Tara Talks – Reflection: Healing Self-Blame
When we are stuck in blaming, disliking or hating ourselves, we are unable to love our world. In this guided reflection we’ll explore using the acronym RAIN (recognize-allow-investigate-nurture) to begin releasing the armoring of blame and relating to our inner life...
Vipassana or Insight Meditation and Instruction: from Day 4 on Retreat (29:20 min.)
Vipassana, also known as insight meditation, is training in bringing a clear mindful attention to our moment to moment experience. We begin by relaxing through the body and then resting attention with the breath – or some other sensory anchor – and allowing the mind...
Longing to Belong: Bringing Presence through the Three Refuges
Spiritual practice reveals our belonging through bringing presence to three gateways: the aliveness of the present moment, loving relatedness, and the openness and lucidity of awareness itself. This talk includes guided meditations in exploring each gateway. It ends...
The Path of Spiritual Surrender: Part 2
Cultivating a surrendering presence allows us to release the identity of a small, separate self, and open to the truth and fullness of who we are. These two talks explore misunderstandings about surrender (such as the fear that we will become passive or condone...
Meditation: Letting Go (20:23 min.)
One way of understanding meditation is a letting go of the habitual clenching of thoughts, the clenching that resists emotions and pulls away from aliveness itself. This meditation guides us in letting go, first through the body, and then practicing letting go of...
Méditation: Le Lâcher-prise (19:58 min.)
Le “lâcher-prise” des habitudes de contractions et crispations par lesquelles nous résistons aux émotions et nous éloignons de la vie qui est là, pourrait être une façon d’illustrer ce qu’est la méditation. Cette méditation qui nous amène vers...
Desire: A Current of Homecoming
Desire is intrinsic to our aliveness, yet when we have unmet needs, it can possess us. This talk explores how to relax open the grip of wanting and heal the suffering of addiction. You will learn how to bring mindfulness and compassion to the roots of desire, and be...
Meditation: Vipassana – Opening Our Hearts to Life as It Is (20 min.)
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...
Meditation: Befriending Your Inner Life (16:11 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...
The Path of Spiritual Surrender: Part 1
Cultivating a surrendering presence allows us to release the identity of a small, separate self, and open to the truth and fullness of who we are. These two talks explore misunderstandings about surrender (such as the fear that we will become passive or condone...
How Hope Can Heal and Free Us – Part 2
The mature expression of hope includes three elements: the aspiration for manifesting our full potential, a trust that this is possible, and an energy that engages to serve this unfolding. In this talk, we explore the importance of hope on the spiritual path, its...
Meditation: Receiving Life in Open, Awake Awareness (19:44 min.)
This meditation awakens a receptive attention to the senses, starting with physical sensations and opening to sound. Then we sense how open awake awareness is receiving the moment to moment arising and passing life. In the final part of the practice, we explore how...
How Hope Can Heal and Free Us – Part 1
The mature expression of hope includes three elements: the aspiration for manifesting our full potential, a trust that this is possible, and an energy that engages to serve this unfolding. In this talk, we explore the importance of hope on the spiritual path, its...