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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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2018-05-16 Seeing Basic Goodness – Part 1 52:37
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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 Meditation: Intimacy with Life 21:15
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This guided meditation begins with a body scan, bringing the friendliness of a smile into the body, and waking up our awareness of aliveness. We widen the attention to include sound and then sense and rest in the awareness that holds all experience. Our reminders are to wake up from trance by reopening to our senses, allowing for a true intimacy with the life that lives through us.
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC :  IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
2018-05-09 Eating Addiction: How Meditation Helps Free Us 54:01
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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 Disarming our Hearts: Letting go of Blame 63:29
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Anger, judgment and blame create separation—from our inner life and our world. Only by releasing chronic blame can we free our hearts to truly give and receive love. This talk looks at the difference between healthy anger and the trance of blame, and through a set of reflections, teachings and stories, guides us in healing and freeing our hearts. (from the Spring 2018 IMCW 7-Day Silent Retreat – previously unpublished)
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC :  2018 IMCW Spring Retreat: Intimacy with Life
2018-05-03 Meditation: The Silence That’s Listening 27:15
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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
2018-05-01 Meditation – Spring Morning on Retreat 33:46
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In this guided meditation, we include an overview of different components of mindfulness practice. The reflection includes a body scan, establishing a home base for attention, and care in how to arrive in full presence after being lost in thought. We then explore opening mindfully to different experiences and the simple and liberating practice of “being here,” letting life be just as it is.
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC :  2018 IMCW Spring Retreat: Intimacy with Life
2018-04-30 Short Talk & Meditation: Forgiving and Freeing Our Hearts 36:52
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Forgiveness for others becomes possible when we’ve held our own being with great compassion. This short talk and guided meditation brings forth our most awake and tender presence as we ask for forgiveness, offer care to the woundedness within us, and then extend forgiveness to another who has hurt us.
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC :  2018 IMCW Spring Retreat: Intimacy with Life
2018-04-29 After the RAIN (retreat talk) 69:49
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This talk offers an in-depth exploration of RAIN, applying the wings of mindfulness and compassion to painful domains of trance. We bring special attention to the fruit of RAIN, the realization of who we are beyond any limiting identity.
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC :  2018 IMCW Spring Retreat: Intimacy with Life
2018-04-25 Meditation: Cultivating a Clear and Relaxed Presence 22:00
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This guided meditation begins with a calming breath to quiet the mind and relax the body. Following this, we establish our presence with an anchor – the breath, sound or sensation – and practice “coming back” from distractions, and including whatever direct experience asks for our kind attention. The meditation ends with a short loving kindness prayer.
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC :  IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
2018-04-25 Responding to Change with a Wise Heart 54:48
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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

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