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Tara Brach's Dharma Talks
Tara Brach
A pervasive but often invisible source of suffering in our culture is self-aversion. We are a busy culture, and we move through our life feeling anxious and dissatisfied, but not fully conscious of how we neglect or judge our inner experience. We suffer from a lack of belonging: to our own bodies, to each other and to the earth. When we practice Buddhist meditation, we learn how to listen deeply and hold our life tenderly.
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2019-10-09 Belonging to Each Other – Part 1 51:08
Mother Teresa writes that if we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other. These two talks explore the causes for severed belonging, and pathways to deepening the felt sense of belonging to our own body, heart and spirit, and to all beings. Together the talks offer a natural and powerful progression of lovingkindness or metta reflections, that when practiced regularly can open us to the peace, joy and freedom of trusting our mutual belonging.
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
2019-10-02 Meditation: Relaxing into Awake Awareness 19:15
We realize our true nature by relaxing back into what is always, already here. Starting by scanning and opening through the body, we explore resting in the awareness that includes sounds, sensations and all of life. The guidance is, when we recognize thoughts, to simply relax back, and allow life to be just as it is.
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
2019-10-02 Spiritual Hope: Trusting Your Awakening Heart 47:55
Our beliefs and understandings about reality directly impact our moment to moment experience of living. If we believe we will never change, that blocks the transformation that brings happiness and freedom. If we trust our spiritual unfolding and are open to possibility, that guides our attention and behaviors in ways that evolve us. This talk explores how to nurture mature, spiritual hope—hope that is sourced in trusting our intrinsic goodness, and our capacity for deepening love and wisdom.
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
2019-09-04 Befriending Irene 58:29
While Tara is away, this talk is from 2011 after Hurricane Irene hit us with fury. Dorian is now leaving its destruction behind, just as we work with our stormy weather within. Whether you face chronic anxiety or more violent storms of fear and anger, you can cultivate the wings of freedom–the mindfulness and compassion–that free you. This talk explores how the habit of being reactive causes us suffering and the ways these tools of meditation can be applied to the inner weather systems that most challenge us.
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
2019-09-04 Meditation: The Blessings of Love 11:17
A blessing is whatever reminds us of the sacred loving presence that shines through all of us. This meditation is a transformational practice in receiving and offering blessings. First we connect with the vulnerable tender place within us that longs to feel loved, and call on loving presence to bless us. By imagining and allowing ourselves to receive love, our hearts become open and filled with light. We then bring that inner loving presence fully alive as we offer blessings to other beings. The image of receiving a kiss on the brow, and offering one, is suggested as a powerful channel for the blessings that awaken our heart.
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
2019-08-28 Meditation: Discovering Inner Space 28:01
By imagining the space inside the body, we discover the continuous space of awareness that is the source and essence of all aliveness. This meditation is adapted from Open Focus Meditations led by Les Fehmi, Ph.D. in The Open Focus Brain.
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
2019-08-28 Earth’s Crisis: On the Edge of the Roof 52:31
This talk was given in 2015, yet it is as timely as ever. It views the ecological dis-ease of our planet through the lens of our evolutionary unfolding. We explore the egoic trance that has precipitated the destruction of our environment, and the inner practices of presence that enable us to respond from love and wisdom (from the archives).
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
2019-08-21 “Good Othering” – Helping Each Other Trust the Gold 52:40
One of the great gifts we can offer is being a mirror of goodness, reminding one another that we can trust our essential awareness, light and love. Because our conditioning is to fixate on flaws, “good othering” takes intention and practice. This talk explores how we can develop the habit of seeing goodness, and importantly, learn to communicate our appreciation and love to others.
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
2019-08-21 Meditation: The Sea of Awareness 18:08
We begin this meditation with awakening to the aliveness in our body, using the imagery of a smile, and a body scan. Then we are guided to sense the vastness of awareness and to rest in that open wakefulness, allowing the changing thoughts, sounds, sensations and feelings to come and go. When we let life be just as it is, we become a sea of awareness that includes all the waves.
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
2019-08-14 Part 2 – The Answer is Love: Evolving out of “Bad Other” 45:37
These two talks address the inquiry: How do we awaken from the contempt and hatred that causes so much suffering in our world? The first talk looks at how we can use the practices of mindfulness and compassion to decondition our habits of self-blame and self-hatred, as well as the importance of helping each other defuse the trance of unworthiness. The second talk extends the use of these practices to situations where we’ve locked into external “bad othering.” These times need our deepened dedication to love: By intentionally arousing compassion for ourselves and others, we directly contribute to the evolution of consciousness in our world.
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks

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