Happiness Is Possible: De-conditioning the Negativity Bias – Part 2
There is an inner freedom that expresses as happiness and peace, and it is accessible when we arrive in openhearted presence. As the Buddha said, “If it were not possible to find liberation, I would not teach about it.” In this two part talk, we will look at the...
Meditation: The Breath – Portal to Presence (18:50 min)
We start with breathing mindfully to collect and calm the body and mind. Then we open our attention to include the changing flow in a spacious natural presence.
The Reality of Change: Embracing this Living Dying World
“What is it that allows us to open our hearts to every moment of our life? It’s the remembrance that it’s passing and it’s precious.” Our true refuge is reality – only by opening to “things as they are” do we find true peace...
Sure Heart’s Release
The pathway to our awakened heart includes deep recognition of our barriers to love, and as we open, the courage to express our love. This talk includes a reflection and practice that can support us in inhabiting our full capacity for loving presence (a favorite talk...
Healing Trauma: The Light Shines Through the Broken Places
Transcript available here: Transcript: Healing Trauma – The Light Shines Through the Broken Places Most of us have encountered trauma either in our own direct experience or with someone in our immediate circle. This talk examines the shame and suffering that arise...
Listening to the Song – Part 2
Listening is more than a communications skill, it is a capacity that awakens our awareness. As we learn to listen inwardly, we begin to understand and care for the life that is here. And as we listen to others, that same intimacy emerges. In this two-part series we...
Your Awake Heart Is Calling You
As individuals and societies, we are pulled by both the insecurity of our evolutionary past, and by our awake heart, our capacity for mindfulness and compassion. This talk explores the ways we can listen to and respond to the call of our awake heart, by training...
Meditation: Blessings of Love (11:31)
A blessing is whatever reminds us of the sacred loving presence that shines through all of us. This meditation is a transformational practice in receiving and offering blessings. First we connect with the vulnerable tender place within us that longs to feel loved, and...
Meditation: Embodied Awareness (17 min.)
This guided meditation includes a full body scan, and the recognition of the formless awareness that includes and is the source of all experience. By recognizing that awareness we discover the silence and stillness that is the ground of all experience.
Meditation: Inhabiting Awake Awareness with Intro (24:31 min)
This meditation begins with collecting attention with the breath, and awakens us to the experience of aliveness and inner space by scanning the body. We then open to receive all the senses in awake awareness, and to inhabiting that boundless receptive awareness that...
Meditation: Inhabiting Awake Awareness (21:40)
This meditation begins with collecting attention with the breath, and awakens us to the experience of aliveness and inner space by scanning the body. We then open to receive all the senses in awake awareness, and to inhabiting that boundless receptive awareness...
The Power of Inquiry in Spiritual Awakening – Part 1
Part I – In spiritual life, inquiry arises from our deep yearning to understand reality, and it involves bringing an interested, engaged attention to our immediate experience. These two talks explore how inquiry serves emotional healing by focusing on difficult...
Heart Meditation: Loving Presence (33:55 min)
Scanning the body, filling it with the image of a smile, meditation continues with loving presence of someone easy to love, our own being, and offering care to others. – from 2015 fall IMCW retreat
True Happiness: Realizing Well-Being
Well being is the deep contentment that arises from a relaxed, wakeful presence. This talk explores the beliefs and habits that contract us away form presence, and several key ways we can nourish our natural capacity for happiness.