Widening the Circles of Compassion (retreat talk)
The archetypal figure of the Bodhisattva (“awakening being”) reflects our potential to realize our connectedness with all beings, and care for this living world with an open tender heart. This talk explores the four types of patterning that keep us stuck in the pain...
Meditation: Relaxing Open (17:53 min)
This meditation invites the shift from thinking into open awareness. Our practice is to awaken the senses – feeling aliveness, listening to sound – and then rest as the awareness that wakefully receives moment to moment experience. Includes words from...
Gateways of Remembrance: The Three Refuges
This talk explores the traditional refuges of awareness (buddha nature), truth (dharma) and love (sangha) that are at the heart of Buddhism, and found in many spiritual and religious traditions. It includes a look at our false refuges – strategies that seek to...
Meditation Instructions with Question/Response (14 min)(retreat)
“…discover what’s happening here, beyond the veil of thinking.” Tara gives additional instructions and responds to questions after the morning meditation at the 2015 IMCW New Year retreat. photo: JonathanFoust.com – Tara at Pearlstone Retreat Center...
Meditation: Letting Life Be As It Is (19:00 min.)
Tara taught on retreat this week, so wanted to share this meditation from 2010 with you.
The Power of Mindful Investigation
We each have a deep interest in reality–in understanding what is true and who we are. In Buddhist teachings, our interest, and its expression in wise investigation, energize the path of awakening. This talk explores how mindful investigation can free us from emotional...
Meditation: The RAIN of Compassion (34:54 min) (from retreat)
This new version of the acronym RAIN is a powerful way of bringing compassion to the life within you, and to attuning and deepening compassion for others. Given at the 2015 IMCW New Year’s retreat, it is a “guided heart” practice and includes...
Meditation: Seeing the Goodness (6:11 min)
When we focus on what we appreciate in others, our very attention helps allow that person to shine. (6:11 min) (a practice meditation from the end of “Secret Beauty – Solstice Talk” on 2015-12-23)
Reflection: Learning to Stay (4:33 min.)
We open the door to healing by bringing a mindful and kind attention to inner vulnerability and fear. “Learning to stay opens up the space that gives us our life. That’s when it becomes real with our inner life… with others. So just do a brief reflection...
Secret Beauty – Seeing the Goodness – Solstice Talk
This solstice talk explores two pathways to realizing the Secret Beauty that is our essence. One is through the compassion that arises when we stay with vulnerability and suffering, and the other is through love that arises as we learn to see the goodness that...
Meditation: Awaken to HeartSpace (23:04 min)
Awaken to HeartSpace, the open awareness that is intrinsically tender and wakeful,and discover how to experience this life from the domain of heart.
Meditation: The RAIN of Self-Compassion (10:42 min)
This meditation is included at the end of the RAIN of Self-Compassion talk. This talk explores three key features of the trance of unworthiness and introduces this guided meditation based on the acronym RAIN that awakens self-compassion and de-conditions the suffering...
The RAIN of Self-Compassion
This talk explores three key features of the trance of unworthiness and introduces a guided meditation based on the acronym RAIN that awakens self-compassion and de-conditions the suffering of being at war with ourselves. Listen to Meditation: The RAIN of...