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...
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...
• 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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
by Tara Brach In moments of desperation, no matter what we believe, we all tend to reach out in prayer to something or someone for help. We might call out for relief from a migraine, beg to be selected for a job, pray for the wisdom to guide our child through a...
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...
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...
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...
by Tara Brach When I was in college, I went off to the mountains for a weekend of hiking with an older, wiser friend of twenty-two. After we set up our tent, we sat by a stream, watching the water swirl around rocks and talking about our lives. At one point she...
by Tara Brach (This article originally was published in Awakening Mind) There is one thing that, when cultivated and regularly practiced, leads to deep spiritual intention, to peace, to mindfulness and clear comprehension, to vision and knowledge, to a happy life here...
