm and Ease," - plus a bonus gift: "8 Essential Tips to Nourish Your Meditation Practice."

Gratitude: Entering Sacred Relationship (2019-11-27) Nov 29, 2019

Gratitude: Entering Sacred Relationship - Gratitude arises when we are in sacred relationship with life—present, open and receptive. This talk explores how central gratitude is to our physical, emotional and spiritual wellbeing, and then looks at the ways we can directly gladden our minds with gratitude. We end with a guided meditation that includes sharings from the group, and a poem of blessing by John O’Donohue with a brief cut from Robert Gass - Om Namaha Shivaya.

Meditation: Being Here (2019-11-27) Nov 29, 2019

Meditation: Being Here - This guided meditation is an invitation to rest in Hereness—the immediacy and aliveness of full presence. We arrive and quiet with a conscious long deep breath, relax our bodies, awaken our senses, and then bring our attention to relaxing with our moment-to-moment experience. The poem ends with a beautiful poem called “Interlude” by poet Danna Faulds.

Join Tara's email community at http://eepurl.com/6YfI, to receive exclusive updates, events, and meditations. - Get a free download of Tara’s 10 min meditation: “Mindful Breathing: Finding Calm and Ease," - plus a bonus gift: "8 Essential Tips to Nourish Your Meditation Practice."

Listening to the Song - Part 2 (2019-11-20) Nov 22, 2019

Listening to the Song - Part 2 (2019-11-20) - Listening is our gateway to intimacy with our inner life, each other, our earth and spirit. These two talks look at the ways that listening gets blocked and the teachings and practices that help us cultivate the gift of a deep and healing listening presence.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks and meditations freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/. With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation: Coming Home to Natural Presence (2019-11-20) Nov 22, 2019

Meditation: Coming Home to Natural Presence (2019-11-20) - This meditation awakens our senses through a body scan and listening to sound, and then invites us to rest in the presence that spontaneously knows the changing stream of experience. Relaxing back and letting everything be just as it is, reveals the natural presence that is our true home.

Join Tara's email community at http://eepurl.com/6YfI, to receive exclusive updates, events, and meditations. - Get a free download of Tara’s 10 min meditation: “Mindful Breathing: Finding Calm and Ease," - plus a bonus gift: "8 Essential Tips to Nourish Your Meditation Practice."

Meditation: The RAIN of Compassion (30 min) Nov 21, 2019

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.

Meditation: Calling on Loving Presence Nov 21, 2019

Meditation: Calling on Loving Presence -

Often, when we’re really struggling, the only way to find compassion for ourselves is by reaching out towards a loving awareness that is great enough to offer comfort and safety to our wounded self.

When we feel held by a caring presence, by something larger than our small frightened self, we begin to find space in our heart for the difficult currents of our life, and for the lives of others. The suffering that might have seemed “too much” can now awaken us to the sweetness of compassion.

Listening to the Song - Part 1 (2019-11-13) Nov 15, 2019

Listening to the Song - Part 1 (2019-11-13) - Listening is our gateway to intimacy with our inner life, each other, our earth and spirit. These two talks look at the ways that listening gets blocked and the teachings and practices that help us cultivate the gift of a deep and healing listening presence.

Join Tara's email community at http://eepurl.com/6YfI, to receive exclusive updates, events, and meditations. - Get a free download of Tara’s 10 min meditation: “Mindful Breathing: Finding Calm and Ease," - plus a bonus gift: "8 Essential Tips to Nourish Your Meditation Practice."

Meditation - The Silence that is Listening (2013-11-13) Nov 14, 2019

Meditation - The Silence that is Listening (2013-11-13) - Listening to sound is opens up to the space of pure being. In this guided practice we begin by awakening through the body, and then explore listening to sounds and silence, and to inhabiting the receptive presence that is listening, awareness itself.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks and meditations freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Judgment, Acceptance and Freedom (Retreat Talk) (2019-11-03) Nov 08, 2019

Judgment, Acceptance and Freedom (Retreat Talk) - The boundary to what we accept is the boundary to our freedom. This talk explores the often unconscious ways we create separation by judging ourselves and others, and the key pathways of meditation practice that release the habit of blame and free our hearts.

(This talk was given on Sunday evening, November 3, at the 2019 IMCW Fall Retreat in Reisterstown, MD.)

Short Talk and Meditation: Saying Yes to Our Life Nov 07, 2019

Short Talk and Meditation: Saying Yes to Our Life - Our habitual ways of avoiding pain keep us from experiencing intimacy with our inner life and with each other. This short talk and guided meditation offers instruction in saying “yes” to the life we encounter. As we release resistance, we discover the creativity, wisdom and love that express our truest nature.

Anger: Responding, Not Reacting Nov 01, 2019

Anger: Responding, Not Reacting - Anger is natural, intelligent and necessary for surviving and flourishing. Yet when we are hooked by anger, it causes great personal and collective suffering. This talk explores how to transform patterns of reactivity by bringing a mindful and compassionate attention to the unmet needs that underlie angry reactivity. When we learn how to pause and connect honestly with our inner experience, we are then able to respond to others from our full intelligence and heart (a favorite from the archives).

“Getting angry with another person is like throwing hot coals with bare hands: both people get burned.” Buddha

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks and meditations freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditating with RAIN - Working with Difficult Emotions Oct 31, 2019

Meditating with RAIN - Working with Difficult Emotions - This guided practice applies mindfulness and self-compassion to challenging emotions. It is based on the acronym RAIN, and provides a four step practice that is accessible and effective, even at those times when mindfulness is most difficult to remember.

The acronym RAIN is one of the most powerful tools I know for working with difficult emotions and discovering the freedom of an awake, compassionate presence.

Meditation: Letting Go – 9 Magic Breaths (2019-07-19) Oct 30, 2019

Guided Meditation: Letting Go – 9 Magic Breaths (2019-07-19) - This guided practice includes taking a pause from all activity, and following the inflow and outflow of nine conscious breaths. We then relax and settle into greater and greater ease and well-being. Continuing as long as desired, we then explore re-entering activity with a relaxed and open attention.

Belonging to Each Other – Part 3 of 3 (2019-10-23) Oct 25, 2019

Belonging to Each Other – Part 3 of 3 - Mother Teresa writes that if we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other. These three talks explore the causes for severed belonging, and pathways to deepening the felt sense of belonging to our own body, heart and spirit, and to all beings. Together the talks offer a natural and powerful progression of lovingkindness or metta reflections, that when practiced regularly can open us to the peace, joy and freedom of trusting our mutual belonging.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks and meditations freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation: Awake and Alive (2019-10-23) Oct 24, 2019

Meditation: Awake and Alive - This guided practice includes a body scan, and an opening to the awareness that includes all of life. From that wakeful openness we offer a relaxed attentiveness to the changing flow, and end with loving kindness to ourselves and our world.

Reflection: RAIN on Blame (2019-10-16) Oct 23, 2019

Reflection: RAIN on Blame - When we are stuck in blame or resentment we are in a trance - the other person becomes an unreal bad other, and our own sense of being contracts into a victimized self, an angry self, a righteous self. This practice guides us in bringing mindfulness and compassion to our inner experience, and then to viewing the other with a more open and clear heart. By awakening from the trance of blame, we are able to respond with intelligence and care to the unmet needs that underlie all conflict.

Join Tara's email community at http://eepurl.com/6YfI, to receive exclusive updates, events, and meditations. - Get a free download of Tara’s 10 min meditation: “Mindful Breathing: Finding Calm and Ease," - plus a bonus gift: "8 Essential Tips to Nourish Your Meditation Practice."

Belonging to Each Other – Part 2 of 3 (2019-10-16) Oct 18, 2019

Belonging to Each Other – Part 2 of 3 (2019-10-16) - Mother Teresa writes that if we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other. These three talks explore the causes for severed belonging, and pathways to deepening the felt sense of belonging to our own body, heart and spirit, and to all beings. Together the talks offer a natural and powerful progression of lovingkindness or metta reflections, that when practiced regularly can open us to the peace, joy and freedom of trusting our mutual belonging.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks and meditations freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation: Vast and Timeless Presence (2019-10-16) Oct 17, 2019

Meditation: Vast and Timeless Presence - The pathway to inhabiting our full presence is including, with mindfulness all parts of experience. This guided meditation explores how we can open, without resistance to the changing flow of sensations, feelings, thoughts and sounds, and discover the boundless awareness that is our true home.

Join Tara's email community at http://eepurl.com/6YfI, to receive exclusive updates, events, and meditations. - Get a free download of Tara’s 10 min meditation: “Mindful Breathing: Finding Calm and Ease," - plus a bonus gift: "8 Essential Tips to Nourish Your Meditation Practice."

Belonging to Each Other - Part 1 (2019-10-09) Oct 11, 2019

Belonging to Each Other - Part 1 (2019-10-09) - Mother Teresa writes that if we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other. These two talks explore the causes for severed belonging, and pathways to deepening the felt sense of belonging to our own body, heart and spirit, and to all beings. Together the talks offer a natural and powerful progression of lovingkindness or metta reflections, that when practiced regularly can open us to the peace, joy and freedom of trusting our mutual belonging.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks and meditations freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation: Relaxed and Alert (2019-10-09) Oct 10, 2019

Meditation: Relaxed and Alert - This meditation begins with a period of relaxing and collecting our attention with intentional long deep breathing. We then deepen embodied presence, and widen to the awareness that includes sounds, sensations, feelings, breath, and all experience. When the mind drifts from this open, awake awareness, we gently return, re-relaxing and resting in an easeful, alert presence. Recorded at Tara's Wednesday night class, the meditation includes chanting of OM’s and ends with a sense of melting into community.

Join Tara's email community to receive exclusive updates, events, and meditations. - Get a free download of Tara’s 10 min meditation: “Mindful Breathing: Finding Calm and Ease," - plus a bonus gift: "8 Essential Tips to Nourish Your Meditation Practice."

Spiritual Hope: Trusting Your Awakening Heart (2019-10-02) Oct 04, 2019

Spiritual Hope: Trusting Your Awakening Heart - Our beliefs and understandings about reality directly impact our moment to moment experience of living. If we believe we will never change, that blocks the transformation that brings happiness and freedom. If we trust our spiritual unfolding and are open to possibility, that guides our attention and behaviors in ways that evolve us. This talk explores how to nurture mature, spiritual hope—hope that is sourced in trusting our intrinsic goodness, and our capacity for deepening love and wisdom.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks and meditations freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation: Relaxing into Awake Awareness (2019-10-02) Oct 03, 2019

Meditation: Relaxing into Awake Awareness - We realize our true nature by relaxing back into what is always, already here. Starting by scanning and opening through the body, we explore resting in the awareness that includes sounds, sensations and all of life. The guidance is, when we recognize thoughts, to simply relax back, and allow life to be just as it is.

Join Tara's email community at http://eepurl.com/6YfI, to receive exclusive updates, events, and meditations. - Get a free download of Tara’s 10 min meditation: “Mindful Breathing: Finding Calm and Ease," - plus a bonus gift: "8 Essential Tips to Nourish Your Meditation Practice."

Wise Investigation: Dissolving the Trance Sep 27, 2019

Wise Investigation: Dissolving the Trance - If we are suffering, it is because we are believing something that is not true and caught in emotional reactivity. A key tool in meditation is investigation – actively inquiring into what is happening inside us. When we investigate with sincere interest and care, the light of our attention untangles difficult emotions and nourishes intimate relationships. As this light turns toward awareness itself, it reveals the radiance and emptiness of our true nature (a favorite from the archives).

Meditation: A Healing, Relaxing Breath Sep 26, 2019

Meditation: A Healing, Relaxing Breath - This meditation guides us in collecting attention with an intentional long deep even breath, and awakening a full relaxed presence as the breath resumes in its natural rhythm. Resting fully in this presence is the gateway to deep peace and inner freedom (a favorite from the Archives).

True Happiness: Realizing Well-Being Sep 20, 2019

True Happiness: Realizing Well-Being - Well being is the deep contentment that arises from a relaxed, wakeful presence. This talk explores the beliefs and habits that contract us away from presence, and several key ways we can nourish our natural capacity for happiness (from the archives).

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks and meditations freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Reflection: Pausing and Deepening Attention in the Face of Attachment Sep 19, 2019

Reflection: Pausing and Deepening Attention in the Face of Attachment - In this short reflection, we explore how we can bring mindfulness and self-compassion to the habits of obsessing, over-consuming and hurting ourselves and others that keep us from true happiness, connectedness and peace. Listen to the full talk, "The Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Working with Attachments and Addictions," at www.tarabrach.com - July 29, 2015.

Join Tara's email community to receive exclusive updates, events, and meditations. - Get a free download of Tara’s 10 min meditation: “Mindful Breathing: Finding Calm and Ease," - plus a bonus gift: "8 Essential Tips to Nourish Your Meditation Practice."

The Gift of Silence: Quieting the Mind Sep 13, 2019

The Gift of Silence: Quieting the Mind - Through all spiritual traditions, there is a valuing of silence and stillness. When the mind has quieted, it becomes possible to see into the truth of what we are. Yet quieting can turn into a battle with the process of the thinking mind. This talk explores practices that allow us to settle in a natural way, the presence which is silence itself, and the wisdom and love that flows freely when we live from that silence (a favorite from the archives).

Join Tara's email community at http://eepurl.com/6YfI, to receive exclusive updates, events, and meditations. - Get a free download of Tara’s 10 min meditation: “Mindful Breathing: Finding Calm and Ease," - plus a bonus gift: "8 Essential Tips to Nourish Your Meditation Practice."

Meditation: Awakening the Heart – Giving and Receiving Loving Blessings Sep 12, 2019

Meditation: Awakening the Heart – Giving and Receiving Loving Blessings - Our hearts awaken as we express and receive love in an embodied, conscious way. This guided practice brings our attention to dear ones in our life, and explores how we discover deep communion through offering and letting in love.

“To love someone is to learn the song in their heart and sing it to them when they have forgotten.” Arne Garborg

Befriending Irene Sep 06, 2019

Befriending Irene - While Tara is away, this talk is from 2011 after Hurricane Irene hit us with fury. Dorian is now leaving its destruction behind, just as we work with our stormy weather within.

Whether you face chronic anxiety or more violent storms of fear and anger, you can cultivate the wings of freedom–the mindfulness and compassion–that free you. This talk explores how the habit of being reactive causes us suffering and the ways these tools of meditation can be applied to the inner weather systems that most challenge us.

The flute meditation at the end of the talk is given by Akal Dev.

Meditation: The Blessings of Love Sep 05, 2019

Meditation: The Blessings of Love - A blessing is whatever reminds us of the sacred loving presence that shines through all of us. This meditation is a transformational practice in receiving and offering blessings. First we connect with the vulnerable tender place within us that longs to feel loved, and call on loving presence to bless us. By imagining and allowing ourselves to receive love, our hearts become open and filled with light. We then bring that inner loving presence fully alive as we offer blessings to other beings. The image of receiving a kiss on the brow, and offering one, is suggested as a powerful channel for the blessings that awaken our heart. (a favorite from the archives)

Earth’s Crisis: On the Edge of the Roof Aug 30, 2019

Earth’s Crisis: On the Edge of the Roof - This talk was given in 2015, yet it is as timely as ever. It views the ecological dis-ease of our planet through the lens of our evolutionary unfolding. We explore the egoic trance that has precipitated the destruction of our environment, and the inner practices of presence that enable us to respond from love and wisdom (from the archives).

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks and meditations freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation: Discovering Inner Space Aug 29, 2019

Meditation: Discovering Inner Space - By imagining the space inside the body, we discover the continuous space of awareness that is the source and essence of all aliveness. This meditation is adapted from Open Focus Meditations led by Les Fehmi, Ph.D. in The Open Focus Brain.

Good Othering - Helping Each Other Trust the Gold (2019-08-21) Aug 23, 2019

Good Othering - Helping Each Other Trust the Gold (2019-08-21) - One of the great gifts we can offer is being a mirror of goodness, reminding one another that we can trust our essential awareness, light and love. Because our conditioning is to fixate on flaws, "good othering" takes intention and practice. This talk explores how we can develop the habit of seeing goodness, and importantly, learn to communicate our appreciation and love to others.

Join Tara's email community at http://eepurl.com/6YfI, to receive exclusive updates, events, and meditations. - Get a free download of Tara’s 10 min meditation: “Mindful Breathing: Finding Calm and Ease," - plus a bonus gift: "8 Essential Tips to Nourish Your Meditation Practice."

Meditation: The Sea of Awareness (2019-08-21) Aug 22, 2019

Meditation: The Sea of Awareness (2019-08-21) - We begin this meditation with awakening to the aliveness in our body, using the imagery of a smile, and a body scan. Then we are guided to sense the vastness of awareness and to rest in that open wakefulness, allowing the changing thoughts, sounds, sensations and feelings to come and go. When we let life be just as it is, we become a sea of awareness that includes all the waves.

Join Tara's email community at http://eepurl.com/6YfI, to receive exclusive updates, events, and meditations. - Get a free download of Tara’s 10 min meditation: “Mindful Breathing: Finding Calm and Ease," - plus a bonus gift: "8 Essential Tips to Nourish Your Meditation Practice."

Meditation for Fertility (2019-08-19) Aug 20, 2019

Meditation for Fertility (2019-08-19) - We can enhance our fertility by becoming more relaxed, open and welcoming of this ever creative life. We begin by connecting with the purity and sincerity of our prayer. Then this meditation guides us to awaken our bodies, open our hearts, and become a healthy channel for this living universe…receptive and loving toward whatever might unfold through us.

Part 2 - The Answer is Love: Evolving out of "Bad Other" (2019-08-14) Aug 16, 2019

Part 2 - The Answer is Love: Evolving out of "Bad Other" (2019-08-14) - These two talks address the inquiry: How do we awaken from the contempt and hatred that causes so much suffering in our world? The first talk looks at how we can use the practices of mindfulness and compassion to decondition our habits of self-blame and self-hatred, as well as the importance of helping each other defuse the trance of unworthiness. The second talk extends the use of these practices to situations where we’ve locked into external “bad othering.” These times need our deepened dedication to love: By intentionally arousing compassion for ourselves and others, we directly contribute to the evolution of consciousness in our world.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks and meditations freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation: Everything Belongs (2019-08-14) Aug 15, 2019

Meditation: Everything Belongs (2019-08-14) - This guided meditation awakens an embodied presence through a body scan, and invites us to rest in the breath, while allowing the different waves of sensations, feelings and sounds to come and go. When difficult experiences arise, we breathe with them, feeling them fully and mentally whispering, “this belongs,” or “this too." By not resisting, we discover the sea of awareness that has room for all the waves.

Join Tara's email community at http://eepurl.com/6YfI, to receive exclusive updates, events, and meditations. - Get a free download of Tara’s 10 min meditation: “Mindful Breathing: Finding Calm and Ease," - plus a bonus gift: "8 Essential Tips to Nourish Your Meditation Practice."

Part 1 - The Answer is Love: Evolving out of "Bad Other" (2019-08-07) Aug 09, 2019

Part 1 - The Answer is Love: Evolving out of "Bad Other"(2019-08-07) - These two talks address the inquiry: How do we awaken from the contempt and hatred that causes so much suffering in our world? The first talk looks at how we can use the practices of mindfulness and compassion to decondition our habits of self-blame and self-hatred, as well as the importance of helping each other defuse the trance of unworthiness. The second talk extends the use of these practices to situations where we’ve locked into external “bad othering.” These times need our deepened dedication to love: By intentionally arousing compassion for ourselves and others, we directly contribute to the evolution of consciousness in our world.

Join Tara's email community at http://eepurl.com/6YfI, to receive exclusive updates, events, and meditations. - Get a free download of Tara’s 10 min meditation: “Mindful Breathing: Finding Calm and Ease," - plus a bonus gift: "8 Essential Tips to Nourish Your Meditation Practice."

Meditation: Cultivating a Kind Attention (2019-08-07) Aug 08, 2019

Meditation: Cultivating a Kind Attention (2019-08-07) - Using the image and felt sense of a smile, we scan through the body, and awaken a sense of aliveness, presence and tenderness. The practice then extends to mindfully include all sounds, sensations, and feelings; and when difficult experience arises, to intentionally offer care. We close with an offering of loving kindness to our own being, to others who are suffering and to all life everywhere.

Join Tara's email community at http://eepurl.com/6YfI, to receive exclusive updates, events, and meditations. - Get a free download of Tara’s 10 min meditation: “Mindful Breathing: Finding Calm and Ease," - plus a bonus gift: "8 Essential Tips to Nourish Your Meditation Practice."

Longing to Belong: Bringing Presence through the Three Refuges Aug 02, 2019

Longing to Belong - Spiritual practice reveals our belonging through bringing presence to three gateways: the aliveness of the present moment, loving relatedness, and the openness and lucidity of awareness itself. This talk includes guided meditations in exploring each gateway. It ends with the community chanting of Om, a mantra of connectedness - an expression of belonging.

NOTE: a talk from the archives 2009-12-09 reflecting on the "Three Refuges."

Vipassana or Insight Meditation and Instruction: from Day 4 on Retreat Jul 31, 2019

Vipassana or Insight Meditation and Instruction: from Day 4 on Retreat (2019-05-07) - Vipassana, also known as insight meditation, is training in bringing a clear mindful attention to our moment to moment experience. We begin by relaxing through the body and then resting attention with the breath – or some other sensory anchor – and allowing the mind to settle. Then we open to whatever is predominant or calling our attention – sensations, emotions, sounds – meeting each arising experience with a clear, kind attention. The gift of this process is discovering balance in the midst of the changing flow, and gaining deep insight into the nature of reality.

NOTE: this is an instruction and meditation given in the morning of Day 4 at the IMCW Spring 2019 7-day silent retreat.

The Path of Spiritual Surrender: Part 2 (2017-07-24) Jul 26, 2019

The Path of Spiritual Surrender: Part 2 (2017-07-24) - Cultivating a surrendering presence allows us to release the identity of a small, separate self, and open to the truth and fullness of who we are. These two talks explore misunderstandings about surrender (such as the fear that we will become passive or condone injustice) and the practices that create the grounds for surrender, emotional healing, transformational activism and spiritual freedom.

Join Tara's email community at http://eepurl.com/6YfI, to receive exclusive updates, events, and meditations. - Get a free download of Tara’s 10 min meditation: “Mindful Breathing: Finding Calm and Ease," - plus a bonus gift: "8 Essential Tips to Nourish Your Meditation Practice."

Meditation: Letting go (2019-07-24) Jul 25, 2019

Meditation: Letting go (2019-07-24) - One way of understanding meditation is a letting go of the habitual clenching of thoughts, the clenching that resists emotions and pulls away from aliveness itself. This meditation guides us in letting go, first through the body, and then practicing letting go of thoughts and relaxing and resting in the changing flow of experience. The blessing of letting go is a homecoming into the truth and wholeness of what we are, a realization of reality, and freedom.

Desire: A Current of Homecoming Jul 19, 2019

Desire: A Current of Homecoming - Desire is intrinsic to our aliveness, yet when we have unmet needs, it can possess us. This talk explores how to relax open the grip of wanting and heal the suffering of addiction. You will learn how to bring mindfulness and compassion to the roots of desire, and be carried home to open loving presence (a favorite from the archives).

“Recovery is also about spirit – about dealing with that ‘hole in the soul’ … so how does this hole get filled and become holy space?”

Meditation: Vipassana – Opening Our Hearts to Life as It Is Jul 18, 2019

Meditation: Vipassana – Opening Our Hearts to Life as It Is - This meditation awakens the senses with a mindful scanning of the body, establishes an anchor for presence, and invites us to arrive again and again, deepening the pathway home. When difficult or intense experience arises, the practice is to learn to open to what is here with a clear, allowing and kind attention (a favorite from the archives).

The Path of Spiritual Surrender: Part 1 (2019-07-10) Jul 12, 2019

The Path of Spiritual Surrender: Part 1 (2019-07-10) - Cultivating a surrendering presence allows us to release the identity of a small, separate self, and open to the truth and fullness of who we are. These two talks explore misunderstandings about surrender (such as the fear that we will become passive or condone injustice) and the practices that create the grounds for surrender, emotional healing, transformational activism and spiritual freedom.

"Don't turn away. Keep your gaze on the bandaged place. That's where the light enters you.” ~ Rumi

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks and meditations freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation: Befriending Your Inner Life (2019-07-10) Jul 11, 2019

Meditation: Befriending Your Inner Life (2019-07-10) - This meditation establishes a gentle and caring presence through bringing the image and felt sense of a smile to various domains in the body. We then settle with the breath, and practice relaxing with whatever arises, letting life be just as it is. The underlying intention is to regard all experience with a clear, interested and friendly attention, and the gift is a homecoming to our naturally loving presence.

Join Tara's email community at http://eepurl.com/6YfI, to receive exclusive updates, events, and meditations. - Get a free download of Tara’s 10 min meditation: “Mindful Breathing: Finding Calm and Ease," - plus a bonus gift: "8 Essential Tips to Nourish Your Meditation Practice."

How Hope Can Heal and Free Us – Part 2 Jul 05, 2019

How Hope Can Heal and Free Us - Part 2 - The mature expression of hope includes three elements: the aspiration for manifesting our full potential, a trust that this is possible, and an energy that engages to serve this unfolding. In this talk, we explore the importance of hope on the spiritual path, its shadow side, and how we can nourish hope through these three elements in a way that serves inner freedom and the healing of our world.

"Let the beauty we love be what we do. There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground." ~ Rumi

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks and meditations freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation: Receiving Life in Open, Awake Awareness Jul 04, 2019

Meditation: Receiving Life in Open, Awake Awareness - This meditation awakens a receptive attention to the senses, starting with physical sensations and opening to sound. Then we sense how open awake awareness is receiving the moment to moment arising and passing life. In the final part of the practice, we explore how awake awareness is receiving the experience of our heart and offer blessings to our inner life and all living beings.

How Hope Can Heal and Free Us – Part 1 Jun 28, 2019

How Hope Can Heal and Free Us – Part 1 - The mature expression of hope includes three elements: the aspiration for manifesting our full potential, a trust that this is possible, and an energy that engages to serve this unfolding. In this talk, we explore the importance of hope on the spiritual path, its shadow side, and how we can nourish hope through these three elements in a way that serves inner freedom and the healing of our world (a special talk from the archives).

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks and meditations freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation: Awakening Our Full Aliveness Jun 27, 2019

Meditation: Awakening Our Full Aliveness - We cut off from our aliveness when we are lost in thoughts and on auto pilot. This meditation arouses a receptivity to sensation from “the inside out,” opens the awareness to sound, and then invites a full resting in receptive, dynamic presence.

Join Tara's email community, to receive exclusive updates, events, and meditations. - Get a free download of Tara’s new 10 min meditation: “Mindful Breathing: Finding Calm and Ease," - plus a bonus gift: "8 Essential Tips to Nourish Your Meditation Practice."

The Courage to Love - Part 2 (2019-06-19) Jun 21, 2019

The Courage to Love - Part 2 (2019-06-19) - The gateway to full intimacy and love is our capacity to open to vulnerability. These two talks look at our ways of avoiding vulnerability, and offer guidance in learning to contact and transform our fears into awake and loving presence.

Join Tara's email community at http://eepurl.com/6YfI, to receive exclusive updates, events, and meditations. - Get a free download of Tara’s new 10 min meditation: “Mindful Breathing: Finding Calm and Ease," - plus a bonus gift: "8 Essential Tips to Nourish Your Meditation Practice."

Meditation: Wakeful, Open Awareness (2019-06-19) Jun 20, 2019

Meditation: Wakeful, Open Awareness (2019-06-19) - When we awaken our senses, we can sense in the background a wakeful openness that is our true home. This meditation guides us by first attending to the space, aliveness and awareness that fills the body, and then by sensing how interior and exterior space is continuous, and suffused with the light of awareness.

Join Tara's email community at http://eepurl.com/6YfI, to receive exclusive updates, events, and meditations. - Get a free download of Tara’s new 10 min meditation: “Mindful Breathing: Finding Calm and Ease," - plus a bonus gift: "8 Essential Tips to Nourish Your Meditation Practice."

The Courage to Love - Part 1 (2019-06-12) Jun 14, 2019

The Courage to Love - Part 1 (2019-06-12) - The gateway to full intimacy and love is our capacity to open to vulnerability. These two talks look at our ways of avoiding vulnerability, and offer guidance in learning to contact and transform our fears into awake and loving presence.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks and meditations freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation: Effortless and Wakeful Presence (2019-06-12) Jun 13, 2019

Meditation: Effortless and Wakeful Presence (2019-06-12) - Striving in meditation only creates more tension in our psyche and a solidified sense of self. This meditation invites us to awaken our senses and relax back into the presence that is always and already here. From presence we spontaneously notice and allow the changing flow of experience, and sense the openness and wakefulness of our natural awareness.

An Appropriate Response: Living from an Awake Heart (2019-06-05) Jun 07, 2019

An Appropriate Response: Living from an Awake Heart (2019-06-05) - Much of our suffering comes from reacting to stressful situations with fear or aggression, rather than responding with wisdom and care. This talk explores the pathway of shifting from reacting to responding: this includes learning to pause, awakening the wings of mindfulness and kindness, and reconnecting with our deepest intention.

Join Tara's email community at http://eepurl.com/6YfI, to receive exclusive updates, events, and meditations. - Get a free download of Tara’s new 10 min meditation: “Mindful Breathing: Finding Calm and Ease," - plus a bonus gift: "8 Essential Tips to Nourish Your Meditation Practice.

Meditation - Breath by Breath: Relaxing with Our Life (2019-06-05) Jun 06, 2019

Meditation - Breath by Breath: Relaxing with Our Life (2019-06-05) - The breath can be a powerful portal to presence. This meditation guides us in relaxing with the breath, including the breath in a body scan, and then allowing the breath to serve as an anchor when the mind gets lost in thoughts. As we settle with the breath as a home base, we find we can then open to the changing waves of experience with increasing balance, clarity and ease.

Join Tara's email community at http://eepurl.com/6YfI, to receive exclusive updates, events, and meditations. - Get a free download of Tara’s new 10 min meditation: “Mindful Breathing: Finding Calm and Ease," - Plus a bonus gift: "8 Essential Tips to Nourish Your Meditation Practice."

Part 3 - Forgiveness: Releasing Ourselves and Others from Aversive Blame (2019-05-29) May 31, 2019

Part 3 - Forgiveness: Releasing Ourselves and Others from Aversive Blame (2019-05-29) - Rumi invites us to find the barriers we’ve erected against love, and a universal one is blame. These three talks are an invitation to relax those barriers, and to open our hearts to our inner life and to all beings. Part 1 focuses on chronic self-judgment; Part 2 on the places of deep self-condemnation, and Part 3 on where we have locked into anger, blame or hatred of others. Each includes guided reflections that can support us in directly awakening beyond the confining thoughts and feelings of blame.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks and meditations freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation: Opening to Life (2019-05-29) May 30, 2019

Meditation: Opening to Life (2019-05-29) - This guided meditation includes a mindful body scan, and awakening all our senses to our moment to moment experience. We relax open to the presence that is unobscured by thoughts, letting life be just as it is.

Free download of Tara's 10 min meditation: "Mindful Breathing: Finding Calm and Ease" when you join her email list.

Trusting the Gold (retreat talk) (2019-05-08) May 24, 2019

Trusting the Gold (retreat talk) (2019-05-08) - This talk looks at how our upbringing and culture lead us to mistrust who we are and become identified as a separate, deficient self. We then explore the practices of presence and self-inquiry that turn us toward the openness, tenderness and wakefulness of our Being. Our trust grows as we increasingly glimpse, embody and live from our natural Being. NOTE: this talk is from the Spring 2019 IMCW 7-day Silent Retreat.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks and meditations freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation: RAIN on Self-Blame (2019-04-17) May 23, 2019

Meditation: RAIN on Self-Blame (2019-04-17) - One of the greatest roots of suffering is being at war with ourselves. This meditation, based on the acronym RAIN (recognize-allow-investigate-nurture), guides us in releasing the armoring of blame, and relating to our inner life with greater understanding and compassion.

For more resources on RAIN: www.tarabrach.com/rain/.

Compassion Towards All: Moving toward a Plant Based Diet (2019-05-15) May 17, 2019

Compassion Towards All: Moving toward a Plant Based Diet (2019-05-15) - For most of human history it’s been “normal” to eat non-human animals. This is now changing. We are awakening to the massive suffering of the billions of animals killed each day for food, the horrors of the animal-food industry, and the impact it has on climate change (second only to fossil fuels.) In this short talk Tara shares her personal story of transitioning to a vegan diet, and invites listeners to investigate, without judgment, their own choices in this domain. (note: given at a special class on "Loving Life with a Plant-Based Diet." Tara was joined by guest speakers, Mark Tercek and Brenda Sanders, and hosted by Jonathan Foust. Full video available at Tara's Facebook page and soon at IMCW.org.)

Meditation: Choosing Living Presence May 16, 2019

Meditation: Choosing Living Presence - A meditation on being present with our living, breathing life (includes chanting the Om’s in community – a favorite from Tara’s Wednesday night archives).

Free download of Tara's 10 min meditation: "Mindful Breathing: Finding Calm and Ease" when you join her email list.

Conscious Prayer – Finding Refuge in Loving Awareness (retreat talk) May 10, 2019

Conscious Prayer – Finding Refuge in Loving Awareness (retreat talk) - Prayer is a communing with our enlarged being. This talk examines less conscious forms of prayer, and how we can evolve the power of our prayers by opening into the depth of our longing, and reaching toward our true belonging (given at the 2016 IMCW Spring Retreat).

How I yearn to belong to something, to be contained in an all-embracing mind that sees me as a single thing. And I yearn to be held in the great hands of your heart. Oh let them take me now. Into your hands I place these fragments, my life, and you my God spend them however you want. ~ Rainer Maria Rilke

Meditation: Loving This Life – Happiness - a Metta Practice May 09, 2019

Meditation: Loving This Life – Happiness - a Metta Practice - This meditation turns us toward naturally arising happiness with the image of a smile, welcoming the aliveness and presence of each moment with the spirit of “yes” and then closes with a brief lovingkindness practice. NOTE: a favorite retreat meditation from the archives.

Lama Gendun Rinpoche writes, “Happiness cannot be found through great effort and willpower, but it is already there, in relaxation and letting go.”

Free download of Tara's 10 min meditation: "Mindful Breathing: Finding Calm and Ease" when you join her email list.

Part 2 - Forgiveness: Releasing Ourselves and Others from Aversive Blame (2019-05-01) May 03, 2019

Forgiveness: Releasing Ourselves and Others from Aversive Blame – Part 2 (2019-05-01) - Rumi invites us to find the barriers we’ve erected against love, and a universal one is blame. These three talks are an invitation to relax those barriers, and to open our hearts to our inner life and to all beings. Part I focuses on chronic self-judgment; Part II on the places of deep self-condemnation, and Part III on where we have locked into anger, blame or hatred of others. Each includes guided reflections that can support us in directly awakening beyond the confining thoughts and feelings of blame.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks and meditations freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation: Being Here (2019-05-01) May 02, 2019

Meditation: Being Here (2019-05-01) - This practice sets the atmosphere of loving presence with a smile-down and waking up all the senses. We relax into open awareness, receptive to the breath or whatever waves of experience are calling for attention. The invitation is to rest in Hereness, fully awake in presence. The meditation ends with a short offering of blessings.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks and meditations freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Equanimity: A Heart That is Ready for Anything Apr 26, 2019

Equanimity: A Heart That is Ready for Anything (a favorite from the 2014 archives) - Equanimity is the quality of presence that is open, balanced and non-reactive. As this talk explores, when equanimity is lacking, we become easily lost in trance, identified as a defended and controlling egoic self. When present, the solidity and constriction of egoic self dissolves, and our heart is free to respond to life with love, compassion, forgiveness and joy. Note: includes "Duck Meditation" and bricklayer stories.

Meditation: Awakening Our Energy Body Apr 25, 2019

Meditation: Awakening Our Energy Body - This meditation scans the body and directly invites the awakening of key energy centers (chakras) in our body. We then rest in the openhearted awareness that includes this ever changing creative flow of aliveness (a special meditation from the archives).

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks and meditations freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Part 1 - Forgiveness: Releasing Ourselves and Others from Aversive Blame (2019-04-17) Apr 19, 2019

Part 1 - Forgiveness: Releasing Ourselves and Others from Aversive Blame (2019-04-17) - Rumi invites us to find the barriers we’ve erected against love, and a universal one is blame. These three talks are an invitation to relax those barriers, and to open our hearts to our inner life and to all beings. Part I focuses on chronic self-judgment; Part II on the places of deep self-condemnation, and Part III on where we have locked into anger, blame or hatred of others. Each includes guided reflections that can support us in directly awakening beyond the confining thoughts and feelings of blame.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks and meditations freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation: Sea of Loving Presence (2019-04-17) Apr 18, 2019

Meditation: Sea of Loving Presence (2019-04-17) - In this meditation we begin with the image and felt sense of a smile to arouse an atmosphere of care, and allow that caring presence to fill our body and the entire field of awareness. We then open to the changing experience of breath, sensations, feelings sound and thoughts. By resting in a wakeful and open heartspace, we can include all the passing waves with ease and tenderness.

Free download of Tara's 10 min meditation: "Mindful Breathing: Finding Calm and Ease" when you join her email list.

Beyond the Controlling Self - Part 2 (2019-04-10) Apr 12, 2019

Beyond the Controlling Self - Part 2 (2019-04-10) - It’s natural that we do what we can to ward off danger and further ourselves. While our control strategies - such as aggression, judging, planning, seeking approval, pretending - have a developmental role, they are not a recipe for happiness, intimacy and freedom. An essential part of our evolution is to recognize when we are over-managing our lives, and learn to let go of the controls. These talks explore how we can release the grip of the over-controller, and the profound awakening of our hearts and minds that is possible in the shift from doing to being.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks and meditations freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation: Letting Life Be (2019-04-10) Apr 11, 2019

Meditation: Letting Life Be (2019-04-10) - This meditation establishes an atmosphere of loving kindness with the “smile”; relaxes and awakens through the body; and guides us into a spacious presence. We then rest in that presence, letting go of any controlling, and simply allow life to be as it is. It’s in “letting be” that we come home to the luminosity and tenderness of natural awareness. We close with a verse from Mary Oliver...

Free download of Tara's 10 min meditation: "Mindful Breathing: Finding Calm and Ease" when you join her email list.

Beyond the Controlling Self - Part 1 (2019-04-03) Apr 05, 2019

Beyond the Controlling Self - Part 1 (2019-04-03) - It’s natural that we do what we can to ward off danger and further ourselves. While our control strategies - such as aggression, judging, planning, seeking approval, pretending - have a developmental role, they are not a recipe for happiness, intimacy and freedom. An essential part of our evolution is to recognize when we are over-managing our lives, and learn to let go of the controls. These talks explore how we can release the grip of the over-controller, and the profound awakening of our hearts and minds that is possible in the shift from doing to being.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks and meditations freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation: Letting Go into Living Presence (2019-04-03) Apr 04, 2019

Meditation: Letting Go into Living Presence (2019-04-03) - This guided meditation starts with a scan that invites relaxing and awakening through the body. We then allow life - sounds, sensations, aliveness - to live through us, resting in open presence. When there is tightening, holding or confinement in thoughts, we recognize and re-open, letting go into the presence that is always here.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks and meditations freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

The Four Remembrances (2019-03-27) Mar 29, 2019

The Four Remembrances (2019-03-27) - When we attune to the reality of impermanence and death, we remember what most matters to us. But in daily life we can lose precious swaths of time in a reactive trance, on our way somewhere else, and lost in problem solving, judgment and worry. This talk reflects on four remembrances or practices - Pausing, Yes to life, Turning toward love, and Resting in awareness - that help us awaken from trance and live true to the loving presence that is our essence.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks and meditations freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation: Saying Yes to Reality (2019-03-27) Mar 28, 2019

Meditation: Saying Yes to Reality (2019-03-27) - Our suffering comes from tensing and resisting the life that’s here. This meditation guides us to relax and awaken our body and senses, and resting in presence, allow life to be as it is. As our “Yes” to the changing flow becomes full, we discover the freedom of awake awareness itself.

Join Tara’s email list: http://eepurl.com/6YfI - get a free download of Tara’s 10 min meditation: “Mindful Breathing: Finding Calm and Ease.”

Embodied Presence: Portal to the Sacred – Part 2 (2019-03-20) Mar 22, 2019

Embodied Presence: Portal to the Sacred – Part 2 - This two part series explores how we regularly leave our body and skim life’s surface in a mental trance, and the ways we can train our attention to come home again. We look at working with physical and emotional pain, and the gifts of love, wisdom, creativity and aliveness that arise as we learn to fully inhabit these living forms and all our senses with awareness.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks and meditations freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation: Being Here (with OMs) (2019-03-20) Mar 21, 2019

Meditation: Being Here (with OMs) (2019-03-20) - We miss many moments of this precious life drifting in a virtual thought world. This meditation helps us collect and calm ourselves with the breath; relax through our bodies; and then include the changing dance of sounds, sensations and feeling in open awareness. Our practice is to recognize the quality of Hereness, and when we drift, return again to this open presence, relaxing with the changing flow of life.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks and meditations freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Embodied Presence: Portal to the Sacred - Part 1 (2019-03-13) Mar 15, 2019

Embodied Presence: Portal to the Sacred - Part 1 (2019-03-13) - This two part series explores how we regularly leave our body and skim life’s surface in a mental trance, and the ways we can train our attention to come home again. We look at working with physical and emotional pain, and the gifts of love, wisdom, creativity and aliveness that arise as we learn to fully inhabit these living forms and all our senses with awareness.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks and meditations freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation: Entering Heartspace with the “Smile-Down” (2019-03-13) Mar 14, 2019

Meditation: Entering Heartspace with the “Smile-Down” - The practice of visualizing and feeling a smile spreading through the body helps us access the natural tenderness and openness of our being. This meditation guides us in the smile-down, and then invites a full opening and resting in openhearted presence. We close by bringing that awake heart to an area of difficulty in our life.

Navigating Conflict with a Wise Heart – Part 2 (2019-03-06) Mar 09, 2019

Navigating Conflict with a Wise Heart – Part 2 (2019-03-06) - This series of talks offers guidance in transforming conflict into a portal for awakening your understanding, flexibility and compassion. We look at how to heal our own unmet needs and not be dependent on others changing; and how to engage with another person when both are dedicated to mindful communication. We also extend our exploration to societal conflict. The talks are accompanied by reflections and meditations that can directly enhance your capacity to respond to conflict from the most wise and caring part of your being.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks and meditations freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation: Relaxing with Life (2019-03-05) Mar 08, 2019

Meditation: Relaxing with Life (2019-03-05) - This meditation includes a mindful body scan and guidance in relaxing with the changing waves of experience. When we say “Yes” to the moment, we open to the sea of awareness that can include, with care, whatever arises.

Free download of Tara's 10 min meditation: "Mindful Breathing: Finding Calm and Ease" when you join her email list.

Pt1 - Navigating Conflict with a Wise Heart (2019-02-27) Mar 02, 2019

Navigating Conflict with a Wise Heart - Part 1 (2019-02-27) - This series of talks offers guidance in transforming conflict into a portal for awakening your understanding, flexibility and compassion. We look at how to heal our own unmet needs and not be dependent on others changing; and how to engage with another person when both are dedicated to mindful communication. We also extend our exploration to societal conflict. The talks are accompanied by reflections and meditations that can directly enhance your capacity to respond to conflict from the most wise and caring part of your being.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks and meditations freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation: Resting in the Sea of Presence (2019-02-27) Mar 01, 2019

Meditation: Resting in the Sea of Presence (2019-02-27) - This mindful body scan leads us into a practice of relaxing back into awareness, and recognizing the changing waves of sensations, sounds and feelings in the foreground. As we let go into the sea of presence, we discover an increasing sense of wholeness and peace. The meditation ends with a brief lovingkindness prayer.

Free download of Tara's 10 min meditation: "Mindful Breathing: Finding Calm and Ease" when you join her email list.

Meditation: Reducing Anxiety and Getting to Sleep (18 min.) Feb 27, 2019

Meditation: Reducing Anxiety and Getting to Sleep (18 min.) - Many of us struggle with anxiety, and spend hours in bed wishing we could turn off our mind and get to sleep. This podcasted series of 3 guided meditations - 6, 12, and 18 minutes long - can help in quieting your mind, relaxing your body, and bringing peace to your heart. Each will support you in either calming yourself during the day, or drifting more easily into sleep at night.

For more resources, please visit "Community Wisdom on Sleep" at https://www.tarabrach.com/sleep/.

Meditation: Reducing Anxiety and Getting to Sleep (12 min.) Feb 27, 2019

Meditation: Reducing Anxiety and Getting to Sleep (12 min.) - Many of us struggle with anxiety, and spend hours in bed wishing we could turn off our mind and get to sleep. This podcasted series of 3 guided meditations - 6, 12, and 18 minutes long - can help in quieting your mind, relaxing your body, and bringing peace to your heart. Each will support you in either calming yourself during the day, or drifting more easily into sleep at night.

For more resources, please visit "Community Wisdom on Sleep" at https://www.tarabrach.com/sleep/.

Meditation: Reducing Anxiety and Getting to Sleep (6 min.) Feb 27, 2019

Meditation: Reducing Anxiety and Getting to Sleep (6 min.) - Many of us struggle with anxiety, and spend hours in bed wishing we could turn off our mind and get to sleep. This podcasted series of 3 guided meditations - 6, 12, and 18 minutes long - can help in quieting your mind, relaxing your body, and bringing peace to your heart. Each will support you in either calming yourself during the day, or drifting more easily into sleep at night.

For more resources, please visit "Community Wisdom on Sleep" at https://www.tarabrach.com/sleep/.

The Sacred Art of Listening Feb 22, 2019

The Sacred Art of Listening - Just as presence is the heart of meditation, so deep listening is at the center of all conscious, loving relationships. This talk explores how our wants and fears block listening, ways we can deepen our capacity for listening, and the healing that unfolds when we truly feel heard by another (a special talk from the archives).

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks and meditations freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation: Listening to Life Feb 21, 2019

Meditation: Listening to Life - The attitude of meditation is one of engaged listening – a relaxed, receptive yet intimate attention. This meditation explores how we can listen to sounds, listen to and feel sensations, and then relax back into the ocean of awareness that includes and perceives the changing waves. In this relaxing back, we realize the peace and freedom of inhabiting our wholeness and essence (from the archives).

Spiritual Reparenting Feb 15, 2019

Spiritual Reparenting (a favorite from the archives) - When we are not sufficiently nurtured in childhood, we are inclined toward anxiety, depression, addiction and other forms of suffering. In a deep way, we do not feel at home with others. We are disconnected from our own body, heart and spirit.

This talk explores how meditation offers “spiritual reparenting” as we learn to bring interest, understanding and love to our own inner vulnerability. This process of healing extends to our relationships with others and our larger society – by reaching out to widening circles with interest and care, we bring increasing harmony and peace to our world.

“That question: Where does it hurt? We need to address it to everyone, if we really want to understand each other.” Ruby Sales

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks and meditations freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation: Relaxing Back into Living Presence Feb 15, 2019

Meditation: Relaxing Back into Living Presence - When we are lost in thoughts our mind contracts, our body tightens and we disconnect from true openheartedness. The pathway home is through “relaxing back” and reopening our attention to our senses, relaxing through our body, and gently contacting the felt sense in our heart. By repeatedly relaxing back, we become increasingly familiar with the vibrancy, tenderness and openness of true presence.

Living with Courageous Presence (2019-02-06) Feb 08, 2019

Living with Courageous Presence (2019-02-06) - The essence of courage is to willingly feel our vulnerability; this is what allows us to respond to life with an undefended, wise heart. This talk explores the ways we resist opening to vulnerability, and three key steps in cultivating a courageous presence.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks and meditations freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation: The Practice of RAIN (2019-02-06) Feb 07, 2019

Meditation: The Practice of RAIN (2019-02-06) - The acronym RAIN - Recognize, Allow, Investigate, Nurture - guides us in bringing mindfulness and compassion to difficult emotions. With practice, we can find our way home to open hearted presence in the midst of whatever arises.

Free download of Tara's 10 min meditation: "Mindful Breathing: Finding Calm and Ease" when you join her email list.

Earth's Crisis: On the Edge of the Roof (from the Archives) Feb 01, 2019

Earth's Crisis: On the Edge of the Roof (from the Archives) - NOTE: Due to the unusually windy and cold weather, we had to cancel class on January 30, 2019. Tara selected this talk from the archives for the podcast as especially appropriate.

This talk views the ecological dis-ease of our planet through the lens of our evolutionary unfolding. We explore the egoic trance that has precipitated the destruction of our environment, and the inner practices of presence that enable us to respond from love and wisdom.

Meditation: Collecting, Unifying and Opening the Mind Jan 31, 2019

Meditation: Collecting, Unifying and Opening the Mind (a favorite from the archives) - We begin with a listening attention, relaxing open, letting sounds wash through. Scanning through and feeling the aliveness of the body, listening to the breath. Not pushing away anything - a very open and relaxed, receptive attention. Sensing what's happening in this present moment. Closing by sensing all in the foreground and in the background - that alert inner stillness, that light of awareness, that which is our deepest, formless nature.

Free download of Tara's 10 min meditation: "Mindful Breathing: Finding Calm and Ease" when you join her email list.

Without Anxiety About Imperfection - featuring special guest, Haemin Sunim, with Tara Brach Jan 25, 2019

Without Anxiety About Imperfection - featuring special guest, Haemin Sunim, with Tara Brach (2019-01-23) - Internationally known Buddhist teacher and writer, Haemin Sunim, talks about his new book - Love for Imperfect Things. Then, he and Tara talk together and respond to questions.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks and meditations freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation: Living Loving Awareness Jan 24, 2019

Meditation: Living Loving Awareness (2019-01-23) - By bringing our full attention to the aliveness in the body, we can open to the experience of interior space and the space that includes all sensations and sounds. This then allows us to perceive continuous space filled with the light of awareness. This meditation attunes us to these dimensions of awareness: continuous open space, heart space and full aliveness. We end with a Zen poem that invites us to rest in this living, loving awareness, and know it as home.

Free download of Tara's 10 min meditation: "Mindful Breathing: Finding Calm and Ease" when you join her email list.

Realizing Your Deepest Intention (2019-01-16) Jan 18, 2019

Realizing Your Deepest Intention (2019-01-16) - The Buddha taught that this whole life - including our thoughts, feelings and actions - arise from the tip of intention. While our intentions are usually marbled with wanting and fear, when intention comes into the light of consciousness, it unfolds into its most pure essence. This talk explores ways that when we are stuck in reactivity, we can become aware of intention, and find our way to the aspiration that expresses our most awake and loving heart.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks and meditations freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation: Relaxing Back into Awareness (2016-01-16) Jan 17, 2019

Meditation: Relaxing Back into Awareness (2016-01-16) - When we fully inhabit our body, we discover the space and wakefulness of awareness itself. In this meditation, we rest in this open awareness, and when the attention narrows into thoughts, we practice relaxing back into the openness that includes passing sounds, sensations and feelings. We close with a brief offering of lovingkindness to our own hearts and our world (with community OMs - no bell at end).

Finding True Refuge: Pathways of Remembering (2019-01-09) Jan 11, 2019

Finding True Refuge: Pathways of Remembering (2019-01-09) - This talk explores the three archetypal refuges of awareness (Buddha-nature), truth (Dharma) and love (Sangha) through stories, illustrations and reflections. We end with a Refuge ceremony that can be done by anyone who feels drawn. (To participate you will need a 20” red string.)

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks and meditations freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation: Letting Go…Letting Be (2019-01-09) Jan 10, 2019

Meditation: Letting Go…Letting Be (2019-01-09) - This guided meditation invites us to imagine a clenched fist relaxing open, and explores this in releasing contractions in the body as well as the grip of thoughts. When we deeply let go and let be, our energy flows freely. We reconnect with our natural aliveness, love and awareness.

Let go of what has passed. Let go of what may come. Let go of what is happening now. Don’t try to figure anything out. Don’t try to make anything happen. Relax, right now, and rest.

~ Tilopa

From Judgment to Self-Compassion (retreat talk) (2018-12-30) Jan 04, 2019

From Judgment to Self-Compassion (retreat talk) (2018-12-30) - When we’ve turned on ourselves with blame and aversion, it’s very difficult to arouse self-compassion. This talk looks at the role of nurturing in freeing our hearts, and offers practice in three key steps that enable us to embrace ourselves with a healing presence.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks and meditations freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation: Being the Ocean and Opening to the Waves (2018-12-31) Jan 03, 2019

Meditation: Being the Ocean and Opening to the Waves (2018-12-31) (retreat) - We can’t truly open to the waves of life unless we recognize our Oceanness, the formless awareness that is our source. This meditation begins with awakening the senses and then invites us to discover the spacious presence in the background of all experience (from the 2018 IMCW New Year's Retreat).

Transforming Two Fears: FOF and FOMO Dec 28, 2018

Transforming Two Fears: FOF and FOMO - There are two common fears that can block us from our full potential – fear of failure (FOF), and fear of missing out (FOMO). This talk explores how to meet these fears with mindful presence, and discover within them the essence energies of loving awareness and full aliveness (a favorite from the archives).

Note – This talk is dedicated to Tim Ferriss, who turned me on to the phrase FOMO. Tim exemplifies the creative aliveness of FOMO energy when it’s living through someone who’s dedicated to being awake, caring and real. Check out his podcasted interview with Tara at: https://youtu.be/pXNEM4wjSmE and his podcast at fourhourworkweek.com/podcast/.

Meditation: Awakening the Heart - Giving and Receiving Loving Blessings Dec 27, 2018

Meditation: Awakening the Heart – Giving and Receiving Loving Blessings - Our hearts awaken as we express and receive love in an embodied, conscious way. This guided practice brings our attention to dear ones in our life, and explores how we discover deep communion through offering and letting in love.

NOTE: This meditation is a favorite from the archives - from the end of the talk, “Bodhichitta – The Awakened Heart – Part 2.”

“To love someone is to learn the song in their heart and sing it to them when they have forgotten.” Arne Garborg

A 2018 Winter Solstice Ceremony (2018-12-19) Dec 27, 2018

A 2018 Winter Solstice Ceremony (2018-12-19) - La Sarmiento and Alli Mosehauer perform dharma spoof songs for the 2018 IMCW Solstice Celebration, followed by a candle light ceremony with Tara and the Insight Meditation Community of Washington (IMCW) community.

Three Core Capacities in Loving Fully (2018-12-19) Dec 21, 2018

Three Core Capacities in Loving Fully (2018-12-19) - This talk looks at three ways of awakening our hearts—seeing goodness, feeling appreciation as a bodily experience, and expressing our care. We are then guided in developing each of these capacities by focusing our attention on someone we care about, with whom we’d like to experience our full potential for loving.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks and meditations freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation: Arriving in Open Presence (2018-12-19) - Dec 20, 2018

Meditation: Arriving in Open Presence (2018-12-19) - This meditation begins with a receptive opening to body sensations and sounds, and the invitation to rest in wakeful presence. We are reminded that each time we awaken from thoughts and arrive again in presence, we are deepening the pathway home. The sitting closes with a brief lovingkindness prayer.

Free download of Tara's 10 min meditation: "Mindful Breathing: Finding Calm and Ease" when you join her email list.

Part 2 - Healing Anxiety - How Meditation Frees Us (2018-12-12) Dec 14, 2018

Part 2 - Healing Anxiety - How Meditation Frees Us (2018-12-12) - Anxiety and the fear of failure is a pervasive suffering around the world. It is also increasing—along with the pace of life, over-consuming, addiction, noise, polarization and fears for our planet. How do we calm ourselves in a way that brings inner freedom and serves the healing of our larger world? These two talks explore the power of awareness in evolving ourselves beyond the anxiety that grips and confines our lives - includes working with sleep issues.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks and meditations freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation: Aware and Alive (2018-12-12) Dec 13, 2018

Meditation: Aware and Alive (2018-12-12) - Just as a cup is full with water, this body is filled with awareness. As we sense the awareness inside the body, and the awareness that listens to sounds beyond the body, we discover the continuous space of awareness that includes, and gives rise to this entire creation. Opening in this way allows for homecoming to wholeness and freedom.

Free download of Tara's 10 min meditation: "Mindful Breathing: Finding Calm and Ease" when you join her email list.

Three Attitudes that Nourish a Liberating Practice Dec 07, 2018

Three Attitudes that Nourish a Liberating Practice - A key spiritual inquiry is, “In this moment, what most serves awakening?” Rather than a particular style of meditation practice, it is our way of relating to our experience – our attitude – that frees our hearts. This talk explores the attitudes that are an expression of our innately open, wakeful and loving awareness, and that carry us to realization. (a favorite from the archives)

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks and meditations freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Vipassana or Insight Meditation and Instruction: A Path of Practice from Retreat Dec 06, 2018

Retreat Meditation and Instruction: Vipassana - Path of Practice (2018-10-07) - Vipassana, also known as insight meditation, is training in bringing a clear mindful attention to our moment to moment experience. We begin by relaxing through the body and then resting attention with the breath – or some other sensory anchor – and allowing the mind to settle. Then we open to whatever is predominant or calling our attention – sensations, emotions, sounds – meeting each arising experience with a clear, kind attention. The gift of this process is discovering balance in the midst of the changing flow, and gaining deep insight into the nature of reality.

Free download of Tara's 10 min meditation: "Mindful Breathing: Finding Calm and Ease" when you join her email list.

Part 1 - Healing Anxiety - How Meditation Frees Us (2018-11-28) Nov 30, 2018

Part 1 - Healing Anxiety - How Meditation Frees Us (2018-11-28) - Anxiety and the fear of failure is a pervasive suffering around the world. It is also increasing—along with the pace of life, over-consuming, addiction, noise, polarization and fears for our planet. How do we calm ourselves in a way that brings inner freedom and serves the healing of our larger world? These two talks explore the power of awareness in evolving ourselves beyond the anxiety that grips and confines our lives.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks and meditations freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation: Awareness, Aliveness and Space (2018-11-28) Nov 30, 2018

Meditation: Awareness, Aliveness and Space (2018-11-28) - This guided meditation awakens our awareness within our body, extends to include sound, and invites a resting as awareness that includes all passing waves of experience.

Free download of Tara's 10 min meditation: "Mindful Breathing: Finding Calm and Ease" when you join her email list.

Authentic Thanks Giving (2018-11-21) Nov 24, 2018

Authentic Thanks Giving (2018-11-21) - How do we awaken our natural capacities for gratitude and generosity? This talk explores the pathways of honest presence and purposeful cultivation, and offers several reflections that guide us in contacting and expressing our love.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks and meditations freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation: Yes to Life (2018-11-21) Nov 22, 2018

Meditation: Yes to Life (2018-11-21) - After relaxing our bodies and quieting our minds, this meditation guides us to open to the changing experience of being alive. We ask ourselves two questions: "What is Happening Inside me?" and “Can I be with this?” By learning to bring an unconditional presence and an accepting Yes to our lives, we begin to touch openheartedness and freedom.

Free download of a 10 min meditation from Tara: "Mindful Breathing: Finding Calm and Ease" when you join her email list.

Survival of the Nurtured - Our Path to Belonging (2018-11-14) Nov 16, 2018

Survival of the Nurtured - Our Path to Belonging (2018-11-14) - We flourish when nurtured with love and understanding. Yet for so many, the violence of our society and lack of attuned caretakers has severed trust and belonging. This talk explores how meditation and conscious relating with each other can restore the connections so vital to healing and spiritual freedom.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks and meditations freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation: The Presence Beyond Thoughts (2018-11-14) Nov 15, 2018

Meditation: The Presence Beyond Thoughts (2018-11-14) - We spend many life moments in a trance of thinking. This meditation awakens the senses through a body scan, and attention to sound. We then rest in the presence that can come alive in the gap between thoughts—the presence that is our true home.

Free download of Tara's 10 min meditation: "Mindful Breathing: Finding Calm and Ease" when you join her email list.

Part 2 - The Jewel in the Lotus: Cultivating Compassion (2018-11-07) Nov 09, 2018

Part 2 - The Jewel in the Lotus: Cultivating Compassion (2018-11-07) - The compassion that arises from mindful awareness can heal our inner wounds, interpersonal conflict and the suffering in our world. These two talks focus on cultivating self-compassion and compassion for others. They look at the blocks to compassion and accessible powerful practices that awaken the full wisdom and tenderness of our hearts.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks and meditations freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation: Whole Body Breathing (2018-11-07) Nov 09, 2018

Meditation: Whole Body Breathing (2018-11-07) - This guided meditation includes a body scan and invites the receptivity and letting-go of whole body breathing. Once we have awakened the vitality and presence throughout the body, we have access to the formless dimension, the awareness that is our source.

Worrier Pose: Finding Freedom from the Body of Fear (retreat talk) Nov 02, 2018

Worrier Pose: Finding Freedom from the Body of Fear (retreat talk) (2018-10-07) - While fear is a natural part of our make up, many of us suffering when the “on” button gets jammed. This talk looks at how our fears generate habitual patterns of physical tension, anxious thinking, emotions and behaviors; and how this constellation prevents us from inhabiting our full wisdom and love. We then explore two interrelated pathways of healing—unconditional presence, and resourcing, or cultivating access to safety and belonging (from the IMCW 2018 Fall Retreat).

Free download of Tara's 10 min meditation: "Mindful Breathing: Finding Calm and Ease" when you join her email list.

Meditation: Loving Kindness - Awakening and Expressing Our Heart (retreat) Nov 01, 2018

Meditation: Loving Kindness - Awakening and Expressing Our Heart - This short talk and guided meditation remind us that we each have the capacity to awaken our hearts. We explore together the lovingkindness (metta) meditation, and emphasize holding our own being and dear ones with a tender, open and loving presence (from the IMCW 2018 Fall Silent Retreat).

Free download of Tara's 10 min meditation: "Mindful Breathing: Finding Calm and Ease" when you join her email list.

Part 1 - The Jewel in the Lotus: Cultivating Compassion (2018-10-24) Oct 26, 2018

Part 1 - The Jewel in the Lotus: Cultivating Compassion (2018-10-24) - The compassion that arises from mindful awareness can heal our inner wounds, interpersonal conflict and the suffering in our world. These two talks focus on cultivating self-compassion and compassion for others. They look at the blocks to compassion and accessible powerful practices that awaken the full wisdom and tenderness of our hearts.

Meditation: Resting in Awake Awareness (2018-10-24) Oct 25, 2018

Meditation: Resting in Awake Awareness (2018-10-24) - This practice opens with a body scan, employing the image and felt sense of a smile to awaken awareness through the body. We then open to all the senses, and rest in the awareness that includes this changing life.

Part 2 - Rewiring for Happiness and Freedom (2018-10-17) Oct 19, 2018

Part 2 - Rewiring for Happiness and Freedom (2018-10-17) -The Buddha said, “I would not be teaching this (a path of awakening) if genuine happiness and freedom were not possible.” While this is our potential, we each have deep conditioning to get stuck in feelings of fear, deficiency and separation from others. These talks explore the two interdependent pathways of undoing the conditioning that blocks our potential. In Part I we will look at how we can intentionally arouse states of wellbeing, and with practice, develop them into ongoing traits that bring presence and joy to our lives. In Part II, we will investigate how to cultivate an unconditional presence, and the radical acceptance and love, that are the grounds of true happiness and inner freedom.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks and meditations freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation: Relaxing Back into the Mystery (2018-10-17) Oct 18, 2018

Meditation: Relaxing Back into the Mystery (2018-10-17) - All true meditation guides us back to presence, and the mystery that is our source. In this guided meditation we awaken the senses, collect with the breath, and when lost in thought, practice relaxing back into the aliveness and awareness that is always here. We close with a beautiful poem from poet Danna Faulds.

Part 1 - Rewiring for Happiness and Freedom (2018-10-10) Oct 12, 2018

Part 1: Rewiring for Happiness and Freedom - The Buddha said, “I would not be teaching this (a path of awakening) if genuine happiness and freedom were not possible.” While this is our potential, we each have deep conditioning to get stuck in feelings of fear, deficiency and separation from others. These talks explore the two interdependent pathways of undoing the conditioning that blocks our potential. In Part I we will look at how we can intentionally arouse states of wellbeing, and with practice, develop them into ongoing traits that bring presence and joy to our lives. In Part II, we will investigate how to cultivate an unconditional presence, and the radical acceptance and love, that are the grounds of true happiness and inner freedom.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks and meditations freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation: Coming Home with the Breath (2018-10-10) Oct 11, 2018

Meditation: Coming Home with the Breath - Our breath is always available as a pathway back to presence. This simple meditation guides us to relax and awaken in the body, and then establishes the breath as a home base for our attention. Our practice is to notice when the mind becomes distracted, and gently return to our breath and senses. This helps the mind to become increasingly settled, calm and clear. We close with a short heart blessing.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks and meditations freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

The Sacred Pause Oct 05, 2018

The Sacred Pause - When we are lost in the trance of doing, our lives are on automatic, and contracted by sense that something’s wrong or missing. This talk explores the challenges of learning to pause, and the blessings that arise when step out of our incessant mental and physical activity and reconnect with the being-qualities of presence, wisdom and love (a favorite from the archives).

NOTE: the talk given on 2018/10/03 will be posted on 2018/10/12.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks and meditations freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Ten-Minute Basic Meditation Practice Oct 04, 2018

Ten-Minute Basic Meditation Practice - Tara offers a short introductory meditation with a body scan, bringing focus to the breath, sounds, then resting in awareness ~ from the first morning instructions at the 2015 IMCW fall retreat. (a favorite from the archives)

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks and meditations freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Part 2: Impermanence - Awakening Through Insecurity Sep 28, 2018

Part 2: Impermanence – Awakening Through Insecurity - From the view of the separate self, this existence is inherently uncertain, and we are profoundly vulnerable. Our habitual reaction to insecurity fuels separation, and limits our capacity to live and love fully. These two talks explore the blessings of wisdom, love and freedom that naturally arise as, instead of resisting, we learn to open directly to the insecurity of impermanence. (a favorite from the archives)

Reflection: Learning to Stay Sep 27, 2018

Brief Reflection: Learning to Stay - We open the door to healing by bringing a mindful and kind attention to inner vulnerability and fear.

"Learning to stay opens up the space that gives us our life. That's when it becomes real with our inner life… with others. So we'll do a brief reflection on this."

Part 1: Impermanence - Awakening Through Insecurity Sep 21, 2018

Part 1: Impermanence - Awakening Through Insecurity - From the view of the separate self, this existence is inherently uncertain, and we are profoundly vulnerable. Our habitual reaction to insecurity fuels separation, and limits our capacity to live and love fully. These two talks explore the blessings of wisdom, love and freedom that naturally arise as, instead of resisting, we learn to open directly to the insecurity of impermanence. (from the archives)

Meditation: Opening to the Flow Sep 20, 2018

Meditation: Opening to the Flow - This meditation begins with gathering awareness of the breath. We then reflect on our deepest intention, sensing what most matters. With a listening attention, becoming aware of sounds that arise and pass away. We scan through the body, sensing the changing experience of energy and aliveness. Letting everything happen… not opposing anything… not controlling… moment to moment. Listening to and feeling this moment as an ever-changing river of experience. Opening to this changing flow and letting life flow through us. to this changing flow and letting life flow through.

Part 2: Awakening through Anger - The U-Turn to Freedom (2015-11-18) Sep 14, 2018

Part 2: Awakening through Anger – The U-Turn to Freedom - While we have strong conditioning to react to aggression with more aggression, we have the capacity to pause, and instead deepen attention and connect to our natural wisdom and empathy. This talk looks at how we can directly engage in this evolutionary adaptation when we encounter trauma related conflict in our personal lives, and in a parallel way when groups of people who have been part of traumatizing conflict seek reconciliation and healing. (from archives - 2015-11-18)

Meditation: Breathing Our Way to Peace & Freedom Sep 13, 2018

Meditation: Breathing Our Way to Peace & Freedom - This meditation guides us in collecting attention with an intentional long deep breath, and awakening a full relaxed presence as the breath resumes in its natural rhythm. Resting fully in this presence is the gateway to deep peace and inner freedom. (a favorite from the archives)

“Little breath breathe me gently, row me, for I am the river I am learning to cross.” – W.S. Merwin

Part 1: Awakening through Anger - The U-Turn to Freedom Sep 07, 2018

Part 1: Awakening through Anger – The U-Turn to Freedom - Anger is naturally triggered when we feel an obstacle to meeting our needs. How do we honor the intelligence within anger, but not get hijacked into emotional reactivity that creates suffering in our individual and collective lives? This talk explores the U-turn that enables us to offer a healing attention to the feelings and unmet needs under anger. Once present with our inner life, we are able to respond to those around us with wisdom, empathy and true strength. (a favorite from the archives - contains the Prickly Porcupine story)

Meditation: The Heartspace that is Home Sep 06, 2018

Meditation: The Heartspace that is Home - This meditation awakens attention to the space of awareness… (a special from the archives).

“No matter how far you’ve wandered, this heartspace – this awake tender awareness – is only a half-breath of remembrance away.”

Part 2: Vulnerability, Intimacy, & Spiritual Awakening Aug 31, 2018

Part 2: Vulnerability, Intimacy, & Spiritual Awakening - We each live with uncertainty and the fear of rejection and loss, and we each are conditioned to avoid feeling or expressing that vulnerability. Yet intimacy with this unlived life is the gateway to connecting authentically with others, full aliveness and spiritual realization. These talks explore the ways that we defend ourselves, and the pathway to gently, wisely and intelligently disarming and freeing our hearts (a special talk from the archives).

Meditation: Awakening Our Energy Body Aug 30, 2018

Meditation: Awakening Our Energy Body - This meditation scans the body and directly invites the awakening of key energy centers (chakras) in our body. We then rest in the openhearted awareness that includes this ever changing creative flow of aliveness (a classic meditation from the archives).

Part 1: Vulnerability, Intimacy, & Spiritual Awakening Aug 24, 2018

Part 1: Vulnerability, Intimacy, & Spiritual Awakening - We each live with uncertainty and the fear of rejection and loss, and we each are conditioned to avoid feeling or expressing that vulnerability. Yet intimacy with this unlived life is the gateway to connecting authentically with others, full aliveness and spiritual realization. These talks explore the ways that we defend ourselves, and the pathway to gently, wisely and intelligently disarming and freeing our hearts. (a favorite from the archives)

Meditation: Awake & Open Awareness Aug 23, 2018

Meditation: Awake & Open Awareness - This calming meditation practice helps settle the mind with the breath and then opens to the changing flow of experience, letting life be just as it is.

Discovering the Power of Prayer (2018-08-15) Aug 17, 2018

Discovering the Power of Prayer (2018-08-15) - We all know the pain of separation and have a longing for connection. When we silently listen to and contact the depth of that longing, we are at the root of transformational prayer. This talk looks at what prayer is, who/what we are praying to, the shadow side of prayer, and ways of cultivating our prayers so that they become authentic vehicles for spiritual awakening.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks and meditations freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation: Presence and Breath (2018-08-15) Aug 16, 2018

Meditation: Presence and Breath (2018-08-15) - This simple meditation guides us to wake up awareness of the body, and rest with the movement of the breath. We are invited to discover the presence that arises as we come home to our moment-to-moment experience. The practice ends with a short prayer, connecting with what most matters to our heart.

Healing Depression with Meditation - Part 2 (2018-08-08) Aug 10, 2018

Most people get depressed at times, and many suffer greatly from bouts of major depression. At the heart of the suffering is the experience of severed belonging—of being imprisoned in the pain of separation, unworthiness, unlovability and hopelessness.

These two talks explore several meditation practices that reconnect us with our natural aliveness, openheartedness and awareness. They empower us to develop our inner resources, energize us to awaken, free us from rumination and remind us that we are not our depressive thoughts and feelings. The growing realization of the loving awareness that is our home heals the very roots of depression.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks and meditations freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation: Letting Go of Doing (2018-08-11) Aug 09, 2018

Meditation: Letting Go of Doing (2018-08-11) - Meditation becomes truly freeing in the moments when there is no controlling whatsoever; when nothing is resisted or grasped after. This guided meditation begins with a simple body scan, relaxing and awakening to sensations in the body and then including the play of sound. Then we let go of any doing, and simply notice and allow the changing flow of experience, letting life be just as it is. In this pure allowing presence we become aware of the background silence that is listening. The invitation is to relax and be the awareness that is conscious of all that is unfolding.

Healing Depression with Meditation - Part 1 (2018-08-01) Aug 03, 2018

Healing Depression with Meditation - Part 1 (2018-08-01) - Most people get depressed at times, and many suffer greatly from bouts of major depression. At the heart of the suffering is the experience of severed belonging—of being imprisoned in the pain of separation, unworthiness, unlovability and hopelessness. These two talks explore several meditation practices that reconnect us with our natural aliveness, openheartedness and awareness. They empower us to develop our inner resources, energize us to awaken, free us from rumination and remind us that we are not our depressive thoughts and feelings. The growing realization of the loving awareness that is our home heals the very roots of depression.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks and meditations freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation: Refuge in Living Presence (2018-08-01) Aug 03, 2018

Meditation: Refuge in Living Presence (2018-08-01) - We spend great swaths of time in a trance that removes us from awareness of our body and senses. This meditation reconnects us by scanning through the body, including sounds and then resting in the field of awareness and aliveness. We practice relaxing and gently arriving again when thoughts carry us away; learning the pathway home to living presence.

Saying “Yes” - Meeting Your Edge and Softening (2018-07-25) Jul 27, 2018

Saying “Yes” - Meeting Your Edge and Softening (2018-07-25) - Our habitual ways of avoiding unpleasant experience keep us from intimacy with our inner life and with each other. This talk helps us recognize these often unconscious patterns that keep us identified with a separate, threatened self, and offers guidance in saying “yes” to the life we encounter. As we release resistance, we discover the creativity, wisdom and love that express our unbound, true, nature.

Listen to accompanying meditation: Saying "Yes" to Life

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks and meditations freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation: Saying Yes to Life (2018-07-25) Jul 26, 2018

Meditation: Saying Yes to Life (2018-07-25) - We are conditioned to scan for “what’s wrong" and contract our body and mind in anticipation of danger. This meditation helps us undo these primal survival habits, and frees us to inhabit the full aliveness, creativity and love our natural being.

What Is It Like Being You? (2018-07-18) Jul 20, 2018

What Is It Like Being You? (2018-07-18) - Compassion is hard wired in our organism, and can be cultivated. This talk helps us identify the blocks to compassion—our outmoded survival equipment—and using RAIN, offers practical guidance in mindfully attuning to others' emotional experience and awakening our natural tenderness and care. This talk includes a short introduction to the meditation: The RAIN of Compassion.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks and meditations freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation: Breath by Breath - Inviting Relaxation and Ease (2018-07-18) Jul 19, 2018

This meditation invites relaxation and ease. We begin with a long deep breathing that helps calm the body and mind. Then we release tensions that might be held in the body, and settle our attention in a receptive way with the breath. The intention is to discover the relaxed wakefulness that expresses our natural being.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks and meditations freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Part 2 - From Human Doing to Human Being (2018-07-11) Jul 13, 2018

From Human Doing to Human Being (2018-07-11) - Like Sisyphus eternally pushing the boulder up the hill, we can spend many moments busily trying to manage our life. This two-part talk explores how we can awaken from our non-stop doing, including the incessant inner narrative, and discover the mystery, love and freedom that arises in Being.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks and meditations freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation: Natural, Open Awareness (2018-07-11) Jul 12, 2018

Meditation: Natural, Open Awareness (2018-07-11) - When we are stressed, our attention narrows and fixates, often into obsessive thinking, worry and judgment. This meditation relaxes and opens the mind, first by a body scan and a “smile down,” and then by including all changing experience in a spacious awareness. As our attention shifts from mind objects like sensation and sound to the space of awareness itself, we discover the Beingness that is our formless home.

Skeleton Woman: Embracing This Living and Dying World Jul 06, 2018

Skeleton Woman: Embracing This Living and Dying World - (A favorite from the archives) Based on a wonderful myth told by Clarissa Estes, this talk looks at the way we run from “lady death” and the blessings of opening our arms and heart. If we can embrace the whole of our nature with unconditional presence – including the inevitability of change and loss–we discover deep wisdom and enduring love.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks and meditations freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation: Blessings of Love Jul 05, 2018

Meditation: Blessings of Love - A blessing is whatever reminds us of the sacred loving presence that shines through all of us. This meditation is a transformational practice in receiving and offering blessings. First we connect with the vulnerable tender place within us that longs to feel loved, and call on loving presence to bless us. By imagining and allowing ourselves to receive love, our hearts become open and filled with light. We then bring that inner loving presence fully alive as we offer blessings to other beings. The image of receiving a kiss on the brow, and offering one, is suggested as a powerful channel for the blessings that awaken our heart.

Evolving Beyond “Unreal Othering" (2018-06-27) Jun 29, 2018

Evolving Beyond “Unreal Othering" (2018-06-27) - What motivates us - as individuals and as a society - to build walls and knowingly hurt others? This talk explores the evolutionary roots of “unreal othering” and how when we are hijacked by fear, it can take over and disconnect us from the very real suffering of others. We then look at how meditative strategies awaken us from othering, and reveal our intrinsic belonging. Finally, we apply this to our own lives in a reflection that helps us respond to someone we have turned into “unreal other” with compassion and wisdom.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks and meditations freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation: Opening to the Waves (2018-06-27) Jun 28, 2018

Meditation: Opening to the Waves (2018-06-27) - When we are lost in thought, we lose touch with the aliveness and awareness that is always here. This meditation guides us with a mindful body scan to open to our senses, then to sound and all waves of aliveness. From that open presence we end with a loving kindness prayer.

Landlocked in Fur – Three Domains of Formless Presence (Retreat Talk) Jun 22, 2018

Landlocked in Fur – Three Domains of Formless Presence (Retreat Talk) - While we have evolved to experience a defining sense of separate self, our potential is to awaken to the formless dimension – the pure awareness is our shared source. This talk explores how we can undo the identification with thoughts, emotions and feelings that keeps us landlocked and unable to trust and live from our naturally loving and radiant essence. (a favorite from the archives - given at the 2014 IMCW New Year’s Retreat in Reisterstown, MD)

Poem at start of talk: “Landlocked in Fur” – by Tukaram. From: “Love Poems From God: Twelve Sacred Voices from the East and West” (Ladinksy, 2002)

Meditation: The Silence That's Listening (from retreat) Jun 22, 2018

Meditation: The Silence That's Listening (from retreat) - Listening to sounds is a powerful way to quiet the thinking mind and connect with the natural openness of awareness. In this guided meditation, we begin by opening to sound and then listening to and feeling the whole changing flow of life - allowing whatever is here to be just as it is. In the foreground, we notice the dance of sensations, thoughts, emotions…rising up and falling away. And in the background, a wakeful, receptive presence - the silence that is listening. When we let go of all doing and relax back into this alert stillness, we sense our true nature…our home.

In words from the Tibetan tradition: “Utterly awake, senses wide open. Utterly open, non-fixating, allowing awareness.”

(Morning meditation from the 2018 Spring IMCW 7-Day Silent Retreat)

Short Talk and Meditation: Spacious, Loving Awareness (retreat) Jun 15, 2018

Short Talk and Meditation: Spacious, Loving Awareness (retreat) - When our awareness is awake and open, we naturally respond to this changing life with warmth, tenderness and love. This practice helps us discover the spaciousness of awareness by realizing the space and aliveness that is in the body, and then sensing the continuous space that holds all life. We then sense how this continuous space is filled with the light of awareness and pervaded by love. (from the Spring 2018 IMCW 7-day Silent Retreat)

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks and meditations freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Heart Meditation: Forgiving and Freeing Our Hearts (retreat) Jun 15, 2018

Heart Meditation: Forgiving and Freeing Our Hearts (retreat) - Forgiveness for others becomes possible when we’ve held our own being with great compassion. This short talk and guided meditation brings forth our most awake and tender presence as we ask for forgiveness, offer care to the woundedness within us, and then extend forgiveness to another who has hurt us. (from the Spring 2018 IMCW 7-day Silent Retreat)

Join Tara in a 10-day online course on forgiveness available through Insight Timer: Free Yourself From Blame & Resentment.

Disarming Our Hearts: Letting Go of Blame (retreat talk) Jun 08, 2018

Disarming Our Hearts: Letting Go of Blame (retreat talk) - Anger, judgment and blame create separation—from our inner life and our world. Only by releasing chronic blame can we free our hearts to truly give and receive love. This talk looks at the difference between healthy anger and the trance of blame, and through a set of reflections, teachings and stories, guides us in healing and freeing our hearts. (from the Spring 2018 IMCW 7-Day Silent Retreat - previously unpublished)

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks and meditations freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Instruction & Meditation: Tonglen - Radical Compassion (retreat talk) Jun 07, 2018

Instruction & Meditation: Tonglen - Radical Compassion (retreat talk) - We are conditioned to avoid suffering - our own and others. By pulling away, we also contract our heart and disconnect from our innate capacity for compassion. This short talk and meditation is a training in touching vulnerability, and discovering the boundless heartspace that can be a transformer of sorrows. (from the Spring 2017 IMCW Spring 7-day Silent Retreat - previously unpublished)

From Human Doing to Human Being (2018-05-30) Jun 01, 2018

From Human Doing to Human Being (2018-05-30) - Like Sisyphus eternally pushing the boulder up the hill, we can spend many moments busily trying to manage our life. This two-part talk explores how we can awaken from our non-stop doing, including the incessant inner narrative, and discover the mystery, love and freedom that arises in Being.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks and meditations freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation: Aliveness and Presence (2018-05-30) May 31, 2018

Meditation: Aliveness and Presence (2018-05-30) - This meditation includes a body scan, using the imagery of a smile, and establishing the senses as a portal to presence. The more we open into the aliveness of the senses, the more we discover the alert inner stillness that is our true home.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks and meditations freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Seeing Basic Goodness - Part 2 (2018-05-23) May 25, 2018

Seeing Basic Goodness - Part 2 (2018-05-23) - Most of us long to trust our goodness, but get caught in stories of deficiency and striving to affirm we’re ok. These talks look at the block to realizing the loving awareness that is our essence, and the practices that help us see this essential goodness - in ourselves, dear ones and in those we might habitually consider different or “other.” Both talks include reflections that can help us appreciate the basic goodness that lives through these precious, changing forms.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks and meditations freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation: Lighting Up Your Energy Body (2018-05-23) May 25, 2018

Meditation: Lighting Up Your Energy Body(2018-05-23) - Our being has many frequencies of aliveness and as we attend to the more subtle, we discover a portal to the radiant awareness that is always here. This meditation guides us in using the breath and attention as we scan through the body and awaken an inner luminosity. We then open the attention to rest in the whole field of awake awareness.

Seeing Basic Goodness - Part 1 (2018-05-16) May 18, 2018

Seeing Basic Goodness - Part 1 (2018-05-16) - Most of us long to trust our goodness, but get caught in stories of deficiency and striving to affirm we’re ok. These talks look at the block to realizing the loving awareness that is our essence, and the practices that help us see this essential goodness - in ourselves, dear ones and in those we might habitually consider different or “other.” Both talks include reflections that can help us appreciate the basic goodness that lives through these precious, changing forms.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks and meditations freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation: Resting in Breath, Relaxing into Life (2018-05-16) May 17, 2018

Meditation: Resting in Breath, Relaxing into Life (2018-05-16) - This meditation invites us to collect our attention with a calming breath, and then with the senses as a home base, settle into presence. The reminders encourage a letting go of thoughts, shifting from virtual reality into the aliveness of moment-to-moment experience. In that letting go into life we find the stillness.

Free download of Tara's 10 min meditation: "Mindful Breathing: Finding Calm and Ease" when you join her email list.

Eating Addiction: How Meditation Helps Free Us (2018-05-09) May 11, 2018

Eating Addiction: How Meditation Helps Free Us (2018-05-09) - Buddhist psychology views clinging as the source of suffering, and one of the great domains of clinging is compulsive overeating. For most of us the causes and conditions for compulsive overeating existed before we were born, during our early childhood, and in our surrounding society. We begin to release shame and self-aversion by realizing we are not alone in this suffering; and eating addiction is not “our fault.” The talk includes an exploration of how, through RAIN, we can bring mindfulness and self-compassion to compulsive eating, giving us more choice in our behavior. Ultimately we discover that this deep prison of suffering can become a portal to realizing the freedom our true nature.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks and meditations freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation: Intimacy with Life (2018-05-09) May 10, 2018

Meditation: Intimacy with Life (2018-05-09) - This guided meditation begins with a body scan, bringing the friendliness of a smile into the body, and waking up our awareness of aliveness. We widen the attention to include sound and then sense and rest in the awareness that holds all experience. Our reminders are to wake up from trance by reopening to our senses, allowing for a true intimacy with the life that lives through us.

After the RAIN (retreat talk) (2018-04-29) May 05, 2018

After the RAIN (retreat talk) (2018-04-29) - This talk offers an in-depth exploration of RAIN, applying the wings of mindfulness and compassion to painful domains of trance. We bring special attention to the fruit of RAIN, the realization of who we are beyond any limiting identity.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks and meditations freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation: Morning on Retreat (2018-05-01) May 03, 2018

Meditation: Morning on Retreat (2018-05-01) - In this guided meditation we include an overview of different components of mindfulness practice. The reflection includes a body scan, establishing a home base for attention, and care in how to arrive in full presence after being lost in thought. We then explore opening mindfully to different experiences and the simple and liberating practice of “being here,” letting life be just as it is.

Responding to Change with a Wise Heart (2018-04-25) Apr 27, 2018

Responding to Change with a Wise Heart (2018-04-25) - An intrinsic part of spiritual life is facing the truth of impermanence. When we open to the changing flow without resistance, we naturally cherish this passing life, and realize the timeless, changeless awareness that is our true home. Yet we are conditioned to grasp on to the passing pleasures (and all that we love) and resist the inevitable arising of stress and unpleasant experience. This talk includes teachings and guided reflections that help us identify the ways we are reacting to major changes in our life. We explore how to shift from reacting to meeting impermanence with an allowing presence, and then responding to our circumstances with wisdom and compassion.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks and meditations freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation: Cultivating a Clear and Relaxed Presence (2018-04-25) Apr 26, 2018

Meditation: Cultivating a Clear and Relaxed Presence (2018-04-25) - This guided meditation begins with a calming breath to quiet the mind and relax the body. Following this, we establish our presence with an anchor - the breath, sound or sensation - and practice “coming back” from distractions, and including whatever direct experience asks for our kind attention. The meditation ends with a short loving kindness prayer.

Free download of Tara's 10 min meditation: "Mindful Breathing: Finding Calm and Ease" when you join her email list.

Listening with an Awake Heart - Part 2 (2018-04-18) Apr 20, 2018

Listening with an Awake Heart - Part 2 (2018-04-18) - Deep listening - to our inner life, each other and our world - is an intrinsic expression of our awakened heart. Yet because we have strong conditioning to be caught in wants and fears, there is often much interference in the field of communications. These two talks are an opportunity to intentionally deepen your capacity to listen in a way that leads to increased understanding and connection. You’ll have the opportunity to investigate what gets between you and deep listening, and to practice the key elements that nurture receptive presence. The second talk includes questions and responses that focus on having an agenda instead of listening, the feeling that we don’t have enough time, listening when we feel reactive (hurt, defensive, intimidated, angry) and the need to feel heard.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks and meditations freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation: Mind Like a Vast Sky (2018-04-18) Apr 19, 2018

Meditation: Mind Like a Vast Sky (2018-04-18) - This meditation opens with listening and discovering the sky-like awareness that includes changing sounds, thoughts, feelings and sensations. The sounding of bells and chimes assists in connecting to and resting in the boundless and loving awareness that is our true home.

Free download of Tara's 10 min meditation: "Mindful Breathing: Finding Calm and Ease" when you join her email list.

Listening with an Awake Heart - Part 1 (2018-04-11) Apr 13, 2018

Listening with an Awake Heart - Part 1 (2018-04-11) - Deep listening - to our inner life, each other and our world - is an intrinsic expression of our awakened heart. Yet because we have strong conditioning to be caught in wants and fears, there is often much interference in the field of communications. These two talks are an opportunity to intentionally deepen your capacity to listen in a way that leads to increased understanding and connection. You’ll have the opportunity to investigate what gets between you and deep listening, and to practice the key elements that nurture receptive presence.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks and meditations freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation: A Listening, Receptive Awareness (2018-04-11) Apr 12, 2018

Meditation: A Listening, Receptive Awareness (2018-04-11) - The capacity to truly listen allows us to realize the vast and sensitive awareness that is our true essence. This meditation focuses on listening to sounds, and then listening to and feeling the whole changing flow of life. When carried off by thought, we notice and then relax back into a receptive and listening presence. There’s nothing to do, simply letting life be as it is, and resting in the freedom of awake, open awareness.

Tara's website: www.tarabrach.com

Join Tara’s email list: https://eepurl.com/6YfI - get a free download of Tara’s new 10 min meditation: “Mindful Breathing: Finding Calm and Ease”.

From Head to Heart (2018-04-04) Apr 06, 2018

From Head to Heart (2018-04-04) - If we are suffering, we are believing an interpretation of reality that is limiting and untrue. At these times we are imprisoned in a painful looping of fear-driven thoughts and feelings. This talk explores the ways our practices of mindfulness, compassion and loving presence can guide us from addictive thinking to perceiving life with a wise heart.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks and meditations freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation: Awareness and Flow (2018-04-04) Apr 05, 2018

Meditation: Awareness and Flow (2018-04-04) - This guided practice awakens all the senses with an embodied presence, allowing an opening to the moment-to-moment changing flow of experience. We then relax back, resting as the changeless open awareness that is conscious of the flow, and includes all life.

Join Tara’s email list: http://eepurl.com/6YfI - get a free download of Tara’s new 10 min meditation: “Mindful Breathing: Finding Calm and Ease”.

Namaste: Seeing the Truth of Who We Are (2018-03-28) Mar 30, 2018

Namaste: Seeing the Truth of Who We Are (2018-03-28) - A gift of evolving consciousness is the capacity to recognize and honor the sacred awareness that lives through our own and all beings. This capacity is blocked by our identification with our “mask” or ego self, and not seeing past other people’s masks. In this talk we reflect together on some key filters of superior/inferior and good/bad that shape the trance of a narrowed identity, and then explore how mindfulness and kindness free us to inhabit the vastness of our natural awareness. We close with tasting the possibility of bringing the spirit of Namaste to ourselves, others and all beings.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks and meditations freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation: Continuous Space Suffused with Awareness (2018-03-28) Mar 29, 2018

Meditation: Continuous Space Suffused with Awareness (2018-03-28) - By learning to inhabit the body, we discover the space and aliveness that fills the universe. In this meditation we are guided through the body, filling different domains with presence. We then open into the continuous awake space that is both within and surrounds the body. When we notice the mind drifts, we relax back to be that awake space, aware of the changing flow of sensations, thoughts, feelings and sounds.

Free download of Tara's 10 min meditation: "Mindful Breathing: Finding Calm and Ease" when you join her email list.

Trusting Who We Are (retreat talk) - (2017-12-30) Mar 23, 2018

Trusting Who We Are (retreat talk) - (2017-12-30) - The sign of spiritual freedom is a deep trust in our essential nature, and in the light of awareness that lives through all beings. This talk explores the conditioning that entraps us in a trance of separation and believing in a limited self. We then explore the evolutionary shift in identity that is possible as we deepen our attention and presence to the life that is here, and the loving awareness that is the source of existence.

This talk was given at the IMCW 2017 New Year's Retreat.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks and meditations freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation and Short Talk: Basic Elements of a Mindfulness Meditation Sitting (retreat) Mar 22, 2018

Meditation and Short Talk: Basic Elements of a Mindfulness Meditation Sitting (from the 2017 IMCW New Year retreat) - This short talk and guided meditation offers an overview of what many people find a natural unfolding within a meditation sitting. It includes the process of arriving in an embodied presence, learning how to come back from thoughts, and then opening the attention mindfully to the changing flow of experience.

Part 2 - Awakening our Body’s Awareness (2018-03-14) Mar 16, 2018

Part 2 - Awakening our Body’s Awareness (2018-03-14) - Mindful awareness of our bodies is a portal to full aliveness, wisdom and love. These two classes will explore the trance that takes us away from our body, the pathways home, ways of working with pain, and the gifts of an embodied presence.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks and meditations freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation: Inhabiting Our Body, Realizing Wholeness (2018-03-14) Mar 15, 2018

Meditation: Inhabiting Our Body, Realizing Wholeness (2018-03-14) - Awakening awareness in the body is the portal to resting in boundless and dynamic presence. This guided practice scans the body from feet up, and helps us inhabit all parts of our body. As we open to the aliveness and space inside the body, we discover a permeability that allows us to inhabit the universe of aliveness and space, form and formlessness. With this homecoming to whole beingness is an intrinsic experience of freedom.

Free download of Tara's 10 min meditation: "Mindful Breathing: Finding Calm and Ease" when you join her email list.

Part 1 - Awakening our Body’s Awareness (2018-03-07) Mar 09, 2018

Part 1 - Awakening our Body’s Awareness (2018-03-07) - Mindful awareness of our bodies is a portal to full aliveness, wisdom and love. These two classes will explore the trance that takes us away from our body, the pathways home, ways of working with pain, and the gifts of an embodied presence.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks and meditations freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation: Homecoming with the Breath (2018-03-07) Mar 08, 2018

Meditation: Homecoming with the Breath (2018-03-07) - This meditation focuses on the breath as an anchor for homecoming. We begin with an intentional breath (coherence breathing) and then establish the natural breath as a home base. The instructions are to rest in the breath, offering a relaxed, intimate intention. Other waves of sensation or emotion are included when they ask for attention as we cultivate an open and full mindful presence. Our freedom arises as we recognize the formless awareness that is our home, and the natural and ever-changing waves that live through us.

Free download of Tara's 10 min meditation: "Mindful Breathing: Finding Calm and Ease" when you join her email list.

Part 4 - Equanimity - Present Heart - Universal Expressions of Love (2018-02-28) Mar 02, 2018

Part 4 - Equanimity: Present Heart - Universal Expressions of Love (2018-02-28) - Equanimity unfolds as we find a wise balance and spaciousness in the midst of this living, dying world. This series reflects on four primary expressions of an awake, wise heart: lovingkindness, compassion, joy and equanimity. In each talk we explore the habitual patterning that blocks our full realization of these innate capacities, and the understandings and practices that nurture their unfolding.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks and meditations freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation: The Space and Aliveness of Presence (2018-02-28) Mar 01, 2018

Meditation: The Space and Aliveness of Presence (2018-02-28) - We arrive in presence by deepening attention in the body; relaxing and awakening through a body scan. That presence deepens as we bring our attention to the space of awareness that includes the changing flow of sounds, sensations and feelings. In that wholeness of formlessness and form, we discover our natural being - open, awake and tender.

Free download of Tara's 10 min meditation: "Mindful Breathing: Finding Calm and Ease" when you join her email list.

Part 3 - Joy - Present Heart: The Universal Expressions of Love (2018-02-21) Feb 23, 2018

Part 3 - Joy - Present Heart: The Universal Expressions of Love (2018-02-21) - Joy blossoms in the moments our hearts open boundlessly to reality, to the 10,000 joys and sorrows.

This series reflects on four primary expressions of an awake, wise heart: lovingkindness, compassion, joy and equanimity. In each talk we explore the habitual patterning that blocks our full realization of these innate capacities, and the understandings and practices that nurture their unfolding.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks and meditations freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation: The Heartspace Where All is Welcome (2018-02-21) Feb 22, 2018

Meditation: The Heartspace Where All is Welcome (2018-02-21) - This meditation scans through the body, and awakens attention to the open, inclusive awareness that all life arises in. We then explore experiencing that openness in the region of the heart, saying yes to life and including whatever is here with unconditional presence.

Free download of Tara's 10 min meditation: "Mindful Breathing: Finding Calm and Ease" when you join her email list.

Part 2 - Compassion - Present Heart: The Universal Expressions of Love (2018-02-14) Feb 16, 2018

Part 2 – Compassion - Present Heart: The Universal Expressions of Love (2018-02-14) - Compassion - the tender resonance of heart - awakens as we allow ourselves to be touched by our shared vulnerability.

This series reflects on four primary expressions of an awake, wise heart: lovingkindness, compassion, joy and equanimity. In each talk we explore the habitual patterning that blocks our full realization of these innate capacities, and the understandings and practices that nurture their unfolding.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks and meditations freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation: Awareness Is Our Home (2018-02-14) Feb 15, 2018

Meditation: Awareness Is Our Home (2018-02-14) - This guided practice helps us come into our senses through a body scan. We then rest in the awareness that is listening to and feeling the changing flow of experience. When the mind drifts, the return is a relaxing back to our senses, and to the sea of awareness that includes and experiences the waves of life.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks and meditations freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Part 1 ~ Present Heart: The Universal Expressions of Love (2018-02-07} Feb 09, 2018

Part 1 ~ Present Heart: The Universal Expressions of Love (2018-02-07) ~ Lovingkindness: We awaken our natural lovingkindness by learning to attend to and take in the goodness of this life.

This series reflects on four primary expressions of an awake, wise heart: lovingkindness, compassion, joy and equanimity. In each talk we explore the habitual patterning that blocks our full realization of these innate capacities, and the understandings and practices that nurture their unfolding.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks and meditations freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation: Living Presence (2018-02-07) Feb 08, 2018

Meditation: Living Presence (2018-02-07) - This meditation guides us to awaken to our senses through scanning through the body and then listening to sounds. When distracted by thoughts we relax open again and again, learning to rest in the formless awareness that includes sounds, sensations and all passing experience.

Free download of Tara's 10 min meditation: "Mindful Breathing: Finding Calm and Ease" when you join her email list.

Part 3 - Freedom from Othering: Undoing the Myths that Imprison Us (2018-01-31) Feb 03, 2018

Part 3 - Freedom from Othering: Undoing the Myths that Imprison Us (2018-01-31) - A primary source of our suffering is the conditioning to create “bad other,” or “inferior other.” This same conditioning leads us to creating a bad self and turn on ourselves. These three talks explore how we subscribe to societal myths and beliefs that perpetuate this “bad othering,” and “bad selfing.” They then guide us in bring a healing attention that can reveal the goodness that lives through all beings, and our innate connectedness. A core teaching is, “the boundary to who we include in our hearts is the boundary to our freedom.”

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks and meditations freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation: Beyond the Veil of Thinking (2018-01-31) Feb 02, 2018

This meditation awakens us to the space and aliveness in these bodies, and to resting in wakeful openness. When we get lost in thought, we practice relaxing open, and exploring the gap between thoughts. By opening beyond the veil of thinking, we discover the Beingness that is home.

Free download of Tara's 10 min meditation: "Mindful Breathing: Finding Calm and Ease" when you join her email list.

Part 2 - Freedom from Othering: Undoing the Myths that Imprison Us (2018-01-24) Jan 26, 2018

Part 2 - Freedom from Othering: Undoing the Myths that Imprison Us (2018-01-24) - A primary source of our suffering is the conditioning to create “bad other,” or “inferior other.” This same conditioning leads us to creating a bad self and turn on ourselves. These two talks explore how we subscribe to societal myths and beliefs that perpetuate this “bad othering,” and “bad selfing." They then guide us in bring a healing attention that can reveal the goodness that lives through all beings, and our innate connectedness. A core teaching is, “the boundary to who we include in our hearts is the boundary to our freedom.”

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks and meditations freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation: Resting in Reality (2018-01-24) Jan 26, 2018

Meditation: Resting in Reality - This guided practice awakens attention to sensations, sounds, space and aliveness, and encourages a continued “relaxing open” from thoughts into the living stream of experience. We are learning to recognize and rest in the moment to moment flow, “being reality,” at home in what we are.

Free download of Tara's 10 min meditation: "Mindful Breathing: Finding Calm and Ease" when you join her email list.

Part 1 - Freedom from Othering: Undoing the Myths that Imprison Us (2018-01-17) Jan 20, 2018

Freedom from Othering: Undoing the Myths that Imprison Us - Part 1 - A primary source of our suffering is the conditioning to create “bad other,” or “inferior other.” This same conditioning leads us to creating a bad self and turn on ourselves. These three talks explore how we subscribe to societal myths and beliefs that perpetuate this “bad othering,” and “bad selfing." They then guide us in bring a healing attention that can reveal the goodness that lives through all beings, and our innate connectedness. A core teaching is, “the boundary to who we include in our hearts is the boundary to our freedom.”

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks and meditations freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation: Receiving Life with an Open Awareness (2018-01-17) Jan 18, 2018

Meditation: Receiving Life with an Open Awareness (2018-01-17) - We begin with listening and then bring a receptive attention to experience the life of the body. We then open the attention to the whole field of sensations and sound, and rest in the openness and presence that includes all the changing currents of experience.

Free download of Tara's 10 min meditation: "Mindful Breathing: Finding Calm and Ease" when you join her email list.

Winds of Homecoming: How Intention Frees our Heart (2018-01-10) Jan 13, 2018

Winds of Homecoming: How Intention Frees our Heart (2018-01-10) - The Buddha taught that we live our lives on the tip of intention, it is the seed of our future. This talk explores the difference between “limbic” intentions driven by grasping or fear, and intentions that are the call of our awakening heart. You will learn how to identify and shift from a “limbic” to wise intention, and several different ways you can more readily and regularly access your deepest aspiration.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks and meditations freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation: Space and Aliveness and Awareness (2018-01-10) Jan 11, 2018

Meditation: Space and Aliveness and Awareness (2018-01-10) - This meditation engages the breath in a way that it connects us with our energetic aliveness and the space that holds and is intrinsic to all life. A body scan using this breath opens us to the body as a field of aliveness. We then rest in the changing flow of experience, and the still presence that is our essence.

Three Gateways to Peace and Freedom (2018-01-03) Jan 05, 2018

Three Gateways to Peace and Freedom - This talk explores the three archetypal refuges of truth, love and awareness. We look at the outer and inner aspects of each refuge, and then through guided reflections and a Refuge Ritual, deepen our commitment to the pathways that awaken our minds and free our hearts.

NOTE: Includes a Refuge Ritual at the end of the talk - if you'd like to participate, you'll need some red string. We use "Classic crochet thread, size 10 in red" about 36 inches per person. Sing along - the Three Refuges chant sheet is available at www.tarabrach.com/three-gateways-peace-freedom/.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks and meditations freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

New Year's Meditation: Awakening Loving Presence (2018-01-03) Jan 04, 2018

New Year's Meditation: Awakening Loving Presence - Loving presence is an innate capacity, and it can be cultivated. This meditation begins with a scan arousing a relaxed tender presence in the body, then brings loving attention to our inner life, and in widening circles, to our world.

Remembering and Choosing Loving Presence (retreat talk) (2017-12-28) Dec 29, 2017

Remembering and Choosing Loving Presence (retreat talk) (2017-12-28) - We are conditioned to go into a limbic trance—an emotional reactivity to life within and around us—that keeps us identified with a limited, separate sense of self. This talk helps us to identify the flags of trance, and to bring a healing attention that frees us to live our moments with creativity, wisdom and love. Includes the RAIN of Self-Compassion. (from the 2017 IMCW New Year's Retreat)

Meditation: Basic Body Scan (2017-12-28) Dec 28, 2017

Meditation: Basic Body and Breath Scan – (2017-12-28) – from the first morning of the IMCW 2017 New Year retreat, Tara offers an introductory meditation with a body scan, bringing focus to the breath, sounds, then resting in awareness.

My Religion is Kindness – Part 2 (2017-12-20) Dec 23, 2017

My Religion is Kindness – Part 2 ~ Authentic kindness must include the life within us. These two talks examine the movement from an armored to a free and loving heart. The first looks at how we can awaken from the trance of unworthiness and establish a genuinely caring relationship with our inner life. In the second we explore how self-kindness awakens us to the heartspace that naturally includes all of life.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks and meditations freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation: “Yes” to Life (2017-12-20) Dec 22, 2017

2017-12-20 - Meditation: “Yes” to Life (2017-12-20) - This guided practice awakens a relaxed and friendly attention that rests in the breath and opens to whatever is arising. We deepen that presence with the intention to truly say "Yes" to experience, allowing life to be just as it is.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks and meditations freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation: Transforming Fear (2017-12-06) Dec 19, 2017

Meditation: Transforming Fear - This guided practice invites us to identify a situation where we habitually become anxious or fearful, and then to explore bringing mindfulness and self-compassion to where we feel most vulnerable. By engaging fear with an embodied and caring presence, we discover the fearless heart that includes but is not contracted by fear.

NOTE: this meditation is from the end of the talk Awakening the Trance of Fear – Part 1.

My Religion is Kindness - Part 1 (2017-12-13) Dec 16, 2017

My Religion is Kindness - Part 1 (2017-12-13) - Authentic kindness must include the life within us. These two talks examine the movement from an armored to a free and loving heart. The first looks at how we can awaken from the trance of unworthiness and establish a genuinely caring relationship with our inner life. In the second we explore how self-kindness awakens us to the heartspace that naturally includes all of life.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks and meditations freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation: Boundless, Loving Awareness (2017-12-13) Dec 15, 2017

Meditation: Boundless, Loving Awareness(2017-12-13) - Learning how to recognize and rest in spaciousness, allows us to discover the love and wakefulness that is our source. This meditation guides us to discover interior space, exterior space, and then the continuous space that is suffused with awareness. We then explore how that awareness is experienced as heartspace—vast, illuminated and tender.

Free download of Tara's 10 min meditation: "Mindful Breathing: Finding Calm and Ease" when you join her email list.

Awakening from the Trance of Fear - Part 2 (2017-12-06) Dec 08, 2017

Awakening from the Trance of Fear-Part 2 (2017-12-06) - While fear is a natural and intelligent emotion, when fear goes on overdrive, we are in a trance of fear that contracts our body, heart and mind. Our resistance to the direct experience of fear sustains the trance and leads to decisions and behaviors that harm ourselves and others. Only by facing fear with mindfulness and compassion can we awaken from trance and reconnect with our capacity for creativity and full aliveness, wisdom and love.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks and meditations freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation: Alert Inner Stillness (2017-12-06) Dec 07, 2017

Meditation: Alert Inner Stillness (2017-12-06) - Behind the changing sounds, sensations, feelings and thoughts is an alert inner stillness that is purely aware. This meditation begins with accessing the receptivity of a smile, awakening through the body and opening the senses. We then sense the background of awareness and relax back to inhabit that wholeness. When the mind is distracted, the pathway home is a relaxing back, and the essential practice is non-doing, allowing life to be just as it is.

Free download of Tara's 10 min meditation: "Mindful Breathing: Finding Calm and Ease" when you join her email list.

Awakening from the Trance of Fear - Part 1 (2017-11-29) Dec 01, 2017

Awakening from the Trance of Fear - Part 1 (2017-11-29) - While fear is a natural and intelligent emotion, when fear goes on overdrive, we are in a trance of fear that contracts our body, heart and mind. Our resistance to the direct experience of fear sustains the trance and leads to decisions and behaviors that harm ourselves and others. Only by facing fear with mindfulness and compassion can we awaken from trance and reconnect with our capacity for creativity and full aliveness, wisdom and love.

Meditation: Breath by Breath (2017-11-29) Nov 30, 2017

Meditation: Breath by Breath (2017-11-29) - Our breath can be a home base that allows us to meet life with a relaxed, wakeful presence. This meditation helps us calm and settle the mind with long deep breathing, and then establishes a mindful presence with our natural breathing. When distracted, we learn to relax back again and again, learning the pathway of homecoming to the aliveness, openness and mystery that is always Here.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

A Grateful, Giving, Happy Heart (2017-11-22) Nov 24, 2017

A Grateful, Giving, Happy Heart (2017-11-22) - Gratitude is like breathing in - letting ourselves be touched by the goodness in others and in our world. Generosity is like breathing out - sensing our mutual belonging and offering our care. When we are awake and whole, breathing in and out happens naturally. But these beautiful expressions of our heart become blocked when we are dominated by the fear and grasping of our survival brain. This talk explores how we can facilitate the evolution of consciousness with the deliberate cultivation of generosity, and ends with a guided meditation on gratitude and generosity.

Meditation: Relax Into Happiness (2017-11-22) Nov 24, 2017

Meditation: Relax Into Happiness (2017-11-22) - Lama Gendun Rinpoche writes, “Happiness cannot be found through great effort and willpower, but it is already there, in relaxation and letting go.” This meditation turns us toward this naturally arising happiness by awakening awareness through the body, and then practicing “relaxing back,” over and over, into the aliveness and presence that is always here.

The Gift of Silence Nov 17, 2017

The Gift of Silence ~ Through all spiritual traditions, there is a valuing of silence and stillness. When the mind has quieted, it becomes possible to see into the truth of what we are. Yet quieting can turn into a battle with the process of the thinking mind. This talk explores practices that allow us to settle in a natural way, the presence which is silence itself, and the wisdom and love that flows freely when we live from that silence. (a favorite from 2013-09-26)

Meditation: The Silence That is Listening Nov 17, 2017

Meditation: The Silence That is Listening - Listening to sounds is a powerful way to quiet the thinking mind and connect with the natural openness of awareness. This meditation emphasizes the anchor of listening, and guides us to relax through our bodies and let sounds wash through us. In this receptivity we find a homecoming to full presence and peace.

Power of Prayer: From Longing to Belonging (2017-11-08) Nov 11, 2017

Power of Prayer: From Longing to Belonging (2017-11-08) - When we bring a full presence to prayer, it becomes a powerful pathway of homecoming. This talk explores how prayer heals the pain of separation, and offers practical guidance in what poet John O’Donohue calls “unearthing our ancient belonging.”

"What's it like if you bow your head and whisper and call on something larger?"

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation: Relaxed Attentiveness (2017-11-08) Nov 09, 2017

Meditation: Relaxed Attentiveness (2017-11-08) - The primary qualities of a healing and freeing presence are being alert, open and tender. This meditation arouses these qualities by engaging a mindful awareness of the breath, and then a relaxed, gentle attentiveness to the changing experience of the moment. It ends by bringing lovingkindness to ourselves and all beings.

Accessing Innate Wisdom Nov 04, 2017

Accessing Innate Wisdom - Wisdom is an innate capacity, but often covered over by trance. This talk explores how we abandon ourselves as we busily seek ways to feel more worthy, lovable and safe. We then look at the pathway home, the radical non-doing and space of silence that allows wisdom and love to flow through.

"Live your moments as if this is it, let it matter, let it come from a remembrance of what you most care about."

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Reflection: Cultivating a Loving Heart (2017-08-30) Nov 02, 2017

Reflection: Cultivating a Loving Heart (2017-08-30) - Love is an innate capacity, and when we intentionally cultivate it, love shifts from a state to a trait. This meditation offers guidance on how to access love, and open ourselves to it in a way that serves this awakening of our hearts.

From the talk: True Resilience – Awakening through All Circumstances – Part 2

"Know that you’re rewiring your brain, your heart, your body, your mind - and that the more times you do this, the more you really give it 20 or 30 seconds to feel directly the loving, the more access you have to this very innate capacity in your being."

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Anger: Responding, Not Reacting (2017-10-25) Oct 27, 2017

Anger: Responding, Not Reacting (2017-10-25) - Anger is natural, intelligent and necessary for surviving and flourishing. Yet when we are hooked by anger, it causes great personal and collective suffering. This talk explores how to transform patterns of reactivity by bringing a mindful and compassionate attention to the unmet needs that underlie angry reactivity. When we learn how to pause and connect honestly with our inner experience, we are then able to respond to others from our full intelligence and heart.

"Getting angry with another person is like throwing hot coals with bare hands: both people get burned.” Buddha

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation: Refuge in Presence (2017-10-25) Oct 26, 2017

Meditation: Refuge in Presence (2017-10-25) - We arrive in presence through the gateway of the body, scanning through with awareness, and then resting with the breath and body sensations. As we include whatever arises with a gentle and kind attention, our inner refuge becomes increasingly stable and openhearted. This meditation ends with a brief lovingkindness prayer.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Embodied Spirit - Mindfulness of the Body Oct 21, 2017

Embodied Spirit - Mindfulness of the Body ~ The Buddha taught that mindfulness of the body is a direct path to the realization of truth, to peace and freedom. This talk explores how we leave a present-centered awareness of our body, and the pathways of homecoming - a favorite teaching from the 2010 archives.

"The most profound and full presence can only be experienced if we're awake right here in this body - with a quality of sacred presence that comes when, without any resistance, without any grasping, we really plant ourselves in the universe, in this body, in this being right here."

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation: Awakening Compassion with Tonglen Oct 19, 2017

Our hearts awaken as we let ourselves be touched by the suffering within and around us. They shine as we respond with care to what has touched us. This meditation uses the breath to guide us in letting in and contacting suffering, and offering out our love. With practice this meditation enables us to realize the truth of our connectedness and the luminous love that is intrinsic to awareness.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

River of Change - Part 2 - Bringing a Wise Heart to this Impermanent Life (2017-10-11) Oct 13, 2017

River of Change - Part 2 - Bringing a Wise Heart to this Impermanent Life (2017-10-11) - These two talks look at how we relate to change - especially the notable changes involving loss of relationships and our own body and mind. We examine our strategies for avoiding uncertainty and fear; the consequences of resisting reality; our refuges of presence and compassion in the face of grief; and the gifts of opening fully to the river of change.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation: Present Heart (2017-10-11) Oct 12, 2017

Meditation: Present Heart (2017-10-11) - We awaken a present heart by relaxing with the breath, and bringing the kindness of a smile into our bodily experience. This meditation ends with offering blessings to our inner life and all beings.

River of Change - Part 1 - Bringing a Wise Heart to this Impermanent Life (2017-10-04) Oct 06, 2017

River of Change - Part 1 - Bringing a Wise Heart to this Impermanent Life - These two talks look at how we relate to change - especially the notable changes involving loss of relationships and our own body and mind. We examine our strategies for avoiding uncertainty and fear; the consequences of resisting reality; our refuges of presence and compassion in the face of grief; and the gifts of opening fully to the river of change.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation - Saying “Yes” to Life (2017-10-04) Oct 05, 2017

Meditation - Saying “Yes” to Life - This meditation guides us in relaxing through the body, then opening to the changing river of experience. By continually relaxing back and letting go into what is unfolding, we discover the natural vastness, wakefulness and vitality of our essential Being.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Transforming Two Fears: FOF and FOMO Sep 29, 2017

Transforming Two Fears: FOF and FOMO - There are two common fears that can block us from our full potential – fear of failure (FOF), and fear of missing out (FOMO). This talk explores how to meet these fears with mindful presence, and discover within them the essence energies of loving awareness and full aliveness (a favorite from the archives).

Note – This talk is dedicated to Tim Ferriss, who turned me on to the phrase FOMO. Tim exemplifies the creative aliveness of FOMO energy when it’s living through someone who’s dedicated to being awake, caring and real. (check out his podcasts, http://fourhourworkweek.com/podcast/)

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation: Blessings of Love Sep 28, 2017

Meditation: Blessings of Love - A blessing is whatever reminds us of the sacred loving presence that shines through all of us. This meditation is a transformational practice in receiving and offering blessings. First we connect with the vulnerable tender place within us that longs to feel loved, and call on loving presence to bless us. By imagining and allowing ourselves to receive love, our hearts become open and filled with light. We then bring that inner loving presence fully alive as we offer blessings to other beings. The image of receiving a kiss on the brow, and offering one, is suggested as a powerful channel for the blessings that awaken our heart. (from the end of Bodhichitta – the Awakened Heart – Part 1 talk on same evening)

From Dragons to Schmoos – Meeting Life with Compassionate Presence Sep 22, 2017

From Dragons to Schmoos: Meeting Life with Compassionate Presence - The trance of unworthiness is sustained by our aversion to the dragons – the difficult emotions and related behaviors that are a deeply conditioned part of the human experience. In this talk we explore the awakening that is possible as we recognize our reactive patterns and instead of judgment, offer a loving and healing presence (a favorite from the archives).

“Perhaps all the dragons in our lives are princesses who are only waiting to see us act, just once, with beauty and courage. Perhaps everything that frightens us is, in its deepest essence, something helpless that wants our love.” ~ Rainer Maria Rilke

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation: Coming Home to Openhearted Awareness Sep 21, 2017

Meditation: Coming Home to Openhearted Awareness - In daily life we often leave ourselves, get lost in thoughts, and cut off from a direct, openhearted experience of our life. This meditation reconnects by opening all the senses, turning towards the awareness that is here, and resting in the awakened heartspace that includes and tenderly holds our moment to moment experience. (a special favorite from the archives)

"Waking up from thoughts… coming back home to the senses."

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Reflection: Transforming Suffering and Awakening the Heart Sep 20, 2017

Reflection: Transforming Suffering and Awakening the Heart -

There is power and potential in a time of darkness to remind us of what we really cherish. In this reflection, we practice ways of paying attention that can help us transform suffering into freedom, in our own lives and in the world around us.

The reflection closes with a reading of “School Prayer” by Diane Ackerman.

Excerpt from Darkness of the Womb – Four Key Steps in Transforming Suffering a talk given on January 25, 2017.

Trusting Your Basic Goodness - Part 2 Sep 15, 2017

Trusting Your Basic Goodness - Part 2 - This talk continues the exploration of what causes our distrust of ourselves, others and life, and the pathways to realizing and trusting who we are. We explore the steps of awakening from limiting beliefs, dissolving the resistance to direct embodied presence, and discovering the space and tenderness – the formless dimension – that is indivisible and whole (a favorite from the archives).

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation: Coming Home to Being Sep 14, 2017

Meditation: Coming Home to Being - "What it's like to be here right now and listening to your heart… sensing the state of your heart? It might have been a while since you've really checked in with this simple inquiry… How is my heart right now?"

Basic Trust - Part 1 Sep 08, 2017

Basic Trust - Part 1 - One of the expressions of an awakened heart-mind is a basic trust in reality. These talks explore the severed belonging that gives rise to mistrust, and two primary pathways to realizing and trusting the indivisible field of loving awareness that is our source. (a favorite from the archives)

“To love without holding back – to really sense with the wisdom, the reality, that it’s right here – to live from wholeness. We have this capacity.”

“Who would you be if you trusted the basic goodness and beauty is living through you? How would your life be different if you trusted that spirit, love, awareness is what you are?”

Meditation: Choosing Living Presence Sep 07, 2017

Meditation: Choosing Living Presence - A meditation on being present with our living, breathing life (includes chanting the Om's - a favorite from Tara's Wednesday night archives).

True Resilience: Part 2 - Awakening through All Circumstances (2017-08-30) Sep 01, 2017

True Resilience: Part 2 - Awakening through All Circumstances - Spiritual resilience enables us to deepen compassion and wisdom as we navigate life’s difficulties. In this two part series, we will look at the conditions that incline us towards or away from True Resilience, and explore practical and powerful practices that nourish this precious capacity.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation: Present Heartspace Aug 31, 2017

Meditation: Present Heartspace - This meditation establishes an embodied presence with the gentleness of a smile-down scan, then opens us to the heartspace that includes the changing waves of experience. It ends with a short lovingkindness meditation that offers prayers for relief of the current great suffering from floods in Texas, India, Bangladesh and Nepal.

Darkness of the Womb – Four Key Steps in Transforming Suffering Aug 25, 2017

Darkness of the Womb – Four Key Steps in Transforming Suffering (from 2017-01-25) - We can either repeat old fear based patterns, or our suffering can awaken us to a deeper wisdom and greater love. This talk explores four principles in relating to difficulty that move us towards healing and freedom—both personally and as a society.

NOTE: Tara was traveling and teaching this week and asked for this timely talk from the archives be posted.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

30-Minute Meditation: Open Awareness - Relaxing Back into Presence Aug 24, 2017

30-Minute Meditation: Open Awareness - Relaxing Back into Presence - This practice brings attention to the continuous space within and around the body, and the aliveness of sound, sensation and feeling that lives through us. While it’s natural for attention to get distracted, the pathway home is a relaxing back into the awake space that is aware of this changing life. NOTE: from August 8, 2017 for those seeking a full 30-minute open awareness guided meditation.

True Resilience - Pt1 - Awakening through All Circumstances (2017-08-16) Aug 19, 2017

True Resilience - Pt1 - Awakening through All Circumstances (2017-08-16) - Spiritual resilience enables us to deepen compassion and wisdom as we navigate life’s difficulties. In this two part series, we will look at the conditions that incline us towards or away from True Resilience, and explore practical and powerful practices that nourish this precious capacity.

Meditation: Filling our Body with Love (2017-08-16) Aug 17, 2017

Meditation: Filling our Body with Love (2017-08-16) - When we are fully awake, love shines through our entire body and being. This meditation awakens that embodied love through the image and felt sense of the smile, scanning through the body, resting in loving presence and offering loving prayer.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Three Blessings in Spiritual Life - Part 3 - The Mirror (2017-08-09) Aug 11, 2017

Three Blessings in Spiritual Life - Part 3 - The Mirror - This 3-part series explores three capacities we all have, that when cultivated, bring spiritual awakening and serve the healing of our world. Drawing on an ancient teaching story from India, we explore together the power of a forgiving heart, the inner fire that expresses as courage and dedication, and the inquiry of “who am I” that reveals our deepest nature.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation: Listening to Life (2017-08-09) Aug 10, 2017

Meditation: Listening to Life (2017-08-09) - The attitude of meditation is one of engaged listening, a relaxed, receptive yet intimate attention. This meditation explores how we can listen to sounds, listen to and feel sensations, and then relax back into the ocean of awareness that includes and perceives the changing waves. In this relaxing back, we realize the peace and freedom of inhabiting our wholeness and essence.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Three Blessings in Spiritual Life - Part 2 - Inner Fire (2017-08-02) Aug 04, 2017

Three Blessings in Spiritual Life - Part 2 - Inner Fire - This 3- part series explores three capacities we all have, that when cultivated, bring spiritual awakening and serve the healing of our world. Drawing on an ancient teaching story from India, we explore together the power of a forgiving heart, the inner fire that expresses as courage and dedication, and the inquiry of “who am I” that reveals our deepest nature.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation: Open Awareness - Relaxing Back into Presence (2017-08-02) Aug 03, 2017

Meditation: Open Awareness - Relaxing Back into Presence - This practice brings attention to the continuous space within and around the body, and the aliveness of sound, sensation and feeling that lives through us. While it’s natural for attention to get distracted, the pathway home is a relaxing back into the awake space that is aware of this changing life.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Three Blessings in Spiritual Life - Part I - (2017-07-26) Jul 28, 2017

Three Blessings in Spiritual Life - Part I - (2017-07-26) - This 3- part series explores three capacities we all have, that when cultivated, bring spiritual awakening and serve the healing of our world. Drawing on an ancient teaching story from India, we explore together the power of a forgiving heart, the inner fire that expresses as courage and dedication, and the inquiry of “who am I” that reveals our deepest nature.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation - Living Presence (2017-07-26) Jul 27, 2017

Meditation - Living Presence (2017-07-26) - This practice uses the image and felt sense of a smile as we scan through the body, include sound and relax back into the awareness that is the source of all experience. By letting life be just as it is, we become pure living presence - wakeful, open and tender.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Love is Always Here (2017-07-19) Jul 21, 2017

Love is Always Here (2017-07-19) - One expression of suffering is forgetting that we are intrinsically lovable and worthy. This talk looks at the pathway to trusting our belonging, and focuses on the healing that comes from letting in love and mirroring others goodness.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation: Relaxing into Sleep (no bell at end) (2017-07-19) Jul 20, 2017

Meditation: Relaxing into Sleep (no bell at end) (2017-07-19) - This meditation can help us to access a relaxed attentiveness, or alternately, serve as a pathway to ease-filled sleep. (version with ending bell also available)

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation - Relaxing into Presence (with bell) (2017-07-19) Jul 20, 2017

Meditation - Relaxing into Presence or Sleep (2017-07-19) - This meditation can help us to access a relaxed attentiveness, or alternately, serve as a pathway to ease-filled sleep. (version with no bell also available)

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Radical Self-Honesty: The Joy of Getting Real Jul 14, 2017

Our suffering arises from the unseen, unfelt, resisted parts of our psyche. This talk explores ways we can deepen self-honesty and reconnect to a wholeness of being that enables us to live with spontaneity, confidence, wisdom and love.

NOTE: Tara was away this week and asked for this favorite talk from 2014-11-05 archives be posted.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation: Relaxing with a Smile into Living Presence (15 min) Jul 13, 2017

Meditation: Relaxing with a Smile into Living Presence (15 min) - This meditation guides us to awaken to sensation using the image of a smile and scanning through the body. We then open to sound and to the entire changing flow of experience. When we connect with the changing flow of sensations, feelings and sounds, we also discover the formless awareness that is our Source… and home. We end with a prayer that includes our own being and all beings.

From the meditation closing:

Sometimes the inquiry, “Am I dreaming?” can help to clarify both the trance and the veils that we're hiding behind and what's actually here. “Am I dreaming?” Just to sense the thoughts, stories, commentary that keeps us one step removed from this vibrant mystery that's right here. And then relax back again. Moment to moment - relaxing with the life that's right here ...this breath ...these feelings ...these sensations ...this life.

In these last few minutes, you might ask yourself, “Can I let go just a little bit more?” Let go of the thoughts, the veils of stories. The tension in the body - let go, relax, and let this life live through you.

We close by bringing attention to the heart. Offering your heart, whatever blessing, saying, or wish most resonates in this moment.

Sense that this world, this life, is part of your heart.

Offering those around you, those close to you in your life, and all beings, your blessings.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation: Entering the Wilderness (2017-07-05) (6 min) Jul 07, 2017

Meditation: Entering the Wilderness (2017-07-05) - We open to our full naturalness as we awaken the senses. This brief meditation guides us to open all the sense gates, and in that openness, experience the pure aliveness and awareness that is our essence.

NOTE: listen to the full talk: Part 2: Refuge in the Wilderness – Coming Home to Embodied Presence

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Part 2: Refuge in the Wilderness - Coming Home to Embodied Presence Jul 06, 2017

Part 2: Refuge in the Wilderness – Coming Home to Embodied Presence - When we live from our mental control towers, we are in a trance that confines our life. These two talks look at the primary ways we are conditioned to leave embodied presence, and the consequence of unlived life—being cut off from our vitality, intelligence and compassion. We then explore the teachings and practices that guide us to reconnect to our senses, and the sacred presence that underlies all lived experience.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Part 1: Refuge in the Wilderness - Coming Home to Embodied Presence (2017-06-28) Jun 30, 2017

Part 1: Refuge in the Wilderness - Coming Home to Embodied Presence (2017-06-28) - When we live from our mental control towers, we are in a trance that confines our life. These two talks look at the primary ways we are conditioned to leave embodied presence, and the consequence of unlived life—being cut off from our vitality, intelligence and compassion. We then explore the teachings and practices that guide us to reconnect to our senses, and the sacred presence that underlies all lived experience.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation: Opening to Full Aliveness (2017-06-28) Jun 29, 2017

Meditation: Opening to Full Aliveness (2017-06-28) - This meditation includes relaxing and awakening through the body, widening the lens to include sound and then letting life live through us, receiving all that arises in open awareness.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Stories that Imprison our Heart - Part 2 (2017-06-21) Jun 23, 2017

Stories that Imprison our Heart - Part 2 (2017-06-21) - Our suffering arises from fear-based stories that are often outside our awareness. These include stories of our deficiency or importance, of being a victim, of being unseen or unloved, of facing failure or rejection. This is true collectively too. We have shared stories of bad “others” that fuel wars, shared stories of the value of continued growth in consumption and production that destroy our earth, shared stories of our human right to enslave and violate other animals. We have the capacity to bring the stories that separate and imprison us into the light of awareness, and with great compassion, loosen their grip. These two talks look at the ways fear-based stories create suffering, and how awakening from them reveals the freedom of our true, and universal, belonging.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation: Arriving in Embodied Presence (retreat) (2017-04-30) Jun 22, 2017

Meditation: Arriving in Embodied Presence -

This guided meditation instruction includes: 1 - Arriving in embodied presence with senses awake, 2 - Further collecting the attention using a primary anchor or base, and 3 - Continuing to collect around an anchor or widening to rest in open, natural awareness - in presence with what is.

Given as part of the morning guided meditation Instruction on the Spring 2017 IMCW Retreat.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Stories that Imprison our Heart - Part 1 (2017-06-14) Jun 17, 2017

Stories that Imprison our Heart - Part 1 (2017-06-14) - Our suffering arises from fear-based stories that are often outside our awareness. These include stories of our deficiency or importance, of being a victim, of being unseen or unloved, of facing failure or rejection. This is true collectively too. We have shared stories of bad “others” that fuel wars, shared stories of the value of continued growth in consumption and production that destroy our earth, shared stories of our human right to enslave and violate other animals. We have the capacity to bring the stories that separate and imprison us into the light of awareness, and with great compassion, loosen their grip. These two talks look at the ways fear-based stories create suffering, and how awakening from them reveals the freedom of our true, and universal, belonging.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation: Homecoming to Our Life Breath (2017-06-14) Jun 15, 2017

Meditation: Homecoming to Our Life Breath - Perhaps the most universal place to collect and deepen attention is the breath. This meditation begins with an intentional breath that calms the nervous system, and then opens to a clear, intimate presence with our natural breathing. With breath as our home base, we practice returning again and again when the mind becomes distracted. As presence grows, we can let the breath be in the foreground, and include whatever waves of life come and go. This brings a quiet mind, and a peaceful, happy heart.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Happiness is Possible: De-conditioning the Negativity Bias – Part 2 (2017-06-07) Jun 09, 2017

Happiness is Possible: De-conditioning the Negativity Bias – Part 2 - There is an inner freedom that expresses as happiness and peace, and it is accessible when we arrive in openhearted presence. As the Buddha said, “If it were not possible to find liberation, I would not teach about it.” In this two part talk, we will look at the conditioning that blocks happiness and two primary pathways of practice that evolve our consciousness and free our hearts.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation: Home to Awake Awareness (2017-06-07) Jun 08, 2017

Meditation: Home to Awake Awareness - This guided practice establishes a kind, friendly attention with the image and felt sense of a smile, and evokes an embodied presence. We open to the awake awareness that is listening to and feeling the changing sounds and sensations; and then the awake awareness that experiences our own heart. We end with a lovingkindness prayer for ourself and the world.

Free download of Tara's 10 min meditation: "Mindful Breathing: Finding Calm and Ease" when you join her email list.

Happiness is Possible: De-conditioning the Negativity Bias - Part 1 (2017-05-31) Jun 02, 2017

Happiness is Possible: De-conditioning the Negativity Bias - Part 1 - There is an inner freedom that expresses as happiness and peace, and it is accessible when we arrive in openhearted presence. As the Buddha said, “If it were not possible to find liberation I would not teach about it.” In this two part talk, we will look at the conditioning that blocks happiness and two primary pathways of practice that evolve our consciousness and free our hearts.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation: The Breath - Portal to Presence (2017-05-31) Jun 01, 2017

Meditation: The Breath - Portal to Presence - We start with breathing mindfully to collect and calm the body and mind. Then the attention opens to include the changing flow in a spacious natural presence.

Instruction and Question-Response during Retreat (2017-05-02) May 28, 2017

Instruction and Question-Response during Retreat (2017-05-02) - Topics include individualizing your meditation practice, working with the "tangles," forgiveness practice, and using the "nurturing" of RAIN.

Let us know if you find this kind of short clip interesting and helpful!

The Reality of Change: Embracing this Living Dying World (2017-05-24) May 26, 2017

The Reality of Change: Embracing this Living Dying World (2017-05-24) - The Reality of Change: Embracing this Living Dying World - Our true refuge is reality - only by opening to “things as they are" do we find true peace and freedom. This talk explores impermanence - a key feature of reality. We look at our habits of resisting change - including loss and death, the practices that awaken and open us, and the gifts of letting go into the ever-changing river of experience.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation: Opening to the River of Aliveness (2017-05-24) May 25, 2017

Meditation: Opening to the River of Aliveness (2017-05-24) - This meditation guides us to awaken to sensation using the image of a smile and scanning through the body. We then open to sound and to the entire changing flow of experience. When we connect with the changing flow of sensations, feelings and sounds, we also discover the formless awareness that is our Source… and home.

Radical-Compassion - Part 2 (2017-05-10) May 19, 2017

Radical-Compassion - Part 2 (2017-05-10) - Compassion is the medicine we most need as individuals and a species to heal suffering and free our spirits. The essence of compassion for ourselves and others – what I call Radical Compassion – has three key elements: it is an embodied experience (a felt sense of tenderness), it is inclusive all beings, and it naturally moves us to act from a caring heart. This two-part talk explores the alchemy of Radical Compassion and guides us in awakening this intrinsic expression of our evolutionary potential.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Instruction & Meditation: A Forgiving Heart (from retreat) (2017-05-02) May 18, 2017

Instruction & Meditation: A Forgiving Heart (2017-05-02) - A forgiving heart clears the way for giving and receiving love freely. This talk and meditation explores where we have become habituated in blame towards ourselves and others, and a classic three part reflection that can loosen and release the armoring around our hearts. (a guided heart meditation at the 2017 IMCW Spring Retreat)

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Radical Compassion - Part 1 (retreat talk) (2017-04-30) May 12, 2017

Radical Compassion - Part 1 (retreat talk) (2017-04-30) - Compassion is the medicine we most need as individuals and a species to heal suffering and free our spirits. The essence of compassion for ourselves and others - what I call Radical Compassion - has three key elements: it is an embodied experience (a felt sense of tenderness), it is inclusive all beings, and it naturally moves us to act from a caring heart. This two-part talk explores the alchemy of Radical Compassion and guides us in awakening this intrinsic expression of our evolutionary potential.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation: Breathing Our Way to Peace and Freedom (2017-05-10) May 11, 2017

Meditation: Breathing Our Way to Peace and Freedom (2017-05-10) - This meditation guides us in collecting attention with an intentional long deep breath, and awakening a full relaxed presence as the breath resumes in its natural rhythm. Resting fully in this presence is the gateway to deep peace and inner freedom.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Relaxing the Over-Controller - Part 2 (2017-05-03) (retreat talk) May 06, 2017

Relaxing the Over-Controller - Part 2 (2017-05-03) (retreat talk) - We all have conditioning to do what we can to protect and promote our wellbeing. Our suffering arises to the degree that our life and identity become organized around controlling our experience. These two talks look at the emergence of the fear based “over-controller,” and explore a wise way of witnessing the suffering that comes with over-controlling, and awareness practices that naturally relax and awaken us to our whole and natural Being.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation: Know That You're Here, Right Here (2017-04-29) May 03, 2017

Meditation: Know That You're Here, Right Here (2017-04-29) - Given the first morning of the 2017 IMCW Spring Retreat, this meditation guides you through a body scan, opens to sounds, then expands to the body as a field of sensation. With no closing bells, it can serve as a way to start a longer meditation sit, or to start your journey for the day.

Relaxing the Over-Controller - Part 1 (2017-04-26) Apr 28, 2017

Relaxing the Over-Controller - Part 1 (2017-04-26) - We all have conditioning to do what we can to protect and promote our wellbeing. Our suffering arises to the degree that our life and identity become organized around controlling our experience. These two talks look at the emergence of the fear based “over-controller," and explore a wise way of witnessing the suffering that comes with over-controlling, and awareness practices that naturally relax and awaken us to our whole and natural Being.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation: The Center of Now (2017-04-26) Apr 27, 2017

Meditation: The Center of Now (2017-04-26) - This meditation awakens our senses and then guides us to rest in the changing flow of experience. When the mind drifts, we are invited to relax back into full living presence, into that Beingness that is the center of now.

Free download of Tara's 10 min meditation: "Mindful Breathing: Finding Calm and Ease" when you join her email list.

Ask the Friend for Love Apr 21, 2017

Ask the Friend for Love - Prayer, when cultivated consciously, energizes and guides us on the spiritual path. This talk investigates the difference between wanting, with its narrow fixation, and the prayer that arises out of our deep heart’s longing. We explore how living prayer, the prayer that arises from consciously inhabiting longing, can carry us home to loving presence. As John O’Donahue writes, prayer is the bridge between longing and belonging.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation: The Heartspace That is Home Apr 20, 2017

Meditation: The Heartspace That is Home - "No matter how far you've wandered, this heartspace - this awake tender awareness - is only a half-breath of remembrance away."

This meditation awakens attention to the space of awareness. It is a favorite from 2015.

Free download of Tara's 10 min meditation: "Mindful Breathing: Finding Calm and Ease" when you join her email list.

Sure Heart's Release Apr 15, 2017

Sure Heart's Release - (a favorite from 2015) - The pathway to our awakened heart includes deep recognition of our barriers to love, and as we open, the courage to express our love. This talk includes a reflection and practice that can support us in inhabiting our full capacity for loving presence.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Guided Heart Meditation: Loving Presence - from Retreat Apr 13, 2017

Guided Heart Meditation: Loving Presence - This meditation introduces the loving-kindness (metta) heart practice. After brief instruction, it begins with scanning the body, filling it gradually with the image of a smile. The meditation continues with a loving-kindness practice - sensing loving presence of someone easy to love, our own being, then offering care to others. (from 2015 fall IMCW weeklong silent retreat)

Soul Recognition: The Practice of Namaste (2017-04-05) Apr 07, 2017

Soul Recognition: The Practice of Namaste (2017-04-05) - In our daily trance we experience ourselves and others through a filter of wants, fears, stories and beliefs. Drawing on an engaging story from the legends of King Arthur, this talk explores how we can see past this conditioning by learning to see - in ourselves and others - vulnerability, goodness and awareness itself. Sometimes called “soul recognition,” this seeing is the essence of “Namaste” - realizing and honoring the sacredness that shines through all beings.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation: Awakening through the Inner Body (2017-04-05) Apr 07, 2017

Meditation: Awakening through the Inner Body (2017-04-05) - When we attune to the inner body, we discover a field of energy and aliveness that is the portal to pure presence. This meditation guides our attention to the inner body, opens to the play of sound and invites us to rest in the awake awareness that includes and is the grounds of this living world.

Free download of Tara's 10 min meditation: "Mindful Breathing: Finding Calm and Ease" when you join her email list.

Healing Addiction: De-conditioning the Hungry Ghosts (2017-03-22) Mar 31, 2017

Healing Addiction: De-conditioning the Hungry Ghosts (2017-03-22) - This talk examines the suffering that arises when due to unmet needs for love and safety, our desire becomes narrowed and fixated on substitute gratifications. We then explore how we can bring mindfulness and self-compassion to the habits of obsessing, over-consuming and hurting ourselves and others that keep us from true happiness, connectedness and peace.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation: Loving Presence - with smile body scan (2017-03-29) Mar 30, 2017

Meditation: Loving Presence - with smile body scan (2017-03-29) - This guided meditation helps cultivate the heartspace that can hold our life with tenderness and grace. We begin by using the image and felt sense of a smile in a body scan, and then open to the spacious presence that includes the changing moment to moment flow of experience. The meditation closes with a few minutes of offering loving blessings to our inner life, dear ones in need and all beings.

Free download of Tara's 10 min meditation: “Mindful Breathing: Finding Calm and Ease” when you join her email list.

Taking "The Exquisite Risk:" An Undefended Heart (2017-03-22) Mar 24, 2017

Taking "The Exquisite Risk”: An Undefended Heart (2017-03-22) - Poet Mark Nepo uses the phrase “exquisite risk” to describe our willingness to be fully alive, open, available, living true to our heart. This talk explores the challenges and blessings of taking the exquisite risk, both in becoming more intimate with our inner life, and in engaging with others from full authenticity.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation: Relaxing Back into Full Presence (2017-03-22) Mar 24, 2017

Meditation: Relaxing Back into Full Presence (2017-03-22) - This guided practice begins with a conscious breath that relaxes the body and mind, and then a body scan to awaken to the aliveness of the present moment. We then open into the natural awareness that includes the changing flow of sounds, feelings and sensations, and practice “relaxing back” when the mind gets lost in thought.

Free download of Tara's 10 min meditation: Mindful Breathing: Finding Calm and Ease when you join her email list.

Reflection - The Compass of Our Heart (2017-03-15) Mar 19, 2017

Reflection - The Compass of Our Heart (2017-03-15) - When we are remembering our deepest intention in any situation, our lives become aligned, and we can act with grace, compassion and wisdom. These reflections will help you remember your intention when caught in conflict, and in a larger way, allow the truth of impermanence to carry you into the very source of longing - loving awareness itself. NOTE: from the end of "Realizing Your Deepest Desires" - full talk podcasted and at: https://www.tarabrach.com/realizing-deepest-desires/.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Realizing Your Deepest Desires (2017-03-15) Mar 17, 2017

Realizing Your Deepest Desires (2017-03-15) - This talk differentiates between egoic intentions (driven by wants and fears), and our true aspiration (deepest desires) to manifest our full potential for awake awareness and love. We explore ways to realize and open to our deepest desires when we are stuck in self-promotion, grasping and conflict, so that our aspiration becomes a compass of the heart that can guide us in living with wisdom and compassion.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation: Letting Thought Clouds Come and Go (2017-03-15) Mar 17, 2017

Meditation - Letting Thought Clouds Come and Go (2017-03-15) - This meditation guides us through a body scan and into a relaxed, open presence. When we realize we are lost in a thought cloud, our practice is to relax open, listening to and feeling the life of the present moment. We are training to become increasingly aware of the gap between thoughts, the space where the light of awareness shines through.

Healing Trauma: The Light Shines Through the Broken Places Mar 10, 2017

Healing Trauma: The Light Shines Through the Broken Places (2017-03-08) - Most of us have encountered trauma either in our own direct experience or with someone in our immediate circle. This talk examines the shame and suffering that arise from trauma and how meditation practices can support a path to full spiritual healing. We focus on practices that help us access a sense of love and safety, and then increase our capacity to bring presence to the unprocessed, unlived life in the body. (Note: For many who suffer from PTSD, therapy is invaluable and these practices are not considered as a substitute.)

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation - Getting Lost and Coming Back Here (2017-03-08) Mar 09, 2017

Meditation: Getting Lost and Coming Back Here (2017-03-08) - This meditation establishes a sense of presence, of being Here, through a body scan and awakening the senses. We then notice when we’re lost and relax back into the wakeful stillness - the Hereness - that is our true home. Our practice concludes with the beautiful poem “Lost” by David Wagoner.

Free download of Tara’s 10 min meditation: “Mindful Breathing: Finding Calm and Ease” when you join her email list.

Listening to the Song - Part 2 (2017-03-01) Mar 04, 2017

Listening to the Song - Part 2 (2017-03-01) - Listening is more than a communications skill, it is a capacity that awakens our awareness. As we learn to listen inwardly, we begin to understand and care for the life that is here. And as we listen to others, that same intimacy emerges. In this two-part series we examine the blocks to listening and the practices that cultivate this essential domain of human potential. Our focus is both on the transformational power of listening in our personal lives, and also the necessity for deep listening if we are to bring healing to our wider society.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation: A Sky-Like Mind (2017-03-01) Mar 02, 2017

Meditation: A Sky-Like Mind (2017-03-01) - This meditation begins with listening to sounds as a portal to spacious awareness. In addition to guiding attention to naturally occurring sounds, Tara plays chimes and gongs to deepen the experience of receptivity and openness. The meditation progresses to include all experience - sounds, sensations, thoughts, feelings - in the vast, transparent, timeless space of awareness.

Free download of Tara’s 10 min meditation: “Mindful Breathing: Finding Calm and Ease” when you join her email list.

Listening to the Song - Part 1 (2017-02-22) Feb 24, 2017

Listening to the Song - Part 1 (2017-02-22) - Listening is more than a communications skill, it is a capacity that awakens our awareness. As we learn to listen inwardly, we begin to understand and care for the life that is here. And as we listen to others, that same intimacy emerges. In this two-part series we examine the blocks to listening and the practices that cultivate this essential domain of human potential. Our focus is both on the transformational power of listening in our personal lives, and also the necessity for deep listening if we are to bring healing to our wider society.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Reflection: Heart Wisdom of Your Future Self Feb 24, 2017

Reflection: Heart Wisdom of Your Future Self - By connecting with your future self, this reflection guides you in accessing the deep wisdom and unconditional love of your own awakening heart.

"I returned to the river. I returned to the mountains. I begged - I begged to wed every object and creature. And when they accepted, God was ever present in my arms. And He did not say, 'Where have you been?' For then I knew my soul – every soul – has always held him."

excerpted from: When I Was the Forest – Meister Eckhart

https://thevalueofsparrows.com/2012/12/05/poetry-meister-eckhart/

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Being Truthful (2017-02-15) Feb 17, 2017

Being Truthful (2017-02-15) - The grounds of happiness, loving relationships and a just and flourishing society is honesty. And yet our current times are characterized by a plethora of deception - both societally, and often in more subtle ways, in our personal lives. This talk examines the deep conditioning we have to deceive others, and to avoid facing and acknowledging our own vulnerability. We then explore how we can commit ourselves to deepening our truth telling, and in so doing, creating a climate of integrity and trust that can lead to a more compassionate world.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation - Sitting Like a Mountain (2017-02-15) Feb 16, 2017

Meditation - Sitting Like a Mountain (2017-02-15) - Meditation can empower us as we learn to access our potential for stability, strength and openness. This meditation calls on the image of a mountain as we awaken our body and mind to a full, vibrant presence. Meditation closes with a metta prayer.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Trusting Our Awakening Heart (2017-02-08) Feb 11, 2017

Trusting Our Awakening Heart (2017-02-08) - The more we trust that our awareness and heart are awakening, the more we find ease, grace and true empowerment in our lives. This talk explores two pathways of deepening our sense of belonging and trust: direct presence with the pain of separation, and turning toward the loving presence that is increasingly manifesting through these human forms.

"...we need people who are able to respond from the heart - not from an angry or egoic reactivity, but from real wisdom."

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation: At Home in the Moment (2017-02-08) Feb 09, 2017

Meditation: At Home in the Moment (2017-02-08) - This meditation cultivates a gentle, wakeful presence in the body, with the “smile down” and then guides us to resting in a home base of sensations or the breath. We then open to whatever arises with a clear and inclusive attention, saying Yes to the life that is here.

Love, and Death - Retreat Talk (2016-12-29) Feb 03, 2017

Love, and Death - Retreat Talk (2016-12-29) - To live our lives fully, we need to embrace the natural unfolding of birthing and dying. Yet we are deeply conditioned to resist loss, to pull away from fear and grief. Through a powerful Inuit story shared by Clarissa Estes, this talk explores how our practices of presence can open us to what we avoid, and free us to love without holding back.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Retreat Meditation: A Liberating Awareness - Embodying Full Presence (2016-12-30) Feb 02, 2017

Retreat Meditation: A Liberating Awareness - Embodying Full Presence (2016-12-30) - This vipassana meditation establishes fertile grounds for presence by gladdening the mind, a mindful body scan, collecting the attention and including all that arises in a kind, clear presence.

Darkness of the Womb - Four Key Steps in Transforming Suffering (2017-01-25) Jan 27, 2017

Darkness of the Womb - Four Key Steps in Transforming Suffering (2017-01-25) - We can either repeat old fear based patterns, or our suffering can awaken us to a deeper wisdom and greater love. This talk explores four principles in relating to difficulty that move us towards healing and freedom - both personally and as a society.

Meditation - The Return to Presence: Rest Your Mind In What Is (2017-01-25) Jan 26, 2017

Meditation - The Return to Presence: Rest Your Mind In What Is (2017-01-25) - It’s natural that our attention wanders, and the more we relax back, the more that becomes our habit…returning to presence. This meditation opens with conscious breathing and awakening through the body. We then rest in open awareness, and when the attention drifts, guide ourselves to rest our minds, over and over, in the aliveness and presence that is right here.

Free download of Tara’s 10 min meditation: “Mindful Breathing: Finding Calm and Ease” when you join her email list.

Your Awake Heart Is Calling You (2017-01-18) Jan 21, 2017

Your Awake Heart Is Calling You (2017-01-18) - As individuals and societies, we are pulled by both the insecurity of our evolutionary past, and by our awake heart, our capacity for mindfulness and compassion. This talk explores the ways we can listen to and respond to the call of our awake heart, by training ourselves to open to vulnerability - our own and others - and widen the circles of compassion.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation: Awakening Compassion (2016-11-23) Jan 20, 2017

Meditation: Awakening Compassion with Tonglen - Our hearts awaken as we let ourselves be touched by the suffering within and around us. They shine as we respond with care to what has touched us. This meditation uses the breath to guide us in letting in and contacting suffering, and offering out our love. With practice this meditation enables us to realize the truth of our connectedness and the luminous love that is intrinsic to awareness.

Meditation: A Witnessing, Kind Presence (2017-01-18) Jan 20, 2017

Meditation: A Witnessing, Kind Presence (2017-01-18) - Starting with scanning through the body and awakening the senses, we then rest in presence, with the breath as a home base. The meditation invites an openness to whatever arises, and a gentle kind attention if we encounter physical or emotional pain. We end with a prayer that includes our own being and all beings.

Free download of Tara’s 10 min meditation: “Mindful Breathing: Finding Calm and Ease” when you join her email list.

Dissolving Trance with RAIN (2017-01-11) Jan 14, 2017

Dissolving Trance with RAIN (2017-01-11) - One of the pervasive expressions of trance is identifying with a limited and separate sense of self. This talk contrasts the self-trance to our intrinsically open, awake and loving awareness. We then explore how the mindfulness and self-compassion in the RAIN practice can directly dissolve trance and reconnect us to our true nature.

Free download of Tara’s 10 min meditation: “Mindful Breathing: Finding Calm and Ease” when you join her email list.

Meditation: Cultivating a Relaxed Attention (2017-01-11) Jan 13, 2017

Meditation: Cultivating a Relaxed Attention (2017-01-11) - In this meditation we engage a relaxed and alert attention by scanning through the body, opening to sound, and resting in the awareness that includes all the senses. This presence is stabilized with the use of a home base, for many the breath, and reminders to “relax back” when the mind naturally drifts.

Free download of Tara’s 10 min meditation: “Mindful Breathing: Finding Calm and Ease” when you join her email list.

Heart Meditation: Awakening Loving Presence (2016-12-31) Jan 12, 2017

Heart Meditation: Awakening Loving Presence (2016-12-31) ~ We each have an intrinsic capacity for loving presence, and there are powerful ways of paying attention that bring this potential alive. This meditation uses the image and felt sense of a smile to bring a relaxed receptivity to the body. We then engage with our future self (our Being when our heart is fully awake) and explore what it means to embody the fullness of that wisdom and love.

(given on the last afternoon of the 2016 IMCW 5-day New Year's silent retreat)

Refuge in Truth, Love and Awareness (2017-01-04) Jan 07, 2017

Refuge in Truth, Love and Awareness (2017-01-04) - The three archetypal refuges of truth, love and awareness are interweaving pathways home found in most spiritual traditions. This talk looks at our habitual pursuit of substitutes to feel happy, and reflects on how we awaken through each true refuge. The talk ends with a living ritual anyone can participate in that helps us remember these refuges as we move through our lives.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation: Quieting the Mind (2017-01-04) Jan 05, 2017

Meditation: Quieting the Mind (2017-01-04) - We open with a reading on silence, and then relax our bodies, calm our minds and rest in the inflow and outflow of the breath. This simple meditation on relaxing with the breath ends with a verse on the blessings of quieting our mind.

Free download of Tara’s 10 min meditation: “Mindful Breathing: Finding Calm and Ease” when you join her email list.

Don't Know Mind (a talk from June 10, 2009) Dec 30, 2016

Don't Know Mind - Thoughts, and more broadly, conceptual knowledge, cannot lead to the direct realization of truth, of reality. While thoughts are an essential part of surviving and thriving, spiritual awakening only becomes possible when we step out of the trance of thinking. This talk invites listeners into the radical openness and freedom of not-knowing. (a favorite from 2009-06-10)

Meditation: A Listening Presence with Smile Body Scan (2016-11-10) Dec 29, 2016

Meditation: A Listening Presence with Smile Body Scan (2016-11-10) - Listening to sounds is a powerful way to quiet the thinking mind and connect with the natural openness of awareness. This meditation emphasizes the anchor of listening, and guides us to relax through our bodies, filling them with the image of a smile. In this receptivity we find a homecoming to full presence and peace.

Question and Response: Heart Practices - (2016-11-05) Dec 27, 2016

Question and Response: Heart Practices - (2016-11-05) - follow-up to the guided heart practice: Taking in the Goodness.

Tara replies to questions from retreatants.

~ from the IMCW Fall retreat

Heart Meditation with Instructions: Taking in the Goodness (2016-11-05) Dec 27, 2016

Heart Meditation with Instructions: Taking in the Goodness (2016-11-05) - previously published without lead-in instructions. ~ from the IMCW Fall retreat

Rumi said, “Whenever some kindness comes to you, turn that way – toward the source of kindness.”

This meditation guides us to look for the source of loving and to turn in that direction. It begins with a lovingkindness practice that spreads the image of a smile into the body, then continues with a practice of seeing the goodness of ourselves and others.

“What’s it like when you communicate your appreciation of goodness to another person?”

The Revolution of Tenderness - Part 2 (2016-12-21) Dec 24, 2016

The Revolution of Tenderness - Part 2 (2016-12-21) - These two talks explore our capacity to be tender - sensitive and responsive to ourselves and others. This capacity marks a radical evolutionary shift from a self-centered existence shaped by fear, to a life lived from the realization of our collective belonging and the preciousness of all life. The talks examine the conditioning that inclines us toward dissociation and emotional reactivity, and the practices of presence that evolve our heart and awareness.

Meditation: Breathing into Presence (2016-12-21) Dec 22, 2016

Meditation: Breathing into Presence (2016-12-21) - The breath can be our gateway into the boundless awareness that holds all life. This meditation begins with a breath that calms our nervous system, and then invites a relaxed presence with the breath and sensation that open us to the “universe breathing.” Resting in awareness, we realize the wakefulness, peace and vitality of pure presence. "The whole universe is the body breathing..."

Free download of Tara’s 10 min meditation: “Mindful Breathing: Finding Calm and Ease” when you join her email list.

The Revolution of Tenderness - Part 1 (2016-12-14) Dec 17, 2016

The Revolution of Tenderness - Part 1 (2016-12-14) - These two talks explore our capacity to be tender - sensitive and responsive to ourselves and others. This capacity marks a radical evolutionary shift from a self-centered existence shaped by fear, to a life lived from the realization of our collective belonging and the preciousness of all life. The talks examine the conditioning that inclines us toward dissociation and emotional reactivity, and the practices of presence that evolve our heart and awareness.

from Tara’s talk: Pope Francis invites us to “live the revolution of tenderness,” which is expressed through closeness, compassion and service...

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation - Awake Awareness is our Home (2016-12-14) Dec 16, 2016

Meditation - Awake Awareness is our Home (2016-12-14) - This meditation guides us in awakening our awareness by opening to all our senses and recognizing the alert presence that is always, already here. By relaxing back into the presence over and over, we become familiar with the reality that is truly our home.

Free download of Tara’s 10 min meditation: “Mindful Breathing: Finding Calm and Ease” when you join her email list.

Spiritual Reparenting (2016-12-07) Dec 10, 2016

Spiritual Reparenting (2016-12-07) - When we are not sufficiently nurtured in childhood, we are inclined toward anxiety, depression, addiction and other forms of suffering. In a deep way, we do not feel at home with others, and are disconnected from our own body, heart and spirit. This talk explores how meditation offers "spiritual reparenting” as we learn to bring interest, understanding and love to our own inner vulnerability. This process of healing extends to our relationships with others and our larger society - by reaching out to widening circles with interest and care, we bring increasing harmony and peace to our world.

"How do we love ourselves into healing?"

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation - Relaxing Back into Living Presence Dec 09, 2016

Meditation - Relaxing Back into Living Presence (2016-12-07) - When we are lost in thoughts our mind contracts, our body tightens and we disconnect from true openheartedness. The pathway home is through “relaxing back” and reopening our attention to our senses, relaxing through our body, and gently contacting the felt sense in our heart. By repeatedly relaxing back, we become increasingly familiar with the vibrancy, tenderness and openness of true presence.

Free download of Tara’s 10 min meditation: “Mindful Breathing: Finding Calm and Ease” when you join her email list.

Trusting the Gold (retreat talk) Dec 02, 2016

Trusting the Gold (retreat talk)(2016-11-10) - When we are unaware of the emotions and beliefs that shape our experience, we are in a trance characterized by an identity as a separate, incomplete self. Trance obscures the awareness and love that is our deepest essence. This talk explores the two key pathways of awakening from trance and recognizing and trusting the gold of our true nature.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Heart Meditation: Taking in the Goodness (retreat) Dec 02, 2016

Heart Meditation: Taking in the Goodness (2016-11-05) (from the IMCW Fall Retreat) - Rumi said, “Whenever some kindness comes to you, turn that way – toward the source of kindness." This meditation guides us to look for the source of loving and to turn in that direction. It begins with a lovingkindness practice that spreads the image of a smile into the body, then continues with a practice of seeing the goodness of ourselves and others. “What’s it like when you communicate your appreciation of goodness to another person?”

Part 2 - "Play a Greater Part" - Bodhisattva for our Times Nov 25, 2016

"Play a Greater Part" - Bodhisattva for our Times - Part 2 (2016-11-23) - During scary and uncertain times, the habitual reflex is to try to find ground by creating stories about what’s happening and hardening into us-them blame. This only perpetuates the aggression and violence that is so prevalent in our societies. These two talks are a reflection on how we as awakening bodhisattvas can evolve our consciousness in a way that serves authentic societal healing and transformation.

“Though I do not expect a plant to spring up where no seed has been, I have great faith in a seed. Convince me you have a seed there, and I am prepared to expect wonders.” ~ Thoreau

NOTE: Part 2 includes a Tonglen meditation near the end of the talk.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation: Vipassana - 20 min - Opening Our Hearts to Life as It Is Nov 24, 2016

Meditation: Vipassana - 20 min - Opening Our Hearts to Life as It Is (2016-11-23) - This meditation awakens the senses with a mindful scanning of the body, establishes an anchor for presence, and invites us to arrive again and again, deepening the pathway home. When difficult or intense experience arises, the practice is to learn to open to what is here with a clear, allowing and kind attention. "...widen your heart and mind so you sense your hand is on the heart of the world. Sensing whatever prayer for the world most resonates at this moment and offering it..."

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

"Play a Greater Part" - Bodhisattva for Our Times - Pt1 (2016-11-16) Nov 18, 2016

"Play a Greater Part" - Bodhisattva for Our Times - Pt1 (2016-11-16) - During scary and uncertain times, the habitual reflex is to try to find ground by creating stories about what’s happening and hardening into us-them blame. This only perpetuates the aggression and violence that is so prevalent in our societies. These two talks are a reflection on how we as awakening bodhisattvas can evolve our consciousness in a way that serves authentic societal healing and transformation.

"There is no power for change greater than a community discovering what it cares about." - Margaret Wheatley

"From bitter searching of the heart, Quickened with passion and with pain We rise to play a greater part. ..." ~ Leonard Cohen

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation: Vipassana (Mindfulness or Insight) Nov 17, 2016

Meditation: Vipassana (Mindfulness or Insight) - A gift of meditation is learning to open to life just how it is, with awake awareness. This meditation guides us in establishing an embodied presence, and collecting the attention with mindfulness of the breath. We then open the attention to whatever is predominant, and rest in an open, engaged and receptive presence.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

The Wings of Awakening - Self-Honesty and Love (retreat talk) (2016-11-06) Nov 12, 2016

The Wings of Awakening - Self-Honesty and Love (retreat talk) (2016-11-06) - We evolve our consciousness by bringing a clear and kind attention to the tangles of suffering. This talk explores how the "second arrow" of self-judgment imprisons us in emotional reactivity, and the pathways of awakening awareness that reconnect us with our full human potential.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Starting a Meditation - with No Bell at the End (2016-11-05) Nov 10, 2016

Starting a Meditation - and No Bell at the End (2016-11-05) - Given in the early morning on the first day of retreat, this recording can settle you into a meditation of any length. There is no bell at the end, so you can make your session as long or short as you wish.

Awakening Consciousness in Shadowy Times - Part 2 (2016-11-02) Nov 04, 2016

Awakening Consciousness in Shadowy Times - Part 2 - The shadow is the unfaced, unlived fears and emotional pain in our individual and collective psyche. When not brought into awareness it expresses as “no” - the anger, aggression, hopelessness and cynicism that is resisting and opposing life. In this talk we explore how to evolve our consciousness by bringing “yes” - clarity and loving acceptance - to the parts of our being we have been unwilling to feel. This loving “yes” reconnects us to our basic goodness and helps others do the same.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation: Cultivating a Mindful Awareness (2016-11-02) Nov 03, 2016

Meditation: Cultivating a Mindful Awareness (2016-11-02) - Mindfulness means paying attention on purpose to our moment to moment experience. This meditation invites us to collect our attention with the breath and use the breath as a home base for mindful presence. We then include whatever is predominant, recognizing and allowing the changing flow. The blessing of this practice is simple and beautiful: We are learning to be here for our life.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Awakening Consciousness in Shadowy Times (2016-10-26) Oct 29, 2016

Awakening Consciousness in Shadowy Times (2016-10-26) - On both individual and societal levels, suffering arises from the unseen, unfelt parts of our psyche. This talk looks at two interrelated ways of practice that help us to awaken from a limiting self-sense characterized by “something is wrong with me, or you.” In addition to guided meditations, our time includes sharing from participants.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation: Relaxing Back into Presence (2016-10-26) Oct 27, 2016

Meditation: Relaxing Back into Presence (2016-10-26) - When we are stressed, our body and mind contract, and energetically we resist the life in the present moment. This meditation helps de-condition the stress reaction by guiding us to relax open from thoughts, relax physical tension, and gently relax back over and over into living presence.

Free download of Tara’s 10 min meditation: “Mindful Breathing: Finding Calm and Ease” when you join her email list.

Reflection: Deepening the Truths We Share (2016-10-19) Oct 23, 2016

Reflection: Deepening the Truths We Share (2016-10-19) - Our capacity for love grows as we practice deepening the truths we share with each other. This short reflection offers guidance in how to bring your presence and heart to truth telling.

From "Seeking What’s True — Within Ourselves, Beyond our Self, With Each Other - Part 3"

Seeking What’s True – Within Ourselves, Beyond Our Self, With Each Other – (Part 3 of 3) Oct 22, 2016

Seeking What’s True – Within Ourselves, Beyond Our Self, With Each Other – (Part 2 of 3) (2016-10-19)- The ground of the spiritual path is realizing the nature of reality and living our lives from this awakened heart and mind. The first of this three-part series examines the process of radical self-honesty – the non-judgmental recognition of what’s going on inside us, and especially what has been outside of our conscious awareness. The second talk deepens this process with the practices of self-inquiry, looking directly into the one who is seeking truth. The third part explores the challenges and blessings of honesty in our relationships.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation: Relaxing Back and Saying Yes to the Moment (2016-10-19) Oct 21, 2016

Meditation: Relaxing Back and Saying Yes to the Moment - When we are stressed, our conditioning is to tighten our body, and tense against our moment to moment experience. This meditation is a powerful practice of de-conditioning this reactivity by learning to relax back into presence, and to respond to difficulty by saying “yes.” Through relaxing back and saying “yes,” we discover our heart’s capacity for unconditional love.

Meditation: Awake, Openhearted Awareness (2016-10-12) Oct 16, 2016

Meditation: Awake, Openhearted Awareness (2016-10-12) - This meditation guides us in recognizing the formless awareness that is always here, but often outside of conscious awareness. As awareness awakens to realize itself, we come home to our primordial nature—boundless, lucid, tender presence.

Listen to the full talk: Seeking What’s True — Within Ourselves, Beyond our Self, With Each Other (part 2) at: https://www.tarabrach.com/seeking-whats-true-pt2/

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Seeking What's True - Pt 2 of 3 (2016-10-12) Oct 15, 2016

Seeking What's True - Within Ourselves, Beyond our Self, With Each Other - Pt 2 of 3 (2016-10-12) - The ground of the spiritual path is realizing the nature of reality and living our lives from this awakened heart and mind. The first of this three part series examines the process of radical self-honesty - the non-judgmental recognition of what’s going on inside us, and especially what has been outside of our conscious awareness. The second talk deepens this process with the practices of self-inquiry, looking directly into the one who is seeking truth. The third part explores the challenges and blessings of honesty in our relationships.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation: Breath and Presence (2016-10-12) Oct 13, 2016

Meditation: Breath and Presence (2016-10-12) - For many, relaxing and attending to the movement of the breath provides a powerful anchor for presence. This guided meditation guides us in establishing the breath as a homebase, and then invites a clear and receptive attention to the changing waves of experience. This attention naturally unfolds into a full, tender, inclusive presence.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Seeking What's True - Pt 1 of 3 (2016-10-05) Oct 07, 2016

Seeking What's True: Within Ourselves, Beyond our Self, With Each Other - Pt 1 of 3 (2016-10-05) - The ground of the spiritual path is realizing the nature of reality and living our lives from this awakened heart and mind. The first of this three part series examines the process of radical self-honesty - the non-judgmental recognition of what’s going on inside us, and especially what has been outside of our conscious awareness. The second talk deepens this process with the practices of self-inquiry, looking directly into the one who is seeking truth. The third part explores the challenges and blessings of honesty in our relationships.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation - Receiving Life in Open Awareness (2016-10-05) Oct 06, 2016

Meditation: Receiving Life in Open Awareness (2016-10-05) - Our habit is to try to manage our experience from a mental control tower. This meditation awakens us through the body, and then invites us to rest in that vast presence that includes the changing flow of life. When we inhabit that openness, there’s a natural arising of peace, wakefulness and tenderness.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Spiritual Empowerment (2016-09-28) Oct 01, 2016

Spiritual Empowerment (2016-09-28) - When we are trying to control life, we are removed from presence, and act in ways that separate us from others and solidify the experience of being a insecure self. This talk explores our often unconscious strategies of seeking power, and the ways that mindful and compassionate awareness reconnects us to the source of true empowerment. When empowered we are tapped into the universal flow of love, wisdom and creativity, and are free to respond to life with “a heart that is ready for anything.”

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation: Receiving This Life in Awareness Sep 30, 2016

Meditation: Receiving This Life in Awareness (2016-09-28) - In our everyday life we are conditioned to feel that life is happening to us, or that we are the doer. This meditation deconditions that self-centrality by bringing attention to the aliveness in our bodies, and then opening to receive the entire play of sounds, sensations and feelings in awareness.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Realizing Our Undefended and Awakened Heart (retreat talk) Sep 23, 2016

Realizing Our Undefended and Awakened Heart (retreat talk) - It is our evolutionary and spiritual potential to release unnecessary habits of violating other tribes, individuals and unwanted parts of our own being. This talk explores three essential facets of the pathway to awakening: Leaving the fortress of aversive judgment, entering the wilderness of our embodied being and encircling this life with love.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation: Listening to and Feeling Our Life Sep 22, 2016

Meditation: Listening to and Feeling Our Life - Listening to sounds is a powerful way to quiet the thinking mind and connect with the natural openness of awareness. This meditation emphasizes the anchor of listening, and guides us to relax through our bodies and let sounds wash through us. In this receptivity we find a homecoming to full presence and peace.

The Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Working with Attachments and Addictions Sep 17, 2016

The Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Working with Attachments and Addictions - In Buddhist cosmology the torment of intense desire that can never really be satisfied is depicted as the realm of Hungry Ghosts. This talk explores the attachments and addictions that so many of us struggle with, and the teachings and practices that can liberate us.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Retreat - Morning Instruction - RAIN - Q and A (2016-08-27) Sep 16, 2016

Retreat - Morning Instruction - RAIN - Q and A (2016-08-27) - Tara gives morning instruction on retreat including R.A.I.N. (Recognize, Allow, Investigate, Nourish), then responds to questions from retreatants. Includes a question on resourcing when working with trauma. Recorded at the 2016 IMCW Women's Retreat.

Trusting Our Hearts Sep 09, 2016

Trusting Our Hearts (2016-04-06) - Trust in our basic goodness directly effects our capacity for intimacy with others, creativity and living fully. This talk explores the ways that our caregivers and culture undermine that trust, primarily by giving us messages that we are “not enough” or flawed. We then explore the meditation practices that remind us of our loving hearts, and of the goodness that expresses through others. This remembrance is what nourishes a liberating quality of trust in ourselves and in our life.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

On Deepening Our Meditation and Guided Meditation from Retreat Sep 07, 2016

Meditation Instructions and Guided Meditation from Retreat (2016-08-27) - Tara gives morning instructions about how to deepen our meditation, then leads us in a guided meditation.

Reflection: Your Future Self (2016-08-24) Sep 04, 2016

Reflection: Your Future Self - Accessing the Wisdom of Your Heart (2016-08-24) - When we are cut off from our natural love and wisdom, there’s a way home. This meditation guides us to a visit with our future self, and reveals a pathway to our awakened, evolved consciousness. The more we practice this pathway, the more we realize and trust the loving awareness that is always and already within us.

(from the full talk: https://www.tarabrach.com/your-future-self/)

Letting Go: The Freedom of Awake Awareness Sep 02, 2016

Letting Go: The Freedom of Awake Awareness (2016-08-31) - We know we need to let go of harmful habits like obsessive worry, blame and over consuming to experience true well-being, yet much of the time we are stuck and judge ourselves for being out of control. This talk explores what's so difficult about letting go and how we can't will it but we can be willing. We then explore the shift to awake awareness that enables a natural dissolution of clinging and resistance, and the deep peace and freedom of letting be.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation: Awakening Our Energy Body Sep 02, 2016

Meditation: Awakening Our Energy Body (2016-08-31) - This meditation scans the body and directly invites the awakening of key energy centers (chakras) in our body. We then rest in the openhearted awareness that includes this ever changing creative flow of aliveness.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Your Future Self: Turning Towards Your Awakened HeartMind Aug 27, 2016

Your Future Self: Turning Towards Your Awakened HeartMind (2016-08-24) - Our lives are shaped by our evolutionary past - the fears and wants that arise from a separate self sense - and the pull of our evolutionary potential - our awakened heart and mind. This talk explores the power of these pulls, and the teachings and reflections that make us most available and responsive to the calling of our future self.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation: Coming Home to Openhearted Awareness (2016-08-24) Aug 25, 2016

Meditation: Coming Home to Openhearted Awareness (2016-08-24) - In daily life we often leave ourselves, get lost in thoughts, and cut off from a direct, openhearted experience of our life. This meditation reconnects by opening all the senses, turning towards the awareness that is here, and resting in the awakened heartspace that includes and tenderly holds our moment to moment experience.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

How Hope Can Heal and Free Us - Part 2 (2016-08-17) Aug 20, 2016

How Hope Can Heal and Free Us - Part 2 (2016-08-17) - The mature expression of hope includes three elements: the aspiration for manifesting our full potential, a trust that this is possible, and an energy that engages to serve this unfolding. In this talk, we explore the importance of hope on the spiritual path, its shadow side, and how we can nourish hope through these three elements in a way that serves inner freedom and the healing of our world.

Reflection: "When you're feeling most alive and present, what's going on? What are you doing? What do you love? Take a moment to take one thing that you know you really love - imagine it - sense yourself engaged in what you love. What's going on inside you that makes this so precious? Sense who you are when you're doing what you love. Know that this is another pathway to belonging - to your heart - to aliveness. This is a pathway to living with the sense of possibility in every moment."

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation: Receiving Life in Open, Awake Awareness (2016-08-17) Aug 20, 2016

Meditation: Receiving Life in Open, Awake Awareness (2016-08-17) - This meditation awakens a receptive attention to the senses, starting with physical sensations and opening to sound. Then we sense how open awake awareness is receiving the moment to moment arising and passing life. In the final part of the practice, we explore how awake awareness is receiving the experience of our heart and offer blessings to our inner life and all living beings.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

How Hope Can Heal and Free Us - Part 1 (2016-08-10) Aug 12, 2016

How Hope Can Heal and Free Us - Part 1 (2016-08-10) - The mature expression of hope includes three elements: the aspiration for manifesting our full potential, a trust that this is possible, and an energy that engages to serve this unfolding. In this talk we explore the importance of hope on the spiritual path, its shadow side, and how we can nourish hope - through these three elements - in a way that serves inner freedom and the healing of our world.

“We close with a simple prayer this evening, that all beings might remember the depth of their longing – that deep aspiration for love, for aliveness. That all beings may trust the heart and consciousness that’s always and already here. And that we may live from the depth and fullness of who we are.” ~ Tara

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

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Meditation: Awakening Our Full Aliveness (2016-08-10) Aug 11, 2016

Meditation: Awakening Our Full Aliveness (2016-08-10) - We cut off from our aliveness when we are lost in thoughts and on auto pilot. This meditation arouses a receptivity to sensation from “the inside out,” opens the awareness to sound, and then invites a full resting in receptive, dynamic presence.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation: Guided Heart Forgiveness Practice (from retreat) Aug 07, 2016

Meditation: Guided Heart Forgiveness Practice (2016-05-09) - Tara gives brief instructions on the forgiveness practice, then guides us through a process of forgiveness of ourselves and others.

"Forgiving is a movement of your heart not to carry aversive hatred or blame. That you can care about someone and still create boundaries... Each of you has this wisdom, heart, being place that intuits that there really isn’t freedom in the moments that you’re carrying blame and judgment."

(from the Spring 2016 IMCW 7-day retreat)

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Wise Investigation: Dissolving the Trance Aug 04, 2016

Wise Investigation: Dissolving the Trance - If we are suffering, it is because we are believing something that is not true and caught in emotional reactivity. A key tool in meditation is investigation–actively inquiring into what is happening inside us. When we investigate with sincere interest and care, the light of our attention untangles difficult emotions and nourishes intimate relationships. As this light is turned toward awareness itself, it reveals the radiance and emptiness of our true nature.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation: Invitation to Practice (no bell at end) Aug 03, 2016

Meditation: Invitation to Practice (no bell at end) - A brief invitation to start a longer meditation sitting. Begins with Japanese flute and continues with calming and settling to begin a sitting of any length (from retreat).

(flute passage from "A Touch of Grace" album via jonathanfoust.com)

Loving the Life Within Us (retreat talk) Jul 29, 2016

Loving the Life Within Us (retreat talk) - If we don’t love the life we consider “self,” we will not realize or live from the loving awareness that is our essence. This talk guides us in bringing a kind, accepting presence to our inner life, and discovering the vastness of what we really are.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation: Spacious Sky of Awareness (2015-12-29) (retreat) Jul 28, 2016

Meditation: Spacious Sky of Awareness (2015-12-29) (retreat) - This meditation begins with a body scan that enables us to awaken our senses. Finally, we relax open fully to include the changing flow of sounds and sensations, in a spacious, open awareness.

That Bird Got My Wings (from 2015-07-22) Jul 24, 2016

That Bird Got My Wings (from 2015-07-22) - This talk looks at how we are imprisoned by a limited sense of who we are, and how the wings of mindfulness and heartfulness enable us to realize the spirit that is our essence. We then look at how we can bring the wings of freedom to our engagement with others. The talk’s title is the name of a book written by Jarvis Masters, a deeply wise and inspiring African American man currently on death row at San Quentin prison.

Brief Meditation: Arriving in Mindful Presence - 5 min (2016-05-18) Jul 21, 2016

Brief Meditation: Arriving in Mindful Presence - 5 min (2016-05-18) - This brief meditation can support you in pausing and arriving again in the life that’s right here.

Fear as a Pathway to Loving Presence - Night Travelers (retreat) (2016-05-08) Jul 15, 2016

Fear as a Pathway to Loving Presence - Night Travelers - (retreat talk) (2016-05-08) - Shifting our relationship with fear is central to the evolution of consciousness. Our suffering arises when our thoughts, feelings and sense of identity are shaped by fear. As we learn to attend to fear with mindfulness and care, we discover the vast tender presence that has room for the waves, and can fully cherish this life.

"Life’s waters flow from darkness. Search the darkness, don’t run from it. Night travelers are full of light, and you are too: don’t leave this companionship.... The moon appears for night travelers, be watchful when the moon is full." ~ rumi

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Brief Meditation: Arriving in Mindful Presence (1 minute) - (2016-07-13) Jul 13, 2016

Brief Meditation: Arriving in Mindful Presence (1 minute) - (2016-07-13) ~ This brief meditation can support you in pausing and arriving again in the life that’s right here.

Free download of Tara’s 10 min meditation: “Mindful Breathing: Finding Calm and Ease” when you join her email list.

Stress and Everyday Nirvana - Part 2 (2016-07-06) Jul 09, 2016

Stress and Everyday Nirvana - Part 2 (2016-07-06) - Our habitual view of stress is that it is a bad thing, an obstacle to healthy living and spiritual realization. These two talks look at how our way of relating to stress determines our happiness, and invites listeners to engage with practices that radically shift our response to stress and bring a healing and freeing evolution of consciousness.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation: Rest in Awake Awareness (2016-07-06) Jul 08, 2016

Meditation: Rest in Awake Awareness (2016-07-06) - When we allow the body to be a portal, we discover the ever-present background of awareness that includes the whole play of sensation, sound, aliveness. This meditation awakens us through a body scan, and then invites a relaxing back into the space of awareness. The guidance is to let everything be, just as it is, and become the silence that’s listening, the stillness out of which all forms arise.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Stress and Everyday Nirvana - Part 1 (2016-06-29) Jul 01, 2016

Stress and Everyday Nirvana - Part 1 (2016-06-29) - Our habitual view of stress is that it is a bad thing, an obstacle to healthy living and spiritual realization. These two talks look at how our way of relating to stress determines our happiness, and invites listeners to engage with practices that radically shift our response to stress and bring a healing and freeing evolution of consciousness.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation: Letting Life Live Through You Jul 01, 2016

Meditation: Letting Life Live Through You(2016-06-29) - This meditation begins with quieting the mind and collecting attention with the breath. We then awaken the senses through a body scan, open to sound, and rest in open awareness, allowing sounds and sensations to move through. Like an ocean, when we rest in openness, it’s possible to open to the waves that most want attention, without grasping or resisting. This engaged presence is the very essence of freedom, of inhabiting a wholeness of being.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Reconnecting with Our Lives - Healing from Dissociation (2016-06-22) Jun 24, 2016

Reconnecting with Our Lives - Healing from Dissociation (2016-06-22) -

Dissociation is the universal mechanism for pulling away from the pain of “too much.” While it’s necessary and natural for enduring certain situations, the ongoing habit of dissociation cuts us off from our full aliveness, creativity, and capacity for love. This talk explores the process by which we disconnect from our bodies and feelings - individually and collectively - and the practices that directly enable us to include the “unlived life" - the fear and shame, passion and loneliness - that we’ve pushed away. By including the raw energies we’ve been avoiding, we come home to a fullness that can embrace others and the whole of life.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation: Know That You're Here (2016-06-22) Jun 24, 2016

Meditation: Know That You're Here (2016-06-22) - We spend many moments in a trance, time traveling to the past and future, lost in a virtual reality. This meditation helps us collect our attention with our breath, awaken through the body, and open the senses. We then rest in the wakeful openness that includes changing experience, aware of the mystery and vividness of being Here.

Morning Question and Response on Retreat (2016-05-11) Jun 19, 2016

Morning Question and Response from Retreat (2016-05-11) - Tara responds to questions including deepening our meditation practice, working with desire, and the RAIN practice.

Free download of Tara’s 10 min meditation: “Mindful Breathing: Finding Calm and Ease” when you join her email list.

Remembering What Matters - Aspiration and Intention (from 2013-01-30) Jun 18, 2016

Remembering What Matters - Aspiration and Intention (from 2013-01-30) ~ Our conscious aspiration toward awakening is what energizes the spiritual path. This talk reviews the main characteristic of a vital aspiration, the conditioning that obscures our deepest intentions and offers guided reflections to connect us with what most matters.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation: Gladdening the Mind (2016-05-12) (from retreat) Jun 16, 2016

Meditation: Gladdening the Mind (2016-05-12) (from retreat) - The Buddha taught the value of gladdening the mind. This meditation begins with an inquiry on what we are most grateful for - what we love, then continues to scan with a smile though the entire body (from a morning on the 2016 IMCW spring retreat).

Three Gestures of Love (2016-06-08) Jun 11, 2016

Three Gestures of Love (2016-06-08) - If we inquire “what is between me and presence” we usually find we’ve been caught inside a limiting story of self, contracted by wants and fears. This talk explores a simple yet powerful way of arousing loving presence and dissolving the narrow identification that keeps us from inhabiting our awakened heartmind. NOTE: Tara is traveling and she asked for this favorite talk from 2013-07-24 be posted for your enjoyment.

Meditation: The Mystery of Aliveness - from retreat (2016-05-09) Jun 10, 2016

Meditation: The Mystery of Aliveness (2016-05-09) - This meditation from the morning of spring retreat begins with a body scan, then widens to include sounds, senses and open energetic awareness. Includes an application of the RAIN of Compassion to close. (from a morning guided meditation at the IMCW 2016 Spring Retreat)

Reflection: Waking Up from Limiting Beliefs (2016-06-01) Jun 05, 2016

Reflection: Waking Up from Limiting Beliefs (2016-06-01) - A guided meditation that addresses limiting beliefs surrounding interpersonal conflict. Full talk, "Real but Not True: Freeing Ourselves from Harmful Beliefs" is at: https://www.tarabrach.com/real-not-true/.

Real But Not True: Freeing Ourselves from Harmful Beliefs (2016-06-01) Jun 04, 2016

Real But Not True: Freeing Ourselves from Harmful Beliefs (2016-06-01) -

Thoughts and beliefs are navigational maps that are not inherently true. Rather, some serve us and others cause feelings of separation, self-aversion and/or blame of others. We can free ourselves from harmful beliefs by investigating them with a dedicated, mindful and courage presence. This talk guides us in mindful investigation through an illustrative story, an outline of steps, and a guided meditation that addresses limiting beliefs surrounding interpersonal conflict.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation: The Silence That is Listening (2016-06-01) Jun 02, 2016

Meditation: The Silence That is Listening (2016-06-01) - Listening to sounds is a powerful way to quiet the thinking mind and connect with the natural openness of awareness. This meditation emphasizes the anchor of listening, and guides us to relax through our bodies and let sounds wash through us. In this receptivity we find a homecoming to full presence and peace.

Morning Questions and Response from Retreat (2016-05-09) May 30, 2016

Morning Question and Response from Retreat (2016-05-09) - Tara responds to questions on deepening our meditation practice, working with unpleasant and pleasant thoughts, and forgiveness.

Free download of Tara’s 10 min meditation: “Mindful Breathing: Finding Calm and Ease” when you join her email list.

Happy for No Reason - Part 2 (2016-05-25) May 28, 2016

Happy for No Reason - Part 2 (2016-05-25) - These two talks explore the two different kinds of happiness, the blocks to happiness, and the ways that mindful presence and intentional gladdening the heart (positive neuroplasticity) can open us to our full potential for true happiness.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation: Living Presence with Body Scan (2016-05-25) May 26, 2016

Meditation: Living Presence with Body Scan (2016-05-25) - A key pathway to full presence is awakening through the body. This meditation guides us through a body scan, relaxing and receiving the play of sensations. We then deepen attention to the breath, and rest with the rhythmic waves of breathing, experiencing the background of the whole domain of physical aliveness.

Happy for No Reason - Part 1 (2016-05-18) May 21, 2016

Happy for No Reason - Part 1 (2016-05-18) - These two talks explore the two different kinds of happiness, the blocks to happiness, and the ways that mindful presence and intentional gladdening the heart (positive neuroplasticity) can open us to our full potential for true happiness.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation: Letting Life Live through You (2016-05-18) May 19, 2016

Meditation: Letting Life Live through You (2016-05-18) - This meditation awakens the senses and then guides us into the wakeful openness that includes the whole play of sensations, feelings and sound. We become fully awake and alive as we open to the awareness that allows life to live through us.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Conscious Prayer: Finding Refuge in Loving Presence (Retreat talk) (2016-05-11) May 15, 2016

Conscious Prayer: Finding Refuge in Loving Presence (Retreat talk) (2016-05-11) - Prayer is a communing with our enlarged being. This talk examines less conscious forms of prayer, and how we can evolve the power of our prayers by opening into the depth of our longing, and reaching toward our true belonging. (from the 2016 IMCW Spring Retreat)

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation: Basic Body and Breath Scan - from retreat (2016-05-07) May 14, 2016

Meditation: Basic Body and Breath Scan - (2016-05-07) - from the first morning of the IMCW 2016 Spring weeklong retreat, Tara offers a short introductory meditation with a body scan, bringing focus to the breath, sounds, then resting in awareness.

Free download of Tara’s 10 min meditation: “Mindful Breathing: Finding Calm and Ease” when you join her email list.

RAIN of Forgiveness (2015-05-05) May 06, 2016

RAIN of Forgiveness (2015-05-05) - The capacity to release the armoring of hatred and blame is intrinsic to our evolving consciousness. This talk explores the process of authentic forgiveness, and how we can use the mindfulness-based tool of RAIN to heal and free our hearts.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation: Collecting and Quieting the Mind (2016-05-04) May 05, 2016

Meditation: Collecting and Quieting the Mind (2016-05-04) - Our conditioned mind is filled with distractions, including worry-thoughts that continually create anxiety in the body. This meditation guides us in relaxing the body, and then establishing the breath as a home base. By gathering and collecting the attention, the mind can settle and allow for a relaxed, wakeful presence.

Free download of Tara’s new 10 min meditation: “Mindful Breathing: Finding Calm and Ease” when you join her email list.

Meditation: Spacious Clear Awareness (2016-04-20) (23 min) May 05, 2016

Meditation: Spacious Clear Awareness (2016-04-20) (23 min) - This meditation begins with a breath that calms and collects the attention, and then a body scan that enables us to awaken our senses. Finally, we relax open fully to include the changing flow of sounds and sensations, in a spacious, clear awareness.

Listening with an Awake Heart (2016-04-27) Apr 29, 2016

Listening with an Awake Heart (2016-04-27) - True listening both nurtures and expresses evolving consciousness. This talk explores our ego-based conditioning to have an agenda or defendedness that prevents deep listening, and the strategies that evolve our capacity to listen fully to ourselves and others. When our listening is openhearted and full, it enables deep understanding and connectedness, and provides a transformative healing space for those who receive our listening attention.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation: Awareness - Listening To and Feeling the Moment (2016-04-27) Apr 28, 2016

Meditation: Awareness - Listening To and Feeling the Moment (2016-04-27) -

This meditation awakens a relaxed open presence through the body. We then widen attention to include sounds, and then relax back and fully inhabit the awareness that is listening to and feeling the changing flow of life.

Free download of Tara’s new 10 min meditation: “Mindful Breathing: Finding Calm and Ease” when you join her email list.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Love is Always Loving Us (2016-04-20) Apr 22, 2016

Love is Always Loving Us (2016-04-20) - This talk draws on Christian mystic Henri Nouwen’s book Return of the Prodigal Son. We explore the primary ways we leave home - leave presence, connection, beingness - and the pathways of deep attention and love that enable our return. The emphasis is on “letting in love” as a key and often missing element in practices that heal and free our hearts. Through the talk there are several reflections that lead to receiving the blessings of love and discovering that we are the source of that loving.

Meditation: Spacious Clear Awareness (2016-04-20) Apr 22, 2016

Meditation: Spacious Clear Awareness (2016-04-20) - This meditation begins with a breath that calms and collects the attention, and then a body scan that enables us to awaken our senses. Finally, we relax open fully to include the changing flow of sounds and sensations, in a spacious, clear awareness.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Releasing Self-Blame - Pathways to a Forgiving Heart (2016-04-13) Apr 14, 2016

Releasing Self-Blame - Pathways to a Forgiving Heart

When we are stuck in blaming, disliking or hating ourselves, we are unable to love our world. This talk explores what underlies our addiction to self-blame and the teachings and practices that loosen aversive self-judgment and help us cultivate a forgiving heart.

Meditation: Vipassana - Practice of Seeing Clearly (2016-04-13) Apr 14, 2016

Meditation: Vipassana - Practice of Seeing Clearly (2016-04-13)

Vipassana, also known as insight meditation, is training in bringing a clear mindful attention to our moment to moment experience. We begin by relaxing through the body and then resting attention with the breath - or some other sensory anchor - and allowing the mind to settle. Then we open to whatever is predominant or calling our attention - sensations, emotions, sounds - meeting each arising experience with a clear, kind attention. The gift of this process is discovering balance in the midst of the changing flow, and gaining deep insight into the nature of reality.

Healing Self-Doubt (2013-10-30) Apr 09, 2016

Healing Self-Doubt (2013-10-30) - Siddhartha Gautama’s last challenge before enlightenment was doubt, and to some degree, most of us live with limiting beliefs about our own worthiness and goodness. This talk looks at the tenacity of self-doubt and the power of mindfulness, investigation and compassion in releasing its grip.

Meditation: Awakening an Intimate Presence (2016-04-06) Apr 08, 2016

Meditation: Awakening an Intimate Presence (2016-04-06) - This guided meditation cultivates a relaxed, gentle presence with whatever expressions of life are arising in the moment. We begin by releasing and opening through the body, and then include all sensations, feelings and sounds in an intimate, allowing presence.

Embodied Awareness - Pain and Living Fully - Part 3 (2016-03-30) Apr 02, 2016

Embodied Awareness - Pain and Living Fully - Part 3 (2016-03-30) - The experiences we most value - feeling creative, loving, vital - require being awake in our bodies. Yet when faced with physical pain, our conditioning is to pull away from our bodies, and get lost in thoughts. This talk offers guidance in working mindfully with different levels of pain, as we cultivate our capacity to live from an embodied presence and open heart.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation: The Pathway of Deep Listening (2016-03-30) Apr 02, 2016

Meditation: The Pathway of Deep Listening (2016-03-30) -

Listening is an ideal template for awareness itself - it is naturally receptive, open and awake. This meditation invites a deep listening to and feeling our lives, and opens us to the realization of the flow of changing experience and the background awareness that is the source of our Being.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Reflection: RAIN - A Guide for Embodied Presence (2013-03-23) Mar 30, 2016

Reflection: RAIN - A Guide for Embodied Presence (from 2013-03-23) - We have deep conditioning to disconnect from our body’s awareness and, in so doing, leave the site of our creativity, love and vitality. This short meditation uses the acronym RAIN as a guide in re-inhabiting our bodies and our full aliveness.

Free download of Tara’s new 10 min meditation: “Mindful Breathing: Finding Calm and Ease” when you join her email list.

Reflection: This Living Body - Our Portal to Freedom (2016-03-23) Mar 26, 2016

Short Reflection: This Living Body - Our Portal to Freedom (2016-03-23) (12:15 min) -

Our habit is to leave home - the aliveness of our body - and seek happiness through avoiding unpleasantness and chasing after pleasure. This short talk and reflection point to embodied presence as the gateway to genuine openheartedness and freedom.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Embodied Awareness - Embracing the Unlived Life - Part 2 (2016-03-23) Mar 26, 2016

Embodied Awareness - Embracing the Unlived Life - Part 2 (2016-03-23) - When we disconnect from the aliveness of our body, we are in a trance that prevents us from living and loving fully. These two talks examine our habits of dissociation - including the cutting off that comes from trauma - and the suffering of “unlived life” that this creates. We then look at how practices of mindfulness and compassion, guided by the acronym RAIN, enable us to re-enter our bodies, and discover the creativity, love and wisdom that naturally flow from embodied awareness.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation: Living Presence (2016-03-23) (20:01 min) Mar 25, 2016

Meditation: Living Presence (2016-03-23) (20:01 min) - The pathway to experiencing full aliveness and openheartedness is by awakening awareness throughout the body. This meditation begins by establishing a rhythmic inflow and outflow of the breath, in order to calm and collect the mind. Then continuing with the conscious breathing, we are guided through the body - bringing attention to sensations and space. This attention becomes a very vibrant living presence, and we end by experiencing that living presence as a natural openheartedness that includes all of life.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With thanks and love, Tara

Reflection: Awakening through Conflict (13 min) Mar 19, 2016

Guided Reflection: Awakening through Conflict (from a talk given on 2014-04-23) - (13 min)

“We live in a field where our emotions are an open loop – we affect each other. When we’re with someone who’s blaming, we tighten. Anger makes us tighten. When we’re with someone who’s open and caring, we become more open. It’s very, very powerful what’s possible when we put down the blame and we connect with our own being.”

A guided reflection: If we learn to release blame and deepen attention to our embodied experience, conflict can become a portal for more loving, alive relationships and awakening into the fullness of our being.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With thanks and love, Tara

Practical Dharma for Stressful Times (2016-03-16) Mar 18, 2016

Practical Dharma for Stressful Times (2016-03-16) -

When we are caught in a stress reaction, we are in a trance that cuts us off from our creativity, full intelligence and capacity to be loving. This talk explores the flags of the stress-trance and three meditative strategies for shifting from fight/flight to attend/befriend. (at end is “Love the One You’re With” by Steven Stills)

Tara was traveling this week and asked this very timely talk from November 07, 2012 be posted.

Meditation: Touching Peace - with a Smile (2015-08-19) Mar 18, 2016

Meditation: Touching Peace - with a Smile (2015-08-19) - Tara is traveling this week, so asked that this "smile meditation" be posted.

Embodied Awareness - Embracing Unlived Life - Part 1 (2016-03-09) Mar 12, 2016

Embodied Awareness - Embracing Unlived Life - Part 1 (2016-03-09)

When we disconnect from the aliveness of our body, we are in a trance that prevents us from living and loving fully. These two talks examine our habits of dissociation, and the suffering of “unlived life” that this creates. We then look at how practices of mindfulness and compassion, guided by the acronym RAIN, enable us to re-enter our bodies, and discover the creativity, love and wisdom that naturally flow from embodied awareness.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With thanks and love, Tara

Reflection: RAIN - Entering the Wilderness (2016-03-09) Mar 12, 2016

Meditation: RAIN - Entering the Wilderness (2016-03-09) - This short reflection, guided by the acronym RAIN, engages mindfulness and compassion as we open to life that we’ve been pushing away. By including unlived life, we reconnect with the fullness of our being, with vibrant, loving awareness.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With thanks and love, Tara

Meditation: Embodied Awareness (2016-03-09) Mar 11, 2016

Meditation: Embodied Awareness (2016-03-09) - This meditation reconnects us to the vibratory aliveness of our bodies, and the space of awareness that suffuses that aliveness. We inhabit embodied awareness in the moments of non-doing, of simply resting as wakeful openness, of pure Being.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With thanks and love, Tara

Bodhichitta - The Awakened Heart - Part 2 (2016-03-02) Mar 05, 2016

Bodhichitta - The Awakened Heart - Part 2 (2016-03-02)

While the brightness and warmth of our hearts is always here, like the sun when blocked by clouds, our intrinsic love can be obscured. These two talks explore how we become arrested in a confining story of separate self, and how remembering love releases us from this trance. The first talk emphasizes inner pathways of freeing our heart and the second talk explores awakening bodhichitta actively in relating with each other.

"To love someone is to learn the song in their heart and sing it to them when they have forgotten." Arne Garborg

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donate/.

With thanks and love, Tara

Meditation: Awakening the Heart - Giving and Receiving Loving Blessings (2016-03-02) Mar 05, 2016

Meditation: Awakening the Heart - Giving and Receiving Loving Blessings (2016-03-02) -

Our hearts awaken as we express and receive love in an embodied, conscious way. This guided practice brings our attention to dear ones in our life, and explores how we discover deep communion through offering and letting in love.

"To love someone is to learn the song in their heart and sing it to them when they have forgotten." Arne Garborg

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donate/.

With thanks and love, Tara

Meditation: Relaxing Back into Open Wakefulness (2016-03-02) Mar 04, 2016

Meditation: Relaxing Back into Open Wakefulness (2016-03-02) - This meditation begins by relaxing through the body, and connecting with inner aliveness and space. We then include sounds and sense the openness of life. At the center of the practice is a relaxing back, and inhabiting spacious awareness. The meditation ends as we experience the heart from the vantage of spacious awareness, and offer prayers to our inner life and all life.

Bodhichitta - The Awakened Heart - Part 1 (2016-02-24) Feb 27, 2016

Bodhichitta - The Awakened Heart - Part 1 (2016-02-24) - While the brightness and warmth of our hearts is always here, like the sun when blocked by clouds, our intrinsic love can be obscured. These two talks explore how we become arrested in a confining story of separate self, and how remembering love releases us from this trance. The first talk emphasizes inner pathways of freeing our heart and the second talk explores awakening bodhichitta actively in relating with each other.

"Exploring what allows the heart to wake up..."

"...being loved into being more who we are is a moment of blessing. What is a blessing? A blessing is a reminder or homecoming into more realness - more love. We're blessed when we remember."

Free download of Tara’s new 10 min meditation: “Mindful Breathing: Finding Calm and Ease” when you join her email list.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With thanks and love, Tara

Meditation: Blessings of Love (2016-02-24) Feb 27, 2016

Meditation: Blessings of Love (2016-02-24) - A blessing is whatever reminds us of the sacred loving presence that shines through all of us. This meditation is a transformational practice in receiving and offering blessings. First we connect with the vulnerable tender place within us that longs to feel loved, and call on loving presence to bless us. By imagining and allowing ourselves to receive love, our hearts become open and filled with light. We then bring that inner loving presence fully alive as we offer blessings to other beings. The image of receiving a kiss on the brow, and offering one, is suggested as a powerful channel for the blessings that awaken our heart.

"...being loved into being more who we are is a moment of blessing. What is a blessing? A blessing is a reminder or homecoming into more realness - more love. We're blessed when we remember."

"Part of what keeps us from realness - in that small self identity - is the avoiding of what's here."

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With thanks and love, Tara

Meditation: The Center of Now (2016-02-24) Feb 27, 2016

Meditation: The Center of Now (2016-02-24) - The portal to presence is awakening through the body from the inside out, and then opening to include sound in field of aliveness. This reveals the awake space that everything’s happening in; the space that lets everything be, just as it is. It’s in that full allowing that we discover the center of now, that pure still presence that is the very source of our being. The meditation ends with an offering of prayer as that presence is experienced in the domain of the heart.

Free download of Tara’s new 10 min meditation: “Mindful Breathing: Finding Calm and Ease” when you join her email list.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With thanks and love, Tara

The Power of Inquiry in Spiritual Awakening - Part 2 (2016-02-17) Feb 20, 2016

The Power of Inquiry in Spiritual Awakening - Part 2 (2016-02-17) - In spiritual life, inquiry arises from our deep yearning to understand reality, and it involves bringing an interested, engaged attention to our immediate experience. These two talks explore how inquiry serves emotional healing by focusing on difficult “stuck” places, how inquiry enables us to become more intimate and understanding of others, and in the deepest way, how inquiry can reveal the deepest truth of what we are…our true nature. The talks include several guided reflections that can enrich your meditation practice and serve spiritual awakening.

"If we don't bring inquiry from the neck down, we cannot untangle the tangles. Our emotional life lives in our body, so inquiry needs to be embodied. One of the misconceptions of inquiry is that it's analytic - that it's conceptual... it's not. Inquiry is shining the light of awareness to what's actually happening - moment to moment in our bodies."

Tara's website: www.tarabrach.com

Join Tara’s email list: http://eepurl.com/6YfI

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/. With thanks and love, Tara

Meditation: Embodied Awareness (2016-02-17) Feb 19, 2016

This guided meditation includes a full body scan, and the recognition of the formless awareness that includes and is source of all experience. By recognizing that awareness we discover the silence and stillness that is the ground of all experience.

Free download of Tara’s new 10 min meditation: “Mindful Breathing: Finding Calm and Ease” when you join her email list.

Reflection: The Power of Inquiry - Untangling Emotional Tangles (2016-02-10) Feb 13, 2016

Reflection: The Power of Inquiry - Untangling Emotional Tangles (2016-02-10) - This short meditation helps us get unstuck from emotional difficulty with the practice of Inquiry. We use the acronym RAIN as a guide, starting with Recognizing and Allowing what is arising, and then systematically Investigating (through inquiry) the limiting beliefs and reactive feelings that are challenging. The meditation ends by offering Nourishment to our vulnerability with kindness, and discovering the shift in our own being…in our identity…that expresses increased freedom.

(From the end of Part 1: The Power of Inquiry in Spiritual Awakening)

The Power of Inquiry in Spiritual Awakening - Part 1 (2016-02-10) Feb 13, 2016

The Power of Inquiry in Spiritual Awakening (2016-02-10) - Parts I and II - In spiritual life, inquiry arises from our deep yearning to understand reality, and it involves bringing an interested, engaged attention to our immediate experience. These two talks explore how inquiry serves emotional healing by focusing on difficult “stuck” places, how inquiry enables us to become more intimate and understanding of others, and in the deepest way, how inquiry can reveal the deepest truth of what we are…our true nature. The talks include several guided reflections that can enrich your meditation practice and serve spiritual awakening.

"True inquiry doesn't land on an answer. It opens to a mystery that's meant to be lived."

Meditation: Inhabiting Awake Awareness with Intro (2016-02-10) Feb 12, 2016

Meditation: Inhabiting Awake Awareness with Intro (2016-02-10) - This meditation begins with collecting attention with the breath, and awakens us to the experience of aliveness and inner space by scanning the body. We then open to receive all the senses in awake awareness, and to inhabiting that boundless receptive awareness that is our home.

Free download of Tara’s new 10 min meditation: “Mindful Breathing: Finding Calm and Ease” when you join her email list.

Meditation: Inhabiting Awake Awareness Feb 12, 2016

Meditation: Inhabiting Awake Awareness(2016-02-10) - This meditation begins with collecting attention with the breath, and awakens us to the experience of aliveness and inner space by scanning the body. We then open to receive all the senses in awake awareness, and to inhabiting that boundless receptive awareness that is our home.

Free download of Tara’s new 10 min meditation: “Mindful Breathing: Finding Calm and Ease” when you join her email list.

Three Attitudes that Nourish a Liberating Practice (2016-02-03) Feb 05, 2016

Three Attitudes that Nourish a Liberating Practice (2016-02-03) - A key spiritual inquiry is, “In this moment, what most serves awakening?” Rather than a particular style of meditation practice, it is our way of relating to our experience - our attitude - that frees our hearts. This talk explores the attitudes that are an expression of our innately open, wakeful and loving awareness, and that carry us to realization.

Meditation - Space, Aliveness and Letting Be (2016-02-03) Feb 05, 2016

Meditation - Space, Aliveness and Letting Be (2016-02-03) - This practice guides us into the openness of awareness, and then invites a deep resting, a letting be.

Free download of Tara’s new 10 min meditation: “Mindful Breathing: Finding Calm and Ease” when you join her email list.

Part 2: Three Blessings on the Journey Jan 28, 2016

Part 2: Three Blessings on the Journey - Drawing on a wonderful teaching story from the Upanishads, these two talks explore the role of forgiveness, inner fire and looking at our own minds, in finding freedom.

Free download of Tara’s new 10 min meditation: “Mindful Breathing: Finding Calm and Ease” when you join her email list.

Meditation: Center of Now (2012-02-01) Jan 28, 2016

Meditation: Center of Now (2012-02-01) - Tara is on retreat, so asked for a meditation from the archives to be posted.

Part 1: Three Blessings on the Journey Jan 22, 2016

Part 1: Three Blessings on the Journey - Drawing on a wonderful teaching story from the Upanishads, these two talks explore the role of forgiveness, inner fire and looking at our own minds, in finding freedom.

Free download of Tara’s new 10 min meditation: “Mindful Breathing: Finding Calm and Ease” when you join her email list.

Morning Meditation Instruction with Question and Response (retreat)(14 min) Jan 22, 2016

Morning Meditation Instruction with Question and Response (retreat) (2015-12-29) - "Discover what’s happening here, beyond the veil of thinking.” Tara gives additional instructions and responds to questions after the morning meditation at the 2015 IMCW New Year retreat.

Widening the Circles of Compassion (retreat talk) (2015-12-31) Jan 15, 2016

Widening the Circles of Compassion (retreat talk) (2015-12-31) - The archetypal figure of the Bodhisattva (“awakening being”) reflects our potential to realize our connectedness with all beings, and care for this living world with an open tender heart. This talk explores the four types of patterning that keep us stuck in the pain of separation and the key heart practices that evolve us on the bodhisattva path.

"Compassion arises when you see the truth behind the veils."

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/.

With thanks and love, Tara

Meditation: RAIN of Compassion (retreat) (2015-12-29) Jan 15, 2016

Meditation: RAIN of Compassion (retreat) (2015-12-29) - This new version of the acronym RAIN is a powerful way of bringing compassion to the life within you, and to attuning and deepening compassion for others. (from the 2015 New Year's retreat - a guided heart meditation)

Gateways of Remembrance: The Three Refuges (2016-01-06) Jan 09, 2016

Gateways of Remembrance: The Three Refuges (2016-01-06) - This talk explores the traditional refuges of awareness (buddha nature), truth (dharma) and love (sangha) that are at the heart of Buddhism, and found in many spiritual and religious traditions. It includes a look at our false refuges - strategies that seek to comfort and gratify, but are temporary fixes - and moves into reflections that help us remember, trust and live from our true nature. (Concludes with a ceremony tying red cords in remembrance of the refuges.)

Meditation: Relaxing Open (2016-01-06) Jan 07, 2016

Meditation: Relaxing Open (2016-01-06)

Let go of what has passed. Let go of what may come. Let go of what is happening now. Don't try to figure anything out. Don't try to make anything happen. Relax, right now, and rest.

- Tilopa

The Power of Mindful Investigation (from 2010-09-22) Dec 30, 2015

The Power of Mindful Investigation (from 2010-09-22) - We each have a deep interest in reality–in understanding what is true and who we are. In Buddhist teachings, our interest, and its expression in wise investigation, energize the path of awakening. This talk explores how mindful investigation can free us from emotional suffering, nourish loving relatedness and create the conditions for deep spiritual realization.

(Tara is on retreat this week, so she asked to share this talk from 2010.)

Meditation: Letting Life Be (from 2010-09-22) Dec 30, 2015

Meditation: Letting Life Be (from 2010-09-22) - Tara is teaching retreat this week, so wanted to share this meditation from 2010 with you.

Meditation: Seeing the Goodness (2015-12-23) (6:11 min) Dec 28, 2015

Meditation: Seeing the Goodness (2015-12-23) (6:11 min) - When we focus on what we appreciate in others, our very attention helps allow that person to shine (a practice meditation from the end of the "Secret Beauty - Solstice talk").

Reflection: Learning to Stay (2015-12-23) (4:30 min) Dec 27, 2015

Reflection: Learning to Stay (2015-12-23) (4:30 min) - We open the door to healing by bringing a mindful and kind attention to inner vulnerability and fear (from "Secret Beauty - Solstice talk).

Secret Beauty - Solstice Talk (2015-12-23) Dec 26, 2015

Secret Beauty - Solstice Talk (2015-12-23) - This solstice talk explores two pathways to realizing the Secret Beauty that is our essence. One is through the compassion that arises when we stay with vulnerability and suffering, and the other is through love that arises as we learn to see the goodness that shines through all beings.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/. With thanks and love, Tara

Meditation: Awaken to HeartSpace (2015-12-23) Dec 25, 2015

Meditation: Awaken to HeartSpace (2015-12-23) - Awaken to HeartSpace, the open awareness that is intrinsically tender and wakeful, and discover how to experience this life from the domain of heart.

Meditation: The RAIN of Self-Compassion (2015-12-16) Dec 22, 2015

This meditation is included at the end of the RAIN of Self-Compassion talk. This talk explores three key features of the trance of unworthiness and introduces this guided meditation based on a new version of the acronym RAIN that awakens self-compassion and de-conditions the suffering of being at war with ourselves.

To listen to the complete talk, go to: The RAIN of Self-Compassion.

The RAIN of Self-Compassion (2015-12-16) Dec 17, 2015

This talk explores three key features of the trance of unworthiness and introduces a guided meditation based on a new version of the acronym RAIN that awakens self-compassion and de-conditions the suffering of being at war with ourselves.

Meditation: Aliveness, Space and Awareness (2015-12-16) Dec 17, 2015

This practice includes a body scan that opens into experience of continuous space, filled with the light of awareness.

Free download of Tara’s new 10 min meditation: “Mindful Breathing: Finding Calm and Ease” when you join her email list.

Desire: A Current of Homecoming (2015-12-09) Dec 12, 2015

Desire: A Current of Homecoming (2015-12-09) - Desire is intrinsic to our aliveness, yet when we have unmet needs, it can possess us. This talk explores how to relax open the grip of wanting and heal the suffering of addiction. You will learn how to bring mindfulness and compassion to the roots of desire, and be carried home to open loving presence.

“Recovery is also about spirit – about dealing with that ‘hole in the soul’ … so how does this hole get filled and become holy space?”

Free download of Tara’s new 10 min meditation: “Mindful Breathing: Finding Calm and Ease” when you join her email list.

Meditation: Calming and Opening (2015-12-09) Dec 11, 2015

Meditation: Calming and Opening (2015-12-09) - This meditation guides us in collecting and quieting the mind with the breath, and then relaxing all effort, and simply resting in what is.

Free download of Tara’s new 10 min meditation: “Mindful Breathing: Finding Calm and Ease” when you join her email list.

Meditation: Choosing Living Presence Dec 03, 2015

Free download of Tara’s new 10 min meditation: “Mindful Breathing: Finding Calm and Ease” when you join her email list.

Loving Life, Loving Earth Dec 03, 2015

With prayers for the Paris Climate talks: What will it take to have us collectively awaken to the suffering of our earth and respond? This talk looks at how we are destroying our larger body, the earth; what stops us from recognizing and opening to the suffering of loss, and ways we can evolve our consciousness and act on behalf of this precious life. (from 2013-10-02)

Feeling Gratitude, Giving Love (2015-11-25) Nov 28, 2015

Feeling Gratitude, Giving Love - Thanksgiving 2015 (2015-11-25) - Like breathing in and breathing out, gratitude and generosity allow us to live fully. This talks explores what blocks these natural capacities, and three pathways of nourishing a grateful and giving heart.

Tara's website: www.tarabrach.com

Join Tara’s email list: http://eepurl.com/6YfI - get a free download of Tara’s new 10 min meditation: “Mindful Breathing: Finding Calm and Ease”.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/. With thanks and love, Tara

Meditation: Awake and Open Awareness (2015-11-25) Nov 28, 2015

Meditation: Awake and Open Awareness (2015-11-25)

Free download of Tara’s new 10 min meditation: “Mindful Breathing: Finding Calm and Ease” when you join her email list.

Meditation: Awake and Open Awareness (with Oms) (2015-11-25) Nov 28, 2015

Meditation: Awake and Open Awareness (with community chanting Om's) (2015-11-25)

Free download of Tara’s new 10 min meditation: “Mindful Breathing: Finding Calm and Ease” when you join her email list.

Heart Meditation: Loving Presence (from retreat)(2015-10-12) Nov 22, 2015

Heart Meditation: Loving Presence (from retreat)(2015-10-12) - Scanning the body, filling it with the image of a smile, meditation continues with loving presence of someone easy to love, our own being, and offering care to others.

Part 2: Awakening through Anger - The U-Turn to Freedom (2015-11-18) Nov 20, 2015

Part 2: Awakening through Anger - The U-Turn to Freedom (2015-11-18) - While we have strong conditioning to react to aggression with more aggression, we have the capacity to pause, and instead deepen attention and connect to our natural wisdom and empathy. This talk looks at how we can directly engage in this evolutionary adaptation when we encounter trauma related conflict in our personal lives, and in a parallel way when groups of people who have been part of traumatizing conflict seek reconciliation and healing.

Free download of Tara’s new 10 min meditation: “Mindful Breathing: Finding Calm and Ease” when you join her email list.

Instructions on Working with Trauma - Q and A from Retreat (2015-04-20) Nov 20, 2015

Instructions on Working with Trauma - Q and A from Retreat (2015-04-20) - a short segment that includes a message on working with trauma as part of a morning question-response session at the IMCW 2015 Spring Retreat.

Part 1: Awakening through Anger - The U-Turn to Freedom (2015-11-11) Nov 13, 2015

Awakening through Anger - The U-Turn to Freedom (2015-11-11) - Anger is naturally triggered when we feel an obstacle to meeting our needs. How do we honor the intelligence within anger, but not get hijacked into emotional reactivity that creates suffering in our individual and collective lives? This talk explores the U-turn that enables us to offer a healing attention to the feelings and unmet needs under anger. Once present with our inner life, we are able to respond to those around us with wisdom, empathy and true strength.

“Anger is an acid that can do more harm to the vessel in which it is stored than to anything on which it is poured.”― Mark Twain

Free download of Tara’s new 10 min meditation: “Mindful Breathing: Finding Calm and Ease” when you join her email list.

Meditation: The Heartspace That is Home (2015-11-11) Nov 13, 2015

Meditation: The Heartspace That is Home (2015-11-11) - This meditation awakens attention to the space of awareness, and then explores how this awake awareness is experienced as heartspace, the vast tenderness that is home.

Compass of Our Heart (2015-11-04) Nov 06, 2015

Compass of Our Heart (2015-11-04) - All of our actions, our entire life experience, arises from the energy of intention. While it’s natural that our intentions are shaped by egoic wants and fears, when we bring this into conscious, compassionate awareness, we can discover the deep aspiration that guides and energizes our awakening hearts and minds. This talk explores the movement from egoic intention to liberating intention…the movement from “my will” to “my hearts will.

Free download of Tara’s new 10 min meditation: “Mindful Breathing: Finding Calm and Ease” when you join her email list.

2015-10-10-Morning-Instruction-and-Meditation (from retreat) Nov 05, 2015

2015-10-10-Morning-Instruction-and-Meditation (from the IMCW fall residential retreat)

Free download of Tara’s new 10 min meditation: “Mindful Breathing: Finding Calm and Ease” when you join her email list.

Relating Wisely with Imperfection (2015-10-28) Oct 30, 2015

Relating Wisely with Imperfection (2015-10-28) - Our survival brain reacts to perceived imperfection with aversion and anxiety, and if we are habituated to this reaction, we become imprisoned in the identity of a flawed separate self. This talk explores the healing and transformation that is possible as we learn to regard imperfection with mindfulness and compassion.

Free download of Tara’s new 10 min meditation: “Mindful Breathing: Finding Calm and Ease” when you join her email list.

Meditation: A Healing Breath (2015-10-28) Oct 30, 2015

Meditation: A Healing Breath (2015-10-28) - This meditation introduces a simple breathing practice that brings relaxation and inner ease.

Awakening Beyond Self (2015-10-21) Oct 24, 2015

Awakening Beyond Self (2015-10-21) - Suffering is our call to deepen attention and discover the truth of who we are beyond the identity of a separate, deficient self. This talk examines how thoughts, beliefs and emotions keep us trapped in a confining identity, and two pathways of practice that serve awakening and freedom.

Meditation: Letting Life Be As It Is (2015-10-21) Oct 24, 2015

Meditation: Letting Life Be As It Is (2015-10-21)

Ten-Minute Basic Meditation Practice (from retreat) (2015-10-10) Oct 20, 2015

Ten-Minute Basic Meditation Practice (from the first morning instructions at the 2015 IMCW fall retreat) (2015-10-10)

Freeing Ourselves by Loving Ourselves (retreat talk) (2015-10-11) Oct 18, 2015

(Retreat talk) Freeing Ourselves by Loving Ourselves (2015-10-11) - In this human realm, healing and spiritual realization are rooted in awakening a love for the life that is here. This talk looks at our habit of feeling we should be different than we are, and the ways that mindfulness and self-compassion help enable us to not only embrace our inner life, but bring genuine healing to others.

Retreat Meditation: Radiant Empty Heart (2015-10-15) Oct 17, 2015

Retreat Meditation: Radiant Empty Heart (2015-10-15) - an open focus meditation given at the 2015 IMCW Fall 7-day Residential Retreat

Trusting Ourselves, Trusting Life (2015-10-07) Oct 09, 2015

Trusting Ourselves, Trusting Life (2015-10-07) - How can we trust in basic goodness when we encounter so much greed and violence within and around us? This talk explores three pathways of practice that enable us to bring a healing attention to our primitive survival conditioning, and cultivate the heart and awareness that express our full potential and deepest essence."Who would you be if you trusted the basic goodness and beauty that lives through you?"

Free download of Tara’s new 10 min meditation: “Mindful Breathing: Finding Calm and Ease” when you join her email list.

Meditation: Relaxing Back into Presence (2015-10-07) Oct 08, 2015

Meditation: Relaxing Back into Presence (2015-10-07)

Free download of Tara’s new 10 min meditation: “Mindful Breathing: Finding Calm and Ease” when you join her email list.

The Sacred Pause (2015-09-30) Oct 03, 2015

The Sacred Pause (2015-09-30) - When we are lost in the trance of doing, our lives are on automatic, and contracted by sense that something’s wrong or missing. This talk explores the challenges of learning to pause, and the blessings that arise when step out of our incessant mental and physical activity and reconnect with the being-qualities of presence, wisdom and love.

Meditation: Opening to the Mystery (2015-09-30) Oct 02, 2015

Meditation: Opening to the Mystery (2015-09-30)

Genuine Acceptance (2009-08-26) Sep 25, 2015

Genuine Acceptance (2009-08-26) - a favorite from 2009Our capacity to accept this life is key to our freedom, yet there are many misconceptions about acceptance: People wonder, if acceptance makes us a doormat in relationships? Isn't acceptance akin to resignation? Doesn't it make us passive when what is needed is action? This talk explores some of the misunderstandings about acceptance and offers teachings on the nature of genuine and liberating acceptance.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donate.html. With thanks and love, Tara

Guided Meditation: Center of Now - with Body Scan (2011-02-16) Sep 25, 2015

Guided Meditation: Center of Now - with Body Scan (2011-02-16) - a favorite meditation from 2011. Includes chanting "AH."

Letting Go of Judgment (retreat talk) (2015-09-05) Sep 18, 2015

Letting Go of Judgment (retreat talk) (2015-09-05) - The scales of judgment confine us in a limited sense of self, they restrict the depth and fullness of our loving. This talk explores the genesis of projecting badness on to parts of ourselves and others, and how we can use mindfulness and self-compassion practices to evolve our consciousness and free our hearts.

Heart Meditation: Letting Go of Judgment (2015-09-05) (retreat) Sep 18, 2015

Heart Meditation: Letting Go of Judgment (2015-09-05) (retreat)

Releasing Limiting Beliefs (2015-09-09) Sep 11, 2015

Releasing Limiting Beliefs (2015-09-09) - If we investigate patterns of emotional suffering or “stuckness,” we’ll discover that under our pain is a fear based belief. Until these beliefs are brought into the light of compassionate awareness, they control and confine our lives. This talk reviews key steps of inquiry and mindfulness that help us realize the freedom that comes with awakening from the grip of beliefs.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at http://www.tarabrach.com/donate.html. With thanks and love, Tara

Meditation: Simplicity of Presence (2015-09-09) Sep 11, 2015

Meditation: Simplicity of Presence (2015-09-09)

Free download of Tara’s new 10 min meditation:“Mindful Breathing: Finding Calm and Ease”when you join her email list.

Learning to Respond, Not React (2015-09-02) Sep 03, 2015

Learning to Respond, Not React (2015-09-02) - When stressed, we often react with looping fear-thoughts, feelings and behaviors that cause harm to ourselves and/or others. This talk offers three interrelated strategies that can serve us when we’re triggered by stress, and help us find our way back to our natural wisdom, empathy and wholeness of being. By de-conditioning habitual reactivity, we are increasingly able to respond to our life circumstances in ways that serve healing and awakening.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at http://www.tarabrach.com/donate.html. With thanks and love, Tara

Meditation - Cultivating an Intimate Presence (2015-09-02) Sep 03, 2015

Meditation - Cultivating an Intimate Presence (2015-09-02)

Free download of Tara’s new 10 min meditation:“Mindful Breathing: Finding Calm and Ease”when you join her email list.

Awakening from the Trance - Embracing Unlived Life (2015-08-26) Aug 29, 2015

Awakening from the Trance - Embracing Unlived Life (2015-08-26) - When physical or emotional pain is too much, our conditioning is to pull away and avoid direct contact with raw feelings. The result is a trance - we are split off from the wholeness of our aliveness, intelligence and capacity to love. This talk explores how this dissociation shows up in our lives and a powerful way that mindfulness enables us to integrate cut-off parts of our being.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at http://www.tarabrach.com/donate.html. With thanks and love, Tara

Meditation: Opening to the Sea of Presence (2015-08-26) Aug 29, 2015

Meditation: Opening to the Sea of Presence (2015-08-26)

Free download of Tara’s new 10 min meditation:“Mindful Breathing: Finding Calm and Ease”when you join her email list.

Transforming Two Fears: FOF and FOMO (2015-08-19) Aug 21, 2015

Transforming Two Fears: FOF and FOMO (2015-08-19) - There are two common fears that can block us from our full potential - fear of failure (FOF), and fear of missing out (FOMO). This talk explores how to meet these fears with mindful presence, and discover within them the essence energies of loving awareness and full aliveness.Note - This talk is dedicated to Tim Ferriss, who turned me on to the phrase FOMO. Tim exemplifies the creative aliveness of FOMO energy when it’s living through someone who’s dedicated to being awake, caring and real. (check out his podcasts, http://fourhourworkweek.com/podcast/)

Free download of Tara’s new 10 min meditation: “Mindful Breathing: Finding Calm and Ease” when you join her email list.

Meditation: Touching Peace (2015-08-19) Aug 21, 2015

Meditation: Touching Peace (2015-08-19) - (uses the image of a smile as a supportive technique)

Free download of Tara’s new 10 min meditation: “Mindful Breathing: Finding Calm and Ease” when you join her email list.

Meditation: "Smile Meditation" (2010-07-07) Aug 18, 2015

Meditation: "Smile Meditation" (2010-07-07) - posted to podcast from Tara's website by popular demand!

Radical Acceptance Revisited (2015-08-12) Aug 14, 2015

Radical Acceptance Revisited (2015-08-12) - One of the truths we most regularly forget is that if we are at war with ourselves, we can’t feel love and connection with our world. This talk looks at the genesis of the “Trance of Unworthiness” and how the wings of mindfulness and heartfulness can dissolve the trance and reveal the loving awareness that is our essence Being.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at http://www.tarabrach.com/donate.html. With thanks and love, Tara

Meditation - The Sky-like Mind (2015-08-12) Aug 14, 2015

Meditation - The Sky-like Mind (2015-08-12) - listening and discovering the sky-like mind that is our true home.

The Sacred Art of Listening (2015-08-05) Aug 07, 2015

The Sacred Art of Listening (2015-08-05) - Deep listening - the kind of listening that brings intimacy and understanding—takes intentional practice. This talk looks at the societal and inner obstacles to an undistracted presence, and the mindfulness strategies that nourish our capacity to listen in a way that heals and connects.

Free download of Tara’s new 10 min meditation: “Mindful Breathing: Finding Calm and Ease” when you join her email list.

Meditation: Relaxing, Breathing, Opening (2015-08-05) Aug 06, 2015

Meditation: Relaxing, Breathing, Opening (2015-08-05)

Free download of Tara’s new 10 min meditation: “Mindful Breathing: Finding Calm and Ease” when you join her email list.

The Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Working with Attachments and Addictions (2015-07-29) Aug 02, 2015

The Realm of Hungry Ghosts (2015-07-29) - In Buddhist cosmology, the torment of intense desire that can never really be satisfied is depicted as the realm of Hungry Ghosts. This talk explores the attachments and addictions that so many of us struggle with, and the teachings and practices that can liberate us.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at http://www.tarabrach.com/donate.html. With thanks and love, Tara

"Coming Back" - Meditation Instructions with Q and A (from retreat) (2015-06-26) Jul 31, 2015

"Coming Back" - Meditation Instructions with Q and A (from retreat) (2015-06-26) - A special recording from the first morning of the 2015 IMCW Women's Retreat that offers further guidance and addresses some frequently asked questions about meditation. (13.5 min)

Meditation - Relaxing Back into Wakeful Openness (2015-07-22) Jul 24, 2015

Meditation - Relaxing Back into Wakeful Openness (2015-07-22) -

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time. With thanks and love, Tara

www.tarabrach.com

That Bird Got My Wings (2015-07-22) Jul 24, 2015

That Bird Got My Wings (2015-07-22) - This talk looks at how we are imprisoned by a limited sense of who we are, and how the wings of mindfulness and heartfulness enable us to realize the spirit that is our essence. We then look at how we can bring the wings of freedom to our engagement with others. The talk’s title is the name of a book written by Jarvis Masters, a deeply wise and inspiring African American man currently on death row at San Quentin prison.

Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time. With thanks and love, Tara

www.tarabrach.com

Unfolding of the Sacred Feminine (retreat) (2015-06-26) Jul 17, 2015

Unfolding of the Sacred Feminine (retreat) (2015-06-26) - The sacred feminine expresses the qualities of heart that emerge as we open beyond identifying with the egoic, separate self. In this talk, Tara tracks a series of challenging experiences in her own life that catalyzed an awakening of heart, and explores how for each of us, the places of difficulty can help us realize our belonging to life and the loving awareness that is our true essence. (given at the 2015 IMCW Women's Retreat)

Your support will enable us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time. Visit: www.tarabrach.com.

Heart Meditation: Three Domains of Forgiveness (retreat) (2015-06-27) Jul 17, 2015

Heart Meditation: Three Domains of Forgiveness (retreat) (2015-06-27) - Instruction and guided heart meditation on forgiveness from the 2015 IMCW Women's Retreat.

Your support will enable us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time. Visit: www.tarabrach.com.

The Dance with Pain (2015-07-08) Jul 11, 2015

The Dance with Pain (2015-07-08) - “Pain is inevitable and suffering is optional.” In this talk Tara explores the difference between pain and suffering and examines the most common, yet often unconscious, ways we resist pain. She then shares practices that help us find balance, equanimity and awakening in the midst.

Your support will enable us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time. Visit: www.tarabrach.com. A guided meditation on "Radical Acceptance of Pain" is available on the "Guided Meditations" page. With thanks and love, Tara

Meditation: Presence, Breath, Full Aliveness (2015-07-08) Jul 11, 2015

Meditation: Presence, Breath, Full Aliveness (2015-07-08)

Part 2: Devotional Practices (2015-07-01) Jul 03, 2015

Part 2: Devotional Practices (2015-07-01) - The sacred feminine expresses the realization of our belonging, our innate interdependence with all of life. These two classes explores inner practices that help us open to our longing to belong, and awaken the power of prayer.

Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com. Your donations allow us to continue to freely offer the teachings!

Meditation: Relaxing into the Flow (2015-07-01) Jul 03, 2015

Meditation: Relaxing into the Flow (2015-07-01)

Part 1: Devotional Practices (2015-06-24) Jun 25, 2015

Part 1: Devotional Practices (2015-06-24) - The sacred feminine expresses the realization of our belonging, our innate interdependence with all of life. These two classes explores inner practices that help us open to our longing to belong, and awaken the power of prayer.

Beloved Community (2015-06-17) Jun 19, 2015

Beloved Community (2015-06-17) - Martin Luther King’s term, “Beloved Community,” points to our potential for living together with love, justice and respect. This talk explores the often hidden expressions of racism that fuel separation and violence, and pathways toward healing and freeing our collective hearts.

Free download of Tara’s new 10 min meditation: “Mindful Breathing: Finding Calm and Ease” when you join her email list.

Meditation: Relaxing Open into Full Presence (2015-06-17) Jun 19, 2015

Meditation: Relaxing Open into Full Presence (2015-06-17) - Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com. Your donations allow us to continue to freely offer the teachings!

Part 2: Beyond the Fear Body (2015-06-10) Jun 14, 2015

Part 2: Beyond the Fear Body (2015-06-10) - A central part of spiritual awakening is recognizing and befriending fear, and in the tender intensity of fear, discovering the awakened heart. In these two talks we explore the suffering of becoming identified with the fear body, and the skillful means that enable a full and liberating presence with fear.

Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com. Your donations allow us to continue to freely offer the teachings!

Meditation: Resting in Knowing (2015-06-10) Jun 14, 2015

Meditation: Resting in Knowing (2015-06-10)

Part 1: Beyond the Fear Body (2015-06-03) Jun 06, 2015

Part 1: Beyond the Fear Body (2015-06-03) - A central part of spiritual awakening is recognizing and befriending fear, and in the tender intensity of fear, discovering the awakened heart. In these two talks we explore the suffering of becoming identified with the fear body, and the skillful means that enable a full and liberating presence with fear.

Your support will enable us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time. Visit: http://www.tarabrach.com/donate.html. With thanks and love, Tara

Meditation - Relaxing Open into Presence (2015-06-03) Jun 06, 2015

Meditation - Relaxing Open into Presence (2015-06-03) - "...re-relaxing... sensing in your body what might let go a little bit more right now."

The Two Wings of Awareness (2015-05-27) May 29, 2015

The Two Wings of Awareness (2015-05-27) - The two wings of understanding and love awaken as we learn to recognize what is here in the present moment, and to allow experience to be just as it is. This talk includes a guided reflection and a brief period of questions and responses.

Meditation - Living Presence (2015-05-27) May 29, 2015

Meditation - Living Presence (2015-05-27)

Part 2: Impermanence - Awakening Through Insecurity (2015-05-20) May 23, 2015

Part 2: Impermanence - Awakening Through Insecurity (2015-05-20) - From the view of the separate self, this existence is inherently uncertain, and we are profoundly vulnerable. Our habitual reaction to insecurity fuels separation, and limits our capacity to live and love fully. These two talks explore the blessings of wisdom, love and freedom that naturally arise as, instead of resisting, we learn to open directly to the insecurity of impermanence.

Meditation: Entering the Flow (2015-05-20) May 23, 2015

Guided Meditation: Entering the Flow (2015-05-20) - "Letting go over and over into this changing flow - the river of aliveness."

Part 1: Impermanence - Awakening Through Insecurity (2015-05-13) May 15, 2015

Part 1: Impermanence - Awakening Through Insecurity (2015-05-13) - From the view of the separate self, this existence is inherently uncertain, and we are profoundly vulnerable. Our habitual reaction to insecurity fuels separation, and limits our capacity to live and love fully. These two talks explore the blessings of wisdom, love and freedom that naturally arise as, instead of resisting, we learn to open directly to the insecurity of impermanence.

Meditation: Opening to the Flow (2015-05-13) May 15, 2015

Meditation: Opening to the Flow (2015-05-13)

Namaste - Seeing the Sacred that Lives through All Beings (2015-04-23) May 09, 2015

(retreat talk) Namaste - Seeing the Sacred that Lives through All Beings (2015-04-23) - The trance of separation is part of our evolutionary heritage, but not the end of the story. This talk explores how several key trainings of the heart can evolve and awaken our capacity to realize connectedness, and the sacredness that shines through this living world.

Meditation: Forgiving Ourselves and Others (2015-04-19) May 09, 2015

Meditation: Forgiving Ourselves and Others (2015-04-19) - a guided heart practice from the 2015 IMCW Spring Retreat

2012-03-28 - Attend and Befriend: Healing the Fear Body May 06, 2015

2012-03-28 - Attend and Befriend: Healing the Fear Body - Our fear management strategies--versions of fight/flight-- contract our body and mind, and separate us from others. As we learn to pause and contact the bodily fear with a gentle, mindful awareness, our sense of being enlarges. We rediscover our belonging to presence, love and life.

2015-04-29 - Investigating Reality - Beyond an Interpreted World May 02, 2015

2015-04-29 - Investigating Reality - Beyond an Interpreted World - The skillful use of inquiry - asking questions in a way that energizes and focuses our attention - brings what is hidden into the light of awareness. This talk explores the healing that arises as we investigate the unseen, unfelt parts of our psyche, and the freedom discovered as we look into the very essence of who we are.

2015-04-20 - Meditation: Vipassana witih Instruction (from retreat) May 02, 2015

2015-04-20 - Meditation: Vipassana witih Instruction - Morning guided meditation and instruction from the 2015 IMCW Spring Retreat

Retreat Talk - Loving Yourself into Freedom Apr 26, 2015

2015-04-20 - Retreat Talk - Loving Yourself into Freedom - The most basic truths we forget, and one is this: if we don't love ourselves, we can't love life. In the most basic way, attending to and embracing our inner life reveals the nature of reality. This talk looks at the genesis of self-aversions and several pathways that open us to the loving presence that is our source.

2015-04-22 - Meditation - Letting Life Be, Just As It Is Apr 26, 2015

2015-04-22 - Meditation - Letting Life Be, Just As It Is - from morning instructions at the IMCW 2015 Spring Retreat

2015-04-15 - True Happiness - Realizing Well Being Apr 17, 2015

2015-04-15 - True Happiness - Realizing Well Being - Well being is the deep contentment that arises from a relaxed, wakeful presence. This talk explores the beliefs and habits that contract us away form presence, and several key ways we can nourish our natural capacity for happiness.

Your support will enable us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time. Visit: www.tarabrach.com. With thanks and love, Tara

2015-04-15 - Meditation: Relaxing, Smiling, Being Here Apr 17, 2015

2015-04-15 - Meditation: Relaxing, Smiling, Being Here

2015-04-08 - Three Liberating Gifts: Part 3 - Looking in the Mirror Apr 12, 2015

2015-04-08 - Three Liberating Gifts: Part 3 - Looking in the Mirror - This 3 part series is based on a teaching story from the Upanishads that shows our potential to awaken from an ego-based trance and discover the full luminosity and freedom of our natural awareness. In each class we'll explore one of the three gifts considered as essential on the spiritual path. The first is the capacity to forgive, to let go of the blame and resentment that prevents our hearts from being open and free. The second gift is "inner fire," the capacity to devote ourselves wholeheartedly to what we most cherish. The third gift is a "mirror" or the capacity to look deeply into our own hearts and minds and realize the truth of who we are. Each class includes guided meditations that explore how these gifts can be nourished right here and now in our lives.

Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Your donations allow us to continue to freely offer the teachings!

2015-04-08 - Meditation: Coming Home to the Senses Apr 12, 2015

2015-04-08 - Meditation: Coming Home to the Senses

2015-04-01 - Three Liberating Gifts: Part 2 - Inner Fire Apr 04, 2015

2015-04-01 - Three Liberating Gifts: Part 2 - Inner Fire - This 3 part series is based on a teaching story from the Upanishads that shows our potential to awaken from an ego-based trance and discover the full luminosity and freedom of our natural awareness. In each class we'll explore one of the three gifts considered as essential on the spiritual path. The first is the capacity to forgive, to let go of the blame and resentment that prevents our hearts from being open and free. The second gift is "inner fire," the capacity to devote ourselves wholeheartedly to what we most cherish. The third gift is a "mirror" or the capacity to look deeply into our own hearts and minds and realize the truth of who we are. Each class includes guided meditations that explore how these gifts can be nourished right here and now in our lives.

2015-04-01 - Meditation: Listening to and Feeling Life Apr 04, 2015

2015-04-01 - Meditation: Listening to and Feeling Life

2015-03-25 - Three Liberating Gifts: Part 1 - Forgiveness Mar 27, 2015

2015-03-25 - Three Liberating Gifts: Part 1 - Forgiveness - This 3 part series is based on a teaching story from the Upanishads that shows our potential to awaken from an ego-based trance and discover the full luminosity and freedom of our natural awareness. In each class we'll explore one of the three gifts considered as essential on the spiritual path. The first is the capacity to forgive, to let go of the blame and resentment that prevents our hearts from being open and free. The second gift is "inner fire," the capacity to devote ourselves wholeheartedly to what we most cherish. The third gift is a "mirror" or the capacity to look deeply into our own hearts and minds and realize the truth of who we are. Each class includes guided meditations that explore how these gifts can be nourished right here and now in our lives.

2015-03-25 - Meditation: Relaxing Back into Presence Mar 27, 2015

2015-03-25 - Meditation: Relaxing Back into Presence

2015-03-18 - Freedom from Fear-Based Beliefs Mar 21, 2015

2015-03-18 - Freedom from Fear-Based Beliefs - This talk looks at how we get imprisoned in fear based, limiting beliefs. We then explore key meditative steps that help release these veils and reveal the fullness and goodness of our essential being.

2015-03-18 - Meditation: Awakening from the Dream Mar 21, 2015

2015-03-18 - Meditation: Awakening from the Dream

2009-08-26 - Genuine Acceptance Mar 17, 2015

2009-08-26 - Genuine Acceptance - Our capacity to accept this life is key to our freedom, yet there are many misconceptions about acceptance: People wonder, if acceptance makes us a doormat in relationships? Isn't acceptance akin to resignation? Doesn't it make us passive when what is needed is action? This talk explores some of the misunderstandings about acceptance and offers teachings on the nature of genuine and liberating acceptance.

2011-11-09 - Meditation - Discovering Inner Space Mar 17, 2015

2011-11-09 - Meditation - Discovering Inner Space - By imagining the space inside the body, we discover the continuous space of awareness that is the source and essence of all aliveness.

2015-03-04 - Sure Heart's Release Mar 07, 2015

2015-03-04 - Sure Heart's Release - The pathway to our awaken heart includes deep recognition of our barriers to love, and as we open, the courage to express our love. This talk includes a reflection and practice that can support us in inhabiting our full capacity for loving presence.

2015-03-04 - Meditation: Open Wakeful Presence Mar 07, 2015

2015-03-04 - Meditation: Open Wakeful Presence

2015-02-25 - From Dragons to Schmoos - Meeting Life with Compassionate Presence Feb 28, 2015

2015-02-25 - From Dragons to Schmoos - Meeting Life with Compassionate Presence - The trance of unworthiness is sustained by our aversion to the dragons - the difficult emotions and related behaviors that are a deeply conditioned part of the human experience. In this talk we explore the awakening that is possible as we recognize our reactive patterns and instead of judgment, offer a loving and healing presence.

2015-02-25 - Meditation: Resting in Wakeful Presence Feb 28, 2015

2015-02-25 - Meditation: Resting in Wakeful Presence - This meditation begins with a body scan, then guides us to a feeling of open presence.

2015-02-18 - Part 2: Basic Elements of Meditation Practice Feb 21, 2015

2015-02-18 - Part 2: Basic Elements of Meditation Practice - This two-part series offers a clear and fresh understanding of practices that cultivate mindful awareness. The first class examines our attitude towards practice and gives guidance on posture, establishing an anchor for attention, and learning to concentrate and collect the mind - “coming back.” The second class focuses on the practice of mindfulness - “being here,” and the component qualities of clear recognition and an allowing non-judgmental presence.

2015-02-18 - Meditation: Body Scan - Living Presence Feb 21, 2015

2015-02-18 - Meditation: Body Scan - Living Presence

2015-02-18 - Meditation: Body Scan - Living Presence - 11 minutes Feb 21, 2015

2015-02-18 - Meditation: Body Scan - Living Presence - 11 minutes

2015-02-11 - Part 1: Basic Elements of Meditation Practice Feb 14, 2015

2015-02-11 - Part 1: Basic Elements of Meditation Practice - This two-part series offers a clear and fresh understanding of practices that cultivate mindful awareness. The first class examines our attitude towards practice and gives guidance on posture, establishing an anchor for attention, and learning to concentrate and collect the mind - “coming back.” The second class focuses on the practice of mindfulness - “being here,” and the component qualities of clear recognition and an allowing non-judgmental presence.

2015-02-11 - Meditation - Coming Back to the Breath Feb 14, 2015

2015-02-11 - Meditation - Coming Back to the Breath

2014-12-31-Retreat Meditation - Forgiving Ourselves and Others Feb 08, 2015

2014-12-31-Retreat Meditation - Forgiving Ourselves and Others - Instruction and guided heart forgiveness practice from the 2014 IMCW New Year's Retreat.

2015-01-28 - Inhabiting Our Bodies with Presence Jan 30, 2015

2015-01-28 - Inhabiting Our Bodies with Presence - Our conditioning is to pull away from our physical experience when it is difficult. When we regularly dissociate, we are removed from the source of our power, intuition and capacity to love in a full way. This talk looks at the ways we leave our body and the path of homecoming to living loving presence.

2015-01-28 - Meditation: Living Presence Jan 30, 2015

2015-01-28 - Meditation: Living Presence

2015-01-21 - Listening to the Calling of Our Hearts Jan 24, 2015

2015-01-21 - Listening to the Calling of Our Hearts - In any moment, our intention - what we are energetically wanting - shapes our life experience. While our deepest intention may be to realize and live from loving awareness, we are often driven by egoic fear and grasping. This talk explores how mindfulness can recognize our prevailing intention, and by staying present, kind and accepting, we can reconnect with the deeper longings that carry us to awakening and freedom.

2015-01-21 - Meditation: Awake Space - Relaxing Back Into Awareness Jan 24, 2015

2015-01-21 - Meditation: Awake Space - Relaxing Back Into Awareness

2015-01-14 Refuge in Loving Relationship Jan 17, 2015

2015-01-14 Refuge in Loving Relationship - Bringing presence to our relationships reveals our connectedness and essential Oneness. This talk explores two domains of this awakening with others: Realizing our shared vulnerability - that we’re in it together - and recognizing the inherent goodness or sacredness that lives through everyone.

2015-01-14 - Meditation: Relaxing Back and Letting Life Be As It Is Jan 17, 2015

2015-01-14 - Meditation: Relaxing Back and Letting Life Be As It Is

2015-01-07 - Taking Refuge in Your Own True Nature Jan 09, 2015

2015-01-07 - Taking Refuge in Your Own True Nature - The three classic refuges of Buddha (awareness), Dharma (truth) and Sangha (loving relatedness) are each expressions of our deepest essence. This talk reflects on the refuges and includes guided meditations and a closing ritual that helps us remember the pathway home in our daily life. (note: to participate in the ritual you will need a piece of red string about 28 inches long)

2015-01-07 - Meditation: Living Open Presence Jan 09, 2015

2015-01-07 - Meditation: Living Open Presence

2014-12-30 - (retreat talk) Landlocked in Fur - Three Domains of Formless Presence Jan 03, 2015

2014-12-30 - Retreat Talk - Landlocked in Fur - Three Domains of Formless Presence - While we have evolved to experience a defining sense of separate self, our potential is to awaken to the formless dimension - the pure awareness is our shared source. This talk explores how we can undo the identification with thoughts, emotions and feelings that keeps us landlocked and unable to trust and live from our naturally loving and radiant essence. (given at the 2014 IMCW New Year's Retreat in Reisterstown, MD)

Poem at start of talk: "Landlocked in Fur" - by Tukaram. From: “Love Poems From God: Twelve Sacred Voices from the East and West” (Ladinksy, 2002)

2014-12-30 Meditation - The Luminous Space of Awareness (retreat) Jan 03, 2015

2014-12-30 Meditation - The Luminous Space of Awareness (given at the 2014 IMCW New Year's retreat in Reisterstown, MD) - This meditation shifts attention from form to the formless source of all Being. Discover and rest in continuous space, filled with the light of awareness.

2014-08-02 - (retreat talk) Embodying Loving Presence Dec 26, 2014

2014-08-02 - (retreat talk) Embodying Loving Presence - This talk looks at the evolutionary fear-patterning that creates separation in our relationships, and at the practices that open us to giving and receiving love.

2014-12-17 - Part 2: Intimacy with Life Dec 19, 2014

2014-12-17 - Part 2: Intimacy with Life - This season is one of celebrating the light and love that is our unifying source. And yet at these times our society is being forced to face its deep patterning of racial oppression, amongst other expressions of violence. These two talks investigate the process of turning against ourselves and others, and how intentional and deep presence can heal the suffering of separation.

2014-12-17 - Meditation: Light of Awareness Dec 19, 2014

2014-12-17 - Meditation: Light of Awareness

2014-12-10 - Part 1: Intimacy with Life Dec 13, 2014

2014-12-10 - Part 1: Intimacy with Life - This season is one of celebrating the light and love that is our unifying source. And yet at these times our society is being forced to face its deep patterning of racial oppression, amongst other expressions of violence. These two talks investigate the process of turning against ourselves and others, and how intentional and deep presence can heal the suffering of separation.

2014-12-10 - Meditation: Intimacy with the Flow of Life Dec 13, 2014

2014-12-10 - Meditation: Intimacy with the Flow of Life

2014-10-30-Retreat Talk - Removing the Barriers to Love Dec 05, 2014

2014-10-30 - Removing the Barriers to Love - In our daily trance of feeling separate, we spend many moments wanting others to be different so we can feel better. This talk explores the heart awakening that unfolds when we deepen our commitment to seeing what is happening inside us. Only then can we see another with clear eyes, and realize the love that arises from our inherent Oneness.

2014-11-26 - A Generous Heart Nov 28, 2014

2014-11-26 - A Generous Heart - Our deep potential is to live from an awake, loving heart. This talk looks at how, with a kind and mindful attention, we can decondition habitual tendencies toward grasping and self-centeredness, and nourish the sense of connectedness and care that gives rise to generosity. As we bring these heart practices alive in our most immediate relationships, they have the power to evolve consciousness in widening circles across the world.

2014-11-26 - Guided Meditation - The Space of Awareness Nov 28, 2014

2014-11-26 - Guided Meditation - The Space of Awareness

2014-11-19 - Awakening Through Change and Loss Nov 22, 2014

2014-11-19 - Awakening Through Change and Loss - Our capacity to live and love fully is entirely related to how we open to the truth of impermanence. This talk examines how our ways of trying to control life solidify our perception of being separate and threatened. We then look at the wings of mindful presence and compassion that open us to loss and grief, and reveal the loving awareness that is beyond birth and death.

2014-11-19 - Meditation - Opening to Life's Flow Nov 22, 2014

2014-11-19 - Meditation - Opening to Life's Flow

2014-11-12 The Sacred Art of Listening Nov 22, 2014

2014-11-12 The Sacred Art of Listening - Our capacity to live and love fully is entirely related to how we open to the truth of impermanence. This talk examines how our ways of trying to control life solidify our perception of being separate and threatened. We then look at the wings of mindful presence and compassion that open us to loss and grief, and reveal the loving awareness that is beyond birth and death.

2014-11-12 Meditation - Listening to Life Nov 22, 2014

2014-11-12 Meditation - Listening to Life

2014-11-05 Radical Self-Honesty - The Joy of Getting Real Nov 07, 2014

2014-11-05 Radical Self-Honesty - The Joy of Getting Real - Our suffering arises from the unseen, unfelt, resisted parts of our psyche. This talk explores ways we can deepen self-honesty and reconnect to a wholeness of being that enables us to live with spontaneity, confidence, wisdom and love. Quote from Elizabeth Lesser: "My prayer to god every day: Remove the veils so I might see what is really happening here and not be intoxicated by my stories and my fears."

2014-11-05 Meditation - Relaxing into Living Presence Nov 07, 2014

Meditation - Relaxing into Living Presence (2014-11-05) - This meditation guides us to awaken to sensation using the image of a smile and scanning through the body. We then open to sound and to the entire changing flow of experience. When we connect with the changing flow of sensations, feelings and sounds, we also discover the formless awareness that is our Source… and home. We end with a prayer that includes our own being and all beings.

2014-10-26 - Retreat Talk - Sacred Fertilizer - The Portal of Fear Nov 01, 2014

2014-10-26 - Retreat Talk - Sacred fertilizer - The Portal of Fear - Bringing presence to the contraction of fear is a universal part of spiritual awakening. This talk explores two interrelated pathways of opening to and transforming fear.

2014-10-22-Part 2 - Happiness Oct 24, 2014

2014-10-22-Part 2 - Happiness - The Buddha said that he would not teach about happiness if it were not possible to realize this experience of peace and deep well-being. In this three part series, we explore two kinds of happiness - that which arises out of particular causes and the experience of “happy for no reason.” The talks examine the attachments that block happiness, ways to “gladden the mind,” and the liberating presence that naturally expresses as pure happiness.

2014-10-22-Meditation - Opening to Full Aliveness Oct 24, 2014

2014-10-22-Meditation - Opening to Full Aliveness

2014-10-15 - Part 1 - Happiness Oct 18, 2014

2014-10-15 - Part 1 - Happiness - The Buddha said that he would not teach about happiness if it were not possible to realize this experience of peace and deep well-being. In this three part series, we explore two kinds of happiness - that which arises out of particular causes and the experience of “happy for no reason.” The talks examine the attachments that block happiness, ways to “gladden the mind,” and the liberating presence that naturally expresses as pure happiness.

2014-10-15 Meditation - Coming Back to Your Senses Oct 18, 2014

2014-10-15 Meditation - Coming Back to Your Senses

2014-10-08 - Part 2 - Unconditional Love Oct 10, 2014

2014-10-01 - Part 2 - Unconditional Love - These two talks explore key elements in manifesting our innate capacity for unconditional love. Both talks include teachings and meditative strategies for recognizing our blocks to loving, and, through courageous, embodied presence, discovering who we are when not confined by the limiting beliefs and feelings of an egoic self. The first focuses on accepting and embracing our inner life, and the second, on the awakening of a loving presence that includes the whole of this living world.

2014-10-08 - Meditation - Loving Kindness Oct 10, 2014

2014-10-08 - Meditation - Loving Kindness - embracing ourselves and all beings with a full and tender loving presence.

2014-10-01 - Part 1 - Unconditional Love Oct 03, 2014

2014-10-01 - Part 1 - Unconditional Love - These two talks explore key elements in manifesting our innate capacity for unconditional love. Both talks include teachings and meditative strategies for recognizing our blocks to loving, and, through courageous, embodied presence, discovering who we are when not confined by the limiting beliefs and feelings of an egoic self. The first focuses on accepting and embracing our inner life, and the second, on the awakening of a loving presence that includes the whole of this living world.

2014-10-01 - Meditation - Listening to and Feeling Our Life Oct 03, 2014

2014-10-01 - Guided Meditation - Listening to and Feeling Our Life

2014-09-24 - Awakening from the Landlocked Self Sep 26, 2014

Awakening from the Landlocked Self - The Buddha taught that our suffering arises from forgetting who we are. This talk explores the trance of identifying as Somebody, and the compassionate witnessing that allows us to discover the freedom of our natural being.

2014-09-24 Meditation - Befriending and Opening to Life Sep 26, 2014

2014-09-24 Meditation - Befriending and Opening to Life

2014-09-17 - Earth's Crisis - On the Edge of the Roof Sep 18, 2014

2014-09-18 - Earth’s Crisis - On the Edge of the Roof - This talk views the ecological dis-ease of our planet through the lens of our evolutionary unfolding. We explore the egoic trance that has precipitated the destruction of our environment, and the inner practices of presence that enable us to respond from love and wisdom.

2014-09-17-Meditation - Opening to Aliveness Sep 18, 2014

2014-09-17 Guided Meditation: Opening to Aliveness

2013-10-14 - Satsang - Peace is this Moment Sep 13, 2014

2013-10-14 - Satsang - Peace is this Moment - Evening of question/response with Tara after a meditation on Dorothy Hunt's poem, "Peace is Moment Without Judgment."

2011-12-31 - Meditation - Awakening Compassion - Tonglen Sep 13, 2014

2011-12-31 - Guided Meditation - Awakening Compassion - Tonglen - Our deepest wisdom and purest actions arise out of open-hearted presence. This meditation, "Awakening Compassion," is drawn from the Tibetan tradition and carries us home to the vastness of loving presence.

2013-05-13 - Question and Response at Satsang Sep 08, 2014

A Special Evening Satsang – question and response with Tara from 2013-05-13. Many of the questions that evening were about R.A.I.N. NOTE: Satsang means exploring and realizing truth in the gathering of spiritual friends. The word comes from Sanskrit – sat means truth - and sangha is community or company of spiritual friends.

2011-04-13-Metta Meditation - Happiness Sep 08, 2014

2011-04-13-Metta Meditation - Happiness - 17 minutes - Tara was away this week, so posting a long-time and well-played favorite from her website at www.tarabrach.com.

2013-05-29-Meditation-Just-This-Breath-TaraBrach-hq.mp3 Sep 08, 2014

2014-08-27 - Loving Truth - The Power of Investigation Aug 30, 2014

2014-08-27 - Loving Truth - The Power of Investigation - A key element in spiritual awakening is wise and compassionate investigation. This talk explores how investigation and inquiry (the use of questions) serves emotional healing, intimacy with others and the deepest realization of who we are.

2014-08-27 - Meditation - Space and Aliveness Aug 30, 2014

2014-08-27 - Guided Meditation - Space and Aliveness

2014-08-20 Bringing Awareness to Doing Aug 23, 2014

2014-08-20 Bringing Awareness to Doing - One of the core domains of egoic trance is addictive doing - chronic activity driven by fear and wanting that keeps us from realizing a wholeness of Being. This talk looks at how addictive doing keeps us in the map of time, identified as a separate self, always on our way somewhere else. We then explore ways we undo this conditioning by pausing and opening to the liberating dimension of Being.

2014-08-20 Guided Meditation - Emptiness Dancing Aug 23, 2014

2014-08-20 Guided Meditation - Emptiness Dancing

2014-08-13 - Listening to the Song Aug 16, 2014

2014-08-13 - Listening to the Song - Tara was away this week, so asked for this favorite talk to be posted. Listening with our full heart and attention is the gateway to understanding and love. This talk explores the challenges to deep listening, and offers ways of paying attention that awaken a healing listening presence.

2014-08-13-Guided Meditation - Coming Home to Being Aug 16, 2014

2014-08-13-Guided Meditation - Coming Home to Being - Tara was vacationing this weekend, so she offers a favorite from the archives.

Nuestra verdadera naturaleza Aug 13, 2014

Nuestra verdadera naturaleza - (Meditaciones de la colección de dos CD llamada - La aceptación radical: Meditaciones guiadas) (Realizing Our True Nature: Self-Inquiry)

Regresando a la presencia natural Aug 13, 2014

Regresando a la presencia natural - (Meditaciones de la colección de dos CD llamada - La aceptación radical: Meditaciones guiadas) (Coming Home to Natural Presence)

Invocando una presencia apacible Aug 13, 2014

Invocando una presencia apacible - (Meditaciones de la colección de dos CD llamada - La aceptación radical: Meditaciones guiadas) (Invoking Loving Presence in the Face of Difficulty - a version of tonglen)

Cultivando un corazon dispuesto a perdonar Aug 13, 2014

Cultivando un corazon dispuesto a perdonar - (Meditaciones de la colección de dos CD llamada - La aceptación radical: Meditaciones guiadas)

Tonglen Aug 13, 2014

Tonglen - (Meditaciones de la colección de dos CD llamada - La aceptación radical: Meditaciones guiadas) (Tonglen - Transforming Suffering into Compassion)

Aceptación radical del dolor Aug 13, 2014

Aceptación radical del dolor - (Meditaciones de la colección de dos CD llamada - La aceptación radical: Meditaciones guiadas)

Afrontar la vida con una sonrisa Aug 13, 2014

Afrontar la vida con una sonrisa - (Meditaciones de la colección de dos CD llamada - La aceptación radical: Meditaciones guiadas)

2014-08-06 - Part 2 - Trusting Your Basic Goodness Aug 09, 2014

2014-08-06 - Part 2 - Trusting Your Basic Goodness - This talk continues the exploration of what causes our distrust of ourselves, others and life, and the pathways to realizing and trusting who we are. We explore the steps of awakening from limiting beliefs, dissolving the resistance to direct embodied presence, and discovering the space and tenderness - the formless dimension - that is indivisible and whole.

2014-08-06-Meditation: Entrusting Yourself to the Waves Aug 09, 2014

2014-08-06-Meditation: Entrusting Yourself to the Waves

2014-07-30 - Part 1 - Basic Trust Aug 02, 2014

2014-07-30 - Part 1 - Basic Trust - One of the expressions of an awakened heart-mind is a basic trust in reality. These talks explore the severed belonging that gives rise to mistrust, and two primary pathways to realizing and trusting the indivisible field of loving awareness that is our source.

Meditation: Embodied Awareness Aug 02, 2014

2014-07-30 Meditation: Embodied Awareness

An Evening of Inquiry Jul 25, 2014

2014-07-23 - An Evening of Inquiry - In this class, Tara offered a guided meditation, some brief words on connecting with the felt sense of our experience, and opened the class to questions.

Meditation: Coming Home to Your Breath Jul 25, 2014

2014-07-23 - Meditation: Coming Home to Your Breath

Nourishing a Liberating Intention Jul 12, 2014

2014-07-09 - Nourishing a Liberating Intention - The Buddha taught that this entire world arises out of the tip of intention. Intentions can arise from an egoic wants and fears, and they can arise from the wisdom of our heart that is calling us home. This talk explores the qualities that signify a liberating intention and how, by bringing presence to our current intention, we uncover the purity and power of our hearts true aspiration.

Guided Meditation: Awake, Relaxed and Open Jul 12, 2014

2014-07-09 - Guided Meditation: Awake, Relaxed and Open

Blessings of Soul Recognition Jul 04, 2014

2014-07-02 Blessings of Soul Recognition - We live under an enchantment that has us see ourselves and each other as separate egoic entities. This talk draws on an Arthurian legend and explores the pathways of presence that enable us to see past the mask - our own, others - and recognize the spirit that shines through these temporary incarnations.

Guided Meditation: Relaxing Back Jul 04, 2014

2014-07-02 Guided Meditation: Relaxing Back

Awakening through Conscious Relationship Jun 20, 2014

Communicating our vulnerability and learning to listen - seeking to understand another’s experience - are the keys to discovering the truth of our connectedness. This talk explores the challenges and gifts of dedicating ourselves to becoming more real, present and open in our relationships.

Meditation: Resting as Awareness Jun 20, 2014

2014-06-18 Meditation: Resting as Awareness

Freedom and Happiness in Daily Life Jun 13, 2014

2014-06-11 - Freedom and Happiness in Daily Life - How you live today is how you live your life. This talk explores different meditative practices and teachings that help us reconnect with and nurture presence in the midst of the array of daily stressors.

Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com. Your donations allow us to continue to freely offer the teachings!

Guided Meditation: Stand Still (standing meditation instructions) Jun 13, 2014

2014-06-11 - Guided Meditation: Stand Still (standing meditation instructions)

Awakening from Virtual Reality Jun 06, 2014

2014-06-04 - Awakening from Virtual Reality - This talk looks at the power our virtual reality of thoughts can hold over our lives. We then explore how bringing mindful awareness to thinking enables us to heal historical wounding and discover who we are beyond the self-story in our mind. We don’t have to believe our thoughts - they are "real but not true!"

Meditation: Letting Life Live through You Jun 06, 2014

2014-06-04 - Meditation: Letting Life Live through You

Meditation: Inner Space-Gateway to Open Awareness Jun 03, 2014

2011-08-13 Meditation: Inner Space-Gateway to Open Awareness

Meditation: Arriving in Presence Jun 03, 2014

2010-02-03 Meditation: Arriving in Presence

Meditation: Coming Home to Presence Jun 03, 2014

2012-12-12-Meditation-Coming-Home-to-Presence

Humility May 30, 2014

2014-05-28 - Humility - In Buddhism and most faiths, humility - feeling that we all share common ground, feeling neither superior or inferior to others - is both a prerequisite to awakening and an expression of mature spirituality. This talk explores how our conditioning and culture reinforce a swing from ego-inflation (self-importance, feeling special, better than others) to ego-deflation (feeling unworthy). We then look at how a wise and kind attention opens us to who we are beyond these confining egoic states, and enables us to live with humility and grace.

Meditation: Dedicated to Maya Angelou: Being at Home May 30, 2014

2015-05-28 - Guided Meditation: Dedicated to Maya Angelou: Being at Home

Heart Training on the Bodhisatva Path May 23, 2014

2014-05-21 - Heart Training on the Bodhisatva Path - Bodhisattva means “Awakened Being.” This path of awakening has three key domains for practice: remembering intention; training our attention; and compassionate activity. This talk reviews these domains and includes guided reflections that can help bring spirituality alive in daily life.

Question and Response May 16, 2014

2014-05-14 - Question and Response - Tara explores a range of questions that include working with unworthiness, recognizing aspiration, stepping out of the story and understanding the selfless quality of experience.

Guided Meditation: Vipassana Instructions May 16, 2014

2014-05-14 - Guided Meditation: Vipassana Instructions

Am I Dreaming? (retreat talk) May 10, 2014

2014-05-07 - Am I Dreaming - As we cultivate mindfulness we become increasingly aware of how we move through huge swaths of our life in trance. This talk reflects on three key domains of trance, and undoing the habitual reactivity that keeps us from the loving, open awareness that is our essence.

Part 2: Conflict - From Fight Flight Freeze to Attend Befriend May 01, 2014

2014-04-30 - Part 2 - Conflict - From Fight Flight Freeze to Attend Befriend - How do we reconcile conflict when caught in reactivity sourced in trauma or deep wounding? This talk looks at the need for a larger field of belonging - a trusted other person or safe group - to engender the presence and compassion that enables us to relax and reconnect with our own wholeness and with others.

Meditation: Relaxing Back into Wakeful Openness May 01, 2014

2014-04-30 - Guided Meditation: Relaxing Back into Wakeful Openness

Awakening Through Conflict Apr 25, 2014

2014-04-23 - Awakening Through Conflict - As long as we are identified as separate selves, we will inevitably experience conflict with others. If we learn to release blame and deepen attention to our embodied experience, conflict can become a portal for more loving, alive relationships and awakening into the fullness of our being.

Meditation - Listening to and Feeling the Moment Apr 25, 2014

2014-04-23 - Meditation - Listening to and Feeling the Moment

RAIN - Cultivating a Mindful Awareness Apr 19, 2014

2014-04-16 - RAIN - Cultivating a Mindful Presence - The acronym RAIN is a powerful tool for interrupting habitual patterns of emotional reactivity and discovering the freedom of an awake, compassionate presence. This talk explores the components of RAIN, how it works, what makes it transformational and typical challenges people encounter. The teachings include a guided RAIN meditation.

Guided Meditation: Breath as Homebase Apr 19, 2014

2014-04-16 - Guided Meditation: Breath as Homebase

Guided Meditation: Metta (Lovingkindness) Apr 15, 2014

2014-02-05-Guided Meditation: Metta (Lovingkindness)

Loving and Losing Apr 11, 2014

2014-04-09 - Loving and Losing - The way that we relate to impermanence and loss shapes our capacity to live and love fully. This talk, drawing on Mary Oliver’s poem “In Blackwater Woods,” explores three elements in our response to this fleeting, precious life that are integral to our healing and freedom.

Guided Meditation: Living Presence Apr 11, 2014

2014-04-09 - Guided Meditation: Living Presence

Guided Meditation: Arriving in Presence Apr 05, 2014

2010-08-04 - Guided Meditation - Arriving in Presence

Stress and Our Evolving Consciousness Apr 05, 2014

2014-04-02 - Stress and Our Evolving Consciousness - The universal experience of stress (in Buddhism, called dukkha) is a message that we are not realizing, trusting and living from our true nature. Our habitual reactions to stress - grasping, aversion, resistance - deepen emotional pain and lock us in a limiting sense of egoic-self. This talk explores how, with conscious intention and deepened attention, the stressful difficulties we encounter can become the very grounds of healing and spiritual awakening.

Guided Meditation: Connecting with Aliveness and Openness Apr 05, 2014

2014-04-02 - Guided Meditation: Connecting with Aliveness and Openness

Planting Ourselves in the Universe Mar 29, 2014

2014-03-26 - Planting Ourselves in the Universe - When we are lost in the trance of thinking, we disconnect from the aliveness, awareness and love that is our source. Mindfulness, a key capacity of our evolving consciousness, awakens us from an identification with thinking and enables us to inhabit a wider realm of Being. This talk explores the confines of conceptual mind and the simple yet powerful practices that cultivate mindful awareness.

Guided Meditation: Relaxing into Presence Mar 29, 2014

2014-03-26 - Guided Meditation: Relaxing into Presence

Return of the Prodigal Son Mar 22, 2014

2014-03-19 - Return of the Prodigal Son - Drawing on Henri Nouwen’s book that interprets this famous parable, this talk looks at the ways we cut off from loving awareness, and the process of homecoming. Our inquiry, reflections and a guided meditation focus on an essential and often overlooked element of transformation: our capacity to trust in love, to let love in.

Meditation: Letting Life Live Through You Mar 22, 2014

2014-03-19 - Guided Meditation: Letting Life Live Through You

Part 5 - Equanimity - A Heart That is Ready for Anything Mar 15, 2014

2014-03-12 - Part 5 - Equanimity - A Heart that is Ready for Anything - Equanimity is the quality of presence that is open, balanced and non-reactive. As this talk explores, when equanimity is lacking, we become easily lost in trance, identified as a defended and controlling egoic self. When present, the solidity and constriction of egoic self dissolves, and our heart is free to respond to life with love, compassion, forgiveness and joy.

Guided Meditation: Cultivating a Relaxed Attentiveness Mar 15, 2014

2014-03-12 - Guided Meditation: Cultivating a Relaxed Attentiveness

Part 4: Opening to Joy Mar 07, 2014

2014-03-05 - Part 4 - Opening to Joy - Our innate capacity for joy is blocked by our habitual ways of paying attention. This talk explores three key pathways of presence that connect us with our full openness and aliveness.

Meditation: Dynamic Presence Mar 07, 2014

2014-03-05 - Guided Meditation: Dynamic Presence

Guided Forgiveness Meditation Mar 01, 2014

2014-02-26-Guided Forgiveness Meditation - a short cut from the end of the "A Forgiving Heart" talk

Part 3: A Forgiving Heart Feb 28, 2014

2014-02-26 - Part 3 - A Forgiving Heart - Anger is an intelligent emotion, a natural part of our evolutionary design that lets us know when we are endangered or impeded in our progress. But when it locks into ongoing resentment and blame, our heart becomes armored and we lose access to a wholeness of being. This talk explores forgiving as a process of relaxing our armoring and awakening a healing compassion for ourselves and others.

Meditation: A Healing Breath Feb 28, 2014

2014-02-26 - Guided Meditation: A Healing Breath

Part 2: Heart of Compassion Feb 21, 2014

2014-02-19 - Part 2: Heart of Compassion - Most of us consciously value compassion, but move through much of life without access to the full capacity of our heart. This talk explores the self-compassion that is the very grounds of loving our world.

2014-02-19 - Guided Meditation: Into Stillness Feb 21, 2014

2014-02-19 - Guided Meditation: Into Stillness

Mindfulness-In-Schools-TimRyan.mp3 Feb 14, 2014

2013-10-07 - Mindfulness in Schools- Enabling Children to Realize their Full Potential - Congressman (OH) Tim Ryan speaks at Walt Whitman HS, Bethesda, MD.

2013-10-07 - Mindfulness-In-Schools-TaraBrach.mp3 Feb 11, 2014

2013-10-07 - Mindfulness in Schools- Enabling Children to Realize their Full Potential - This talk explores stress-related emotional suffering and how mindfulness and compassion practices can serve our children’s natural intelligence, creativity and openheartedness. Trainings in presence are the hope for this next generation, and the healing of our world. Talk given at Walt Whitman HS, Bethesda, MD.

2014-02-05 - Part 1: Universal Faces of Love Feb 06, 2014

2014-02-05 - Part 1: Universal Faces of Love - Lovingkindness, or metta, is the first of the four divine abodes in buddhist teachings. This talk explores the habitual patterns of fears and wants that obscure this innate quality of heart and key ways that we awaken ourselves to its luminous presence.

Guided Meditation: Listening to and Feeling the Moment (2) Feb 06, 2014

2014-02-05-Guided Meditation: Listening to and Feeling the Moment (2)

Awakening from Virtual Reality (retreat talk) Jan 31, 2014

2009-05-02 - Awakening from Virtual Reality - This talk examines how we get stuck in identifying as a separate, deficient self, and the way that a deep attention frees us from trance.

"The invitation of the Path is that we can wake up out of our stories of limitation and blame. We can listen to and touch the longing in us that really wants to love without holding back and live from freedom. And we can then look at what's true within us so deeply that we discover the very awake, empty presence that is our essence. And we can live from that so that our lives become an expression of that realization. An expression of loving presence."

Guided Meditation: Lovingkindness (metta) (from retreat) Jan 31, 2014

2012-04-28 Guided Heart Meditation: Lovingkindness (metta) from retreat

Listening to the Song Jan 24, 2014

2014-01-22 - Listening to the Song - Listening with our full heart and attention is the gateway to understanding and love. This talk explores the challenges to deep listening, and offers ways of paying attention that awaken a healing listening presence.

Guided Meditation: A Listening Presence Jan 24, 2014

2014-01-22 - Guided Meditation - A Listening Presence

Realizing Our Undefended and Awakened Heart (retreat talk) Jan 17, 2014

2013-12-29 - Realizing Our Undefended and Awakened Heart (retreat talk) - It is our evolutionary and spiritual potential to release unnecessary habits of violating other tribes, individuals and unwanted parts of our own being. This talk explores three essential facets of the pathway to awakening: Leaving the fortress of aversive judgment, entering the wilderness of our embodied being and encircling this life with love.

Walking Meditation Instructions (from retreat) Jan 17, 2014

2013-12-28 - Walking Meditation Instruction (from the IMCW 2013 New Year's retreat)

Path of True Refuge Jan 11, 2014

2014-01-08 - Path of True Refuge - This talk explores the three archetypal gateways to liberation - awareness (Buddha), truth (Dharma) and love (Sangha). It includes guided reflections and a refuge ceremony that can help us discover the path “inside out” through daily life.

Guided Meditation: Refuge in Living Presence Jan 11, 2014

2014-01-08 - Guided Meditation: Refuge in Living Presence

Part 2: The Sure Heart's Release Jan 03, 2014

2011-02-16 - Part 2 - The Sure Heart's Release - Our longing is to realize and embody loving presence, yet we each have deeply conditioned habits that bind our hearts. This talk reflects on these habits, and explores how we can free ourselves by bringing a mindful, compassionate attention to places where we are most trapped in feeling separate, fearful and unworthy.

Guided Meditation: The Center of Now - Includes Body Scan Jan 03, 2014

2011-02-16 - Guided Meditation: The Center of Now - Includes Body Scan

Guided Meditation: The Sky of Awareness Dec 27, 2013

2011-02-09 - Guided Meditation - The Sky of Awareness

Part 1: The Sure Heart's Release Dec 26, 2013

2011-02-29 - Part 1 - The Sure Heart's release - Our longing is to realize and embody loving presence, yet we each have deeply conditioned habits that bind our hearts. This talk reflects on these habits, and explores how we can free ourselves by bringing a mindful, compassionate attention to places where we are most trapped in feeling separate, fearful and unworthy.

No class on December 25 - enjoy a favorite from 2011.

Part 2: Evolving Toward Unconditional Love Dec 21, 2013

2013-12-18 - Part 2: Evolving Toward Unconditional Love - This two part series explores the evolutionary conditioning of fear and judgment that contracts us away from love and acceptance, and the quality of mindful presence - in relating inwardly and in communicating with others - that awakens and frees our hearts.

Included at the end: "Holiday Dharma" - fun and song from La Sarmiento as part of IMCW's 2013 winter solstice celebration.

Guided Meditation: Being Presence 2 Dec 21, 2013

2013-12-18 - Guided Meditation: Being Presence 2

Part 1: Evolving Toward Unconditional Love Dec 13, 2013

2013-12-11 - Part 1: Evolving Toward Unconditional Love - This two part series explores the evolutionary conditioning of fear and judgment that contracts us away from love and acceptance, and the quality of mindful presence - in relating inwardly and in communicating with others - that awakens and frees our hearts.

Guided Meditation: Space & Aliveness Dec 13, 2013

2013-12-11 - Guided Meditation: Space & Aliveness

Wings of Homecoming (retreat talk) Dec 07, 2013

2013-10-23 - Wings of Homecoming (retreat talk) - Part of incarnating is to feel separate and forget the mysterious oneness that is our home. This talk explores the two dimensions of awareness that when awakened reveal the openness, lucidity and love that expresses our true nature.

The Evolving of Generosity Nov 28, 2013

2013-11-27 - The Evolving of Generosity - This talk explores how we can open out of the habit of grasping and deliberately nourish our natural capacity for generosity, for living love.

Guided Meditation: Listening to & Feeling the Moment Nov 28, 2013

2013-11-27 Guided Meditation: Listening to & Feeling the Moment

Accessing Innate Wisdom Nov 21, 2013

2013-11-20 Accessing Innate Wisdom - Wisdom is an innate capacity, but often covered over by trance. This talk explores how we abandon ourselves as we busily seek ways to feel more worthy, loveable and safe. We then look at the pathway home, the radical non-doing and space of silence that allows wisdom and love to flow through.

Guided Meditation: Choiceless Awareness Nov 21, 2013

2013-11-20 Guided Meditation: Choiceless Awareness

Part 2: Vulnerability, Intimacy, & Spiritual Awakening Nov 16, 2013

2013-11-13 - Part 2 - Vulnerability, Intimacy and Spiritual Awakening - We each live with uncertainty and the fear of rejection and loss, and we each are conditioned to avoid feeling or expressing that vulnerability. Yet intimacy with this unlived life is the gateway to connecting authentically with others, full aliveness and spiritual realization. These talks explore the ways that we defend ourselves, and the pathway to gently, wisely and intelligently disarming and freeing our hearts.

Guided Meditation: Breath & Presence Nov 16, 2013

2013-11-13 - Guided Meditation: Breath & Presence

Part 1: Vulnerability, Intimacy, & Spiritual Awakening Nov 08, 2013

2013-11-06 - Part 1: Vulnerability, Intimacy, & Spiritual Awakening - We each live with uncertainty and the fear of rejection and loss, and we each are conditioned to avoid feeling or expressing that vulnerability. Yet intimacy with this unlived life is the gateway to connecting authentically with others, full aliveness and spiritual realization. These talks explore the ways that we defend ourselves, and the pathway to gently, wisely and intelligently disarming and freeing our hearts.

Guided Meditation: Continuous Space, Filled with Awareness Nov 08, 2013

2013-11-06-Guided Meditation: Continuous Space, Filled with Awareness

Healing Self-Doubt Nov 03, 2013

2013-10-30 - Healing Self-Doubt - Siddhartha Gautama’s last challenge before enlightenment was doubt, and to some degree, most of us live with limiting beliefs about our own worthiness and goodness. This talk looks at the tenacity of self-doubt and the power of mindfulness, investigation and compassion in releasing its grip.

Guided Meditation: Relaxing Back into Presence Nov 03, 2013

2013-10-30 - Guided Meditation: Relaxing Back into Presence

Guided Forgiveness Practice (retreat) Oct 26, 2013

2013-10-20 SatPM (retreat) Guided Forgiveness Practice - Instructions, then a guided forgiveness meditation.

The Heartspace That is Our True Home (retreat talk) Oct 26, 2013

2013-10-19 - The Heartspace That is Our True Home - (retreat talk) - By dedicating ourselves to loving the life that is right here--ourselves--we discover the heartspace that holds this world. This talk explores the pathways of forgiveness, offering and letting in love, and gratitude that reveal the vastness of loving presence.

Part 2: Happiness Oct 18, 2013

2013-10-16 - Part 2: Happiness - This 2-part series explores conditioned and unconditioned happiness: What blocks us from experiencing true well-being, and the skillful means that allow this natural expression of our being to shine through.

Guided Meditation: Listening to, and Feeling, the Moment Oct 18, 2013

2013-10-16 Guided Meditation: Listening to, and Feeling, the Moment

Part 1: Happiness Oct 11, 2013

2013-10-09 - Part 1: Happiness - This 2-part series explores conditioned and unconditioned happiness: What blocks us from experiencing true well-being, and the skillful means that allow this natural expression of our being to shine through.

Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Your donations allow us to continue to freely offer the teachings!

Guided Meditation: Being Presence Oct 11, 2013

2013-10-09 - Guided Meditation: Being Presence

Loving Life, Loving Earth Oct 04, 2013

2013-10-02 - Loving Life, Loving Earth - What will it take to have us collectively awaken to the suffering of our earth and respond? This talk looks at how we are destroying our larger body, the earth; what stops us from recognizing and opening to the suffering of loss, and ways we can evolve our consciousness and act on behalf of this precious life. Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Your donations allow us to continue to freely offer the teachings!

Guided Meditation: Choosing Living Presence Oct 04, 2013

2013-10-02 - Guided Meditation: Choosing Living Presence

Part 2: Entering the Wilderness Sep 27, 2013

2013-09-25 - Part 2: Entering the Wilderness - On all spiritual paths, we journey into the inner wilderness to discover the nature of nature - the truth of who we are. The entry is through bringing a kind and full presence to the life of our bodies. These two talks explore the conditioning that leads us to dissociation, and the blessings of full aliveness, open heartedness and wisdom that arise when we come home to embodied presence. Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Your donations allow us to continue to freely offer the teachings!

Vipassana (Insight or Mindfulness) Meditation Sep 27, 2013

2013-09-25 - Guided Meditation - Vipassana (Insight or Mindfulness)

Part 1: Entering the Wilderness Sep 20, 2013

2013-09-18 - Part 1 - Entering the Wilderness - On all spiritual paths, we journey into the inner wilderness to discover the nature of nature - the truth of who we are. The entry is through bringing a kind and full presence to the life of our bodies. These two talks explore the conditioning that leads us to dissociation, and the blessings of full aliveness, open heartedness and wisdom that arise when we come home to embodied presence.Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Your donations allow us to continue to freely offer the teachings!

Guided Meditation: Embodied Presence Sep 20, 2013

2013-09-18 Guided Meditation: Embodied Presence

Peace Work Sep 14, 2013

2013-09-11 - Peace Work - The hope for inner and world peace lies in our evolutionary capacity to shift from Fight-Flight-Freeze reactivity to responding to aggravation with Attend-Befriend. This talk explores the three elements on this path of awakening that support us in this transformation: Remembering our true aspiration; taking full responsibility (for whatever arises in our experience) and widening the circles of our caring to include all beings. Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Your donations allow us to continue to freely offer the teachings!

Guided Meditation: Breath and Awareness Sep 14, 2013

2013-09-11 - Guided Meditation: Breath and Awareness

From Egoic to Unconditioned Loving Sep 08, 2013

2013-09-04 - From Egoic to Unconditioned Loving - When we are caught in the sense of separation and unmet needs, our love is marbled with fear and attachment. This talk describes the chain of conditioning that perpetuates the constrictions of egoic love and explores several courageous activities--sharing our vulnerability, expressing love, extending and receiving love-- that awaken us to the vastness and freedom of pure loving awareness. Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Your donations allow us to continue to freely offer the teachings!

Guided Meditation - Letting Life Be As It Is Sep 08, 2013

2013-09-04 - Guided Meditation - Letting Life Be As It Is

Part 2: Relating to the Fearsome Deities Aug 30, 2013

2013-08-28 - Part 2: Relating to the Fearsome Deities - Whenever Mara--the shadow side--appeared during the Buddha's life, his response was simple and liberating: "I see you Mara," and,"Please, come…let's have tea." In that spirit, this talk explores three approaches to relating to fear with a mindful and compassionate presence. The flute meditation at the end of the talk is given by Akal Dev. Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com. Your donations allow us to continue to freely offer the teachings!

Guided Meditation: Rest As Presence Aug 30, 2013

2013-08-28 - Guided Meditation: Rest As Presence

Part 1: Relating to the Fearsome Deities Aug 23, 2013

2013-08-21 - Part 1: Relating to the Fearsome Deities - Our relationship to fear shapes our life experience. If we are unconscious, and reflexively try to manage fear, our identity takes the shape of the body of fear. If instead we learn to attend and befriend fear, we discover the freedom of our awakened heart. Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Your donations allow us to continue to freely offer the teachings!

Guided Meditation: Resting As Awareness Aug 23, 2013

2013-08-21 - Guided Meditation: Resting As Awareness

The Gift of Silence - (from 2007) Aug 18, 2013

2007-09-26 - The Gift of Silence - Through all spiritual traditions, there is a valuing of silence and stillness. When the mind has quieted, it becomes possible to see into the truth of what we are. Yet quieting can turn into a battle with the process of the thinking mind. This talk explores practices that allow us to settle in a natural way, the presence which is silence itself, and the wisdom and love that flows freely when we live from that silence. Please support the continuation of this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Thank you for your generosity.

Guided Meditation: Into the Stillness Aug 18, 2013

2007-09-26 - Guided Meditation: Into the Stillness

True Belonging Aug 09, 2013

2013-08-07 - True Belonging - We all have a longing to belong. When pursued at the egoic level--often through our good-personhood projects--there may be temporary satisfaction but our sense of separation is ultimately reinforced. In contrast, bringing mindfulness and compassion to whatever is arising dissolves the sense of separation and reveals the basic goodness of our own loving presence. Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Your donations allow us to continue to freely offer the teachings!

Meditation: The Aliveness and Space of Presence Aug 09, 2013

2013-08-07 - Guided Meditation - The Aliveness and Space of Presence

From Story to Presence Aug 03, 2013

2009-09-09 - From Story to Presence - A fundamental skill cultivated through meditation is awakening from our stories and arriving back in the aliveness of the moment. If we investigate, we find that a large portion of our stories create physical and emotional stress, separate us from others, and obscure the truth of who we are. In this talk you are invited to identify several of your "top ten hits", explore how these stories live in your body, and reconnect with living presence.

Meditation - Relaxing the Heart Aug 03, 2013

2009-09-09 - Relaxing the Heart

Three Gestures of Love Jul 27, 2013

2013-07-24 - Three Gestures of Love - If we inquire "what is between me and presence" we usually find we've been caught inside a limiting story of self, contracted by wants and fears. This talk explores a simple yet powerful way of arousing loving presence and dissolving the narrow identification that keeps us from inhabiting our awakened heartmind.

Guided Meditation: A Listening, Receptive Presence Jul 27, 2013

2013-07-24 - Guided Meditation: A Listening, Receptive Presence

Introducción a la Meditación Parte 1: El Arte y Ciencia de la Meditación Jul 27, 2013

2010-10-13 - Introducción a la Meditación Parte 1: El Arte y Ciencia de la MeditaciónLa primera sesión define la meditación y describe las enseñanzas budistas que le dan contexto al camino de la practica. Exploramos las dos formas básicas de meditación - concentración y conciencia plena - y luego nos enfocamos en el entrenamiento de conciencia plena: trayendo atención de conciencia plena a la respiración y sensaciones corporales. Las meditaciones guiadas incluyen el establecimiento de una intención y la pausa sagrada; aprendiendo a "regresar" usando la respiración como un ancla; y "estando aquí" con una presencia encarnada.

Transcriptora: Sashi Gabrielle (sashigabrielle@gmail.com)Traductora: Lara Cozzo (laracozo@yahoo.com)Editora: Diana Bermudez (mer.dd@verizon.net) Voz: Diana María Holguín (dmholguin@gmail.com)

Absolute Cooperation with the Inevitable Jul 20, 2013

2013-07-17 - Absolute Cooperation with the Inevitable - This talk addresses common misunderstandings about acceptance (allowing, "letting be") and explores the challenges and blessings of opening to the raw emotions that we habitually avoid. Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Your donations allow us to continue to freely offer the teachings!

Meditation: Letting Life Be, Just As It is Jul 20, 2013

2013-07-17 - Guided Meditation: Letting Life Be, Just As It Is

Skeleton Woman: Embracing This Living and Dying World Jul 13, 2013

2013-07-10 - Skeleton Woman: Embracing This Living and Dying World - Based on a wonderful myth told by Clarissa Estes, this talk looks at the way we run from "lady death" and the blessings of opening our arms and heart. It is a repeat from 2009-10-07 and fits in well with Tara's topic for next week. If we can embrace the whole of our nature with unconditional presence - including the inevitability of change and loss--we discover deep wisdom and enduring love. Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Your donations allow us to continue to freely offer the teachings!

Guided Meditation: Embodied Spirit Jul 13, 2013

2012-09-19 Guided Meditation: Embodied Spirit

Part 2: Hope and the Spiritual Path Jul 05, 2013

2013-07-03 - Part 2: Hope and the Spiritual Path - In this talk we further define the nature of mature or spiritual hope as part of a trinity that includes trust and love, and explore what blocks its unfolding. We then review how different people have "hit bottom" and found their way to the energy, receptivity and openness of hope.

Guided Meditation: Beingness and Aliveness Jul 05, 2013

2013-07-04 - Guided Meditation: Beingness and Aliveness

Guided Meditation: The Dance of Aliveness Jun 29, 2013

2013-06-26 - Guided Meditation: The Dance of Aliveness

Part 1: Hope and the Spiritual Path Jun 29, 2013

2013-06-26 - Part 1: Hope and the Spiritual Path - This talk looks at the difference between egoic hopes and fears, and the quality of hopefulness ("holy hope") that is an essential demension in spiritual experience. We reflect on the three components of hope that serve awakening: Aspiration, Trust and Dedication of energy.

The Bodisattva Path: Widening Circles of Compassion Jun 21, 2013

2009-05-07 - Bodhisattva Path - Widening Circles of Compassion - A bodhisattva (awakened being) is committed to relieving suffering and living life from an all inclusive loving presence. This shift of identity from a self centered focus to one of realizing our radical interdependence is a natural part of our spiritual evolution and represents the hope for healing our world. Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Your donations allow us to continue to freely offer the teachings!

Awakening from Virtual Reality Jun 15, 2013

2009-05-02 - (retreat talk) Awakening from Virtual Reality - This talk examines how we get stuck in identifying as a separate, deficient self, and the way that a deep attention frees us from trance.

Longing to Belong Jun 08, 2013

Tara is away this week. Enjoy a favorite talk from 12/9/2009. Spiritual practice reveals our belonging through bringing presence to three gateways: the aliveness of the present moment, loving relatedness, and the openness and lucidity of awareness itself. This talk includes guided meditations in exploring each gateway. Note: poem, "She Dreamed of Cows" is by Norah Pollard.

Practicing Meditation: "Getting Out of Your Own Way" Jun 01, 2013

2013-05-29 - Practicing Meditation: "Getting Out Of Your Own Way" - The depth and vitality of a meditation practice depends on our sincerity, and an attitude of curiosity and friendliness. With this as the grounds, our practice will cultivate the clear seeing and openheartedness that expresses our deepest nature. This talk covers basic ingredients in a meditation practice, and includes a half hour of questions and responses. Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Your donations allow us to continue to freely offer the teachings!

Being to Being - Loving Beyond the Trance May 25, 2013

2013-05-22 - Being to Being - Loving Beyond the Trance - We have strong conditioning to relate to each other from a sense of separateness--persona to persona. This talk looks at what traps us in egoic relating and how several simple yet powerful reflections can open us to pure, unconditioned loving.

2013-05-15 Guided Meditation: Open, Wakeful Presence May 17, 2013

2013-05-15 Guided Meditation: Open, Wakeful Presence

Releasing the Barriers to Unconditional Loving May 17, 2013

2013-05-15 - Releasing the Barriors to Unconditional Loving - We long for love and habitually armor our hearts. This talk explores the aggression and clinging that protect our wound of feeling unlovable, and the ways that mindfulness can dissolve our defenses and reveal our inner refuge of pure loving presence.

2013-05-08-Meditation-Coming-Home-to-Being May 11, 2013

2013-05-08 - Meditation: Coming Home to Being - Enjoy the meditation prior to the talk at Tara's Wednesday night's class at RRUUC.

Remembering Being May 11, 2013

2013-05-08 - Remembering Being - Our fear-based doings block us from realizing the formless dimension of our Being, and living from that source of wisdom and love. This talk explores the habitual control strategies that keep us from presence; and the role of mindfulness and lovingkindness in reconnecting with the ground of Being.

Loving Ourselves (Retreat Talk) May 05, 2013

2013-04-28 - Retreat Talk: Loving Ourselves - The greatest truths we forget, and one of them is that if we don't love the life that is right here--what we perceive as self--we are unable to embrace our world. This talk explores the suffering of turning on ourselves and the deep freedom that arises when we commit to relating to our inner life with loving presence.

Letting Go Into Living and Dying Apr 25, 2013

2013-04-24 - Letting Go Into Living and Dying - Our capacity to live and love fully is directly related to our acceptance of change and loss. This talk explores how we avoid the pain of loss, ways of practicing that open us to this changing world, and the gifts of letting go into the flow.

2013-04-17 - Entering the Mystery Apr 17, 2013

2013-04-17 - Entering the Mystery - John O'Donahue writes, "We are so busy managing our lives, we forget this great mystery we are involved in." This talk looks at the ways we pull away from the mystery and the path of "beginners mind" that enables us to encounter this living world with freshness, courage and wonder. Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Your donations allow us to continue to freely offer the teachings!

Heavenly Messengers Apr 10, 2013

2013-04-10 - Heavenly Messengers - Tara interviews Frank Ostaseski, founder of Zen Hospice, on a contemplative approach to death and dying. Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Your donations allow us to continue to freely offer the teachings!

Part 3: Three Blessings - Looking Into the Mirror Apr 03, 2013

2013-04-03 - Part 3: Three Blessings - Looking In the Mirror - The third gift on the journey of awakening is the mirror. In this talk we explore how to look back into our own minds and discover the timeless, radiant presence that is our essence. It is this realization of our Beingness that enables us to live these lives with wisdom, love and wonder. Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Your donations allow us to continue to freely offer the teachings!

Part 2: Three Blessings - Inner Fire Mar 27, 2013

2013-03-27 - Part 2: Three Blessings - Inner Fire - Each of us has the longing to manifest our full potential--to realize and live from loving, awake awareness. This longing is our inner fire, and when conscious and vibrant, it energizes the spiritual path. In this talk we reflect on how fear obscures and redirects our inner fire, and how practices of presence and wise reflection awaken the power and purity of our longing. Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Your donations allow us to continue to freely offer the teachings!

(retreat talk) Self Compassion Mar 20, 2013

2009-10-26 - (retreat talk) Self Compassion - We can only find love and peace in this life if we are able to hold our inner life with compassion. This talk explores the subtle and therefore often unseen ways that we turn on ourselves, and the pathways to a forgiving heart. Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Your donations allow us to continue to freely offer the teachings!

Part 1: Three Blessings of Awakening Consciousness Mar 13, 2013

2013-03-13 - Part 1: Three Blessings of Awakening Consciousness - In this two part series we explore the evolution of consciousness through the lens of three key capacities: A forgiving heart, inner fire (conscious aspiration toward freedom) and self-inquiry. Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Your donations allow us to continue to freely offer the teachings!

(retreat talk) Minting Gold - Embodying the Awakened Heart Mar 06, 2013

2010-12-31 - Minting Gold - Embodying the Awakened Heart - Our core conditioning expresses as both a longing for love and the pain of not trusting we are loveable. This talk explores how we create the experience of separation, and the key meditative heart- trainings that lead us to realizing and living from the truth of our connectedness. NOTE: Snowed out on Wednesday, so offering a retreat talk from 2010. Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Your donations allow us to continue to freely offer the teachings!

The Fires of Loss Feb 27, 2013

2010-06-16 - The Fires of Loss - We all encounter the great losses of our own health and life, and of cherished others. We are conditioned to resist opening to the rawness and grief that comes with loss. This talk describes the refuge of presence in the face of loss, and the gift of timeless love that arises as we make peace with the reality of this living, dying world. NOTE: Tara was traveling this week, so offering a well-loved talk from 2010. Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Your donations allow us to continue to freely offer the teachings!

Beyond the Interpreted World Feb 20, 2013

2013-02-20 - Beyond the Interpreted World - Hildegard of Bingen writes, "An interpreted world is not a Home." This talk explores the suffering that arises from believing in an interpreted reality, and the love, aliveness and freedom that becomes accessible as we challenge beliefs and awaken into living presence. Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Your donations allow us to continue to freely offer the teachings!

The Wings of a Liberating Presence Feb 13, 2013

2013-02-13 - The Wings of a Liberating Presence - No matter what is happening in our lives, if we relate to our experience with mindful recognition and an allowing presence, it becomes a portal to freedom. In this talk we explore how the cultivation of these wings of presence awakens us from the identification with an egoic self, and reveals the awareness and love that is our true nature. Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Your donations allow us to continue to freely offer the teachings!

Embodying True Refuge--Serving and Savoring Life Feb 06, 2013

2013-02-06 - Embodying True Refuge--Serving and Savoring Life - This talk traces the story of the Buddha's awakening, and reflects on four key archetypal elements that are relevant for each of us as we come home to our true nature. There is a particular emphasis on how these elements enable us to encounter challenges in relationships and find our way to openhearted presence. Includes music honoring the launch of Tara's new book, True Refuge: vocal by La Sarmiento and Kirtan band with Guru Ganesha. Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Your donations allow us to continue to freely offer the teachings!

Remembering What Matters Jan 30, 2013

2013-01-30 - Remembering What Matters - Our conscious aspiration toward awakening is what energizes the spiritual path. This talk reviews the main characteristic of a vital aspiration, the conditioning that obscures our deepest intentions and offers guided reflections to connect us with what most matters. Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Your donations allow us to continue to freely offer the teachings!

The God Whom I Love is Inside (2012-12-29) (retreat talk) Jan 23, 2013

2012-12-29 - (retreat talk) The God Whom I Love is Inside - Our suffering arises from unlived life--the fears and loneliness and hurt that we have been unable to digest and include in our heart. This talk explores our conditioning to become dis-embodied and the blessings of spiritual realization that arise as we inhabit our aliveness fully. Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Your donations allow us to continue to freely offer the teachings!

Stepping Out of the Cave Jan 16, 2013

2013-01-16 - Stepping Out of the Cave - If we are suffering it is because we are believing something that is not true. This talk explores the genesis of our core beliefs and the investigation, mindfulness and compassion that can release their grip. Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Your donations allow us to continue to freely offer the teachings!

The Barriers to Loving Presence Jan 09, 2013

2013-01-09 - The Barriers to Loving Presence - You might reflect on someone important to you, and ask: "What is between me and loving fully?" Notice what happens. This talk explores the ways we create separations from others, and the power of inquiry and presence to awaken an unconditionally loving heart. Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Your donations allow us to continue to freely offer the teachings!

Finding True Refuge Jan 02, 2013

2013-01-02 - Finding True Refuge - This talk explores the three classic gateways to peace and freedom and includes a living ritual that invites us to bring a conscious, sincere dedication to our awakening on the spiritual path. Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Your donations allow us to continue to freely offer the teachings!

Meditation - Awakening Compassion (from retreat) Dec 26, 2012

2012-12-31 - Meditation - Awakening Compassion - Our deepest wisdom and purest actions arise out of open-hearted presence. This meditation is drawn from the Tibetan tradition and carries us home to the vastness of loving presence. Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Your donations allow us to continue to freely offer the teachings!

Turning Toward the Light Dec 19, 2012

2012-12-19 - Turning Toward the Light - This solstice talk explores how, in the face of darkness - unconsciousness, ignorance, violence - we can call on the light that is within us. The two pathways are to courageously look directly into the places of suffering, and to include in our gaze, the intrinsic goodness in all beings, in life. Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Your donations allow us to continue to freely offer the teachings!

Forgiving Our Way to Freedom Dec 12, 2012

2012-12-12 - A Forgiving Heart - Living with chronic blame or resentment is a trance that confines us to a limited fragment of what we are. This talk looks at the ways this trance is fueled and the process by which we release the armoring around our hearts. Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Your donations allow us to continue to freely offer the teachings!

A Forgiving Heart - Embracing our Inner Life Dec 05, 2012

2012-12-05 - A Forgiving Heart - Embracing our Inner Life - Self-aggression, whether it's low key blame or deep condemnation, prevents us from intimacy with others and discovering the truth and wholeness of our Being. This talk explores how we can release self-blame, and free ourselves to access our natural warmth and creativity in responding to our world. Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Your donations allow us to continue to freely offer the teachings!

Guided Meditation - A Forgiving Heart Nov 28, 2012

2012-11-28 - Guided Meditation - A Forgiving Heart - Forgiveness is the letting go of armor we have erected around our heart. While forgiving is a life-long process, it can be engaged and deepened by practices such as the one offered here. The best attitude in approaching this meditation is one of gentleness and clear intention. Reflect on what matters to you, and then let go of any judgments or expectations as to how the meditation "should" unfold. Blessings! Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Your donations allow us to continue to freely offer the teachings!

Gratitude and Generosity - Markings of Inner Freedom Nov 21, 2012

2012-11-21 - Gratitude and Generosity - Markings of Inner Freedom - Those who are genuinely happy, are also naturally grateful for life and generous in living. This Thanksgiving Eve talk explores key ways we block the arising of gratitude and generosity, and practices of mindful presence and direct cultivation that awaken these expressions of the liberated heart. Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Your donations allow us to continue to freely offer the teachings!

Hands Off the Controls Nov 14, 2012

2012-11-14 - Hands Off the Controls - We are deeply conditioned to respond to impermanence and inevitable loss by trying to control our experience. Our egoic reactivity prevents us from responding wisely to our life, and living the moments fully. This talk looks at how we can let go of controlling, open to the groundlessness we run from, and reconnect with the deep intelligence and love that flows through our being. Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Your donations allow us to continue to freely offer the teachings!

Practical Dharma for Stressful Times Nov 07, 2012

2012-11-07 - Practical Dharma for Stressful Times - When we are caught in a stress reaction, we are in a trance that cuts us off from our creativity, full intelligence and capacity to be loving. This talk explores the flags of the stress-trance and three meditative strategies for shifting from fight/flight to attend/befriend. Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Your donations allow us to continue to freely offer the teachings!

Loving the Life Within Us (retreat talk) Oct 27, 2012

2012-10-27 - Loving the Life Within Us (retreat talk) - If we don't love the life we consider "self," we will not realize or live from the loving awareness that is our essence. This talk guides us in bringing a kind, accepting presence to our inner life, and discovering the vastness of what we really are. Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Your donations allow us to continue to freely offer the teachings!

Wise Investigation: Dissolving the Trance Oct 24, 2012

2012-10-24 - Wise Investigation: Dissolving the Trance - If we are suffering, it is because we are believing something that is not true and caught in emotional reactivity. A key tool in meditation is investigation--actively inquiring into what is happening inside us. When we investigate with sincere interest and care, the light of our attention untangles difficult emotions and nourishes intimate relationships. As this light is turned toward awareness itself, it reveals the radiance and emptiness of our true nature. Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Your donations allow us to continue to freely offer the teachings!

Question and Response with Tara Oct 17, 2012

2012-10-17 - Question and Response with Tara - Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Your donations allow us to continue to freely offer the teachings!

Part 2 - Wise Intention--Living in Truth Oct 10, 2012

2012-10-10 - Part 2 - Wise Intention--Living in Truth - Evolution has conditioned us to identify as an egoic self and to protect that identity. A key strategy is trying to control how others perceive us through pretense and deception. This talk explores the ways we disarm though dedicating ourselves to truthfulness, forgiving our defenses and taking a chance to name and make room for the vulnerability we have been armoring. Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Your donations allow us to continue to freely offer the teachings!

Part 1 - Wise Intention--the Compass of our Hearts Oct 03, 2012

2012-10-03 - Part 1 - Wise Intention--the Compass of our Hearts - One of the most powerful spiritual practices in the world is to reflect on your hearts deepest intention. These two talks look at the way that ego-based intentions perpetuate thoughts, feelings and actions that keep us imprisoned in feeling separate and limited. In contrast, remembering our deeper intentions call us home to the freedom of our true nature. Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Your donations allow us to continue to freely offer the teachings!

Part 2 - Embodied Spirit Sep 26, 2012

2012-09-26 - Part 2 - Embodied Spirit - Our body--this changing field of sensation--is a portal into pure Being. These talks explore the resistance we have to embodied presence, the pathways that enable us to awaken through our bodies, and the blessings of realization that arise as we let go over and over into the aliveness of our senses. Part 2 specifically addresses the challenge of arriving in embodied presence when we are facing traumatic fear, and other intense and difficult emotions. Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Your donations allow us to continue to freely offer the teachings!

Part 1 - Embodied Spirit Sep 19, 2012

2012-09-19 - Part 1 - Embodied Spirit - Our body--this changing field of sensation--is a portal into pure Being. These talks explore the resistance we have to embodied presence, the pathways that enable us to awaken through our bodies, and the blessings of realization that arise as we let go over and over into the aliveness of our senses. Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Your donations allow us to continue to freely offer the teachings!

The Freedom of Yes Sep 12, 2012

2012-09-12 - The Freedom of Yes - How do we accept ourselves or others when our actions are causing harm? Does acceptance mean passivity? Does it undermine our efforts towards change? This talk responds to these questions with a simple, illuminating and challenging principle about genuine transformation: Acceptance is the prerequisite of true healing and awakening. Only when we've paused to recognize and allow this moment's experience to be fully as it is, can we respond from our intelligence and compassion to prevent future suffering. Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Your donations allow us to continue to freely offer the teachings!

Trance of the Unreal Other Sep 05, 2012

2012-09-05 - Trance of the Unreal Other - We are conditioned to perceive people as unreal others- two dimensional characters who lack sentience, vulnerability and goodness. This is often most insidious when we filter people through demeaning culturally driven stereotypes. This talk explores the suffering of living in a trance that separates us from others, and how our practices of mindfulness and compassion enable us to experience what Thoreau calls the "miracle" of seeing through another's eyes, if only for a moment. Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Your donations allow us to continue to freely offer the teachings!

Intimacy with Our Inner Life Aug 29, 2012

2012-08-29 - Intimacy with Our Inner Life - Jung wrote that our suffering arises from the unseen, unfelt parts of our psyche. This talk explores ways we can establish a healing presence by recognizing and communicating with the parts of our being that we habitually ignore or judge. Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Your donations allow us to continue to freely offer the teachings!

Part 2 - 1000 Serious Moves Aug 22, 2012

2012-08-22 - Part 2 - 1000 Serious Moves - We easily habituate to feeling stressed, leaning forward, trying to figure things out and get things done. The undercurrent is we are living reactively--resisting unpleasant experience, seeking out more comfort and ease-- perpetually wanting life to be different than it is. In response to this confined way of living, the Buddha invites us to discover our innate capacity for happiness, the wellbeing that arises in full presence. These two talks explore the ways we get caught in the trance of reactivity and grimness, and the pathways to unconditioned happiness. Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Your donations allow us to continue to freely offer the teachings!

1000 Serious Moves Aug 15, 2012

2012-08-15 - 1000 Serious Moves - We easily habituate to feeling stressed, leaning forward, trying to figure things out and get things done. The undercurrent is we are living reactively--resisting unpleasant experience, seeking out more comfort and ease-- perpetually wanting life to be different than it is. In response to this confined way of living, the Buddha invites us to discover our innate capacity for happiness, the wellbeing that arises in full presence. These two talks explore the ways we get caught in the trance of reactivity and grimness, and the pathways to unconditioned happiness. Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Your donations allow us to continue to freely offer the teachings!

Real But Not True Aug 08, 2012

2012-08-08 - Real but not True - One of the most liberating realizations is that we don't have to believe our thoughts. In this talk we look at the suffering caused by limiting beliefs--"I am unworthy, unloveable, unsafe"--and the process by which we open into the full aliveness and potential of our being. Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Your donations allow us to continue to freely offer the teachings!

Back to the Garden Aug 01, 2012

2012-08-01 - Back to the Garden - The suffering of perceiving ourselves as separate selves expresses as fear, aggression, shame and a host of other afflictive emotions. This talk examines how, by taking refuge in the present moment, and taking refuge in love, we reconnect with our wholeness, and the timeless presence that is home. This inquiry includes a guided meditation on the power of prayer to carry us back to our natural belonging. Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Your donations allow us to continue to freely offer the teachings!

Listening with an Awake Heart Jul 25, 2012

2012-07-25 - Listening with an Awake Heart - Listening to our inner life and each other is the grounds of healing, intimacy and love. This talk explores the challenges to offering a listening presence, and the qualities of open receptivity and interest that nourish true communicating. Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Your donations allow us to continue to freely offer the teachings!

(retreat talk) Our True Nature--Emptiness Dancing Jul 18, 2012

(retreat talk) 2011-10-12 - Our True Nature--Emptiness Dancing - The most profound question in spiritual life is "who (or what) am I?" This talk explores ways of inquiring into the nature of awareness, and the blessings of embodying the realization of our radiant, empty essence. Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Your donations make a difference!

(from Retreat) Introduction to the Heart Practices Jul 11, 2012

2012-04-28 - Introduction to the Heart Practices - These instructions on the heart practices were given at the IMCW 2012 Spring Retreat. A guided lovingkindness or "metta" meditation to open the heart and come home to presence follows. Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Your donations make a difference!

Part 2 - Freedom: Taking the Backward Step Jul 04, 2012

2012-07-04 - Part 2 - Freedom: Taking the Backward Step - This talk investigates the core conditioning that creates and sustains trance. We then explore two gateways to realizing and inhabiting our true nature - inquiry and letting go. Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Your donations make a difference!

Part 1 - Freedom: Seeing Who is Looking Through the Mask Jun 27, 2012

2012-6-27 - Part 1 - Freedom: Seeing Who is Looking Through the Mask - We suffer when we are identified with our egoic conditioning and unable to recognize the spirit - the love and awareness - that animates our own and all beings. In this talk we explore how recognizing our vulnerability and basic goodness helps us to see through the mask and realize who is here. Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Your donations make a difference!

Cultivating Equanimity (Duck Meditation) Jun 20, 2012

2012-06-20 - Cultivating Equanimity (Duck Meditation) - Equinimity, the mindful presence that neither grasps nor resists experience, is the grounds for unconditional love and wise action. This talk explores the conditioning that entraps us in reactivity, and two primary pathways for coming home to this natural state of balance and presence. Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Your donations make a difference!

Committing to Joy Jun 13, 2012

2012-06-13 - Committing to Joy - What makes joy rare? How do we awaken this beautiful capacity to embrace life? In this talk we explore the obstacles to joy and the attitude and practices that free us to "love what is." Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Your donations make a difference!

Cultivating Compassion Jun 06, 2012

2012-06-06 - Cultivating Compassion - We each have the potential to live with a compassionate, open heart. In this talk we explore the conditioning that closes us off to authentic caring, and the ways of deepening our attention that help us live to include widening circles of beings in our heart. Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Your donations make a difference!

Intimacy with Life - Awakening Love May 30, 2012

2012-05-30 - Intimacy with Life - Awakening Love - The Buddha taught about four Divine Abodes--dwelling places of the awakened heart mind: lovingkindness, compassion, joy and equanimity. In this four-part series, we will explore the ways our conditioning blocks us from these expressions of inner freedom, and the understandings and practices that enable us to inhabit our full potential. Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Your donations make a difference!

Training for Intimacy with Life May 23, 2012

2012-05-23 - Training for Intimacy with Life - "Enlightenment is intimacy with all things" teaches Zen Master Dogen. While we long for this intimacy, we are conditioned to avoid the vulnerability and fear that an intimate presence can arouse. This talk explores how our mindfulness and heart practices cultivate the capacity to be intimate with our sensations of aliveness, our emotions and the beings in our life. Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Your donations make a difference!

Part 2: The Lion's Roar May 16, 2012

2012-05-16 - Part 2: The Lion's Roar - The Buddha taught that faith--trust in our true nature--is intrinsic to the spiritual path and the expression of wisdom. These two talks investigate the practices of presence that awaken our faith and the freedom that arises when our faith becomes radiant and full. Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Your donations make a difference!

Part 1: The Lion's Roar May 09, 2012

2012-05-09 - Part 1: The Lion's Roar - The Buddha taught that faith--trust in our true nature--is intrinsic to the spiritual path and the expression of wisdom. These two talks investigate the practices of presence that awaken our faith and the freedom that arises when our faith becomes radiant and full. Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Your donations make a difference!

Be Who You Are (Retreat Talk) May 02, 2012

2012-05-02 - (Retreat Talk) Be Who You Are - By bringing a surrendering presence to mental, emotional and physical domains, we undo the trance of separation and discover our true nature. This talk explores the practices that cultivate the non-resisting space of presence, and the flavors of our essential being that are revealed: open awareness, love and a vibrant flow of awareness. Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Your donations make a difference!

The World in Our Heart Apr 25, 2012

2012-04-25 - The World in Our Heart - Some contemporary evolutionary theories track our development from survival of the fittest to group selection whereby we have the capacity for cooperation and empathy. This talk explores how our meditation practice of attending and befriending consciously facilitates the unfolding of our full evolutionary potential. The talk includes a guided meditation that helps us widen the circles of belonging to include all beings. Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Your donations make a difference!

Open Heart, Open Mind Apr 18, 2012

2012-04-18 - Open Heart, Open Mind - Tsoknyi Rinpoche with Tara Brach - In talking about his new book, Tibetan teacher Tsoknyi Rinpoche describes the layers of self that cover over our "essence love," and the way that mindfulness reconnects us to our true nature. His stories, humor and teachings are vibrant and inspiring! Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Your donations make a difference!

A Mindful Nation Apr 11, 2012

2012-04-14 - A Mindful Nation - One of the great sources of hope is the "quiet revolution" of mindfulness that is appearing in schools, hospitals, prisons, the military, corporate settings and the lives of millions of people around the world. In this talk, US Congressman Tim Ryan points to highlights of this revolution--which are reviewed in his compelling new book, A Mindful Nation. He shares about his own personal experience with mindfulness practice and his commitment to seeing the mindfulness and compassion at the center of our work for a better future. Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Your donations make a difference!

Beyond the Prison of Beliefs Apr 04, 2012

2012-04-04 - Beyond the Prison of Beliefs - Most of us have core fear beliefs that obscure our true nature and bind us in repeating patterns of painful emotions and behavior. This talk looks at the beliefs that limit us and the freedom that is possible when we investigate them with a kind, mindful awareness. Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Your donations make a difference!

Alchemy of Wise Effort in Spiritual Life Mar 21, 2012

2012-03-21 - Alchemy of Wise Effort in Spiritual Life - The ground of wise effort is our sincere intentionality toward presence, love and freedom. Yet our habit is to go into trance, and latch on to narrowed intentions of self-enhancement or defense. When this goes on for years, we feel disappointment in our lives, a sense of not being true to ourselves. Through guided reflections, we explore how--in spiritual practice and in relationships--we can connect with our deepest intention and live in a way that expresses our awakening heart and awareness. Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Imagine if even 10% of listeners gave $10 a month? The audio could be self-supporting!

Flowering, From Within, of Self-Blessing Mar 14, 2012

2012-03-14 - Flowering, From Within, of Self-Blessing - This line from poet Galway Kinnell reminds us of the possibility of meeting our inner life with a loving, healing presence. When we do, we loosen the trance of unworthiness and reconnect with our intrinsic goodness. In turn, we can offer our blessings to others--serving as reminders of the awareness and love that can blossom in all beings. Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Imagine if even 10% of listeners gave $10 a month? The audio could be self-supporting!

Freedom in the Midst of Difficulty Mar 07, 2012

2012-03-07 - Freedom in the Midst of Difficulty - We suffer when we forget who we are and get caught in a limited sense of self. This talk explores how we become identified with a sliver of what we are, and the pathway to remembering our wholeness. When we know we're the ocean, we are free to relate to the waves with respect, compassion and love. Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Your donation makes a difference! Thank you!

Embodied Presence: Gateway to Intimacy and Freedom Feb 29, 2012

2012-02-29 - Embodied Presence: Gateway to Intimacy and Freedom - We often move through the day in a reactive trance, removed from the aliveness of our bodies and this natural world. This talk explores how coming home to our bodies awakens us to living love, creativity and the deepest realization of who we are. Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Your donation makes a difference! Thank you!

Opening the Lotus of Your Heart Feb 22, 2012

2012-02-03 - Opening the Lotus of Your Heart - (from 2012 Women's Retreat) Our reaction to life's stress is to contract, and we live many moments with a tight body, clenched heart and narrowed mind. This talk explores how deepening attention can reconnect us with our natural openness and radiance. Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Your donation makes a difference! Thank you!

Guided Meditation: Letting Life Live Through Us Feb 15, 2012

2012-02-08 - Guided Meditation: Letting Life Live Through Us - Meditation ends with poem by Roger Keyes, "Hokusai Says." Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Your donation makes a difference! Thank you!

Questions, Guided Meditation and Group Sharings Feb 08, 2012

2012-02-08 - Questions, Guided Meditation and Group Sharings - Led by Tara. Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Your donation makes a difference! Thank you!

Part 2 - Three Blessings on the Journey Feb 01, 2012

2012-02-01 - Part 2 - Three Blessings on the Journey - Drawing on a wonderful teaching story from the Upanishads, these two talks explore the role of forgiveness, inner fire and looking at our own minds, in finding freedom. Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Your donation makes a difference! Thank you!

Part 1 - Three Blessings on the Journey Jan 25, 2012

2012-01-25 - Part 1 - Three Blessings on the Journey - Drawing on a wonderful teaching story from the Upanishads, these two talks explore the role of forgiveness, inner fire and looking at our own minds, in finding freedom. Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Your donation makes a difference! Thank you!

Part 2 - Trusting Your Basic Goodness Jan 18, 2012

2012-01-18 - Part 2 - Trusting Your Basic Goodness - Einstein says the most important question we will ever ask ourselves is, "Is this universe a friendly place?" Do we trust that there is something essentially benevolent or good about this universe? That we are essentially good? These two talks explore what it means to trust basic goodness, and how this trust naturally emerges through cultivating a meditative presence. Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Your donation makes a difference! Thank you!

Part 1 - Trusting Your Basic Goodness Jan 11, 2012

2012-01-11 - Part 1 - Trusting Your Basic Goodness - Einstein says the most important question we will ever ask ourselves is, "Is this universe a friendly place?" Do we trust that there is something essentially benevolent or good about this universe? That we are essentially good? These two talks explore what it means to trust basic goodness, and how this trust naturally emerges through cultivating a meditative presence. Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Your donation makes a difference! Thank you!

Taking Refuge Jan 04, 2012

2012-01-04 - Taking Refuge - This class explores the three classic gateways to true refuge - Buddha (awareness), Dharma (path, truth of reality) and Sangha (spiritual friends, loving relatedness). It includes reflections and a ceremony that supports us in remembering the pathway home. Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Your donation makes a difference! Thank you!

The Blessings of Embodied Presence Dec 29, 2011

2011-12-29 - The Blessings of Embodied Presence (retreat talk) - All that we cherish - love, creativity, wisdom and aliveness - becomes available when we come home to an embodied presence. This talk looks at how the two wings of mindfulness and compassion guide us in the midst of difficulty to our inner sanctuary of freedom. Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Your donation makes a difference! Thank you!

No Mud No Lotus Dec 21, 2011

2011-12-21 - No Mud No Lotus - Our attitude in the face of life's challenges determines our suffering or our freedom. This solstice talk explores the light of compassion that blossoms when we honor our difficult times with a deep, mindful attention. Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Your donation makes a difference! Thank you!

The Dance of Relational Trance Dec 14, 2011

2011-12-14 - The Dance of Relational Trance - When we become emotionally reactive in our relationships, we often go into a trance that creates separation and locks us into a narrow sense of self. This talk explores how, by pausing and deepening our attention, we can reconnect with the wisdom of our hearts. Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Your donation makes a difference! Thank you!

The Backward Step Dec 07, 2011

2011-12-07 - The Backward Step - Our habit is to think we are on our way someplace else, and that our happiness is to be found outside ourselves. Yet realization becomes possible when we take the backward step into the formless dimension of our own being. This talk explores the two pathways that awaken us from our stories of self and reveal the love and awareness that is our true nature. Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Your donation makes a difference! Thank you!

Genuine Acceptance Nov 30, 2011

2009-08-26 - Our capacity to accept this life is key to our freedom, yet there are many misconceptions about acceptance: People wonder, if acceptance makes us a doormat in relationships? Isn't acceptance akin to resignation? Doesn't it make us passive when what is needed is action? This talk explores some of the misunderstandings about acceptance and offers teachings on the nature of genuine and liberating acceptance. Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Your donation makes a difference! Thank you!

Pathways to a Grateful Heart Nov 23, 2011

2011-11-23 - Pathways to a Grateful Heart - When we are filled with gratitude, we are living from the most sincere, awake part of our being. This talk explores three pathways of practice that open us to serving and savoring this life. Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Your donation makes a difference! Thank you!

Mindful Speech Nov 16, 2011

2011-11-16 - Mindful Speech - Deception, gossip and aggressive speech are pervasive in our culture. This talk looks at the roots of these forms of communication, and the way they entrap us in a contracted and separate sense of self. We then explore the practices that help us speak from a courageous presence, wisdom and love. Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Your donation makes a difference! Thank you!

The Space of Presence Nov 09, 2011

2011-11-09 - The Space of Presence - The perception of "there's not enough time or space" in life blocks our natural capacity for intimacy, creativity and wisdom. Pausing and connecting with the space of presence transforms our entire experience of being alive. This talk explores the pathways that reveal the space that is always here, the awake and loving space of our own awareness. Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Your donation makes a difference! Thank you!

Divine Abodes: Equanimity Nov 02, 2011

2011-11-02 - Divine Abodes: Equanimity - Equanimity is the mental state of balance and non-reactivity that arises when we are resting in open, wakeful presence. This talk reviews the key pathways to equanimity in the face of difficulty. We also explore the blessing of equanimity: the freedom to respond to our life with wisdom, compassion and love. Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Your donation makes a difference! Thank you!

Divine Abodes: Joy Oct 26, 2011

2011-10-26 - Divine Abodes: Joy - Joy is an innate capacity, an expression of unconditional presence with life. Yet for many, it is blocked by our conditioning to grasp after life and to defend against loss. This talk explores how we can develop the selfless presence that allows for joy, and nourish that joy so it blossoms in our life. Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Your donation makes a difference! Thank you!

Divine Abodes: Compassion Oct 19, 2011

2011-10-19 - Divine Abodes: Compassion - We cultivate compassion by letting ourselves be touched by the suffering within and around us. Because our conditioning is to avoid vulnerability, the path of compassion requires courage and purposefulness. As we awaken to the truth of our connectedness, our hearts become increasingly tender and our actions serve the healing of our world. Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Your donation makes a difference! Thank you!

Unconditional Love for the Life Within Oct 08, 2011

2011-10-08 - Unconditional Love for the Life Within - (Retreat Talk) The tyranny of "should" prevents us from living and loving fully. This talk explores how we get trapped in the identity of a flawed self and the ways a wise attention can free us. Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Your donation makes a difference! Thank you!

Divine Abodes: Lovingkindness Oct 05, 2011

2011-10-05 - Divine Abodes: Lovingkindness - Love is the most basic expression of who we are, and yet it is often obscured by the trance of separation and fear. This talk explores how we habitually armor our hearts, and the training of attention that awakens us to unconditional, all inclusive love. A classic form of the metta (lovingkindness) meditation is part of the talk. Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Your donation makes a difference! Thank you!

Causing No Harm Sep 28, 2011

2011-09-28 - Causing No Harm - The mindstates behind violence--anger and fear--are universal and natural. If they possess us and drive our actions, we suffer. If we learn to meet them with a mindful awareness--if we step out of judgment and angry reactivity--we serve our own freedom and the possibility of peace on earth as well. Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Your donation makes a difference! Thank you!

Part 2 - Do You Make Regular Visits to Yourself? Sep 21, 2011

2011-09-21 - Part 2 - Do You Make Regular Visits to Yourself? - These two classes cover the basic instructions for Buddhist mindfulness (vipassana or insight) meditation. The first class explores the attitude we bring to meditation that makes it rewarding, and the training that helps us in "coming back" from thoughts. The second class guides us in "being here," in cultivating a mindful awareness that recognizes and accepts what is happening in the present moment. Both classes include guided meditations and valuable reminders that can support you in developing a rich meditation practice. Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Your donation makes a difference! Thank you!

Part 1 - Do You Make Regular Visits to Yourself? Sep 14, 2011

2011-09-14 - Part 1 - Do You Make Regular Visits to Yourself? - These two classes cover the basic instructions for Buddhist mindfulness (vipassana or insight) meditation. The first class explores the attitude we bring to meditation that makes it rewarding, and the training that helps us in "coming back" from thoughts. The second class guides us in "being here," in cultivating a mindful awareness that recognizes and accepts what is happening in the present moment. Both classes include guided meditations and valuable reminders that can support you in developing a rich meditation practice. Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Your donation makes a difference! Thank you!

Finding The Juice Inside Fear Sep 07, 2011

2011-09-07 - Finding The Juice Inside of Fear - Learning to bring a mindful presence to fear is an intrinsic part of spiritual awakening. In this talk we look at the ways we get caught in the trance of fear, and how the two wings of presence--clear recognition and openheartedness--can free us. This process of facing unmet fears is necessary not only for our own healing, but for any possibility of peace and the healing of our planet. Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Your donation makes a difference! Thank you!

Befriending Irene Aug 31, 2011

2011-08-31 - Befriending Irene - Whether you face chronic anxiety or more violent storms of fear and anger, you can cultivate the wings of freedom--the mindfulness and compassion--that free you. This talk explores how the habit of being reactive causes us suffering and the ways these tools of meditation can be applied to the inner weather systems that most challenge us. Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Your donation makes a difference! Thank you!

Wholehearted Living Aug 24, 2011

2011-08-24 - Wholehearted Living - What stops us from being wholehearted in our relationships and life? This talk explores the conditioning that keeps us from an engaged presence, and the key elements to manifesting heart and spirit in all that we do. Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Your donation makes a difference! Thank you!

The Gift of Silence Aug 17, 2011

2007-09-26 - The Gift of Silence - Through all spiritual traditions, there is a valuing of silence and stillness. When the mind has quieted, it becomes possible to see into the truth of what we are. Yet quieting can turn into a battle with the process of the thinking mind. This talk explores practices that allow us to settle in a natural way, the presence which is silence itself, and the wisdom and love that flows freely when we live from that silence. Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Your donation makes a difference! Thank you!

Relating Wisely to Desire Aug 10, 2011

2011-08-10 - Relating Wisely to Desire - Without desire, this world would not exist. While this universal energy is entirely natural, if we are not mindful of it, desire can become a narrowed fixation or addiction that creates deep suffering. This talk explores the ways we can pay attention that honor this energy without allowing it to cut us off from presence and possess us. Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Your donation makes a difference! Thank you!

Learning to Respond, Not React Aug 03, 2011

2011-08-03 - Learning to Respond, Not React - When life doesn't go our way, we often launch into a chain reaction of obsessive thinking, blaming and unpleasant emotions. This talk explores how we can use meditative practices to step out of reactive patterns and respond to life's challenges from our naturally wise heart. Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Your donation makes a difference! Thank you!

Part 2: The Mystery of Who We Are Jul 27, 2011

2011-07-27 - Part 2: The Mystery of Who We Are - Everything we cherish--love, creativity, wisdom, aliveness-- arises out of our capacity to arrive in Beingness. This talk explores the stress that leads us to cut off from our natural state of being, and two key pathways home. Included are guided meditations that explore the nature of our awareness, the essence of who we are. Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Your donation makes a difference! Thank you!

The Mystery of Who We Are Jul 20, 2011

2011-07-20 - The Mystery of Who We Are - The Buddha taught that we suffer because we don't realize who we are. This talk explores two pathways of awakening from the insecurity and reactivity that arises from a narrow sense of self. Listeners are invited to investigate the nature of awareness through several guided reflections. Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Your donation makes a difference! Thank you!

The Joy of Conscious Relationships Jul 13, 2011

2011-07-06 - The Joy of Conscious Relationships (from 2007-09-19) - We live in a relational field, and as we develop the capacity for presence with others, we discover the truth of our connectedness. This discovery is experienced as love, and gives rise to genuine happiness and inner freedom. This talk explores the teachings and practices that nourish conscious relationships. Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Your donation makes a difference! Thank you!

Flow and Presence Jul 06, 2011

2011-07-06 - Flow and Presence - In the moments when we are truly happy, there is a sense of both aliveness and presence. This talk reflects on three key ways we remove ourselves from living presence; and offers guided reflections that can re-open us into the flow. Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Your donation makes a difference! Thank you!

Compass of the Heart Jun 29, 2011

2011-06-29 - Compass of the Heart - Are you aware of the intentions that are shaping your thoughts, moods and life experience? This talk explores how mindfulness of intention allows us to open to our deepest heart's aspiration, and have that guide the unfolding of our lives. Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Your donation makes a difference! Thank you!

Presence and Empowerment Jun 22, 2011

2011-06-22 - Presence and Empowerment - In the moments we feel threatened, hurt or dissatisfied, we often flip into controlling mode--our body, heart and mind become contracted and we disconnect from presence. This talk explores how we can shift from controlling, to an empowering presence. When we do, our deepest wisdom and compassion begin to shape and guide our life. Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Your donation makes a difference! Thank you!

Soul Recognition - Seeing Past the Mask Jun 15, 2011

2011-06-15 - Soul Recognition - Seeing Past the Mask - We each long to be true to ourselves--to live from the love, creativity and wisdom that is our essence. This talk explores how, by attending to three key domains, we train ourselves to see beyond ego conditioning. By deepening our attention, we can free ourselves and others to be who we truly are. Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Your donation makes a difference! Thank you!

The Art of Listening--Nourishing Loving Relationships Jun 08, 2011

2011-06-08 - The Art of Listening--Nourishing Loving Relationships - Deep listening is an essential ingredient in intimate, caring relationships. This talk reflects on the intentionality, presence and quest for understanding that create the grounds for a healing and loving listening attention. Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Your donation makes a difference! Thank you!

Part 2: Stress and Meditation Jun 01, 2011

2011-06-01 - Part 2: Stress and Meditation - When we are suffering from stress, we are paying attention to our world in a narrow and rigid way. Through meditations that cultivate a wakeful and open attention, we can dramatically transform the feelings of anxiety and aloneness that underlie all stress. Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Your donation makes a difference! Thank you!

Part 1: Stress and Meditation May 25, 2011

2011-05-25 - Part 1: Stress and Meditation - When we are suffering from stress, we are paying attention to our world in a narrow and rigid way. Through meditations that cultivate a wakeful and open attention, we can dramatically transform the feelings of anxiety and aloneness that underlie all stress. Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Your donation makes a difference! Thank you!

Stepping Out of Time May 18, 2011

2011-05-18 - Stepping Out of Time - We spend much of our life on our way somewhere else, driven by the sense that something is missing or wrong. This talk explores the suffering that arises from our addiction to busyness and "doing," and the healing, loving and wisdom that arise when we take refuge in presence. Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Your donation makes a difference! Thank you!

The Buddha's Spiritual Awakening May 11, 2011

2011-05-11 - The Buddha's Spiritual Awakening: A Myth For Us All! - In this telling of the Buddha's story, we find archetypes that reveal a universal path of awakening and freedom. We explore how each of us has the potential to realize the loving and radiant awareness that is our source. Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Your donation makes a difference! Thank you!

Remembering Love (Retreat Talk) May 01, 2011

2011-05-01 - Remembering Love (from IMCW Spring Retreat) - The habit of self-judgment not only causes emotional pain, it creates a trance that obscures the purity and vastness of our Being. This talk explores how a wakeful and forgiving heart can heal and free us. Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Your donation makes a difference! Thank you!

The Blessings of Embodied Awareness Apr 27, 2011

2011-04-27 - The Blessings of Embodied Awareness - One expression of our suffering is homelessness--feeling cut off from the presence and aliveness that is our source. This talk explores the existential and cultural forces that foster disconnection from our physical and energetic being, the practices that enable us to embrace our unlived life and the gifts of homecoming. Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Your donation makes a difference! Thank you!

Part 2 - Realizing True Well-being Apr 20, 2011

2011-04-20 - Part 2 -- Realizing True Well-being - Buddhist psychology and the Western oriented field of positive psychology agree: How we pay attention determines whether we live primarily in fear and judgment, or happiness and peace. This two part series explores the teachings, practices and attitudes that enable us to live a meaningful life with a heart that is "happy for no reason." Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Your donation makes a difference! Thank you!

Realizing True Well-being Apr 13, 2011

2011-04-13 - Part 1 -- Realizing True Well-being - Buddhist psychology and the Western oriented field of positive psychology agree: How we pay attention determines whether we live primarily in fear and judgment, or happiness and peace. This two part series explores the teachings, practices and attitudes that enable us to live a meaningful life with a heart that is "happy for no reason." Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Your donation makes a difference! Thank you!

Part 2: The Healing Power of Self-Compassion Mar 30, 2011

2011-03-30 - Part 2: The Healing Power of Self-Compassion - Learning to hold our own lives with a gentle compassion is a key element in all emotional healing and spiritual awakening. This two part series explores the suffering of being at war with ourselves and the pathway to freeing our hearts. Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Your donation makes a difference! Thank you!

Part 1: The Healing Power of Self-Compassion Mar 23, 2011

2011-03-23 - Part 1: The Healing Power of Self-Compassion - Learning to hold our own lives with a gentle compassion is a key element in all emotional healing and spiritual awakening. This two part series explores the suffering of being at war with ourselves and the pathway to freeing our hearts. Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Your donation makes a difference! Thank you!

Impermanence: the Gifts of Facing Reality Mar 16, 2011

2011-03-16 - Impermanence: the Gifts of Facing Reality - Only by opening our hearts to change and loss can we live and love fully. Yet much of our life is organized around finding ground-- avoiding the insecurity of change, loss and death. This talk explores how our ways of grasping and resisting remove us from the spontaneity and aliveness, the love and wisdom, that is our human potential. Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Thank you!

Trusting Our Secret Beauty Mar 09, 2011

2011-03-09 - Trusting Our Secret Beauty - When caught in emotional suffering, we sense that we are living from a reactive, contracted place, and don't trust or like ourselves. This talk explores the severed belonging that is the genesis of that doubt, and the two wings of mindful presence and love that carry us home to our natural wholeness and goodness of Being. Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Thank you!

Healing into Life and Death Mar 02, 2011

2011-03-02 - Healing into Life and Death - Given the universal truth that these bodies get sick and they die, what allows us to find freedom, happiness and peace in the midst? This talk explores how, when we get caught in the suffering that arises from physical sickness, we can take refuge in presence and love. Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Thank you!

When We are Lost Feb 23, 2011

2011-02-23 - When We are Lost - It's part of our make up to get lost in the trance of thinking-- to believe our thoughts to be real and to live in the story of a separate, endangered self. It is also our capacity to recognize our trance and choose presence. This talk explores how the practice of pausing and arriving in the aliveness of our senses opens us to our natural compassion and wisdom, and enables us to experience the great mystery we are part of. Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Thank you!

Part 2 - The Sure Heart's Release Feb 16, 2011

2011-02-16 - The Sure Heart's Release - Our longing is to realize and embody loving presence, yet we each have deeply conditioned habits that bind our hearts. This talk reflects on these habits, and explores how we can free ourselves by bringing a mindful, compassionate attention to places where we are most trapped in feeling separate, fearful and unworthy. Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Thank you!

The Sure Heart's Release Feb 09, 2011

2011-02-09 - The Sure Heart's Release - Our longing is to realize and embody loving presence, yet we each have deeply conditioned habits that bind our hearts. This talk reflects on these habits, and explores how we can free ourselves by bringing a mindful, compassionate attention to places where we are most trapped in feeling separate, fearful and unworthy. Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Thank you!

Minting Gold (retreat talk) Jan 26, 2011

2010-12-31 - Minting Gold - Embodying the Awakened Heart - Our core conditioning expresses as both a longing for love and the pain of not trusting we are loveable. This talk explores how we create the experience of separation, and the key meditative heart- trainings that lead us to realizing and living from the truth of our connectedness. This talk was given at the IMCW New Year's Retreat. Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Thank you!

Inviting Life's Difficulties to Tea Jan 19, 2011

2011-01-19 - Inviting Life's Difficulties to Tea - One of the most illuminating themes in the Buddha's life story was the regular appearance of Mara--god of selfishness and greed, anger and fear, doubt and shame. Each time Mara surfaced, the Buddha's response was to say "I see you Mara," and invite him to tea. This talk explores how such unconditional friendliness and wisdom can bring healing and freedom to our lives. Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Thank you!

Evolving Consciousness--Beyond limiting Identities Jan 12, 2011

2011-01-12 - The flag of trance is identifying as a separate, deficient self. This talk explores how developmentally we can get fixated on fears and unmet needs and cut off from the wholeness of Being that is our true nature. We explore the power of mindfulness --seeking not to change but to understand--and the expression of that understanding as love. The talk includes guided reflections that can help us recognize and awaken from the confines of trance. Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Thank you!

Three Gateways to Freedom Jan 05, 2011

2011-01-05 - This talk invites a contemplation of three archetypal domains of spiritual awakening: Buddha-awareness, Dharma- truth (the way things are), and Sangha-loving relatedness. We explore our habit of turning toward false refuges, and the way we can find refuge in that which truely heals our hearts and frees our mind. The evening ends with a living ritual of dedicating ourselves to each of these three gateways to awakening. Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Thank you!

Path of Transformation Dec 29, 2010

2010-12-29 - Awakening arises out of presence with the changing ground of our lives. This talk explores three key gateways to liberating presence: Forgiveness, inner fire (aspiration) and a deep inquiry into the nature of our own mind. This talk was given at the IMCW New Year's Retreat. Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Thank you!

The Grounds of Living Compassion Dec 22, 2010

2009-09-02 - A critical question on the spiritual path is how we can bring the loving presence awakened by meditation into every facet of daily life. This talk explores the conditioning that keeps us in reactive trance and the ways we can deepen our attention and align our lives with our hearts. Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Thank you!

Seeing Beyond the Veil Dec 15, 2010

2010-12-15 - The source of our suffering is that we become identified with egoic roles and defenses that separate us from the truth of what we are. This talk explores some of the constricting identities that we take on, and the process of compassionate presence that reconnects us with our natural vitality, openheartedness and wisdom. We then enlarge our focus to seeing past the veil that obscures the sacred presence that shines through all beings. Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Thank you!

Ask the Friend for Love Dec 08, 2010

2010-12-08 - Prayer, when cultivated consciously, energizes and guides us on the spiritual path. This talk investigates the difference between wanting, with it's narrow fixation, and the prayer that arises out of our deep heart's longing. We explore how living prayer, the prayer that arises from consciously inhabiting longing, can carry us home to loving presence. As John O'Donahue writes, prayer is the bridge between longing and belonging. Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Thank you!

Meditation on Intention Dec 08, 2010

2010-12-08 - This guided meditation was given as a prelude to the December 8th talk on "Ask the Friend for Love." Find more of Tara's guided meditations on www.tarabrach.com. Sign up for her new email list there, too.

A Listening Meditation Dec 01, 2010

2010-11-17 - This guided meditation was given as a prelude to the November 17th talk on "A Listening Presence." Find more of Tara's guided meditations on www.tarabrach.com. Sign up for her new email list there, too.

Loving Life: Gratitude and Generosity Nov 24, 2010

2010-11-24 - Loving Life: Gratitude and Generosity - Love is innate, and blossoms as we intentionally cultivate it. This talk on two natural expressions of loving life--gratitude and generosity--includes several guided reflections that awaken the heart. Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Thank you!

A Listening Presence - Three Domains of Training Nov 17, 2010

2010-11-17 - A Listening Presence - Three Domains of Training - Cultivating the capacity for listening is essential to loving well and to realizing the truth of who we are. This talk focuses on three key facets of deep listening--non-distractedness, not-controlling and seeking to understand-- that can awaken an intimacy with our inner life and others. Guided meditations on listening precede and are included within the body of the talk. Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Thank you!

Releasing Karmic Patterns Nov 10, 2010

2010-11-10 - Releasing Karmic Patterns - We all have conditioned patterns of thinking and behaving that keep us identified as a separate, deficient self. This talk investigates the roots of this conditioning and ways that pausing and awakening mindfulness can free us to live from our inherent love and wisdom. Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Thank you!

Part 4 - Living From Presence - Introductory Series Nov 03, 2010

2010-11-03 - Part 4 - Living from Presence - Our human potential is to express the wings of presence--mindfulness and lovingkindness--through all facets of daiy living. This talk explores the practices that enable us to both serve and savor this precious life. Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Thank you!

Part 3 - Mindfulness of Thoughts - Introductory Series Oct 27, 2010

2010-10-27 - Part 3 - Mindfulness of Thoughts - The primary element in meditation is training to awaken from the trance of thoughts. This class explores two key ways that mindfulness supports this awakening. The first is using wise reflection to discern if thoughts are imprisoning us in fear or serving healing and freedom. The second is recognizing when we are in the virtual reality of thinking, and learning to "come back" to living presence. It is by inhabiting this non-conceptual presence that we have access to the love, wisdom and freedom that we cherish. Please donate at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Thank you!

Part 2 - Mindfulness of Emotions - Introductory Series Oct 20, 2010

2010-10-20 - Part 2 - Mindfulness of Emotions - Our conditioning is to live in a reactive trance of either resisting or become possessed by strong emotions. This reactivity fuels a trance of being separate from others, and feeling defective and insecure. In this class we explore how to free ourselves from this suffering by bringing a mindful and kind awareness to the stories and feelings that make up our emotional life. Please donate at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Thank you!

Part 1 - The Art and Science of Meditation - Introductory Series Oct 13, 2010

2010-10-13 - Part 1 - The Art and Science of Meditation - Introductory Series - The first session defines meditation and describes the Buddhist teachings that give a context to the path of practice. We explore the two basic types of meditation--concentration and mindfulness--and then focus on the ground of mindfulness training: bringing mindful attention to the breath and bodily sensations. Guided meditations include setting intention and the sacred pause; learning to "come back" using an anchor of the breath; and "being here" with an embodied presence. Please donate at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Thank you!

The Path of Peace Oct 06, 2010

2007-10-03 - The Path of Peace - Awakening from the Trance of Separation - We all have conditioning that can keep us at war with our inner life, and fuel violence in the world. These universal tendencies can block our natural attunement and capacity to respond with compassion to life. The practices of presence allow us to recognize this conditioning and awaken to the truth of our connectedness, to the wisdom and love that make peace possible. Please donate at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Thank you!

Loving the Earth Sep 29, 2010

2010-09-29 - Loving the Earth - How is it possible that we humans have wreaked such havoc on this planet, on the web of life that we belong to? This talk explores the ways that egoic consciousness can lead to violating life, and how evolving consciousness can move us toward healing this earth. Please donate at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Thank you!

Be All That You Are Sep 15, 2010

2010-09-15 - Be All That You Are - We are conditioned to live in stories that obscure the vastness, goodness and mystery of what we are. This talk explores the ways we construct a limited self-identity and the pathways to realizing and living from a fullness of our Being. Please donate at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Thank you!

Equanimity Sep 08, 2010

2010-09-08 - Equanimity - Cultivating equanimity means awakening our capacity to meet the winds of life with a non-reactive, open, balanced presence. The gift of this presence is that we can see clearly what is happening within and around us, and respond with wisdom, creativity and compassion. This talk looks at our habits of reacting, and the ways we can come home to equinimity in the midst of life's challenges. Please donate at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Thank you!

Joy Sep 01, 2010

2010-09-01 - Joy - Joy is an innate capacity, one of the primary expressions of an awakened heart and mind. Yet because of our conditioned patterns of thought and emotion, this capacity for openness, happiness and full aliveness can be obscured. This talk guides us in how to nurture joy through a commited presence that unfolds into "loving what is." Please donate at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Thank you!

Compassion - Responding to Suffering with Care Aug 25, 2010

2010-08-25 - Compassion - Responding to Suffering with Care - Our capacity to respond to ourselves and our world with compassion is the essence of all healing and spiritual awakening. This talk explores the trance of separation that blocks our natural compassion, and includes guided practices that enable us to directly cultivate a compassionate heart. Please donate at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Thank you!

Metta - Lovingkindness Aug 18, 2010

2010-08-18 - Metta - Lovingkindness - This talk explores what gets in the way of loving presence and the training that awakens and frees our hearts. Please donate at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Thank you!

Blessings of a Forgiving Heart Aug 11, 2010

2010-08-11 - The roots of peace and war are within these very hearts. In the moments that we release blame, we reconnect with the compassionate presence that heals ourselves and others as well. This talk includes a meditation that guides us in awakening our capacity to forgive. Please donate at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Thank you!

Self-Forgiveness Aug 04, 2010

2010-08-04 - Holding ourselves with a compassionate, forgiving heart is the gateway to healing, and to intimacy with our world. This talk explores our deep conditioning to be at war with ourselves, and the insights and elements of forgiving that can carry us home to loving presence. Please donate at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Thank you!

Trusting Who We Are Jul 28, 2010

2010-07-28 - If we investigate, we will find that much suffering arises out of mistrust--of ourselves, others and life. This talk explores the genesis of the great challenges of doubt and mistrust, and the pathway to trusting the goodness that is our essence. Please donate at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Thank you!

Turning Towards What You Love Jul 21, 2010

2010-07-21 - For many of us, the most apparent junctures of spiritual transformation are spurred on by challenging life situations. This talk looks at how our conscious aspiration for awakening, and our practice of mindful presence, can help us find peace, compassion and freedom when difficulties arise. Please donate at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Thank you!

The True Revolution Jul 14, 2010

2007-12-19 - In Buddhism, lovingkindness is considered a divine abode, our true home. This talk explores how we can recognize the mask that covers insecurity, inhabit our essential goodness of Being, and let ourselves touch and be touched by love. This awakening into wholeheartedness is the true revolution. Please donate at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Thank you!

The Power of Mind Jul 07, 2010

2010-07-07 - The Buddha taught that "Everything is based on mind, is led by mind, is fashioned by mind." This talk explores how our intention and attention can tap into the living awareness that is our source, and give rise to healing of body, heart and spirit.

Stress, Presence and Freedom Jun 30, 2010

2007-10-31 - We are designed to respond to stress with flight/fight/freeze and this can proliferate and then harden into our ongoing response to life. The practice of presence, of recognizing and relaxing with what is arising, can cut through this conditioning and gift us with the realization of our true nature and the capacity to love fully.

Gateways to Happiness Jun 23, 2010

2008-02-06 While we all want to be happy, our habitual ways of pursuing happiness leave us dissatisfied. What prevents us from being happy? What is true happiness? How do we relax and open to the blessings of our life that are always and already here? Though these reflections we explore together our potential to live from a profound place of inner freedom, peace and happiness.

The Unreal Other Jun 09, 2010

2010-06-09 - When we experience others through a conditioned lens of wants and fears, and of unexamined beliefs, we react in ways that cause distance and sometimes obvious injury. This talk explores how we create separation from others, and the ways we can awaken from this trance and live from genuine empathy and wisdom.

Part 2 - Relating Wisely with Fear Jun 02, 2010

2010-06-02 - While fear is essential to survival, it can also strangle our capacity to live fully and awaken spiritually. These two talks explore how fear takes over our lives, and the ways we can train our attention to free ourselves from its grip.

Part 1 - Relating Wisely with Fear May 26, 2010

2010-05-26 - While fear is essential to survival, it can also strangle our capacity to live fully and awaken spiritually. These two talks explore how fear takes over our lives, and the ways we can train our attention to free ourselves from its grip.

Desire and Spiritual Freedom May 19, 2010

2010-05-19 - The Buddha taught that becoming identified with "wanting mind" obscures our true nature and binds us in suffering. This talk explores a wise attitude in relating to desire, and offers three pathways towards freedom: Mindfulness of "wanting mind," trancing back desire to its source, and radical non-clinging.

Relating Wisely to "Wanting Mind" May 12, 2010

2010-05-12 - While desire is intrinsic to life, it can contract into the craving that traps us in suffering. This talk explores how we seek happiness yet become habituated to false refuges--substitutes like over- consuming food, dependent relationships, approval, achieving--that can never bring happiness. Our freedom becomes possible when we forgive the ways we get hooked, and offer a deep, mindful attention to the energies of craving and clinging.

My Religion is Kindness May 05, 2010

2008-05-28 - The expression of inner freedom is a kind heart. This talk explores how we armor our hearts, and the pathways of awakening our natural capacity for loving unconditionally. The session includes an experiential inquiry that helps reveal the ways we create separation, and the possiblity of healing and freeing our heart.

Embodied Spirit Apr 28, 2010

2010-04-28 - The Buddha taught that mindfulness of the body is a direct path to the realization of truth, to peace and freedom. This talk explores how we leave a present-centered awareness of our body, and the pathways of homecoming.

True Belonging - Refuge in Presence and Relatedness Apr 21, 2010

2010-04-21 - We become homesick when our insecurity compels us to find refuge in exclusive affiliations, in over-consuming, in avoiding intimacy or grasping tightly to the approval of others. This talk explores how we come home to the truth of who we are by connecting with our moment to moment experience, and by developing the capacity to be wakeful, giving and receptive in loving relationship.

Part 2-Realizing Our Natural Joy Apr 14, 2010

2008-04-30 In the buddhist teachings, joy is a natural expression of our awakened heart. In these two talks we will explore how we block off joy, and ways that we can cultivate and embody this intrinsic facet of our being.

Part 1-Realizing Our Natural Joy Apr 14, 2010

2008-04-23 In the buddhist teachings, joy is a natural expression of our awakened heart. In these two talks we will explore how we block off joy, and ways that we can cultivate and embody this intrinsic facet of our being.

Beyond Small Self Apr 07, 2010

2010-04-07 - While we are conditioned to become identified with limited sense of self, we have the capacity to recognize and open to who we are beyond the self. This talk investigates our most compelling domains of getting identified, and the ways a purposeful presence can awaken us.

Meditation and Healing Trauma Mar 31, 2010

2010-03-31 - Spiritual awakening often involves offering a healing presence to the suffering of post traumatic stress or deep emotional wounding. This talk explores the three key elements that support this process: self-forgiveness, accessing a source of love and safety, and bringing a kind attention to the unlived life in the body.

The Blessings of Deep Listening Mar 24, 2010

2010-03-24 - The Blessings of Deep Listening - Our capacity to listen deeply--to our inner life and each other--is the grounds of true understanding and love. This talk explores the challenges to listening and guidelines and practices that awaken a listening heart.

Realizing Your True Nature--Four Reflections Mar 17, 2010

2010-03-17 This talk explores a Tibetan teaching through reflection and guided meditations: Our true nature--our inherent wakefuness, openness and love--is closer than we can imagine; it is more profound than we can imagine; it is easier than we can imagine; and it is more wondrous than we can imagine.

2008-07-09 - Three Attitudes that Awaken and Free Our Spirit Mar 10, 2010

2008-07-09 Our predicament is intuiting our true nature--love, awareness--and yet regularly contracting into the self-identity conditioned by wants and fears. This talk explores three essential and liberating ways of relating to our human conditioning: forgiving that it arises, interest in what is true, and regarding experience with friendliness and kindness.

Trusting Your Basic Goodness Mar 03, 2010

2010-03-03 - When we don't trust who we are, we are unable to be at home in our world. This talk explores how we come to be at war with ourselves and the pathway to realizing our basic goodness.

Living Aligned with the Heart Feb 24, 2010

2010-02-24 - We suffer when our words or actions arise from unconscious wants and fears. This talk explores how we can awaken from the habitual ways we cause harm to ourselves and others, and live from our natural intelligence and tender warmth.

Soul Retrieval Feb 17, 2010

2008-09-24 - When we become stressed and reactive, we lose contact with our natural spontaneity, wisdom and openheartedness. This talk investigates the ways we become caught in the stress-trance and the key elements in awakening: pausing and remindfulness. Using the gateway of the senses, we explore both the pathway of presence and the gifts of reconnecting with soul, spirit, essence.

Turning Towards What you Love Feb 10, 2010

2008-09-03 - There is a saying: The road to hell is paved with "bad" intentions. From the Buddha we learn the path to freedom arises from wise intentions. Yet because we habitually grasp after what will immediately relieve or comfort or please us, we often do not listen to our deepest intentions. We forget that in this brief life, what matters most is loving presence. This evening of talk and guided meditations invites participants to examine intentions in their relationships, and to reflect on living from a more awake connection with our heart.

Listening to Our Life Feb 10, 2010

2008-08-27 Listening in a full and open way allows us to come home to our natural state--awake, vast awareness. In an immediate way, a listening attention dissolves the tangles of fear and craving that obscure our wholeness. This class includes both a talk and guided meditations on deep listening to our inner experience and with others.

Deepening Practice Feb 03, 2010

2010-02-03 - This talk and question/answer format addresses the attitudes and practices that cultivate our natural wisdom and compassion.

Part 2 - Presence and Aliveness Jan 27, 2010

2010-01-27 - Part 2 - Presence and Aliveness - These two talks explore how we leave our bodies, the challenge of working with pain, the pathway home to embodied awareness, and the gifts of presence and aliveness.

Part 1 - Presence and Aliveness Jan 20, 2010

2010-01-20 - Part 1 - Presence and Aliveness - These two talks explore how we leave our bodies, the challenge of working with pain, the pathway home to embodied awareness, and the gifts of presence and aliveness.

Awakening to the Sacred Jan 13, 2010

2010-01-13 - Awakening to the Sacred - The tendency to think "life should be different" and to try to control experience removes us from the wisdom and compassion that naturally gives rise to healing and transformation. We learn to trust the power of our heart and awareness by meeting both the pain and beauty of this life with sacred presence.

2010-01-06 - Taking Refuge Jan 06, 2010

2010-01-06 - Taking Refuge - The Buddha taught of three archetypal domains in which we awaken presence and realize freedom. In contrast to our habitual false refuges, these gateways of true refuge are dependable because they express the timeless truth of what we are. This talk shines a light on false refuges, guides us in exploring the meaning of each of the three Buddhist refuges and ends in a ritual of "taking refuge."

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