Inner and Outer Democracy: The Practice of True Inclusion
Tara Brach
Happiness and freedom arise as we include all parts of our being in a loving awareness. In this talk we explore how this inner work of inclusion is the grounds of democracy, and how it enables us to participate in our relationships and society in a way that fosters communications, belonging and realization of the greater good.
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Meditation: A Witnessing, Kind Presence
Tara Brach
Starting with scanning through the body and awakening the senses, we then rest in presence, with the breath as a home base. The meditation invites an openness to whatever arises, and a gentle kind attention if we encounter physical or emotional pain. We end with a prayer that includes our own being and all beings.
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What is Love Asking from Us? Reflections on Palestine and the Bodhisattva Path With Tara Brach & Gabor Mate
Tara Brach
In this conversation, Tara Brach and Gabor Maté come together to explore the heart-wrenching situation in Gaza through the lens of the Bodhisattva path. Drawing from the Bodhisattva path - the commitment to alleviate suffering for all beings - they explore the importance of compassion and engaged spirituality in responding to the oppression and trauma experienced by the Palestinian and Israeli people. This conversation is an invitation to examine our own spiritual practices and to consider how we can embody the Bodhisattva spirit in today's world, breaking the silence and standing in...
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Meditation: Touching Peace
Tara Brach
This guided meditation offers a pathway to quieting our mind and calming anxiety. We begin with long deep breathing, and with the breath, engage the image of a smile and relax through the body. Then we practice resting in relaxed awareness, allowing waves of thoughts, feelings and sensations to come and go. The meditation ends with a beautiful verse from poet Philip Booth: As you float now, where I held you and let go, remember when fear cramps your heart what I told you: lie gently and wide to the light-year stars, lie back, and the sea will hold you. Poem: First Lesson,” by Philip Booth...
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Trusting Your Basic Goodness: Part 2
Tara Brach
This talk continues the exploration of what causes our distrust of ourselves, others and life, and the pathways to realizing and trusting who we are. We explore the steps of awakening from limiting beliefs, dissolving the resistance to direct embodied presence, and discovering the space and tenderness – the formless dimension – that is indivisible and whole.
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Meditation: Awake, Relaxed and Open
Tara Brach
This meditation includes a full body scan, and then opens the senses to all experience, allowing life to be just as it is. The training is a relaxing back, noticing the sounds that are here, feeling the aliveness of the body sitting here. We call on the two wings of wakefulness and openness, noticing what's happening moment-to-moment with a kind, allowing attention. We rest and relax back, discovering the presence that's here – our senses awake… in wide open awareness… awake, relaxed, open.
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Basic Trust - Part 1
Tara Brach
One of the expressions of an awakened heart-mind is a basic trust in reality. These talks explore the severed belonging that gives rise to mistrust, and two primary pathways to realizing and trusting the indivisible field of loving awareness that is our source (a favorite from the archives).
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Meditation: Entrusting Yourself to the Waves
Tara Brach
By not resisting, by letting the waves wash through us, we begin to relax. Rather than fighting the stormy surges, we rest in an ocean of awareness that embraces all the moving waves. We arrive in a sanctuary that feels large enough to hold whatever is going on.
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Desire and Addiction (Part 2): Voices of Longing Calling You Home
Tara Brach
Desire is intrinsic to all living forms – the urge to exist and flourish. It turns to suffering when, due to unmet needs, it contracts, intensifies and separates us from our full aliveness and awareness. These two talks guide us in awakening from this trance, and discovering how within desire is the longing that can carry us to true belonging. "All you need is already within you, only you must approach yourself with reverence and love. Self-condemnation and self-distrust are grievous errors. Your constant flight from pain and search for pleasure is a sign of the love you bear for yourself....
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Meditation: Meeting Fear with a Healing Breath
Tara Brach
This meditation guides us through a relaxing body scan and then explores how we can allow the breath to calm our body and bring peace to our heart.
info_outlineThis guided meditation offers a pathway to quieting our mind and calming anxiety. We begin with long deep breathing, and with the breath, engage the image of a smile and relax through the body. Then we practice resting in relaxed awareness, allowing waves of thoughts, feelings and sensations to come and go.
The meditation ends with a beautiful verse from poet Philip Booth:
As you float now, where I held you
and let go, remember when fear
cramps your heart what I told you:
lie gently and wide to the light-year
stars, lie back, and the sea will hold you.
Poem: First Lesson,” by Philip Booth from Lifelines: Selected Poems 1950-1999 (Viking).