Meditation: Openhearted Presence (19:26 min.)

Meditation: Openhearted Presence (19:26 min.)

This meditation guides us to arouse mindfulness through attention to our senses, and to rest in that wakefulness with a receptive and tender presence.  Écouter en-Français: Méditation : Présence à cœur...
Conscious Prayer – Finding Refuge in Loving Awareness (retreat talk)

Conscious Prayer – Finding Refuge in Loving Awareness (retreat talk)

Prayer is a communing with our enlarged being. This talk examines less conscious forms of prayer, and how we can evolve the power of our prayers by opening into the depth of our longing, and reaching toward our true belonging (from the 2016 IMCW Spring Retreat). How I...
Méditation : Présence à cœur ouvert (19:18 min)

Méditation : Présence à cœur ouvert (19:18 min)

Cette méditation nous guide à éveiller la pleine conscience par l’attention portée à nos sens et nous permet de nous reposer dans cet état d’éveil avec une présence réceptive et tendre.  Cette méditation est de Tara Brach. Elle est traduite et dite avec sa...
Meditation: Relaxing Back into the Mystery (18:11 min.)

Meditation: Relaxing Back into the Mystery (18:11 min.)

All true meditation guides us back to presence, and the mystery that is our source. In this guided meditation we awaken the senses, collect with the breath, and when lost in thought, practice relaxing back into the aliveness and awareness that is always here. We close...
Part 2: Rewiring for Happiness and Freedom

Part 2: Rewiring for Happiness and Freedom

The Buddha said, “I would not be teaching this (a path of awakening) if genuine happiness and freedom were not possible.” While this is our potential, we each have deep conditioning to get stuck in feelings of fear, deficiency and separation from others. These talks...
Meditation: Coming Home with the Breath (14:57 min.)

Meditation: Coming Home with the Breath (14:57 min.)

Our breath is always available as a pathway back to presence. This simple meditation guides us to relax and awaken in the body, and then establishes the breath as a home base for our attention. Our practice is to notice when the mind becomes distracted, and gently...
Part 1: Rewiring for Happiness and Freedom

Part 1: Rewiring for Happiness and Freedom

The Buddha said, “I would not be teaching this (a path of awakening) if genuine happiness and freedom were not possible.” While this is our potential, we each have deep conditioning to get stuck in feelings of fear, deficiency and separation from others. These talks...
Guided Meditation: Intimacy with the Flow of Life (20:09 min.)

Guided Meditation: Intimacy with the Flow of Life (20:09 min.)

The meditation begins with a body scan, filling the body with aliveness. Then we widen attention, becoming aware of the sounds that are happening moment-to-moment, aware of the sensations, feelings, or emotions that are here. Again and again, the invitation is to...
Intimacy with Life (Part 2)

Intimacy with Life (Part 2)

Zen master Dōgen teaches that enlightenment is intimacy with all things. These two talks explore teachings and practices that cultivate intimacy – a liberating experience of relatedness and oneness with our living world. “Awakening presence in our relating,...
Meditation: Relaxing Back into Presence (11:35 min.)

Meditation: Relaxing Back into Presence (11:35 min.)

When we are stressed, our body and mind contract, and energetically we resist the life in the present moment. This meditation helps de-condition the stress reaction by guiding us to relax open from thoughts, relax physical tension, and gently relax back over and over...
Intimacy with Life (Part 1)

Intimacy with Life (Part 1)

Zen master Dōgen teaches that enlightenment is intimacy with all things. These two talks explore teachings and practices that cultivate intimacy – a liberating experience of relatedness and oneness with our living world. Listen and watch: Intimacy with Life...
Meditation: Present Heart (14:16 min)

Meditation: Present Heart (14:16 min)

We awaken a present heart by relaxing with the breath, and bringing the kindness of a smile into our bodily experience. This meditation ends with an offering of blessings to our inner life and all beings. Photo: Tara...
Being with Love, Death and Grief: Tara Brach and Frank Ostaseski

Being with Love, Death and Grief: Tara Brach and Frank Ostaseski

Grief is our natural way of expressing loss for what we love, and learning to open to grief serves the deepening and widening of our loving. This event, given at the Upaya Zen Center on June 25, 2023, includes short meditations and talks by Frank and Tara, and...
Meditation: Resting in Breath, Relaxing into Life (21:39 min.)

Meditation: Resting in Breath, Relaxing into Life (21:39 min.)

This meditation invites us to collect our attention with a calming breath, and then with the senses as a home base, settle into presence. The reminders encourage a letting go of thoughts, shifting from virtual reality into the aliveness of moment-to-moment experience....