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Dharma Talks
given at Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC
Publicly available talks can be browsed here in the order indicated by
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Get the latest Dharma talks from Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC by Podcast
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2019-10-09
Meditation: Relaxed and Alert
21:16
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Tara Brach
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| This meditation begins with a period of relaxing and collecting our attention with intentional long deep breathing. We then deepen embodied presence, and widen to the awareness that includes sounds, sensations, feelings, breath, and all experience. When the mind drifts from this open, awake awareness, we gently return, re-relaxing and resting in an easeful, alert presence. Recorded at Tara’s Wednesday night class, the meditation includes chanting of OM’s and ends with a sense of melting into community. |
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IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
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2019-10-02
Meditation: Relaxing into Awake Awareness
19:15
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Tara Brach
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| We realize our true nature by relaxing back into what is always, already here. Starting by scanning and opening through the body, we explore resting in the awareness that includes sounds, sensations and all of life. The guidance is, when we recognize thoughts, to simply relax back, and allow life to be just as it is. |
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IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
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2019-10-02
Spiritual Hope: Trusting Your Awakening Heart
47:55
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Tara Brach
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| Our beliefs and understandings about reality directly impact our moment to moment experience of living. If we believe we will never change, that blocks the transformation that brings happiness and freedom. If we trust our spiritual unfolding and are open to possibility, that guides our attention and behaviors in ways that evolve us. This talk explores how to nurture mature, spiritual hope—hope that is sourced in trusting our intrinsic goodness, and our capacity for deepening love and wisdom. |
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IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
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2019-09-04
Befriending Irene
58:29
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Tara Brach
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| While Tara is away, this talk is from 2011 after Hurricane Irene hit us with fury. Dorian is now leaving its destruction behind, just as we work with our stormy weather within.
Whether you face chronic anxiety or more violent storms of fear and anger, you can cultivate the wings of freedom–the mindfulness and compassion–that free you. This talk explores how the habit of being reactive causes us suffering and the ways these tools of meditation can be applied to the inner weather systems that most challenge us. |
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IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
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2019-09-04
Meditation: The Blessings of Love
11:17
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Tara Brach
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| A blessing is whatever reminds us of the sacred loving presence that shines through all of us. This meditation is a transformational practice in receiving and offering blessings. First we connect with the vulnerable tender place within us that longs to feel loved, and call on loving presence to bless us. By imagining and allowing ourselves to receive love, our hearts become open and filled with light. We then bring that inner loving presence fully alive as we offer blessings to other beings. The image of receiving a kiss on the brow, and offering one, is suggested as a powerful channel for the blessings that awaken our heart. |
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IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
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2019-08-28
Earth’s Crisis: On the Edge of the Roof
52:31
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Tara Brach
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| This talk was given in 2015, yet it is as timely as ever. It views the ecological dis-ease of our planet through the lens of our evolutionary unfolding. We explore the egoic trance that has precipitated the destruction of our environment, and the inner practices of presence that enable us to respond from love and wisdom (from the archives). |
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IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
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2019-08-21
“Good Othering” – Helping Each Other Trust the Gold
52:40
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Tara Brach
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| One of the great gifts we can offer is being a mirror of goodness, reminding one another that we can trust our essential awareness, light and love. Because our conditioning is to fixate on flaws, “good othering” takes intention and practice. This talk explores how we can develop the habit of seeing goodness, and importantly, learn to communicate our appreciation and love to others. |
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IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
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2019-08-21
Meditation: The Sea of Awareness
18:08
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Tara Brach
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| We begin this meditation with awakening to the aliveness in our body, using the imagery of a smile, and a body scan. Then we are guided to sense the vastness of awareness and to rest in that open wakefulness, allowing the changing thoughts, sounds, sensations and feelings to come and go. When we let life be just as it is, we become a sea of awareness that includes all the waves. |
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IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
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2019-08-14
Part 2 – The Answer is Love: Evolving out of “Bad Other”
45:37
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Tara Brach
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| These two talks address the inquiry: How do we awaken from the contempt and hatred that causes so much suffering in our world? The first talk looks at how we can use the practices of mindfulness and compassion to decondition our habits of self-blame and self-hatred, as well as the importance of helping each other defuse the trance of unworthiness. The second talk extends the use of these practices to situations where we’ve locked into external “bad othering.” These times need our deepened dedication to love: By intentionally arousing compassion for ourselves and others, we directly contribute to the evolution of consciousness in our world. |
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IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
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