Dharma Seed - Dharma Talks given at Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC

2016-05-09 Meditation: Mystery of Aliveness 27:40
Tara Brach	Download Listen
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC : 2016 IMCW Spring Retreat: Intimacy with Life

2016-05-08 Fear as a Pathway to Loving Presence - Night Travelers 62:42
Tara Brach	Download Listen
Shifting our relationship with fear is central to the evolution of consciousness. Our suffering arises when our thoughts, feelings and sense of identity are shaped by fear. As we learn to attend to fear with mindfulness and care, we discover the vast tender presence that has room for the waves, and can fully cherish this life. Life’s waters flow from darkness. Search the darkness, don’t run from it. Night travelers are full of light, and you are too: don’t leave this companionship… The moon appears for night travelers, be watchful when the moon is full. - rumi
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC : 2016 IMCW Spring Retreat: Intimacy with Life

2016-05-07 Meditation: Basic Body Scan and Breath Awareness 12:17
Tara Brach	Download Listen
- from the first morning of the IMCW 2016 Spring weeklong retreat, Tara offers a short introductory meditation with a body scan, bringing focus to the breath, sounds, then resting in awareness.
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC : 2016 IMCW Spring Retreat: Intimacy with Life

2016-05-04 RAIN of Forgiveness 1:14:37

Tara Brach

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The capacity to release the armoring of hatred and blame is intrinsic to our evolving consciousness. This talk explores the process of authentic forgiveness, and how we can use the mindfulness-based tool of RAIN to heal and free our hearts.

Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC : IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks

2016-04-27 Listening with an Awake Heart 69:36

Tara Brach

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True listening both nurtures and expresses evolving consciousness. This talk explores our ego-based conditioning to have an agenda or defendedness that prevents deep listening, and the strategies that evolve our capacity to listen fully to ourselves and others. When our listening is openhearted and full, it enables deep understanding and connectedness, and provides a transformative healing space for those who receive our listening attention.

Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC : IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks

2016-04-20 Love is Always Loving You 1:12:27

Tara Brach

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Love is Always Loving You – This talk draws on Christian mystic Henri Nouwen’s book Return of the Prodigal Son. We explore the primary ways we leave home – leave presence, connection, beingness – and the pathways of deep attention and love that enable our return. The emphasis is on “letting in love” as a key and often missing element in practices that heal and free our hearts. Through the talk there are several reflections that lead to receiving the blessings of love and discovering that we are the source of that loving.

Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC : IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks

2016-04-13 Releasing Self-Blame - Pathways to a Forgiving Heart 53:44
Tara Brach	Download Listen
When we are stuck in blaming, disliking or hating ourselves, we are unable to love our world. This talk explores what underlies our addiction to self-blame and the teachings and practices that loosen aversive self-judgment and help us cultivate a forgiving heart.
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC : IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks

2016-04-13 Meditation - Vipassana - Practice of Seeing Clearly 18:38
Tara Brach	Download Listen
Vipassana, also known as insight meditation, is training in bringing a clear mindful attention to our moment to moment experience. We begin by relaxing through the body and then resting attention with the breath - or some other sensory anchor - and allowing the mind to settle. Then we open to whatever is predominant or calling our attention - sensations, emotions, sounds - meeting each arising experience with a clear, kind attention. The gift of this process is discovering balance in the midst of the changing flow, and gaining deep insight into the nature of reality.
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC : IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks

2016-03-30 Embodied Awareness – Pain and Living Fully – Part 3 1:13:26

Tara Brach

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The experiences we most value – feeling creative, loving, vital – require being awake in our bodies. Yet when faced with physical pain, our conditioning is to pull away from our bodies, and get lost in thoughts. This talk offers guidance in working mindfully with different levels of pain, as we cultivate our capacity to live from an embodied presence and open heart. After the talk, Tara offers a short period of question and response on embodiment.

Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC : IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks

2016-03-28 The Path: Ethical Livelihood 41:49
Jonathan Foust	Download Listen
This talk explores the importance of finding a form of livelihood that truly resonates for you. You’ll learn how Johnny Paycheck’s classic country song “Take This Job and Shove It” ties into Buddhist psychology, a model for changing your relationship to work and what can happen when you substitute the word ‘work’ with the word ‘service.’
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC : IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks