Tara Brach

2011-03-02 - Healing into Life and Death - Given the universal truth that these bodies get sick and they die, what allows us to find freedom, happiness and peace in the midst? This talk explores how, when we get caught in the suffering that arises from physical sickness, we can take refuge in presence and love. Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Thank you!

2011-02-23 - When We are Lost - It's part of our make up to get lost in the trance of thinking-- to believe our thoughts to be real and to live in the story of a separate, endangered self. It is also our capacity to recognize our trance and choose presence. This talk explores how the practice of pausing and arriving in the aliveness of our senses opens us to our natural compassion and wisdom, and enables us to experience the great mystery we are part of. Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Thank you!

2011-02-16 - The Sure Heart's Release - Our longing is to realize and embody loving presence, yet we each have deeply conditioned habits that bind our hearts. This talk reflects on these habits, and explores how we can free ourselves by bringing a mindful, compassionate attention to places where we are most trapped in feeling separate, fearful and unworthy. Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Thank you!

2011-02-09 - The Sure Heart's Release - Our longing is to realize and embody loving presence, yet we each have deeply conditioned habits that bind our hearts. This talk reflects on these habits, and explores how we can free ourselves by bringing a mindful, compassionate attention to places where we are most trapped in feeling separate, fearful and unworthy. Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Thank you!

2010-12-31 - Minting Gold - Embodying the Awakened Heart - 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 connectedness. This talk was given at the IMCW New Year's Retreat. Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Thank you!

2011-01-19 - Inviting Life's Difficulties to Tea - One of the most illuminating themes in the Buddha's life story was the regular appearance of Mara--god of selfishness and greed, anger and fear, doubt and shame. Each time Mara surfaced, the Buddha's response was to say "I see you Mara," and invite him to tea. This talk explores how such unconditional friendliness and wisdom can bring healing and freedom to our lives. Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Thank you!

2011-01-12 - The flag of trance is identifying as a separate, deficient self. This talk explores how developmentally we can get fixated on fears and unmet needs and cut off from the wholeness of Being that is our true nature. We explore the power of mindfulness --seeking not to change but to understand--and the expression of that understanding as love. The talk includes guided reflections that can help us recognize and awaken from the confines of trance. Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Thank you!

2011-01-05 - This talk invites a contemplation of three archetypal domains of spiritual awakening: Buddha-awareness, Dharma- truth (the way things are), and Sangha-loving relatedness. We explore our habit of turning toward false refuges, and the way we can find refuge in that which truely heals our hearts and frees our mind. The evening ends with a living ritual of dedicating ourselves to each of these three gateways to awakening. Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Thank you!

2010-12-29 - Awakening arises out of presence with the changing ground of our lives. This talk explores three key gateways to liberating presence: Forgiveness, inner fire (aspiration) and a deep inquiry into the nature of our own mind. This talk was given at the IMCW New Year's Retreat. Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Thank you!

2009-09-02 - A critical question on the spiritual path is how we can bring the loving presence awakened by meditation into every facet of daily life. This talk explores the conditioning that keeps us in reactive trance and the ways we can deepen our attention and align our lives with our hearts. Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Thank you!

2010-12-15 - The source of our suffering is that we become identified with egoic roles and defenses that separate us from the truth of what we are. This talk explores some of the constricting identities that we take on, and the process of compassionate presence that reconnects us with our natural vitality, openheartedness and wisdom. We then enlarge our focus to seeing past the veil that obscures the sacred presence that shines through all beings. Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Thank you!

2010-12-08 - Prayer, when cultivated consciously, energizes and guides us on the spiritual path. This talk investigates the difference between wanting, with it's narrow fixation, and the prayer that arises out of our deep heart's longing. We explore how living prayer, the prayer that arises from consciously inhabiting longing, can carry us home to loving presence. As John O'Donahue writes, prayer is the bridge between longing and belonging. Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Thank you!

2010-12-08 - This guided meditation was given as a prelude to the December 8th talk on "Ask the Friend for Love." Find more of Tara's guided meditations on www.tarabrach.com. Sign up for her new email list there, too.

2010-11-17 - This guided meditation was given as a prelude to the November 17th talk on "A Listening Presence." Find more of Tara's guided meditations on www.tarabrach.com. Sign up for her new email list there, too.

2010-11-24 - Loving Life: Gratitude and Generosity - Love is innate, and blossoms as we intentionally cultivate it. This talk on two natural expressions of loving life--gratitude and generosity--includes several guided reflections that awaken the heart. Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Thank you!

2010-11-17 - A Listening Presence - Three Domains of Training - Cultivating the capacity for listening is essential to loving well and to realizing the truth of who we are. This talk focuses on three key facets of deep listening--non-distractedness, not-controlling and seeking to understand-- that can awaken an intimacy with our inner life and others. Guided meditations on listening precede and are included within the body of the talk. Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Thank you!

2010-11-10 - Releasing Karmic Patterns - We all have conditioned patterns of thinking and behaving that keep us identified as a separate, deficient self. This talk investigates the roots of this conditioning and ways that pausing and awakening mindfulness can free us to live from our inherent love and wisdom. Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Thank you!

2010-11-03 - Part 4 - Living from Presence - Our human potential is to express the wings of presence--mindfulness and lovingkindness--through all facets of daiy living. This talk explores the practices that enable us to both serve and savor this precious life. Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Thank you!

2010-10-27 - Part 3 - Mindfulness of Thoughts - The primary element in meditation is training to awaken from the trance of thoughts. This class explores two key ways that mindfulness supports this awakening. The first is using wise reflection to discern if thoughts are imprisoning us in fear or serving healing and freedom. The second is recognizing when we are in the virtual reality of thinking, and learning to "come back" to living presence. It is by inhabiting this non-conceptual presence that we have access to the love, wisdom and freedom that we cherish. Please donate at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Thank you!

2010-10-20 - Part 2 - Mindfulness of Emotions - Our conditioning is to live in a reactive trance of either resisting or become possessed by strong emotions. This reactivity fuels a trance of being separate from others, and feeling defective and insecure. In this class we explore how to free ourselves from this suffering by bringing a mindful and kind awareness to the stories and feelings that make up our emotional life. Please donate at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Thank you!