Revolutionary Love: A Conversation with Tara Brach & Valarie Kaur
Tara Brach
In a divided, reactive, and violent world, how do we embrace love and joy? How do we genuinely include our opponents in our hearts? What gives us the courage to bring our whole being into serving and savoring? And what is our vision for a new world? In this fresh and profoundly relevant conversation, Tara Brach and Valarie Kaur explore the challenges and potential of these turbulent times. Valarie, a Sikh activist, filmmaker, civil rights lawyer, and author, shares insights from her powerful books, including See No Stranger and her recent works, World of Wonder and Sage Warrior....
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Meditation: Breath by Breath – Inviting Relaxation and Ease
Tara Brach
This meditation invites relaxation and ease. We begin with a long deep breathing that helps calm the body and mind. Then we release tensions that might be held in the body, and settle our attention in a receptive way with the breath. The intention is to discover the relaxed wakefulness that expresses our natural being.
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Part 2: A Heart that is Ready for Anything - The Gateway of Equanimity
Tara Brach
In a world where the pace and magnitude of change is beyond anything ever experienced by humans, we are being called to cultivate the qualities of calm, inner balance and a steady, wise heart. These two talks look at the conditioning that fuels our emotional reactivity, and the practices that cultivate equanimity, resilience and a full, openhearted presence. We dedicate to these practices for the sake of our own freedom, and the wellbeing of all beings.
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Guided Meditation: Opening to the Sea of Presence (19:53 min.)
Tara Brach
When our body and mind is relaxed, we become filled with a very awake, dynamic quality of presence. This meditation guides us in relaxing, opening our senses and resting in the vastness and inherent freedom of our own natural awareness.
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A Heart that is Ready for Anything- The Gateway of Equanimity - Part I
Tara Brach
In a world where the pace and magnitude of change is beyond anything ever experienced by humans, we are being called to cultivate the qualities of calm, inner balance and a steady, wise heart. These two talks look at the conditioning that fuels our emotional reactivity, and the practices that cultivate equanimity, resilience and a full, openhearted presence. We dedicate to these practices for the sake of our own freedom, and the wellbeing of all beings.
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Meditation: Relaxing Back into Full Presence
Tara Brach
This guided practice begins with a conscious breath that relaxes the body and mind, and then a body scan to awaken to the aliveness of the present moment. We then open into the natural awareness that includes the changing flow of sounds, feelings and sensations, and practice “relaxing back” when the mind gets lost in thought.
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Gratitude: Entering Sacred Relationship
Tara Brach
Gratitude arises when we are in sacred relationship with life—present, open and receptive. This talk explores how central gratitude is to our physical, emotional and spiritual wellbeing, and then looks at the ways we can directly gladden our minds with gratitude. We end with a guided meditation that includes sharings from the group. The audio includes a poem of blessing by John O’Donohue with a brief cut from Robert Gass – Om Namaha Shivaya (from the archives).
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Heart Meditation: Taking in the Goodness (24:08 min.)
Tara Brach
Taking in the Goodness: Rumi said, “Whenever some kindness comes to you, turn that way – toward the source of kindness.” This meditation guides us to look for the source of loving and to turn in that direction. It begins with a lovingkindness practice that spreads the image of a smile into the body, then continues with a practice of seeing the goodness of ourselves and others.
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The Honesty Challenge - Getting More Truthful with Ourselves and Our World
Tara Brach
Most of us value honesty yet are not aware of how regularly we avoid facing what’s difficult inside us, and how we are less than truthful with others. This talk explores the practice of radical self-honesty as the grounds of being more honest with others, and bringing more love and freedom to our lives.
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Meditation: Vipassana - The Practice of Seeing Clearly (18:02 min.)
Tara Brach
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.
info_outlineMeditation: From Head to Full Being - When we are lost inside thoughts we lose connection with our heart, aliveness and spirit. This meditation guides us to a wakeful presence and invites us to return over and over from virtual reality into the mysterious, tender vastness that is our true being.
Be empty of worrying.
Rumi
Think of who created thought!
Why do you stay in prison
when the door is so wide open?
Move outside the tangle of fear-thinking.
Live in silence.
Flow down and down
in always widening rings of being.