Meditation: Living Presence – with Body Scan

Meditation: Living Presence – with Body Scan

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...

Meditation: Mindful Body Scan (9:31 min.)

Guided Meditation – Mindful Body Scan (9:31) This practice systematically moves attention through the body, awakening a direct experience of sensation from the inside out.  The benefits are a dramatic increase in vitality, sensitivity, presence and ease.Click to...

Reflection: The Three Refuges

• View or download the print-friendly PDF version The three facets of true refuge – awareness, truth, and love – come alive as we dedicate our presence to them. As we open to these three gateways, they reveal the one taste of freedom inherent to all paths of...
Mindfulness Strategies for Working with Trauma and Strong Fear

Mindfulness Strategies for Working with Trauma and Strong Fear

View or download the print-friendly PDF version. For More Resources on Fear, See Working with Fear There are a number of mindfulness-based strategies that can temporarily calm us when fear is strong. These practices can be combined or sequenced in any way that you...

RAIN: Working with Difficult Emotions

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 4-steps...
Blog: Guided Meditation – Letting Go – 9 Magic Breaths

Blog: Guided Meditation – Letting Go – 9 Magic Breaths

View or download the print-friendly PDF version. Take a pause from all activity, and either sit or stand in a way that allows you to be comfortable yet alert. It’s ideal, if possible, to gently close your eyes. With each of the following conscious breaths, inhale...

Working with Fear – article in Modern Maturity Magazine

by Tara Brach(originally published in Modern Maturity Magazine) There’s an old joke about the Jewish mother who sends her son a telegram that reads, “Start worrying. Details to follow.” That’s exactly how most of us live. We go through our days, a bundle of tense...

Working With Difficulties: The Blessings of RAIN

NOTE: See updated explanation and more RAIN resources here. Adapted from Tara’s book: True Refuge: Finding Peace & Freedom in Your Own Awakened Heart (Bantam, 2013)Also available in .pdf (22KB) About twelve years ago, a number of Buddhist teachers began...
Blog: The Practice of Saying, “Yes”

Blog: The Practice of Saying, “Yes”

by Tara Brach Some years ago, in the middle of a weeklong vipassana retreat, I found myself swamped in negativity. I reacted with aversion to every facet of life around me. The teachers were talking too much; the cold, cloudy weather was disappointing; my fellow...

From Longing to Belonging

by Tara Brach(Originally published in Tricycle Magazine – summer 2004) I looked around the hall at all the other meditators, sitting so quietly, with such dignity. Suffering arises from getting caught up in stories and illusions, I reminded myself, hoping that somehow...

Creating Peace by Letting Go of Blame

by Tara Brach (This article originally was published in Awakening Mind, June, 2003) We’ve all been hurt, disappointed, betrayed, maybe even abused. Sometimes the perpetrator is someone we love; at other times it may be an institution such as our employer or our...
Blessings of a Patient Heart

Blessings of a Patient Heart

by Tara Brach (This article originally was published in Awakening Mind, December, 2003) My friend was late for our lunch date and I had nothing to do. My cell phone wasn’t charged and I’d forgotten to bring a book. Perusing the menu only lasted for so long. Surrounded...