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Retreat Dharma Talks
at Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC
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IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
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Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC
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2016-06-01
Real but Not True: Freeing Ourselves from Harmful Beliefs
1:11:30
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Tara Brach
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Thoughts and beliefs are navigational maps that are not inherently true. Rather, some serve us and others cause feelings of separation, self-aversion and/or blame of others. We can free ourselves from harmful beliefs by investigating them with a dedicated, mindful and courage presence. This talk guides us in mindful investigation through an illustrative story, an outline of steps, and a guided meditation that addresses limiting beliefs surrounding interpersonal conflict.
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2016-06-22
Reconnecting with our Lives - Healing from Dissociation
1:14:29
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Tara Brach
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Dissociation is the universal mechanism for pulling away from the pain of “too much.” While it’s necessary and natural for enduring certain situations, the ongoing habit of dissociation cuts us off from our full aliveness, creativity, and capacity for love. This talk explores the process by which we disconnect from our bodies and feelings - individually and collectively - and the practices that directly enable us to include the “unlived life" - the fear and shame, passion and loneliness - that we’ve pushed away. By including the raw energies we’ve been avoiding, we come home to a fullness that can embrace others and the whole of life.
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2016-06-29
Stress and Everyday Nirvana - Part 1
1:15:16
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Tara Brach
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Our habitual view of stress is that it is a bad thing, an obstacle to healthy living and spiritual realization. These two talks look at how our way of relating to stress determines our happiness, and invites listeners to engage with practices that radically shift our response to stress and bring a healing and freeing evolution of consciousness.
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2016-07-06
Stress and Everyday Nirvana – Part 2
1:11:13
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Tara Brach
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Our habitual view of stress is that it is a bad thing, an obstacle to healthy living and spiritual realization. These two talks look at how our way of relating to stress determines our happiness, and invites listeners to engage with practices that radically shift our response to stress and bring a healing and freeing evolution of consciousness.
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2016-08-10
How Hope can Heal and Free Us – Part I
65:47
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Tara Brach
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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.
“We close with a simple prayer this evening, that all beings might remember the depth of their longing – that deep aspiration for love, for aliveness. That all beings may trust the heart and consciousness that’s always and already here. And that we may live from the depth and fullness of who we are.” ~ Tara
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2016-08-17
How Hope Can Heal and Free Us – Part 2
1:15:23
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Tara Brach
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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.
Reflection: “When you’re feeling most alive and present, what’s going on? What are you doing? What do you love? Take a moment to take one thing that you know you really love – imagine it – sense yourself engaged in what you love. What’s going on inside you that makes this so precious? Sense who you are when you’re doing what you love. Know that this is another pathway to belonging – to your heart – to aliveness. This is a pathway to living with the sense of possibility in every moment.” ~ Tara
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2016-08-24
Your Future Self - Turning Towards Your Awakened HeartMind
1:12:55
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Tara Brach
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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 available and responsive to the calling of our future self.
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2016-08-31
Letting Go – The Freedom of Awake Awareness
1:12:52
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Tara Brach
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We know we need to let go of harmful habits like obsessive worry, blame and over consuming to experience true well-being, yet much of the time we are stuck and judge ourselves for being out of control. This talk explores what’s so difficult about letting go and how we can’t will it but we can be willing. We then explore the shift to awake awareness that enables a natural dissolution of clinging and resistance, and the deep peace and freedom of letting be.
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2016-09-28
Spiritual Empowerment
1:17:16
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Tara Brach
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When we are trying to control life, we are removed from presence, and act in ways that separate us from others and solidify the experience of being a insecure self. This talk explores our often unconscious strategies of seeking power, and the ways that mindful and compassionate awareness reconnects us to the source of true empowerment. When empowered we tap into the universal flow of love, wisdom and creativity. We are free to respond to life with “a heart that is ready for anything.”
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2016-10-05
Seeking What’s True – Within Ourselves, Beyond Our Self, With Each Other – (Part 1 of 3)
1:11:31
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Tara Brach
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The ground of the spiritual path is realizing the nature of reality and living our lives from this awakened heart and mind. The first of this three-part series examines the process of radical self-honesty – the non-judgmental recognition of what’s going on inside us, and especially what has been outside of our conscious awareness. The second talk deepens this process with the practices of self-inquiry, looking directly into the one who is seeking truth. The third part explores the challenges and blessings of honesty in our relationships.
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