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Dharma Talks
given at Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC
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2021-09-01
Meditation: Relaxing Back and Saying Yes to the Moment
18:51
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Tara Brach
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| When we are stressed, our conditioning is to tighten our body. We tense against our moment-to-moment experience. This meditation is a powerful practice of de-conditioning this reactivity by learning to relax back into presence, and to respond to difficulty by saying “yes.” Through relaxing back and saying “yes,” we discover our heart’s capacity for unconditional love. |
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2021-08-11
Humility
54:16
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Tara Brach
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| In Buddhism and most faiths, humility – feeling that we all share common ground, feeling neither superior or inferior to others – is both a prerequisite to awakening and an expression of mature spirituality. This talk explores how our conditioning and culture reinforce a swing from ego-inflation (self-importance, feeling special, better than others) to ego-deflation (feeling unworthy). We then look at how a wise and kind attention opens us to who we are beyond these confining egoic states, and enables us to live with humility and grace. |
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2021-08-04
Taking ‘The Exquisite Risk:’ An Undefended Heart
50:22
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Tara Brach
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| Poet Mark Nepo uses the phrase “exquisite risk” to describe our willingness to be fully alive, open, available, living true to our heart. This talk explores the challenges and blessings of taking the exquisite risk, both in becoming more intimate with our inner life, and in engaging with others from full authenticity. |
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2021-07-28
Writing and Haiku as Spiritual Practice: Tara interviews Natalie Goldberg
60:09
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Tara Brach
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| Natalie Goldberg has inspired an entire generation to experience writing as a practice that can awaken our hearts and minds. In this interview Natalie gives guiding tips on approaching writing and, drawing on stories and verses from her beautiful recent book, “Three Simple Lines,” helps us feel the power and depth of haiku. |
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2021-07-21
The Power of Spiritual Hope
51:39
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Tara Brach
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| The openness to possibility is essential on a path of awakening and freedom. In this talk we explore what makes up mature or spiritual hope, and how two meditation practices of presence can nourish our hope. |
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2021-07-14
Mindful Leadership: A Conversation between Tara Brach and Michelle Maldonado
1:14:07
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Tara Brach
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| The principles of mindful leadership are relevant for all of us—they bring out the best of who we are in our work, with our family, with our friends. Especially in these times of mistrust and dividedness, our world desperately needs each of us to cultivate the qualities of focus, presence, care, respect, clarity, and curiosity that mark a true leader. Michelle Maldonado is a brilliant teacher of mindful leadership, and she embodies the compassion and skillfulness she invites forward in others. |
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2021-07-07
Three Core Reminders for Spiritual Practice
53:51
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Tara Brach
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| This talk explores three powerful ways you can direct your attention when you find yourself emotionally stuck: Wake up from thoughts; feel your feelings and remember love. We explore both the habits blocking these basic movements toward freedom, and what nourishes them. Together they can serve to open your mind, awaken aliveness and heal your heart. |
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2021-06-30
Trusting the Gold: A Conversation between Tara Brach and Jonathan Foust
45:12
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Tara Brach
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| In this interview-style conversation, Jonathan asks Tara questions about key themes in her new book, Trusting the Gold. They include their own relationships and ways we work with our inner life and others, in cultivating the capacity to see basic goodness and realizing a mature and liberating quality of trust. |
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2021-06-23
Shifting from Limbic to Liberating Intention
48:32
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Tara Brach
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| Becoming conscious of our intentions is the first step to truly aligning our life with our heart. This talk explores identifying when we are being driven by grasping and fear, and ways we can bring compassion to unmet needs and discover the deeper longing – the liberating intention – that guides us to freedom. |
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2021-06-16
Meditation: The Heartspace Where All is Welcome
18:51
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Tara Brach
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| This meditation scans through the body, and awakens attention to the open, inclusive awareness that all life arises in. We then explore experiencing that openness in the region of the heart, saying yes to life and including whatever is here with unconditional presence. |
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