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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2017-08-23
30-Minute Meditation: Open Awareness – Relaxing Back into Presence
30:00
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Tara Brach
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This practice brings attention to the continuous space within and around the body, and the aliveness of sound, sensation and feeling that lives through us. While it’s natural for attention to get distracted, the pathway home is a relaxing back into the awake space that is aware of this changing life.
NOTE: from August 2, 2017 for those seeking a full 30-minute open awareness guided meditation.
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2017-08-30
Meditation: Present Heartspace
18:00
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Tara Brach
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This meditation establishes an embodied presence with the gentleness of a smile-down scan, then opens us to the heartspace that includes the changing waves of experience. It ends with a short lovingkindness meditation that offers prayers for relief of the current great suffering from floods in Texas, India, Bangladesh and Nepal.
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2017-08-30
True Resilience – Part 2: Awakening through All Circumstances
48:06
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Tara Brach
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Spiritual resilience enables us to deepen compassion and wisdom as we navigate life’s difficulties. In this two part series, we will look at the conditions that incline us towards or away from True Resilience, and explore practical and powerful practices that nourish this precious capacity.
“The hard times are what move us to become who we really are. We grow through the tough stuff if we are willing to be present. Whatever is arising, without exception, can be a portal to awakening and freedom. If you deepen your attention to the waves, how might it awaken and free you?”
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2017-08-30
Reflection: Cultivating a Loving Heart
7:10
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Tara Brach
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Love is an innate capacity, and when we intentionally cultivate it, love shifts from a state to a trait. This meditation offers guidance on how to access love, and open ourselves to it in a way that serves this awakening of our hearts.
“Know that you’re rewiring your brain, your heart, your body, your mind – and that the more times you do this, the more you really give it 20 or 30 seconds to feel the loving directly, the more access you have to this very innate capacity in your being.”
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2017-09-13
The Racial Awareness Rubik - What we forget but must remember
44:52
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Ruth King
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This talk explores six hindrances to racial harmony and six principles that support a culture of care, as well as the Buddha’s teachings on the Two Truth Doctrine and Misperception.
Enjoy a blog written by Aryenish Birdie after attending the talk: "Why People of Color and White Folks Think About Race Differently." http://encompassmovement.org/why-people-of-color-and-white-folks-think-about-race-differently/
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2017-10-04
Meditation: Saying “Yes” to Life
16:29
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Tara Brach
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This meditation guides us in relaxing through the body, then opening to the changing river of experience. By continually relaxing back and letting go into what is unfolding, we discover the natural vastness, wakefulness and vitality of our essential Being.
The poet Danna Faulds writes: In the shared quiet, an invitation arises like a white dove lifting from a limb and taking flight. Come and live in truth. Take your place in the flow of grace. Draw aside the veil you thought would always separate your heart from love. All you ever longed for is before you in this moment, if you dare draw in a breath and whisper “yes.”
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2017-10-04
River of Change – Bringing a Wise Heart to this Impermanent Life – Part 1
54:35
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Tara Brach
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These two talks look at how we relate to change – especially the notable changes involving loss of relationships and our own body and mind. We examine our strategies for avoiding uncertainty and fear; the consequences of resisting reality; our refuges of presence and compassion in the face of grief; and the gifts of opening fully to the river of change.
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2017-10-11
Meditation: Present Heart
14:37
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Tara Brach
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We awaken a present heart by relaxing with the breath, and bringing the kindness of a smile into our bodily experience. This meditation ends with offering blessings to our inner life and all beings.
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2017-10-11
River of Change – Part 2 – Bringing a Wise Heart to this Impermanent Life
49:06
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Tara Brach
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These two talks look at how we relate to change – especially the notable changes involving loss of relationships and our own body and mind. We examine our strategies for avoiding uncertainty and fear; the consequences of resisting reality; our refuges of presence and compassion in the face of grief; and the gifts of opening fully to the river of change.
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