The greatest gift is the
gift of the teachings
 
Dharma Talks given at Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC
2024-04-17 Spiritual Reparenting: Loving Ourselves into Healing 57:27
Tara Brach
Mindfulness and compassion, when brought to our wounded heart, have the capacity to rewire our brain and free our spirit. This talk explores the ways we get trapped in the trance of feeling unworthy and unlovable, and how, with a wise attention, we can profoundly transform our relationship with our inner life. NOTE: this talk was given at the 5-day “The Undivided Heart” residential retreat in April 2024.
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC

2024-04-10 Meditation: Listening to Life (18:15 min) 18:14
Tara Brach
The attitude of meditation is one of engaged listening – a relaxed, receptive yet intimate attention. This meditation explores how we can listen to sounds, listen to and feel sensations, and then relax back into the ocean of awareness that includes and perceives the changing waves. In this relaxing back, we realize the peace and freedom of inhabiting our wholeness and essence.
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC

2024-04-10 The Sacred Art of Listening 53:31
Tara Brach
Just as presence is the heart of meditation, so deep listening is at the center of all conscious, loving relationships. This talk explores how our wants and fears block listening, ways we can deepen our capacity for listening, and the healing that unfolds when we truly feel heard by another. What happens when you’re really listening?
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC

2024-04-03 Meditation: A Present Heart 16:38
Tara Brach
One translation of mindfulness, in Chinese, is “present heart.” In this guided meditation we begin by awakening through the body and the senses, and then open the attention to the changing flow of experience. The intention is to meet whatever arises with a wakeful and kind presence. It’s so helpful to say, “What’s happening inside me right now?” Then, “Can I meet this with kindness, with a present heart?”
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC

2024-04-03 Relating Wisely to our Inner Life: A Conversation between Tara and Lee C. Camp 66:39
Tara Brach
Relating Wisely to our Inner Life: In this conversation, recorded for the acclaimed podcast, No Small Endeavor, award winning theologian, Lee C. Camp, interviews Tara about radically accepting and loving our being, just as we are. The conversation includes an unpacking of the RAIN meditation, and stories of navigating difficulty from Tara’s life. No Small Endeavor, produced by Great Feeling Studios and PRX, brings you thoughtful conversations with artists, theologians and philosophers about what it means to live a good life. You can find the No Small Endeavor Podcast on your favorite podcast app or listen to more episodes here. https://link.chtbl.com/LN08h4po?sid=TaraBrach
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC

2024-03-27 An Invitation to Freedom: A conversation between Tara and Connirae Andreas 1:16:28
Tara Brach
An Invitation to Freedom: A conversation between Tara and Connirae Andreas: Connirae Andreas was one of the first trainers in neurolinguistic programming (NLP). She developed and wrote a book on the Core Transformation Process, and more recently, the Wholeness Process. Her new book, The Wholeness Work Essential Guide: Level I—Healing and Awakening is the focus of our conversation. Connirae’s teachings and practices are deep and impactful. She is gifted in communicating and guiding our inner unfolding in a way that makes accessible the domains of deep awakening and freedom pointed to by great mystics, poets and teachers over the centuries. And as this conversation reveals, the Wholeness Work can be transformational for new and seasoned meditators alike. Learn more about Connirae Andreas and The Wholeness Work here.
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC

2024-03-27 Meditation: Widening Rings of Being – Awakening the Senses 20:01
Tara Brach
If we can recognize thoughts as thoughts, it becomes possible to open from virtual to living reality. This meditation guides us in awakening the senses and discovering the freedom – the awake space of Being that is beyond the confines of thoughts. “Relaxing back into the space between thoughts. Relaxing with what’s right here…” The poet Rumi writes, “Be empty of worrying. Think of who created thought. Why do you stay in prison when the door is so wide open? Move outside the tangle of fear-thinking, live in silence, flow down and down in always widening rings of being.”
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC

2024-03-20 Meditation: Openhearted Presence 21:48
Tara Brach
This meditation guides us in embodying loving presence through a body scan, and then meeting whatever arises with a tender heart. “Resting in the awareness that includes this changing life, regarding the changing waves with care, moment-to-moment. The moments of waking up out of thought are actually profoundly transformational. If you notice thinking and then plant the seeds of kindness, that becomes the habit of the heart.” ~Tara We close with a beautiful blessing-poem from John O’Donohue, from Beauty – The Invisible Embrace.
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC

2024-03-20 Do You Feel Overwhelmed? Turning Stress into a Gateway of Awakening 42:18
Tara Brach
Stress and overwhelm are spiking around the globe. This talk explores how we can practice with the arising of stress in ways that calm our body and tap our capacity for full presence, wisdom and love.
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC

2024-03-13 Meditation: Cultivating a Gentle, Kind Attention 19:27
Tara Brach
This meditation calls on the image and felt sense of a smile as we scan through the body, and invites a receptive and caring presence, as we open our attention to the changing flow of life. “Our freedom comes not from what is happening, but from how we are relating to it. See if you can relate with the spirit of ‘yes,’ allowing whatever arises to be here. And if it feels difficult, painful, then bringing some real kindness – a ‘yes’ with gentleness and kindness.” ~ Tara
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC

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