Talks: Reflections on the Path
Heavenly Messengers: Tara Interviews Frank Ostaseski
Tara interviews Frank Ostaseski, founder of Zen Hospice, on a contemplative approach to death and dying.
For more information on the new “Heavenly Messengers: Awakening Through Aging, Sickness and Death” 2-year training program – a collaborative effort through Spirit Rock and the Metta Institute, go to https://www.spiritrock.org/heavenlymessengers
Part 3: Three Blessings of Awakening Consciousness – Looking In the Mirror
The third gift on the journey of awakening is the mirror. In this talk we explore how to look back into our own minds and discover the timeless, radiant presence that is our essence. It is this realization of our Beingness that enables us to live these lives with wisdom, love and wonder
Part 2: Three Blessings of Awakening Consciousness – Inner Fire
Each of us has the longing to manifest our full potential–to realize and live from loving, awake awareness. This longing is our inner fire, and when conscious and vibrant, it energizes the spiritual path. In this talk we reflect on how fear obscures and redirects our inner fire, and how practices of presence and wise reflection awaken the power and purity of our longing.
Self Compassion (Retreat Talk)
We can only find love and peace in this life if we are able to hold our inner life with compassion. This talk explores the subtle and therefore often unseen ways that we turn on ourselves, and the pathways to a forgiving heart.
Part 1: Three Blessings of Awakening Consciousness – “Forgiveness”
In this three part series we explore the evolution of consciousness through the lens of three key capacities: A forgiving heart, inner fire (conscious aspiration toward freedom) and self-inquiry.
Minting Gold – Embodying the Awakened Heart (Retreat Talk)
Our core conditioning expresses as both a longing for love and the pain of not trusting we are loveable. This talk explores how we create the experience of separation, and the key meditative heart- trainings that lead us to realizing and living from the truth of our...
The Fires of Loss
We all encounter the great losses of our own health and life, and of cherished others. We are conditioned to resist opening to the rawness and grief that comes with loss. This talk describes the refuge of presence in the face of loss, and the gift of timeless love that arises as we make peace with the reality of this living, dying world.
Beyond the Interpreted World
Hildegard of Bingen writes, “An interpreted world is not a Home.” This talk explores the suffering that arises from believing in an interpreted reality, and the love, aliveness and freedom that becomes accessible as we challenge beliefs and awaken into living presence.
The Wings of a Liberating Presence
No matter what is happening in our lives, if we relate to our experience with mindful recognition and an allowing presence, it becomes a portal to freedom. In this talk we explore how the cultivation of these wings of presence awakens us from the identification with an egoic self, and reveals the awareness and love that is our true nature.
Embodying True Refuge: Serving and Savoring Life
This talk traces the story of the Buddha’s awakening, and reflects on four key archetypal elements that are relevant for each of us as we come home to our true nature. There is a particular emphasis on how these elements enable us to encounter challenges in relationships and find our way to openhearted presence.
(audio only) Includes music honoring the launch of Tara’s new book, True Refuge: vocal by La Sarmiento and Guru Ganesha with his Kirtan band.
Remembering What Matters
Our conscious aspiration toward awakening is what energizes the spiritual path. This talk reviews the main characteristic of a vital aspiration, the conditioning that obscures our deepest intentions and offers guided reflections to connect us with what most matters.
Stepping Out of the Cave
If we are suffering it is because we are believing something that is not true. This talk explores the genesis of our core beliefs and the investigation, mindfulness and compassion that can release their grip.
The Barriers to Loving Presence
You might reflect on someone important to you, and ask: “What is between me and loving fully?” Notice what happens. This talk explores the ways we create separations from others, and the power of inquiry and presence to awaken an unconditionally loving heart.
Finding True Refuge
This talk explores the three classic gateways to peace and freedom and includes a living ritual that invites us to bring a conscious, sincere dedication to our awakening on the spiritual path
The God Whom I Love is Inside (retreat talk)
Our suffering arises from unlived life–the fears and loneliness and hurt that we have been unable to digest and include in our heart. This talk explores our conditioning to become dis-embodied and the blessings of spiritual realization that arise as we inhabit our aliveness fully.
Turning Toward the Light
This solstice talk explores how, in the face of darkness – unconsciousness, ignorance, violence – we can call on the light that is within us. The two pathways are to courageously look directly into the places of suffering, and to include in our gaze, the intrinsic goodness in all beings, in life.
Forgiving Our Way to Freedom
Living with chronic blame or resentment is a trance that confines us to a limited fragment of what we are. This talk looks at the ways this trance is fueled and the process by which we release the armoring around our hearts.
A Forgiving Heart – Embracing Our Inner Life
Self-aggression, whether it’s low key blame or deep condemnation, prevents us from intimacy with others and discovering the truth and wholeness of our Being. This talk explores how we can release self-blame, and free ourselves to access our natural warmth and creativity in responding to our world.
Gratitude & Generosity: Markings of Inner Freedom
Those who are genuinely happy, are also naturally grateful for life and generous in living. This Thanksgiving Eve talk explores key ways we block the arising of gratitude and generosity, and practices of mindful presence and direct cultivation that awaken these expressions of the liberated heart.
Hands Off the Controls
We are deeply conditioned to respond to impermanence and inevitable loss by trying to control our experience. Our egoic reactivity prevents us from responding wisely to our life, and living the moments fully. This talk looks at how we can let go of controlling, open to the groundlessness we run from, and reconnect with the deep intelligence and love that flows through our being.
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