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Dharma Talks
given at Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC
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2024-09-18
Waking up from Bias: A Conversation with Tara and Anurag (Anu) Gupta
55:15
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Tara Brach
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Given how our biases create separation and unfold into violence and suffering, this is a crucial domain for each of us to explore. In this interview, author and teacher Anurag Gupta offers his wise perspectives and invites Tara to share some of what she has learned in navigating this terrain. We explore how to come into a healing relationship with unhealthy thoughts; forgiving ourselves for bias (it’s impersonal); the inner freedom that arises from releasing bias; and how to awaken compassion and deep respect for those we have habitually dehumanized. The interview closes with Tara leading a brief reflection on undoing bias.
Anu’s recent book is: Breaking Bias – Where Stereotypes and Prejudices Come From – and the Science-backed Method to Unravel Them – 2024. Also available on Anu’s website at: https://www.bemorewithanu.com.
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Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC
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2024-09-11
What is Love Asking from Us? A Conversation between Tara Brach & Gabor Maté
61:04
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Tara Brach
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In this conversation, Tara Brach and Gabor Maté come together to explore the heart-wrenching situation in Gaza through the lens of the Bodhisattva path. Drawing from the Bodhisattva path – the commitment to alleviate suffering for all beings – they explore the importance of compassion and engaged spirituality in responding to the oppression and trauma experienced by the Palestinian and Israeli people.
This conversation is an invitation to examine our own spiritual practices and to consider how we can embody the Bodhisattva spirit in today’s world, breaking the silence and standing in solidarity with all who are suffering. It was offered as part of a series of conversations that accompany a poignant and heartbreaking film – “Where Olive Trees Weep” – about the struggles and resilience of Palestinian people under Israeli occupation. Access to the full program and the film is by donation – link here.
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Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC
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2024-09-04
Meditation: Touching Peace
22:02
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Tara Brach
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This guided meditation offers a pathway to quieting our mind and calming anxiety. We begin with long deep breathing, and with the breath, engage the image of a smile and relax through the body. Then we practice resting in relaxed awareness, allowing waves of thoughts, feelings and sensations to come and go.
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Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC
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2024-08-28
Meditation: Awake, Relaxed and Open
26:26
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Tara Brach
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This meditation includes a full body scan, and then opens the senses to all experience, allowing life to be just as it is. The training is a relaxing back, noticing the sounds that are here, feeling the aliveness of the body. We call on the two wings of wakefulness and openness, noticing what’s happening moment-to-moment with a kind, allowing attention.
We rest and relax back, discovering the presence that’s here – our senses awake… wide open awareness… awake, relaxed, and open.
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Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC
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2024-08-28
Trusting Your Basic Goodness: Part 2
58:29
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Tara Brach
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This talk continues the exploration of what causes our distrust of ourselves, others and life, and the pathways to realizing and trusting who we are. We explore the steps of awakening from limiting beliefs, dissolving the resistance to direct embodied presence, and discovering the space and tenderness – the formless dimension – that is indivisible and whole.
“How can we trust basic goodness, what lets us trust?”
“…imagine how might your life change if you dedicated yourself to realizing and trusting this basic goodness sometimes called Buddha nature or loving presence that’s within.”
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Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC
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2024-08-21
Basic Trust – Part 1
57:39
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Tara Brach
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One of the expressions of an awakened heart-mind is a basic trust in reality. These talks explore the severed belonging that gives rise to mistrust, and two primary pathways to realizing and trusting the indivisible field of loving awareness that is our source (a favorite from the archives).
“To love without holding back – to really sense with the wisdom, the reality, that it’s right here – to live from wholeness. We have this capacity.”
“Who would you be if you trusted the basic goodness and beauty is living through you? How would your life be different if you trusted that spirit, love, awareness is what you are?”
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Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC
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