Trusting the Gold (retreat talk) (2019-05-08) - 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 grows as we increasingly glimpse, embody and live from our natural Being. NOTE: this talk is from the Spring 2019 IMCW 7-day Silent Retreat. Your support enables us to contin...
May 24, 2019•1 hr 2 min
Meditation: RAIN on Self-Blame (2019-04-17) - One of the greatest roots of suffering is being at war with ourselves. This meditation, based on the acronym RAIN (recognize-allow-investigate-nurture), guides us in releasing the armoring of blame, and relating to our inner life with greater understanding and compassion. For more resources on RAIN: www.tarabrach.com/rain/ .
May 23, 2019•10 min
Compassion Towards All: Moving toward a Plant Based Diet (2019-05-15) - 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 only to fossil fuels.) In this short talk Tara shares her personal story of transitioning to a vegan diet, and invites listeners to investigate, withou...
May 17, 2019•22 min
Meditation: Choosing Living Presence - A meditation on being present with our living, breathing life (includes chanting the Om's in community – a favorite from Tara's Wednesday night archives). Free download of Tara's 10 min meditation: "Mindful Breathing: Finding Calm and Ease" when you join her email list .
May 16, 2019•19 min
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 (given at the 2016 IMCW Spring Retreat). How I yearn to belong to something, to be contained in an all-embracing mind that sees me as a single thing. And I yearn to be held in the great hands of your hea...
May 10, 2019•1 hr 6 min
Meditation: Loving This Life – Happiness - a Metta Practice - This meditation turns us toward naturally arising happiness with the image of a smile, welcoming the aliveness and presence of each moment with the spirit of "yes" and then closes with a brief lovingkindness practice. NOTE: a favorite retreat meditation from the archives. Lama Gendun Rinpoche writes, "Happiness cannot be found through great effort and willpower, but it is already there, in relaxation and letting go." Free download of ...
May 09, 2019•17 min
Forgiveness: Releasing Ourselves and Others from Aversive Blame – Part 2 (2019-05-01) - 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 II on the places of deep self-condemnation, and Part III on where we have locked into anger, blame or hatred of others. Each includes guided reflectio...
May 03, 2019•55 min
Meditation: Being Here (2019-05-01) - This practice sets the atmosphere of loving presence with a smile-down and waking up all the senses. We relax into open awareness, receptive to the breath or whatever waves of experience are calling for attention. The invitation is to rest in Hereness, fully awake in presence. The meditation ends with a short offering of blessings. Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks and meditations freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider off...
May 02, 2019•23 min
Equanimity: A Heart That is Ready for Anything (a favorite from the 2014 archives) - 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 dissolves, and our heart is free to respond to life with love, compassion, forgiveness and joy. Note: includes "Duck Meditation" and bricklay...
Apr 26, 2019•51 min
Meditation: Awakening Our Energy Body - This meditation scans the body and directly invites the awakening of key energy centers (chakras) in our body. We then rest in the openhearted awareness that includes this ever changing creative flow of aliveness (a special meditation from the archives). 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...
Apr 25, 2019•20 min
Part 1 - Forgiveness: Releasing Ourselves and Others from Aversive Blame (2019-04-17) - 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 II on the places of deep self-condemnation, and Part III on where we have locked into anger, blame or hatred of others. Each includes guided reflectio...
Apr 19, 2019•52 min
Meditation: Sea of Loving Presence (2019-04-17) - In this meditation we begin with the image and felt sense of a smile to arouse an atmosphere of care, and allow that caring presence to fill our body and the entire field of awareness. We then open to the changing experience of breath, sensations, feelings sound and thoughts. By resting in a wakeful and open heartspace, we can include all the passing waves with ease and tenderness. Free download of Tara's 10 min meditation: "Mindful Breathing: Fi...
Apr 18, 2019•22 min
Beyond the Controlling Self - Part 2 (2019-04-10) - 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 part of our evolution is to recognize when we are over-managing our lives, and learn to let go of the controls. These talks explore how we can release the grip of the ove...
Apr 12, 2019•49 min
Meditation: Letting Life Be (2019-04-10) - This meditation establishes an atmosphere of loving kindness with the "smile"; relaxes and awakens through the body; and guides us into a spacious presence. We then rest in that presence, letting go of any controlling, and simply allow life to be as it is. It's in "letting be" that we come home to the luminosity and tenderness of natural awareness. We close with a verse from Mary Oliver... Free download of Tara's 10 min meditation: "Mindful Breathing: F...
Apr 11, 2019•23 min
Beyond the Controlling Self - Part 1 (2019-04-03) - 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 part of our evolution is to recognize when we are over-managing our lives, and learn to let go of the controls. These talks explore how we can release the grip of the ove...
Apr 05, 2019•51 min
Meditation: Letting Go into Living Presence (2019-04-03) - This guided meditation starts with a scan that invites relaxing and awakening through the body. We then allow life - sounds, sensations, aliveness - to live through us, resting in open presence. When there is tightening, holding or confinement in thoughts, we recognize and re-open, letting go into the presence that is always here. Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks and meditations freely. If you value them, I hope y...
Apr 04, 2019•18 min
The Four Remembrances (2019-03-27) - 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 remembrances or practices - Pausing, Yes to life, Turning toward love, and Resting in awareness - that help us awaken from trance and live true to the loving presence that is our essence. Yo...
Mar 29, 2019•51 min
Meditation: Saying Yes to Reality (2019-03-27) - Our suffering comes from tensing and resisting the life that's here. This meditation guides us to relax and awaken our body and senses, and resting in presence, allow life to be as it is. As our "Yes" to the changing flow becomes full, we discover the freedom of awake awareness itself. Join Tara's email list: http://eepurl.com/6YfI - get a free download of Tara's 10 min meditation: "Mindful Breathing: Finding Calm and Ease."...
Mar 28, 2019•18 min
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 that arise as we learn to fully inhabit these living forms and all our senses with awareness. Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks and meditations freely....
Mar 22, 2019•51 min
Meditation: Being Here (with OMs) (2019-03-20) - We miss many moments of this precious life drifting in a virtual thought world. This meditation helps us collect and calm ourselves with the breath; relax through our bodies; and then include the changing dance of sounds, sensations and feeling in open awareness. Our practice is to recognize the quality of Hereness, and when we drift, return again to this open presence, relaxing with the changing flow of life. Your support enables us to continue t...
Mar 21, 2019•21 min
Embodied Presence: Portal to the Sacred - Part 1 (2019-03-13) - 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 that arise as we learn to fully inhabit these living forms and all our senses with awareness. Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks and medita...
Mar 15, 2019•47 min
Meditation: Entering Heartspace with the "Smile-Down" - The practice of visualizing and feeling a smile spreading through the body helps us access the natural tenderness and openness of our being. This meditation guides us in the smile-down, and then invites a full opening and resting in openhearted presence. We close by bringing that awake heart to an area of difficulty in our life.
Mar 14, 2019•18 min
Navigating Conflict with a Wise Heart – Part 2 (2019-03-06) - 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 dedicated to mindful communication. We also extend our exploration to societal conflict. The talks are accompanied by reflections and meditations that can directly ...
Mar 09, 2019•54 min
Meditation: Relaxing with Life (2019-03-05) - This meditation includes a mindful body scan and guidance in relaxing with the changing waves of experience. When we say "Yes" to the moment, we open to the sea of awareness that can include, with care, whatever arises. Free download of Tara's 10 min meditation: "Mindful Breathing: Finding Calm and Ease" when you join her email list .
Mar 08, 2019•23 min
Navigating Conflict with a Wise Heart - Part 1 (2019-02-27) - 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 dedicated to mindful communication. We also extend our exploration to societal conflict. The talks are accompanied by reflections and meditations that can directly ...
Mar 02, 2019•53 min
Meditation: Resting in the Sea of Presence (2019-02-27) - This mindful body scan leads us into a practice of relaxing back into awareness, and recognizing the changing waves of sensations, sounds and feelings in the foreground. As we let go into the sea of presence, we discover an increasing sense of wholeness and peace. The meditation ends with a brief lovingkindness prayer. Free download of Tara's 10 min meditation: "Mindful Breathing: Finding Calm and Ease" when you join her email list ....
Mar 01, 2019•21 min
Meditation: Reducing Anxiety and Getting to Sleep (18 min.) - Many of us struggle with anxiety, and spend hours in bed wishing we could turn off our mind and get to sleep. This podcasted series of 3 guided meditations - 6, 12, and 18 minutes long - can help in quieting your mind, relaxing your body, and bringing peace to your heart. Each will support you in either calming yourself during the day, or drifting more easily into sleep at night. For more resources, please visit "Community Wisdom on S...
Feb 27, 2019•18 min
Meditation: Reducing Anxiety and Getting to Sleep (12 min.) - Many of us struggle with anxiety, and spend hours in bed wishing we could turn off our mind and get to sleep. This podcasted series of 3 guided meditations - 6, 12, and 18 minutes long - can help in quieting your mind, relaxing your body, and bringing peace to your heart. Each will support you in either calming yourself during the day, or drifting more easily into sleep at night. For more resources, please visit "Community Wisdom on S...
Feb 27, 2019•12 min
Meditation: Reducing Anxiety and Getting to Sleep (6 min.) - Many of us struggle with anxiety, and spend hours in bed wishing we could turn off our mind and get to sleep. This podcasted series of 3 guided meditations - 6, 12, and 18 minutes long - can help in quieting your mind, relaxing your body, and bringing peace to your heart. Each will support you in either calming yourself during the day, or drifting more easily into sleep at night. For more resources, please visit "Community Wisdom on Sl...
Feb 27, 2019•7 min
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 heard by another (a special talk from the archives). Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks and meditations freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donati...
Feb 22, 2019•49 min
