Talks: Reflections on the Path
“The intimacy that arises in listening and speaking truth is only possible if we can open to the vulnerability of our own hearts. Breathing in, contacting the life that is right here, is our first step. Once we have held ourselves with kindness, we can touch others in a vital and healing way.”
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...
Part 2: Rewiring for Happiness and Freedom
The Buddha said, “I would not be teaching this (a path of awakening) if genuine happiness and freedom were not possible.” While this is our potential, we each have deep conditioning to get stuck in feelings of fear, deficiency and separation from others. These talks explore the...
Part 1: Rewiring for Happiness and Freedom
The Buddha said, “I would not be teaching this (a path of awakening) if genuine happiness and freedom were not possible.” While this is our potential, we each have deep conditioning to get stuck in feelings of fear, deficiency and separation from others. These talks explore the...
Donations
Please consider a donation of any size—your generosity allows us to offer these talks and meditations freely.
Intimacy with Life (Part 2)
Zen master Dōgen teaches that enlightenment is intimacy with all things. These two talks explore teachings and practices that cultivate intimacy - a liberating experience of relatedness and oneness with our living world. “Awakening presence in our relating, listening to...
Intimacy with Life (Part 1)
Zen master Dōgen teaches that enlightenment is intimacy with all things. These two talks explore teachings and practices that cultivate intimacy - a liberating experience of relatedness and oneness with our living world. Listen and watch: Intimacy with Life - Part 2...
Being with Love, Death and Grief: Tara Brach and Frank Ostaseski
Grief is our natural way of expressing loss for what we love, and learning to open to grief serves the deepening and widening of our loving. This event, given at the Upaya Zen Center on June 25, 2023, includes short meditations and talks by Frank and Tara, and powerful sessions...
Free 40-Day Program
Create a life-changing meditation practice.
Ready to Nourish Your Practice?
Check out Tara’s “8 Essentials” Tipsheet
Heart to Heart: A Conversation Between Dan Gottlieb and Tara Brach
Heart-to-Heart A Conversation between Dan Gottlieb and Tara Brach: Pain, Loneliness, Gratitude & Whatever Else Comes Up – Including Love This very real and human interchange touches on pain, loss, love, gratitude and much more. Dr. Dan Gottlieb is a...
Remembering Our Belonging – Part 2
Our deepest suffering comes from feelings of separation, and as a species, our great task is realizing our belonging—to our bodies and hearts, to each other, to the living web of all beings, to formless loving awareness. These two talks explore how healing and true belonging...
Remembering Our Belonging – Part 1
Our deepest suffering comes from feelings of separation, and as a species, our great task is realizing our belonging—to our bodies and hearts, to each other, to the living web of all beings, to formless loving awareness. These two talks explore how healing and true belonging...
Authentic Thanks Giving
How do we awaken our natural capacities for gratitude and generosity? This talk explores the pathways of honest presence and purposeful cultivation, and offers several reflections that guide us in contacting and expressing our love (a favorite Thanksgiving talk re-mastered from...
The Stories that Empower Us: A Conversation with Tara Brach and Elizabeth Lesser, Author of “Cassandra Speaks”
This rich dialogue focuses on how the stories that shape our lives are based on male-generated origin tales and hero myths. If we are to create the world we believe in—a world based on love, compassion and respect for the dignity of all beings—we need to be guided by new...
“Play a Greater Part” – Bodhisattva for Our Times
“Play a Greater Part” – Bodhisattva for Our Times - During scary and uncertain times, the habitual reflex is to try to find ground by creating stories about what’s happening and hardening into us-them blame. This only perpetuates the aggression and violence that is so prevalent...
Our Refuge of Heartspace
Amidst the great emotional reactivity of our times, this talk looks at: How do we hold this? What will allow us to respond wisely to our hurting world? How can we widen the circles of compassion? Our time includes a talk, sharing of responses to several inquiries and a period...
Change, Loss and Timeless Love – Part 2 (Retreat Talk)
Our capacity to live and love fully is entirely intertwined with how we relate to change and loss. These two talks are an invitation to look honestly, and without judgment, at the ways, we resist facing our fears and grieving our losses. We then explore how to bring mindfulness...
Healing Racialized Trauma: A Conversation with Resmaa Menakem and Tara Brach
The body is where our instincts reside and where we fight, flee, or freeze, and it endures the trauma inflicted by the ills that plague society. Resmaa Menakem speaks in a compelling way how this destruction will continue until Americans learn to heal the generational anguish...
Veränderung, Verlust und zeitlose Liebe (Teil 1)
Unser Vermögen, tief empfunden zu leben und zu lieben ist stark davon abhängig, wie wir mit Veränderungen und Verlusten in unserem Leben umgehen. Dieser Vortrag lädt uns ein, darauf zu schauen, wie wir mit unseren Widerständen, Ängsten und der Trauer über Verluste in unserem...
Change, Loss and Timeless Love (Part 1)
Our capacity to live and love fully is entirely intertwined with how we relate to change and loss. These two talks are an invitation to look honestly, and without judgment, at the ways, we resist facing our fears and grieving our losses. We then explore how to bring mindfulness...
Your Future Self: Turning Towards Your Awakened HeartMind
Our lives are shaped by our evolutionary past – the fears and wants that arise from a separate self sense – and the pull of our evolutionary potential – our awakened heart and mind. This talk explores the power of these pulls, and the teachings and reflections that make us most...
Equanimity: The Gifts of Non-Reactive Mindful Presence
If we want to bring our intelligence, creativity and love into our relationships and world, we need to be able to access an inner refuge of presence. This talk explores how, when we’re reacting from anger, clinging or fear, to pause, reconnect to the immediate experience...
Freedom from the Prison of Limiting Beliefs
We suffer when we are caught in beliefs of our own or other's badness, unworthiness, or lack of value. These beliefs hurt our bodies, lead to violent and/or addictive behaviors, and separate us from our own heart and each other. This talk explores how we can discover who we are...