The Power of Deep Listening – Part 2

The Power of Deep Listening – Part 2

Listening deeply is the gateway to realizing connection. It’s what allows us to move through life with a wise, loving and healing presence. These two talks explore our blocks to true listening, and offer teachings and practices that can directly cultivate this...
Meditation: Cultivating Deep Listening (19:54 min.)

Meditation: Cultivating Deep Listening (19:54 min.)

Deep listening expresses the purity and presence of our true nature. This meditation guides us to come into a state of listening that is spacious, receptive and profoundly wakeful and present. We close with the poem “lost” by David Wagoner. Stand still. The trees...
Meditation: Aliveness and Presence (20:50 min.)

Meditation: Aliveness and Presence (20:50 min.)

This meditation guides us to wake up our senses and full aliveness through a body scan, and then to rest in the formless presence that is aware of this changing dance of life.  We close with a poem by Robert Hall. Within the body you are wearing, nowinside the...
The Power of Deep Listening – Part 1

The Power of Deep Listening – Part 1

Listening deeply is the gateway to realizing connection. It’s what allows us to move through life with a wise, loving and healing presence. These two talks explore our blocks to true listening, and offer teachings and practices that can directly cultivate this...
Meditation: Say “Yes” to Life (13 min.)

Meditation: Say “Yes” to Life (13 min.)

This guided practice awakens a relaxed and friendly attention that rests in the breath and opens to whatever is arising. We deepen that presence with the intention to truly say “Yes” to experience, allowing life to be just as it is. Photo: Donna...
Compassion for All Living Beings

Compassion for All Living Beings

We often talk of widening the circles of compassion. This talk explores the qualities of mature compassion, what blocks us from this embodied and inclusive caring, and how each of us can awaken a heart that responds to our world’s suffering. This event was...
Meditation: Spacious Sky of Awareness (18:04)

Meditation: Spacious Sky of Awareness (18:04)

This meditation begins with a body scan that guides us to awaken our senses. We relax open to include the changing flow of sounds and sensations, in a spacious, open awareness (a morning meditation from the 2015 IMCW New Year silent retreat).
The Wings of Awakening – Self-Honesty & Love (retreat talk)

The Wings of Awakening – Self-Honesty & Love (retreat talk)

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...
Meditation: Befriending Your Inner Life (17:27 min.)

Meditation: Befriending Your Inner Life (17:27 min.)

This meditation establishes a gentle and caring presence through bringing the image and felt sense of a smile to various domains in the body. We then settle with the breath, and practice relaxing with whatever arises, letting life be just as it is. The underlying...
Making the Whole World Your Friend

Making the Whole World Your Friend

A wonderful translation of the Pali word Metta is friendliness. This talk looks at friendliness through an evolutionary lens, and explores ways we can cultivate a more open...
Meditation: Homecoming to Our Life Breath (15:49 min.)

Meditation: Homecoming to Our Life Breath (15:49 min.)

Perhaps the most universal place to collect and deepen attention is the breath.  This meditation begins with an intentional breath that calms the nervous system, and then opens to a clear, intimate presence with our natural breathing. With breath as our home...
Part 2: Refuge in the Wilderness – Coming Home to Embodied Presence

Part 2: Refuge in the Wilderness – Coming Home to Embodied Presence

When we live from our mental control towers, we are in a trance that confines our life. These two talks look at the primary ways we are conditioned to leave embodied presence, and the consequence of unlived life—being cut off from our vitality, intelligence and...
Part 1: Refuge in the Wilderness – Coming Home to Embodied Presence

Part 1: Refuge in the Wilderness – Coming Home to Embodied Presence

When we live from our mental control towers, we are in a trance that confines our life. These two talks look at the primary ways we are conditioned to leave embodied presence, and the consequence of unlived life—being cut off from our vitality, intelligence and...