Tara Brach

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 medi...

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...

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...

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 - 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) - 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) - 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) - 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 i...

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 u...

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 w...

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 u...

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"...

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...

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...

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 su...

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 seei...

"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 o...

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. "...

"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...

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 cont...

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 of...

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 - 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...

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 beauti...

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. You...