Meditation: The Blessings of Love - 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 call on loving presence to bless us. By imagining and allowing ourselves to receive love, our hearts become open and filled with light. We then bring that inner loving presence fully alive as we ...
Sep 05, 2019•11 min
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 that enable us to respond from love and wisdom (from the archives). Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks and meditations freely. If you value them, I hope you will...
Aug 30, 2019•53 min
Meditation: Discovering Inner Space - By imagining the space inside the body, we discover the continuous space of awareness that is the source and essence of all aliveness. This meditation is adapted from Open Focus Meditations led by Les Fehmi, Ph.D. in The Open Focus Brain.
Aug 29, 2019•28 min
Good Othering - Helping Each Other Trust the Gold (2019-08-21) - One of the great gifts we can offer is being a mirror of goodness, reminding one another that we can trust our essential awareness, light and love. Because our conditioning is to fixate on flaws, "good othering" takes intention and practice. This talk explores how we can develop the habit of seeing goodness, and importantly, learn to communicate our appreciation and love to others. Join Tara's email community at http://eepurl.com/6...
Aug 23, 2019•53 min
Meditation: The Sea of Awareness (2019-08-21) - We begin this meditation with awakening to the aliveness in our body, using the imagery of a smile, and a body scan. Then we are guided to sense the vastness of awareness and to rest in that open wakefulness, allowing the changing thoughts, sounds, sensations and feelings to come and go. When we let life be just as it is, we become a sea of awareness that includes all the waves. Join Tara's email community at http://eepurl.com/6YfI, to receive excl...
Aug 22, 2019•18 min
Meditation for Fertility (2019-08-19) - We can enhance our fertility by becoming more relaxed, open and welcoming of this ever creative life. We begin by connecting with the purity and sincerity of our prayer. Then this meditation guides us to awaken our bodies, open our hearts, and become a healthy channel for this living universe…receptive and loving toward whatever might unfold through us.
Aug 20, 2019•11 min
Part 2 - The Answer is Love: Evolving out of "Bad Other" (2019-08-14) - These two talks address the inquiry: How do we awaken from the contempt and hatred that causes so much suffering in our world? The first talk looks at how we can use the practices of mindfulness and compassion to decondition our habits of self-blame and self-hatred, as well as the importance of helping each other defuse the trance of unworthiness. The second talk extends the use of these practices to situations where we've l...
Aug 16, 2019•46 min
Meditation: Everything Belongs (2019-08-14) - This guided meditation awakens an embodied presence through a body scan, and invites us to rest in the breath, while allowing the different waves of sensations, feelings and sounds to come and go. When difficult experiences arise, we breathe with them, feeling them fully and mentally whispering, "this belongs," or "this too." By not resisting, we discover the sea of awareness that has room for all the waves. Join Tara's email community at http://eepu...
Aug 15, 2019•21 min
Part 1 - The Answer is Love: Evolving out of "Bad Other"(2019-08-07) - These two talks address the inquiry: How do we awaken from the contempt and hatred that causes so much suffering in our world? The first talk looks at how we can use the practices of mindfulness and compassion to decondition our habits of self-blame and self-hatred, as well as the importance of helping each other defuse the trance of unworthiness. The second talk extends the use of these practices to situations where we've lo...
Aug 09, 2019•51 min
Meditation: Cultivating a Kind Attention (2019-08-07) - Using the image and felt sense of a smile, we scan through the body, and awaken a sense of aliveness, presence and tenderness. The practice then extends to mindfully include all sounds, sensations, and feelings; and when difficult experience arises, to intentionally offer care. We close with an offering of loving kindness to our own being, to others who are suffering and to all life everywhere. Join Tara's email community at http://eepurl.c...
Aug 08, 2019•19 min
Longing to Belong - Spiritual practice reveals our belonging through bringing presence to three gateways: the aliveness of the present moment, loving relatedness, and the openness and lucidity of awareness itself. This talk includes guided meditations in exploring each gateway. It ends with the community chanting of Om, a mantra of connectedness - an expression of belonging. NOTE: a talk from the archives 2009-12-09 reflecting on the "Three Refuges."
Aug 02, 2019•54 min
Vipassana or Insight Meditation and Instruction: from Day 4 on Retreat (2019-05-07) - Vipassana, also known as insight meditation, is training in bringing a clear mindful attention to our moment to moment experience. We begin by relaxing through the body and then resting attention with the breath – or some other sensory anchor – and allowing the mind to settle. Then we open to whatever is predominant or calling our attention – sensations, emotions, sounds – meeting each arising experience with a...
Jul 31, 2019•29 min
The Path of Spiritual Surrender: Part 2 (2017-07-24) - Cultivating a surrendering presence allows us to release the identity of a small, separate self, and open to the truth and fullness of who we are. These two talks explore misunderstandings about surrender (such as the fear that we will become passive or condone injustice) and the practices that create the grounds for surrender, emotional healing, transformational activism and spiritual freedom. Join Tara's email community at http://eepurl.co...
Jul 26, 2019•49 min
Meditation: Letting go (2019-07-24) - One way of understanding meditation is a letting go of the habitual clenching of thoughts, the clenching that resists emotions and pulls away from aliveness itself. This meditation guides us in letting go, first through the body, and then practicing letting go of thoughts and relaxing and resting in the changing flow of experience. The blessing of letting go is a homecoming into the truth and wholeness of what we are, a realization of reality, and freedom....
Jul 25, 2019•20 min
Desire: A Current of Homecoming - Desire is intrinsic to our aliveness, yet when we have unmet needs, it can possess us. This talk explores how to relax open the grip of wanting and heal the suffering of addiction. You will learn how to bring mindfulness and compassion to the roots of desire, and be carried home to open loving presence (a favorite from the archives). "Recovery is also about spirit – about dealing with that 'hole in the soul' … so how does this hole get filled and become holy spa...
Jul 19, 2019•57 min
Meditation: Vipassana – Opening Our Hearts to Life as It Is - This meditation awakens the senses with a mindful scanning of the body, establishes an anchor for presence, and invites us to arrive again and again, deepening the pathway home. When difficult or intense experience arises, the practice is to learn to open to what is here with a clear, allowing and kind attention (a favorite from the archives).
Jul 18, 2019•20 min
The Path of Spiritual Surrender: Part 1 (2019-07-10) - Cultivating a surrendering presence allows us to release the identity of a small, separate self, and open to the truth and fullness of who we are. These two talks explore misunderstandings about surrender (such as the fear that we will become passive or condone injustice) and the practices that create the grounds for surrender, emotional healing, transformational activism and spiritual freedom. "Don't turn away. Keep your gaze on the bandage...
Jul 12, 2019•55 min
Meditation: Befriending Your Inner Life (2019-07-10) - This meditation establishes a gentle and caring presence through bringing the image and felt sense of a smile to various domains in the body. We then settle with the breath, and practice relaxing with whatever arises, letting life be just as it is. The underlying intention is to regard all experience with a clear, interested and friendly attention, and the gift is a homecoming to our naturally loving presence. Join Tara's email community at ...
Jul 11, 2019•16 min
How Hope Can Heal and Free Us - Part 2 - The mature expression of hope includes three elements: the aspiration for manifesting our full potential, a trust that this is possible, and an energy that engages to serve this unfolding. In this talk, we explore the importance of hope on the spiritual path, its shadow side, and how we can nourish hope through these three elements in a way that serves inner freedom and the healing of our world. "Let the beauty we love be what we do. There are hundreds of...
Jul 05, 2019•53 min
Meditation: Receiving Life in Open, Awake Awareness - This meditation awakens a receptive attention to the senses, starting with physical sensations and opening to sound. Then we sense how open awake awareness is receiving the moment to moment arising and passing life. In the final part of the practice, we explore how awake awareness is receiving the experience of our heart and offer blessings to our inner life and all living beings.
Jul 04, 2019•20 min
How Hope Can Heal and Free Us – Part 1 - The mature expression of hope includes three elements: the aspiration for manifesting our full potential, a trust that this is possible, and an energy that engages to serve this unfolding. In this talk, we explore the importance of hope on the spiritual path, its shadow side, and how we can nourish hope through these three elements in a way that serves inner freedom and the healing of our world (a special talk from the archives). Your support enables us t...
Jun 28, 2019•45 min
Meditation: Awakening Our Full Aliveness - We cut off from our aliveness when we are lost in thoughts and on auto pilot. This meditation arouses a receptivity to sensation from "the inside out," opens the awareness to sound, and then invites a full resting in receptive, dynamic presence. Join Tara's email community , to receive exclusive updates, events, and meditations. - Get a free download of Tara's new 10 min meditation: "Mindful Breathing: Finding Calm and Ease," - plus a bonus gift: "8 Ess...
Jun 27, 2019•21 min
The Courage to Love - Part 2 (2019-06-19) - The gateway to full intimacy and love is our capacity to open to vulnerability. These two talks look at our ways of avoiding vulnerability, and offer guidance in learning to contact and transform our fears into awake and loving presence. Join Tara's email community at http://eepurl.com/6YfI , to receive exclusive updates, events, and meditations. - Get a free download of Tara's new 10 min meditation: "Mindful Breathing: Finding Calm and Ease," - plus a...
Jun 21, 2019•52 min
Meditation: Wakeful, Open Awareness (2019-06-19) - When we awaken our senses, we can sense in the background a wakeful openness that is our true home. This meditation guides us by first attending to the space, aliveness and awareness that fills the body, and then by sensing how interior and exterior space is continuous, and suffused with the light of awareness. Join Tara's email community at http://eepurl.com/6YfI , to receive exclusive updates, events, and meditations. - Get a free download of ...
Jun 20, 2019•20 min
The Courage to Love - Part 1 (2019-06-12) - The gateway to full intimacy and love is our capacity to open to vulnerability. These two talks look at our ways of avoiding vulnerability, and offer guidance in learning to contact and transform our fears into awake and loving presence. Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks and meditations freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/ . With gratitude and love, Ta...
Jun 14, 2019•54 min
Meditation: Effortless and Wakeful Presence (2019-06-12) - Striving in meditation only creates more tension in our psyche and a solidified sense of self. This meditation invites us to awaken our senses and relax back into the presence that is always and already here. From presence we spontaneously notice and allow the changing flow of experience, and sense the openness and wakefulness of our natural awareness.
Jun 13, 2019•17 min
An Appropriate Response: Living from an Awake Heart (2019-06-05) - Much of our suffering comes from reacting to stressful situations with fear or aggression, rather than responding with wisdom and care. This talk explores the pathway of shifting from reacting to responding: this includes learning to pause, awakening the wings of mindfulness and kindness, and reconnecting with our deepest intention. Join Tara's email community at http://eepurl.com/6YfI , to receive exclusive updates, events, and ...
Jun 07, 2019•51 min
Meditation - Breath by Breath: Relaxing with Our Life (2019-06-05) - The breath can be a powerful portal to presence. This meditation guides us in relaxing with the breath, including the breath in a body scan, and then allowing the breath to serve as an anchor when the mind gets lost in thoughts. As we settle with the breath as a home base, we find we can then open to the changing waves of experience with increasing balance, clarity and ease. Join Tara's email community at http://eepurl.com/6YfI...
Jun 06, 2019•19 min
Part 3 - Forgiveness: Releasing Ourselves and Others from Aversive Blame (2019-05-29) - 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 of deep self-condemnation, and Part 3 on where we have locked into anger, blame or hatred of others. Each includes guided reflections ...
May 31, 2019•53 min
Meditation: Opening to Life (2019-05-29) - This guided meditation includes a mindful body scan, and awakening all our senses to our moment to moment experience. We relax open to the presence that is unobscured by thoughts, letting life be just as it is. Free download of Tara's 10 min meditation: "Mindful Breathing: Finding Calm and Ease" when you join her email list .
May 30, 2019•21 min
