A Generous Heart

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...
Awakening Through Change and Loss

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.

The Sacred Art of Listening

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.

Guided Meditation: The Space of Awareness (22:23 min.)

Guided Meditation: Listening to Life (25:44 min.)

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...
Radical Self-Honesty: The Joy of Getting Real

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.”

Walking Meditation – Instructions (Audio and PDF) (6:19 min)

Walking Meditation – Instructions (Audio and PDF) (6:19 min)

Meditation is a practice of presence that you can bring alive in all settings and activities. The formal training in walking meditation can be particularly valuable for helping you to cultivate an awareness of your embodied experience in each moment, allowing you to...
Guided Meditation: Relaxing into Living Presence (23:39 min.)

Guided Meditation: Relaxing into Living Presence (23:39 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...
Removing the Barriers to Love (retreat talk)

Removing the Barriers to Love (retreat talk)

(Retreat Talk) 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...
Sacred Fertilizer: The Portal of Fear (Retreat Talk)

Sacred Fertilizer: The Portal of Fear (Retreat Talk)

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.  …from the Fall 2014 IMCW fall retreat – Sunday night talk. Enjoy!
Part 2: Happiness

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...