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.”
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 Liberating Power of Conscious Intention – Part 2
The Liberating Power of Conscious Intention – Part 2 While we can’t change our past, we have the capacity in this moment to remember our deepest intention and seed the future. Intention can become the compass of our heart, guiding and creating our life experience. In these two...
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The Liberating Power of Conscious Intention – Part 1
The Liberating Power of Conscious Intention – Part 1 While we can’t change our past, we have the capacity in this moment to remember our deepest intention and seed the future. Intention can become the compass of our heart, guiding and creating our life experience. In these two...
Radical Acceptance – Our Gateway to Love and Freedom
Our capacity to realize the truth of who we are and to love fully, arises from moments of true acceptance. This means meeting our unfolding life with an unconditional, open and tender presence. This talk on Radical Acceptance explores how the trance of unworthiness contracts us...
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...
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Soul Recognition: The Practice of Namaste
In our daily trance we experience ourselves and others through a filter of wants, fears, stories and beliefs. Drawing on an engaging story from the legends of King Arthur, this talk explores how we can see past this conditioning by learning to see - in ourselves and others -...
Healing Addiction: De-conditioning the Hungry Ghosts
CC ~ This talk examines the suffering that arises when due to unmet needs for love and safety, our desire becomes narrowed and fixated on substitute gratifications. We then explore how we can bring mindfulness and self-compassion to the habits of obsessing, over-consuming...
Taking ‘The Exquisite Risk:’ An Undefended Heart
Taking 'The Exquisite Risk:' An Undefended Heart - CC ~ Poet Mark Nepo uses the phrase “exquisite risk” to describe our willingness to be fully alive, open, available, living true to our heart. This talk explores the challenges and blessings of taking the exquisite risk,...
Realizing Your Deepest Desires
This talk differentiates between egoic intentions (driven by wants and fears), and our true aspiration (deepest desires) to manifest our full potential for awake awareness and love. We explore ways to realize and open to our deepest desires when we are stuck in self-promotion,...
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 from trauma...
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 examine the...
Listening to the Song – Part 1
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 examine the...
Being Truthful
CC ~ The grounds of happiness, loving relationships and a just and flourishing society is honesty. And yet our current times are characterized by a plethora of deception - both societally, and often in more subtle ways, in our personal lives. This talk examines the deep...
Trusting Our Awakening Heart
The more we trust that our awareness and heart are awakening, the more we find ease, grace and true empowerment in our lives. This talk explores two pathways of deepening our sense of belonging and trust: direct presence with the pain of separation, and turning toward the...
Love, and Death (Retreat Talk)
To live our lives fully, we need to embrace the natural unfolding of birthing and dying. Yet we are deeply conditioned to resist loss, to pull away from fear and grief. Through a powerful Inuit story, Skeleton Woman, shared by Clarissa Estes, this talk explores how our...
Darkness of the Womb – Four Key Steps in Transforming Suffering
Darkness of the Womb - Four Key Steps in Transforming Suffering - CC ~ We can either repeat old fear based patterns, or our suffering can awaken us to a deeper wisdom and greater love. This talk explores four principles in relating to difficulty that move us towards healing...
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 ourselves to...
Dissolving Trance with RAIN
One of the pervasive expressions of trance is identifying with a limited and separate sense of self. This talk contrasts the self-trance to our intrinsically open, awake and loving awareness. We then explore how the mindfulness and self-compassion in the RAIN practice can...
Refuge in Truth, Love and Awareness
The three archetypal refuges of truth, love and awareness are interweaving pathways home found in most spiritual traditions. This talk looks at our habitual pursuit of substitutes to feel happy, and reflects on how we awaken through each true refuge. The talk ends with a living...