Talks: Reflections on the Path

“The intimacy that arises in listening and speaking truth is only possible if we can open to the vulnerability of our own hearts. Breathing in, contacting the life that is right here, is our first step. Once we have held ourselves with kindness, we can touch others in a vital and healing way.”

Trusting the Gold – Realizing Our Basic Goodness

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,...

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Realizing Your Deepest Intention

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....

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Freedom Beyond Selfing

Freedom Beyond Selfing

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...

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IntraConnected – Part 2: Conversation with Tara and Dan Siegel

IntraConnected – Part 2: Conversation with Tara and Dan Siegel

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...

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IntraConnected – Part 1: Conversation with Tara and Dan Siegel

IntraConnected – Part 1: Conversation with Tara and Dan Siegel

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...

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What Is It Like Being You?

What Is It Like Being You?

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...

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From Human Doing to Human Being – Part 2

From Human Doing to Human Being – Part 2

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...

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Skeleton Woman: Embracing This Living and Dying World

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. If we can embrace the whole of our nature with unconditional presence – including the inevitability of change and loss–we...

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Evolving Beyond “Unreal Othering”

Evolving Beyond “Unreal Othering”

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...

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Disarming Our Hearts: Letting Go of Blame (retreat talk)

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...

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From Human Doing to Human Being – Part 1

From Human Doing to Human Being – Part 1

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...

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Seeing Basic Goodness – Part 2

Seeing Basic Goodness – Part 2

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...

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Seeing Basic Goodness – Part 1

Seeing Basic Goodness – Part 1

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...

read more
Eating Addiction: How Meditation Helps Free Us

Eating Addiction: How Meditation Helps Free Us

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...

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After the RAIN (retreat talk)

After the RAIN (retreat talk)

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. This talk was given at the 2018 IMCW...

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Responding to Change with a Wise Heart

Responding to Change with a Wise Heart

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...

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Listening with an Awake Heart – Part 2

Listening with an Awake Heart – Part 2

"Listening and feeling heard are absolutely intrinsic to awakening our hearts and cultivating an open awareness in ourselves and in our world. …The only answer to polarization, the only way we can interrupt the cycles of violence, is to listen deeply and, out of care, seek to...

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