Tara Brach

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 c...

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 ho...

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, f...

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 h...

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...

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 in...

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 t...

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 ca...

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: Find...

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 real...

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...

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 thes...

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...

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 gui...

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) - 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...

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...

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 brin...

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 Cal...

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 dif...

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 - 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'l...

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) - 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...

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.