Talks: Reflections on the Path
Trusting the Gold (retreat talk)
This talk looks at how our upbringing and culture lead us to mistrust who we are and become identified as a separate, deficient self. We then explore the practices of presence and self-inquiry that turn us toward the openness, tenderness and wakefulness of our Being. Our trust...
Compassion Towards All: Moving toward a Plant Based Diet
For most of human history it’s been “normal” to eat non-human animals. This is now changing. We are awakening to the massive suffering of the billions of animals killed each day for food, the horrors of the animal-food industry, and the impact it has on climate change (second...
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 yearn to...
Forgiveness: Releasing Ourselves and Others from Aversive Blame – Part 2
Rumi invites us to find the barriers we’ve erected against love, and a universal one is blame. These three talks are an invitation to relax those barriers, and to open our hearts to our inner life and to all beings. Part I focuses on chronic self-judgment; Part 2 on the places...
Equanimity: A Heart That is Ready for Anything (Duck Meditation)
Equanimity is the quality of presence that is open, balanced and non-reactive. As this talk explores, when equanimity is lacking, we become easily lost in trance, identified as a defended and controlling egoic self. When present, the solidity and constriction of egoic self...
Forgiveness: Releasing Ourselves and Others from Aversive Blame – Part 1
Rumi invites us to find the barriers we’ve erected against love, and a universal one is blame. These three talks are an invitation to relax those barriers, and to open our hearts to our inner life and to all beings. Part 1 focuses on chronic self-judgment; Part 2 on the places...
Beyond the Controlling Self – Part 2
It’s natural that we do what we can to ward off danger and further ourselves. While our control strategies – such as aggression, judging, planning, seeking approval, pretending – have a developmental role, they are not a recipe for happiness, intimacy and freedom. An essential...
Beyond the Controlling Self – Part 1
It’s natural that we do what we can to ward off danger and further ourselves. While our control strategies - such as aggression, judging, planning, seeking approval, pretending - have a developmental role, they are not a recipe for happiness, intimacy and freedom. An essential...
The Four Remembrances
When we attune to the reality of impermanence and death, we remember what most matters to us. But in daily life we can lose precious swaths of time in a reactive trance, on our way somewhere else, and lost in problem solving, judgment and worry. This talk reflects on four...
Embodied Presence: Portal to the Sacred – Part 2
This two part series explores how we regularly leave our body and skim life’s surface in a mental trance, and the ways we can train our attention to come home again. We look at working with physical and emotional pain, and the gifts of love, wisdom, creativity and aliveness...
Embodied Presence: Portal to the Sacred – Part 1
This two part series explores how we regularly leave our body and skim life’s surface in a mental trance, and the ways we can train our attention to come home again. We look at working with physical and emotional pain, and the gifts of love, wisdom, creativity and aliveness...
Tara Talks: Compassion toward Non-Human Animals (11:39 min.)
Tara Talks: Compassion for Non-Human Animals For thousands of years humans have become accustomed to de-valuing, exploiting and violating non-human animals. This unseen bias of speciesism continues to create horrific suffering for billions of sentient beings each year, and...
Navigating Conflict with a Wise Heart – Part 2
Navigating Conflict with a Wise Heart – Part 2 This series of talks offers guidance in transforming conflict into a portal for awakening your understanding, flexibility and compassion. We look at how to heal our own unmet needs and not be dependent on others changing; and how...
Navigating Conflict with a Wise Heart – Part 1
This series of talks offers guidance in transforming conflict into a portal for awakening your understanding, flexibility and compassion. We look at how to heal our own unmet needs and not be dependent on others changing; and how to engage with another person when both are...
The Sacred Art of Listening
Just as presence is the heart of meditation, so deep listening is at the center of all conscious, loving relationships. This talk explores how our wants and fears block listening, ways we can deepen our capacity for listening, and the healing that unfolds when we truly feel...
Spiritual Reparenting
[CC] ~ When we are not sufficiently nurtured in childhood, we are inclined toward anxiety, depression, addiction and other forms of suffering. In a deep way, we do not feel at home with others. We are disconnected from our own body, heart and spirit. This talk explores how...
Living with Courageous Presence
[CC] ~ The essence of courage is to willingly feel our vulnerability; this is what allows us to respond to life with an undefended, wise heart. This talk explores the ways we resist opening to vulnerability, and three key steps in cultivating a courageous presence. Ask, "What...
Earth’s Crisis: On the Edge of the Roof
This talk was given in 2015, yet it is as timely as ever. It views the ecological dis-ease of our planet through the lens of our evolutionary unfolding. We explore the egoic trance that has precipitated the destruction of our environment, and the inner practices of presence...
Love for Imperfect Things – featuring special guest, Haemin Sunim, with Tara Brach
Internationally known Buddhist teacher and writer, Haemin Sunim, talks about his new book - Love for Imperfect Things. Then, he and Tara talk together and respond to questions.
Realizing Your Deepest Intention
[CC] ~ The Buddha taught that this whole life - including our thoughts, feelings and actions - arise from the tip of intention. While our intentions are usually marbled with wanting and fear, when intention comes into the light of consciousness, it unfolds into its most pure...
Donations
Please consider a donation of any size—your generosity allows us to offer these talks and meditations freely.