Three Domains of Formless Presence – Landlocked in Fur (retreat talk)
While we have evolved to experience a defining sense of separate self, our potential is to awaken to the formless dimension – the pure awareness is our shared source. This talk explores how we can undo the identification with thoughts, emotions and feelings that keeps...
Meditation: The Silence That’s Listening (morning on retreat) (27:15 min.)
Listening to sounds is a powerful way to quiet the thinking mind and connect with the natural openness of awareness. In this guided meditation, we begin by opening to sound and then listening to and feeling the whole changing flow of life – allowing whatever is...
Meditation: Spacious, Loving Awareness (from retreat) (30:03 min.)
~ an Open Awareness Meditation ~ When our awareness is awake and open, we naturally respond to this changing life with warmth, tenderness and love. This practice helps us discover the spaciousness of awareness by realizing the space and aliveness that is in the body,...
Short Talk & Meditation: Forgiving and Freeing Our Hearts (36:53 min)
Forgiveness for others becomes possible when we’ve held our own being with great compassion. This short talk and guided meditation brings forth our most awake and tender presence as we ask for forgiveness, offer care to the woundedness within us, and then extend...
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...
Short Talk & Meditation: Tonglen – Radical Compassion (32:43 min)
We are conditioned to avoid suffering – our own and others. By pulling away, we also contract our heart and disconnect from our innate capacity for compassion. This short talk and meditation is a training in touching vulnerability, and discovering the boundless...
Tara Talks: Guided Reflection on Inhabiting This Body (12:50 min)
When we are not inhabiting our bodies, we are not experiencing our full aliveness. When pain arises, how much can you open to it and let it be as it is? Just like waves in the ocean, pain and unpleasant sensations are part of the larger space of our lived experience....
Blog: What You Practice Grows Stronger: Choosing Joy to De-Condition Our Negativity Bias
What You Practice Grows Stronger:Choosing Joy to De-Condition Our Negativity Bias Some years back, I was talking with a woman in our community. She was a breast cancer survivor and she told me about a conversation that she had with a friend who also was a survivor....
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...
Meditation: Aliveness and Presence (20:02 min.)
This meditation includes a body scan, using the imagery of a smile, and establishing the senses as a portal to presence. The more we open into the aliveness of the senses, the more we discover the alert inner stillness that is our true home.
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...
Meditation: Lighting Up Your Energy Body (19 min.)
Our being has many frequencies of aliveness and as we attend to the more subtle, we discover a portal to the radiant awareness that is always here. This meditation guides us in using the breath and attention as we scan through the body and awaken an inner luminosity....
TaraTalks: Meditating with RAIN – Working with Difficult Emotions (11:43 min.)
This guided practice applies mindfulness and self-compassion to challenging emotions. It is based on the acronym RAIN, and provides a four step practice that is accessible and effective, even at those times when mindfulness is most difficult to remember. The acronym...