Tara Brach

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...

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...

(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!

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!

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!

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 do...

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....

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!

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 di...

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 supp...

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 being...

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 ma...

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 ma...

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 t...

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 h...

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...

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 abo...

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 donatio...

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-...

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. Pl...

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.tara...

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 dona...

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 d...

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!

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!