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Dharma Talks
given at Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC
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2022-11-09
The Calling of These Times – Part 1
45:36
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Tara Brach
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| The Dalai Lama invites us to trust in the power of heart and awareness to awake through all circumstances. What does that look like in the midst of our current global crises? These two talks explore what these times are drawing forward in us individually and collectively, and how we can live true to the full wisdom and love of our beings. |
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Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC
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2022-11-02
Meditation: Befriending Our Experience
22:37
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Tara Brach
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| We begin the meditation with a sense of befriending our experience – with an intention towards gentleness and kindness as the attention goes inward. We scan the body, opening to sounds and the senses, resting in the awareness that includes this changing life. When the mind drifts, as it naturally does, we notice, then relax back into a receptive, listening presence. There’s nothing to do, simply letting life be as it is. Resting in the freedom of awake, open awareness. |
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Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC
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2022-11-02
Three Practices for Nurturing Wise Hope
50:02
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Tara Brach
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| Wise or spiritual hope includes the aspiration to manifest our full potential, individually and collectively, and the trust that this is possible. This talk explores how, especially in stressful times, this hope gets clouded over by fear; and how when it is alive, wise hope energizes and guides all spiritual transformation. We look at three practices – 3 A’s – that help us nurture hope: Aspiration for what we love, Attending to what we love, and Actively serving what we love. This talk includes several poems by poet Danna Faulds. |
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Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC
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2022-10-26
Cultivating Inner Strength – A Conversation with Tara Brach and Lori Deschene
59:43
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Tara Brach
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| What gives us the inner strength to meet life’s challenges with resilience, heart and wisdom? Drawing on themes in Lori’s new book, “The Tiny Buddha’s Inner Strength Journal,” Tara and Lori explore the mindset that is conducive to growth, working with negative beliefs, ways of transforming fear, and what it means to have inner strength in facing loss and death. We also talk about what can most empower and energize us in responding to a world struggling with multiple crises.
NOTE: Find Lori Deschene’s “The Tiny Buddha’s Inner Strength Journal” here: tinybuddha.com/strong. Lori also created several free companion resources, available at tinybuddha.com/strength-tools. |
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Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC
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2022-10-19
Meditation: Letting Life Be
23:14
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Tara Brach
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| This meditation establishes an atmosphere of loving kindness with the “smile”; relaxes and awakens through the body; and guides us into a spacious presence. We then rest in that presence, letting go of any controlling, and simply allow life to be as it is. It’s in “letting be” that we come home to the luminosity and tenderness of natural awareness. We close with a verse from Mary Oliver… |
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Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC
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2022-10-19
Beyond the Controlling Self – Part 2
51:00
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Tara Brach
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| It’s natural that we do what we can to ward off danger and further ourselves. While our control strategies – such as aggression, judging, planning, seeking approval, pretending – have a developmental role, they are not a recipe for happiness, intimacy and freedom. An essential part of our evolution is to recognize when we are over-managing our lives, and learn to let go of the controls. These talks explore how we can release the grip of the over-controller, and the profound awakening of our hearts and minds that is possible in the shift from doing to being. |
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Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC
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2022-10-12
Beyond the Controlling Self – Part 1
53:01
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Tara Brach
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| It’s natural that we do what we can to ward off danger and further ourselves. While our control strategies – such as aggression, judging, planning, seeking approval, pretending – have a developmental role, they are not a recipe for happiness, intimacy and freedom. An essential part of our evolution is to recognize when we are over-managing our lives, and learn to let go of the controls.
These talks explore how we can release the grip of the over-controller, and the profound awakening of our hearts and minds that is possible in the shift from doing to being. |
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Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC
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