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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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2019-05-15
Compassion Towards All: Moving toward a Plant Based Diet
21:34
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Tara Brach
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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, without judgment, their own choices in this domain.
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2019-05-22
Meditation: RAIN on Self-Blame
9:45
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Tara Brach
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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.
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2019-05-29
Meditation: Opening to Life
20:46
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Tara Brach
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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.
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2019-05-29
Forgiveness: Releasing Ourselves and Others from Aversive Blame – Part 3
52:57
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Tara Brach
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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 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 that can support us in directly awakening beyond the confining thoughts and feelings of blame.
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2019-06-05
Meditation: Breath by Breath – Relaxing with Our Life
18:10
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Tara Brach
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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.
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2019-06-05
An Appropriate Response: Living from an Awake Heart
51:00
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Tara Brach
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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.
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2019-06-12
Meditation: Effortless and Wakeful Presence
16:57
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Tara Brach
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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.
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2019-06-12
The Courage to Love – Part 1
53:36
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Tara Brach
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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.
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2019-06-19
Meditation: Wakeful, Open Awareness
19:38
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Tara Brach
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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.
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2019-06-19
The Courage to Love – Part 2
51:40
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Tara Brach
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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.
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