Stress and Everyday Nirvana – Part 1
Our habitual view of stress is that it is a bad thing, an obstacle to healthy living and spiritual realization. These two talks look at how our way of relating to stress determines our happiness, and invites listeners to engage with practices that radically shift our...
Meditation: Letting Life Live through You (22:09 min.)
Meditation – Letting Life Live Through You – This meditation begins with quieting the mind and collecting attention with the breath. We then awaken the senses through a body scan, open to sound, and rest in open awareness, allowing sounds and sensations to...
Reconnecting with Our Lives – Healing from Dissociation
Dissociation is the universal mechanism for pulling away from the pain of “too much.” While it’s necessary and natural for enduring certain situations, the ongoing habit of dissociation cuts us off from our full aliveness, creativity, and capacity for love. This talk...
Meditation: Know That You’re Here (19:22 min)
We spend many moments in a trance, time traveling to the past and future, lost in a virtual reality. This meditation helps us collect our attention with our breath, awaken through the body, and open the senses. We then rest in the wakeful openness that includes...
Meditation: Gladdening the Mind (18:05 min)
The Buddha taught the value of gladdening the mind when we begin a meditation and in our daily lives. This meditation begins with an inquiry on gratitude – what we are most grateful for – what we love – then continues to scan with a smile though the...
Remembering What Matters: Aspiration and Intention
Remembering What Matters – Aspiration and Intention (from 2013-01-30) ~ Our conscious aspiration toward awakening is what energizes the spiritual path. This talk reviews the main characteristic of a vital aspiration, the conditioning that obscures our deepest...
Meditation: The Mystery of Aliveness (from retreat) (27:40)
This meditation from the morning of spring retreat begins with a body scan, then widens to include sounds, senses and open energetic awareness. Includes an application of the RAIN of Compassion to close. (from a morning guided meditation at the IMCW 2016 Spring...
Three Gestures of Love
If we inquire “what is between me and presence” we usually find we’ve been caught inside a limiting story of self, contracted by wants and fears. This talk explores a simple yet powerful way of arousing loving presence and dissolving the narrow identification that...
Transcript: Love is Always Loving You
• View or download the transcript (PDF) of “Love is Always Loving You” (transcription services by: www.gmrtranscription.com) • Listen to the audio of “Love is Always Loving You” ~ a talk by Tara Brach presented on April 20, 2016 Namaste and...
Reflection: Waking Up from Limiting Beliefs (8 min.)
A guided reflection meditation that addresses limiting beliefs surrounding interpersonal conflict – from the ending of the “Real but Not True” talk. Listen to the full talk, Real but Not True: Freeing Ourselves from Harmful Beliefs. photo: Sherry...
Meditation: The Silence That is Listening (15 min)
Listening to sounds is a powerful way to quiet the thinking mind and connect with the natural openness of awareness. This meditation emphasizes the anchor of listening, and guides us to relax through our bodies and let sounds wash through us. In this receptivity we...
Real But Not True: Freeing Ourselves from Harmful Beliefs
Thoughts and beliefs are navigational maps that are not inherently true. Rather, some serve us and others cause feelings of separation, self-aversion and/or blame of others. We can free ourselves from harmful beliefs by investigating them with a dedicated, mindful and...
Meditation: Living Presence – with Body Scan (17 min)
A key pathway to full presence is awakening through the body. This meditation guides us through a body scan, relaxing and receiving the play of sensations. We then deepen attention to the breath, and rest with the rhythmic waves of breathing, experiencing the...