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Dharma Talks
given at Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC
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2022-02-02
Meditation: Breathing Through
17:08
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Tara Brach
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| Drawn from a classic Tibetan Buddhist compassion practice, this guided meditation invites us to open to the sufferings of the world, and let it move through our hearts and out again. The blessing of this offering of presence is that our hearts become a transformer of sorrow. |
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2022-02-02
The Earth is Crying in Our Hearts
43:58
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Tara Brach
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| The suffering in our world arises out of a sense of separation—from our own bodies and hearts, each other, and this living web. These two talks explore this trance of separation and how it’s led humans to destroying our larger body, earth. We then look at the pathways of awakening to the truth of “interbeing” and responding to our precious world with love. |
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2022-01-26
Meditation: Know That You’re Here
19:22
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Tara Brach
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| We spend many moments in a trance, time traveling to the past and future, lost in a virtual reality. This meditation helps us collect our attention with our breath, awaken through the body, and open the senses. We then rest in the wakeful openness that includes changing experience, aware of the mystery and vividness of being Here. |
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2022-01-26
Living with Courageous Presence
46:53
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Tara Brach
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| The essence of courage is to willingly feel our vulnerability; this is what allows us to respond to life with an undefended, wise heart. This talk explores the ways we resist opening to vulnerability, and three key steps in cultivating a courageous presence.
Ask, “What does it mean to be courageous at this moment?” |
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2022-01-19
Meditation: Silence, Presence and Care
21:04
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Tara Brach
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| Quieting our busy bodies and minds brings alive our heart and spirit. This practice begins with a reading on silence by Gunilla Norris, and then includes guidance in letting go of tension, opening to aliveness and resting in a caring and wakeful awareness. |
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2022-01-19
Resilience and Wisdom in an Uncertain World - A Conversation
65:22
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Tara Brach
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| Resilience and Wisdom in an Uncertain World, a conversation between IMCW’s executive director, Trisha Stotler and Tara Brach. The Buddhist scriptures describe a mind that “no longer shakes, in a world where everything is shaking.” Our times are deeply stressful and troubling, and we need individual and collective ways of responding from our deepest understanding and care. In this interview, Tara reflects on the perspectives and ways of practicing that allow us to engage in relationships and our larger society from an awake compassionate heart. |
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2022-01-12
Compass of Our Heart
50:24
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Tara Brach
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| All of our actions, our entire life experience, arises from the energy of intention. While it’s natural that our intentions are shaped by egoic wants and fears, when we bring this into conscious, compassionate awareness, we can discover the deep aspiration that guides and energizes our awakening hearts and minds. This talk explores the movement from egoic intention to liberating intention…the movement from “my will” to “my heart’s will” (a favorite from the archives). |
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2022-01-12
Meditation: Relaxing Back into Awareness (20:04 min.)
20:03
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Tara Brach
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| When we fully inhabit our body, we discover the space and wakefulness of awareness itself. In this meditation, we rest in this open awareness, and when the attention narrows into thoughts, we practice relaxing back into the openness that includes passing sounds, sensations and feelings. We close with a brief offering of lovingkindness to our own hearts and our world (with community OMs – no bell at end). |
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2022-01-05
Finding True Refuge: Pathways of Remembering
56:00
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Tara Brach
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| This talk explores the three archetypal refuges of awareness (Buddha-nature), truth (Dharma) and love (Sangha) through stories, illustrations and reflections. We end with a Refuge ceremony that can be done by anyone who feels drawn. (To participate you will need a 20” red string.) |
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2022-01-05
Meditation: Letting Go… Letting Be (16:55 min.)
16:54
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Tara Brach
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| This guided meditation invites us to imagine a clenched fist relaxing open, and explores this in releasing contractions in the body as well as the grip of thoughts. When we deeply let go and let be, our energy flows freely. We reconnect with our natural aliveness, love and awareness. |
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