|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
The greatest gift is the
gift of the teachings
|
|
|
| |
|
Dharma Talks
given at Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC
in English
|
2018-06-27
Evolving Beyond “Unreal Othering”
52:19
|
|
Tara Brach
|
|
|
What motivates us – as individuals and as a society – to build walls and knowingly hurt others? This talk explores the evolutionary roots of “unreal othering” and how when we are hijacked by fear, it can take over and disconnect us from the very real suffering of others. We then look at how meditative strategies awaken us from othering, and reveal our intrinsic belonging. Finally, we apply this to our own lives in a reflection that helps us respond to someone we have turned into “unreal other” with compassion and wisdom.
|
|
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC
:
IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
|
|
|
2018-05-23
Seeing Basic Goodness – Part 2
54:13
|
|
Tara Brach
|
|
|
Most of us long to trust our goodness, but get caught in stories of deficiency and striving to affirm we’re ok. These talks look at the block to realizing the loving awareness that is our essence, and the practices that help us see this essential goodness – in ourselves, dear ones and in those we might habitually consider different or “other.” Both talks include reflections that can help us appreciate the basic goodness that lives through these precious, changing forms.
"Think of some of the people you like and are drawn to you.
Now attempt to look at each of them as if you were seeing them for the first time, not allowing yourself to be influenced by your past knowledge or experience of them, whether good or bad.
Look for things in them that you may have missed because of familiarity, for familiarity breeds staleness, blindness and boredom. You cannot love what you cannot see afresh. You cannot love what you are not constantly discovering anew."
Anthony de Mello
from “The Way to Love: The Last Meditations of Anthony de Mello”
|
|
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC
:
IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
|
|
|
2018-05-16
Seeing Basic Goodness – Part 1
52:37
|
|
Tara Brach
|
|
|
Most of us long to trust our goodness, but get caught in stories of deficiency and striving to affirm we’re ok. These talks look at the block to realizing the loving awareness that is our essence, and the practices that help us see this essential goodness – in ourselves, dear ones and in those we might habitually consider different or “other.” Both talks include reflections that can help us appreciate the basic goodness that lives through these precious, changing forms.
“Saints are what they are, not because their sanctity makes them admirable to others, but because the gift of sainthood makes it possible for them to admire everyone else.” -Thomas Merton
|
|
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC
:
IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
|
|
|
2018-05-09
Eating Addiction: How Meditation Helps Free Us
54:01
|
|
Tara Brach
|
|
|
Buddhist psychology views clinging as the source of suffering, and one of the great domains of clinging is compulsive overeating. For most of us the causes and conditions for compulsive overeating existed before we were born, during our early childhood, and in our surrounding society. We begin to release shame and self-aversion by realizing we are not alone in this suffering; and eating addiction is not “our fault.” The talk includes an exploration of how, through RAIN, we can bring mindfulness and self-compassion to compulsive eating, giving us more choice in our behavior. Ultimately we discover that this deep prison of suffering can become a portal to realizing the freedom our true nature.
|
|
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC
:
IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
|
|
|
2018-05-03
Meditation: The Silence That’s Listening
27:15
|
|
Tara Brach
|
|
|
Listening to sounds is a powerful way to quiet the thinking mind and connect with the natural openness of awareness. In this guided meditation, we begin by opening to sound and then listening to and feeling the whole changing flow of life – allowing whatever is here to be just as it is. In the foreground, we notice the dance of sensations, thoughts, emotions…rising up and falling away. And in the background, a wakeful, receptive presence – the silence that is listening. When we let go of all doing and relax back into this alert stillness, we sense our true nature…our home.
In words from the Tibetan tradition: “Utterly awake, senses wide open. Utterly open, non-fixating, allowing awareness.”
|
|
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC
:
2018 IMCW Spring Retreat: Intimacy with Life
|
|
|
2018-04-25
Responding to Change with a Wise Heart
54:48
|
|
Tara Brach
|
|
|
An intrinsic part of spiritual life is facing the truth of impermanence. When we open to the changing flow without resistance, we naturally cherish this passing life, and realize the timeless, changeless awareness that is our true home. Yet we are conditioned to grasp on to the passing pleasures (and all that we love) and resist the inevitable arising of stress and unpleasant experience. This talk includes teachings and guided reflections that help us identify the ways we are reacting to major changes in our life. We explore how to shift from reacting to meeting impermanence with an allowing presence, and then responding to our circumstances with wisdom and compassion.
|
|
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC
:
IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
|
|
|
2018-04-18
Listening with an Awake Heart – Part 2
58:35
|
|
Tara Brach
|
|
|
Deep listening – to our inner life, each other and our world – is an intrinsic expression of our awakened heart. Yet because we have strong conditioning to be caught in wants and fears, there is often much interference in the field of communications. These two talks are an opportunity to intentionally deepen your capacity to listen in a way that leads to increased understanding and connection. You’ll have the opportunity to investigate what gets between you and deep listening, and to practice the key elements that nurture receptive presence.
The second talk includes questions and responses that focus on having an agenda instead of listening, the feeling that we don’t have enough time, listening when we feel reactive (hurt, defensive, intimidated, angry) and the need to feel heard.
|
|
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC
:
IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
|
|
|
2018-04-11
Listening with an Awake Heart - Part 1
50:22
|
|
Tara Brach
|
|
|
Deep listening - to our inner life, each other and our world - is an intrinsic expression of our awakened heart. Yet because we have strong conditioning to be caught in wants and fears, there is often much interference in the field of communications. These two talks are an opportunity to intentionally deepen your capacity to listen in a way that leads to increased understanding and connection. You’ll have the opportunity to investigate what gets between you and deep listening, and to practice the key elements that nurture receptive presence.
|
|
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC
:
IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
|
|
|
2018-03-28
Meditation: Continuous Space Suffused with Awareness
18:41
|
|
Tara Brach
|
|
|
By learning to inhabit the body, we discover the space and aliveness that fills the universe. In this meditation we are guided through the body, filling different domains with presence. We then open into the continuous awake space that is both within and surrounds the body. When we notice the mind drifts, we relax back to be that awake space, aware of the changing flow of sensations, thoughts, feelings and sounds.
We close with a simple prayer:
May we come home to the light, love and aliveness that’s our deep nature. May we live our lives from loving presence.
May that loving presence ripple out in a way that brings peace and healing to our world.
Namaste
|
|
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC
:
IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
|
|
|
2018-03-28
Namaste: Seeing the Truth of Who We Are
59:32
|
|
Tara Brach
|
|
|
A gift of evolving consciousness is the capacity to recognize and honor the sacred awareness that lives through our own and all beings. This capacity is blocked by our identification with our “mask” or ego self, and not seeing past other people’s masks. In this talk we reflect together on some key filters of superior/inferior and good/bad that shape the trance of a narrowed identity, and then explore how mindfulness and kindness free us to inhabit the vastness of our natural awareness. We close with tasting the possibility of bringing the spirit of Namaste to ourselves, others and all beings.
Rumi writes: ““Are you searching for your true self? Then come out of your own prison. Leave the little creek and join the mighty river that flows into the ocean. Like an ox, don’t pull the wheel of this world on your back. Take off the burden. Whirl and circle, and rise above the wheel of the world. There is another view.”
|
|
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC
:
IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
|
|
|
2018-03-07
Meditation: Homecoming with the Breath
23:52
|
|
Tara Brach
|
|
|
This meditation focuses on the breath as an anchor for homecoming. We begin with an intentional breath (coherence breathing) and then establish the natural breath as a home base. The instructions are to rest in the breath, offering a relaxed, intimate intention. Other waves of sensation or emotion are included when they ask for attention as we cultivate an open and full mindful presence. Our freedom arises as we recognize the formless awareness that is our home, and the natural and ever-changing waves that live through us.
Ten thousand flowers in spring, the moon in autumn,
a cool breeze in summer, snow in winter.
If your mind isn’t clouded by unnecessary things,
this is the best season of your life.
by Wu Men Hui-k’ai
English version by Stephen Mitchell
|
|
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC
:
IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
|
|
|
2018-01-03
Three Gateways to Peace and Freedom
55:07
|
|
Tara Brach
|
|
|
This talk explores the three archetypal refuges of truth, love and awareness. We look at the outer and inner aspects of each refuge, and then through guided reflections and a Refuge Ritual, deepen our commitment to the pathways that awaken our minds and free our hearts.
NOTE: Includes a Refuge Ritual at the end of the talk – if you’d like to participate, you’ll need some red string. We use “Classic crochet thread, size 10 in red” about 36 inches per person – available at craft stores. Sing along with The Three Refuges Chant sheet (www.tarabrach.com/three-gateways-peace-freedom/)
|
|
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC
:
IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
|
|
|
2017-12-20
My Religion is Kindness – Part 2
32:38
|
|
Tara Brach
|
|
|
Authentic kindness must include the life within us. These two talks examine the movement from an armored to a free and loving heart. The first looks at how we can awaken from the trance of unworthiness and establish a genuinely caring relationship with our inner life. In the second we explore how self-kindness awakens us to the heartspace that naturally includes all of life.
This talk is dedicated especially to youthful listeners on this solstice evening.
|
|
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC
:
IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
|
|
|
2017-12-06
Meditation: Alert Inner Stillness
20:00
|
|
Tara Brach
|
|
|
Behind the changing sounds, sensations, feelings and thoughts is an alert inner stillness that is purely aware. This meditation begins with accessing the receptivity of a smile, awakening through the body and opening the senses. We then sense the background of awareness and relax back to inhabit that wholeness. When the mind is distracted, the pathway home is a relaxing back, and the essential practice is non-doing, allowing life to be just as it is.
|
|
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC
:
IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
|
|
|
2017-11-22
A Grateful, Giving, Happy Heart
49:20
|
|
Tara Brach
|
|
|
Gratitude is like breathing in – letting ourselves be touched by the goodness in others and in our world. Generosity is like breathing out – sensing our mutual belonging and offering our care. When we are awake and whole, breathing in and out happens naturally. But these beautiful expressions of our heart become blocked when we are dominated by the fear and grasping of our survival brain. This talk explores how we can facilitate the evolution of consciousness with the deliberate cultivation of generosity, and ends with a guided meditation on gratitude and generosity.
For happiness, how little suffices for happiness! … the least thing precisely, the gentlest thing, the lightest thing, a lizard’s rustling, a breath, a whisper, an eye glance-little maketh up the best happiness. Be still.
~ Nietzche ~
|
|
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC
:
IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
|
|
|
2017-10-25
Anger: Responding, Not Reacting
53:22
|
|
Tara Brach
|
|
|
Anger is natural, intelligent and necessary for surviving and flourishing. Yet when we are hooked by anger, it causes great personal and collective suffering. This talk explores how to transform patterns of reactivity by bringing a mindful and compassionate attention to the unmet needs that underlie angry reactivity. When we learn how to pause and connect honestly with our inner experience, we are then able to respond to others from our full intelligence and heart.
“Getting angry with another person is like throwing hot coals with bare hands: both people get burned.” Buddha
|
|
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC
:
IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
|
|
|
2017-10-18
Finding Peace in the Chaos
41:13
|
|
Shell Fischer
|
|
|
"If you don't become the ocean, you will be seasick every day." ~ Leonard Cohen -
During this talk, Shell will be offering a variety of different mindfulness methods we can use to approach and re-discover the calm, peace, and ease of equanimity -- or balanced awareness -- in the face of what are often called the 10,000 joys and 10,000 sorrows that make up all the days and moments of our lives.
Shell will explore how, through our meditation practice, we can learn to accept and welcome each moment -- life as it IS -- with as much peace, compassion, and kindness as we can muster, without falling into despair and resignation, and without making anything wrong -- especially ourselves.
|
|
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC
:
IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
