Tara Brach

Meditation: Awake, Openhearted Awareness (2016-10-12) - This meditation guides us in recognizing the formless awareness that is always here, but often outside of conscious awareness. As awareness awakens to realize itself, we come home to our primordial nature—boundless, lucid, tender presence. Listen to the full talk: Seeking What's True — Within Ourselves, Beyond our Self, With Each Other (part 2) at: https://www.tarabrach.com/seeking-whats-true-pt2/ Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/. With gratitude and love, Tara

Seeking What's True - Within Ourselves, Beyond our Self, With Each Other - Pt 2 of 3 (2016-10-12) - The ground of the spiritual path is realizing the nature of reality and living our lives from this awakened heart and mind. The first of this three part series examines the process of radical self-honesty - the non-judgmental recognition of what's going on inside us, and especially what has been outside of our conscious awareness. The second talk deepens this process with the practices of self-inquiry, looking directly into the one who is seeking truth. The third part explores the challenges and blessings of honesty in our relationships. Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/. With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation: Breath and Presence (2016-10-12) - For many, relaxing and attending to the movement of the breath provides a powerful anchor for presence. This guided meditation guides us in establishing the breath as a homebase, and then invites a clear and receptive attention to the changing waves of experience. This attention naturally unfolds into a full, tender, inclusive presence. Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/. With gratitude and love, Tara

Seeking What's True: Within Ourselves, Beyond our Self, With Each Other - Pt 1 of 3 (2016-10-05) - The ground of the spiritual path is realizing the nature of reality and living our lives from this awakened heart and mind. The first of this three part series examines the process of radical self-honesty - the non-judgmental recognition of what's going on inside us, and especially what has been outside of our conscious awareness. The second talk deepens this process with the practices of self-inquiry, looking directly into the one who is seeking truth. The third part explores the challenges and blessings of honesty in our relationships. Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/. With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation: Receiving Life in Open Awareness (2016-10-05) - Our habit is to try to manage our experience from a mental control tower. This meditation awakens us through the body, and then invites us to rest in that vast presence that includes the changing flow of life. When we inhabit that openness, there's a natural arising of peace, wakefulness and tenderness. Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/. With gratitude and love, Tara

Spiritual Empowerment (2016-09-28) - When we are trying to control life, we are removed from presence, and act in ways that separate us from others and solidify the experience of being a insecure self. This talk explores our often unconscious strategies of seeking power, and the ways that mindful and compassionate awareness reconnects us to the source of true empowerment. When empowered we are tapped into the universal flow of love, wisdom and creativity, and are free to respond to life with "a heart that is ready for anything." Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/. With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation: Receiving This Life in Awareness (2016-09-28) - In our everyday life we are conditioned to feel that life is happening to us, or that we are the doer. This meditation deconditions that self-centrality by bringing attention to the aliveness in our bodies, and then opening to receive the entire play of sounds, sensations and feelings in awareness. Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/. With gratitude and love, Tara

Realizing Our Undefended and Awakened Heart (retreat talk) - It is our evolutionary and spiritual potential to release unnecessary habits of violating other tribes, individuals and unwanted parts of our own being. This talk explores three essential facets of the pathway to awakening: Leaving the fortress of aversive judgment, entering the wilderness of our embodied being and encircling this life with love. Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/. With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation: Listening to and Feeling Our Life - Listening to sounds is a powerful way to quiet the thinking mind and connect with the natural openness of awareness. This meditation emphasizes the anchor of listening, and guides us to relax through our bodies and let sounds wash through us. In this receptivity we find a homecoming to full presence and peace.

The Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Working with Attachments and Addictions - In Buddhist cosmology the torment of intense desire that can never really be satisfied is depicted as the realm of Hungry Ghosts. This talk explores the attachments and addictions that so many of us struggle with, and the teachings and practices that can liberate us. Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/. With gratitude and love, Tara

Retreat - Morning Instruction - RAIN - Q and A (2016-08-27) - Tara gives morning instruction on retreat including R.A.I.N. (Recognize, Allow, Investigate, Nourish), then responds to questions from retreatants. Includes a question on resourcing when working with trauma. Recorded at the 2016 IMCW Women's Retreat.

Trusting Our Hearts (2016-04-06) - Trust in our basic goodness directly effects our capacity for intimacy with others, creativity and living fully. This talk explores the ways that our caregivers and culture undermine that trust, primarily by giving us messages that we are "not enough" or flawed. We then explore the meditation practices that remind us of our loving hearts, and of the goodness that expresses through others. This remembrance is what nourishes a liberating quality of trust in ourselves and in our life. Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/. With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation Instructions and Guided Meditation from Retreat (2016-08-27) - Tara gives morning instructions about how to deepen our meditation, then leads us in a guided meditation.

Reflection: Your Future Self - Accessing the Wisdom of Your Heart (2016-08-24) - When we are cut off from our natural love and wisdom, there's a way home. This meditation guides us to a visit with our future self, and reveals a pathway to our awakened, evolved consciousness. The more we practice this pathway, the more we realize and trust the loving awareness that is always and already within us. (from the full talk: https://www.tarabrach.com/your-future-self/)

Letting Go: The Freedom of Awake Awareness (2016-08-31) - We know we need to let go of harmful habits like obsessive worry, blame and over consuming to experience true well-being, yet much of the time we are stuck and judge ourselves for being out of control. This talk explores what's so difficult about letting go and how we can't will it but we can be willing. We then explore the shift to awake awareness that enables a natural dissolution of clinging and resistance, and the deep peace and freedom of letting be. Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/. With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation: Awakening Our Energy Body (2016-08-31) - This meditation scans the body and directly invites the awakening of key energy centers (chakras) in our body. We then rest in the openhearted awareness that includes this ever changing creative flow of aliveness. Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/. With gratitude and love, Tara

Your Future Self: Turning Towards Your Awakened HeartMind (2016-08-24) - Our lives are shaped by our evolutionary past - the fears and wants that arise from a separate self sense - and the pull of our evolutionary potential - our awakened heart and mind. This talk explores the power of these pulls, and the teachings and reflections that make us most available and responsive to the calling of our future self. Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/. With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation: Coming Home to Openhearted Awareness (2016-08-24) - In daily life we often leave ourselves, get lost in thoughts, and cut off from a direct, openhearted experience of our life. This meditation reconnects by opening all the senses, turning towards the awareness that is here, and resting in the awakened heartspace that includes and tenderly holds our moment to moment experience. Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/. With gratitude and love, Tara

How Hope Can Heal and Free Us - Part 2 (2016-08-17) - The mature expression of hope includes three elements: the aspiration for manifesting our full potential, a trust that this is possible, and an energy that engages to serve this unfolding. In this talk, we explore the importance of hope on the spiritual path, its shadow side, and how we can nourish hope through these three elements in a way that serves inner freedom and the healing of our world. Reflection: "When you're feeling most alive and present, what's going on? What are you doing? What do you love? Take a moment to take one thing that you know you really love - imagine it - sense yourself engaged in what you love. What's going on inside you that makes this so precious? Sense who you are when you're doing what you love. Know that this is another pathway to belonging - to your heart - to aliveness. This is a pathway to living with the sense of possibility in every moment." Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/. With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation: Receiving Life in Open, Awake Awareness (2016-08-17) - This meditation awakens a receptive attention to the senses, starting with physical sensations and opening to sound. Then we sense how open awake awareness is receiving the moment to moment arising and passing life. In the final part of the practice, we explore how awake awareness is receiving the experience of our heart and offer blessings to our inner life and all living beings. Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/. With gratitude and love, Tara

How Hope Can Heal and Free Us - Part 1 (2016-08-10) - The mature expression of hope includes three elements: the aspiration for manifesting our full potential, a trust that this is possible, and an energy that engages to serve this unfolding. In this talk we explore the importance of hope on the spiritual path, its shadow side, and how we can nourish hope - through these three elements - in a way that serves inner freedom and the healing of our world. "We close with a simple prayer this evening, that all beings might remember the depth of their longing – that deep aspiration for love, for aliveness. That all beings may trust the heart and consciousness that's always and already here. And that we may live from the depth and fullness of who we are." ~ Tara Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/. With gratitude and love, Tara ui29b7ne

Meditation: Awakening Our Full Aliveness (2016-08-10) - We cut off from our aliveness when we are lost in thoughts and on auto pilot. This meditation arouses a receptivity to sensation from "the inside out," opens the awareness to sound, and then invites a full resting in receptive, dynamic presence. Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/. With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation: Guided Heart Forgiveness Practice (2016-05-09) - Tara gives brief instructions on the forgiveness practice, then guides us through a process of forgiveness of ourselves and others. "Forgiving is a movement of your heart not to carry aversive hatred or blame. That you can care about someone and still create boundaries... Each of you has this wisdom, heart, being place that intuits that there really isn't freedom in the moments that you're carrying blame and judgment." (from the Spring 2016 IMCW 7-day retreat) Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/. With gratitude and love, Tara

Wise Investigation: Dissolving the Trance - If we are suffering, it is because we are believing something that is not true and caught in emotional reactivity. A key tool in meditation is investigation–actively inquiring into what is happening inside us. When we investigate with sincere interest and care, the light of our attention untangles difficult emotions and nourishes intimate relationships. As this light is turned toward awareness itself, it reveals the radiance and emptiness of our true nature. Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/. With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation: Invitation to Practice (no bell at end) - A brief invitation to start a longer meditation sitting. Begins with Japanese flute and continues with calming and settling to begin a sitting of any length (from retreat). (flute passage from "A Touch of Grace" album via jonathanfoust.com)

Loving the Life Within Us (retreat talk) - If we don't love the life we consider "self," we will not realize or live from the loving awareness that is our essence. This talk guides us in bringing a kind, accepting presence to our inner life, and discovering the vastness of what we really are. Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/. With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation: Spacious Sky of Awareness (2015-12-29) (retreat) - This meditation begins with a body scan that enables us to awaken our senses. Finally, we relax open fully to include the changing flow of sounds and sensations, in a spacious, open awareness.

That Bird Got My Wings (from 2015-07-22) - This talk looks at how we are imprisoned by a limited sense of who we are, and how the wings of mindfulness and heartfulness enable us to realize the spirit that is our essence. We then look at how we can bring the wings of freedom to our engagement with others. The talk's title is the name of a book written by Jarvis Masters, a deeply wise and inspiring African American man currently on death row at San Quentin prison.

Brief Meditation: Arriving in Mindful Presence - 5 min (2016-05-18) - This brief meditation can support you in pausing and arriving again in the life that's right here.

Fear as a Pathway to Loving Presence - Night Travelers - (retreat talk) (2016-05-08) - 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 Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/. With gratitude and love, Tara

Brief Meditation: Arriving in Mindful Presence (1 minute) - (2016-07-13) ~ This brief meditation can support you in pausing and arriving again in the life that's right here. Free download of Tara's 10 min meditation: "Mindful Breathing: Finding Calm and Ease" when you join her email list.

Stress and Everyday Nirvana - Part 2 (2016-07-06) - Our habitual view of stress is that it is a bad thing, an obstacle to healthy living and spiritual realization. These two talks look at how our way of relating to stress determines our happiness, and invites listeners to engage with practices that radically shift our response to stress and bring a healing and freeing evolution of consciousness. Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/. With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation: Rest in Awake Awareness (2016-07-06) - When we allow the body to be a portal, we discover the ever-present background of awareness that includes the whole play of sensation, sound, aliveness. This meditation awakens us through a body scan, and then invites a relaxing back into the space of awareness. The guidance is to let everything be, just as it is, and become the silence that's listening, the stillness out of which all forms arise. Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/. With gratitude and love, Tara

Stress and Everyday Nirvana - Part 1 (2016-06-29) - Our habitual view of stress is that it is a bad thing, an obstacle to healthy living and spiritual realization. These two talks look at how our way of relating to stress determines our happiness, and invites listeners to engage with practices that radically shift our response to stress and bring a healing and freeing evolution of consciousness. Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/. With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation: Letting Life Live Through You(2016-06-29) - This meditation begins with quieting the mind and collecting attention with the breath. We then awaken the senses through a body scan, open to sound, and rest in open awareness, allowing sounds and sensations to move through. Like an ocean, when we rest in openness, it's possible to open to the waves that most want attention, without grasping or resisting. This engaged presence is the very essence of freedom, of inhabiting a wholeness of being. Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/. With gratitude and love, Tara

Reconnecting with Our Lives - Healing from Dissociation (2016-06-22) - Dissociation is the universal mechanism for pulling away from the pain of "too much." While it's necessary and natural for enduring certain situations, the ongoing habit of dissociation cuts us off from our full aliveness, creativity, and capacity for love. This talk explores the process by which we disconnect from our bodies and feelings - individually and collectively - and the practices that directly enable us to include the "unlived life" - the fear and shame, passion and loneliness - that we've pushed away. By including the raw energies we've been avoiding, we come home to a fullness that can embrace others and the whole of life. Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/. With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation: Know That You're Here (2016-06-22) - We spend many moments in a trance, time traveling to the past and future, lost in a virtual reality. This meditation helps us collect our attention with our breath, awaken through the body, and open the senses. We then rest in the wakeful openness that includes changing experience, aware of the mystery and vividness of being Here.

Morning Question and Response from Retreat (2016-05-11) - Tara responds to questions including deepening our meditation practice, working with desire, and the RAIN practice. Free download of Tara's 10 min meditation: "Mindful Breathing: Finding Calm and Ease" when you join her email list.

Remembering What Matters - Aspiration and Intention (from 2013-01-30) ~ Our conscious aspiration toward awakening is what energizes the spiritual path. This talk reviews the main characteristic of a vital aspiration, the conditioning that obscures our deepest intentions and offers guided reflections to connect us with what most matters. Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/. With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation: Gladdening the Mind (2016-05-12) (from retreat) - The Buddha taught the value of gladdening the mind. This meditation begins with an inquiry on what we are most grateful for - what we love, then continues to scan with a smile though the entire body (from a morning on the 2016 IMCW spring retreat).

Three Gestures of Love (2016-06-08) - If we inquire "what is between me and presence" we usually find we've been caught inside a limiting story of self, contracted by wants and fears. This talk explores a simple yet powerful way of arousing loving presence and dissolving the narrow identification that keeps us from inhabiting our awakened heartmind. NOTE: Tara is traveling and she asked for this favorite talk from 2013-07-24 be posted for your enjoyment.

Meditation: The Mystery of Aliveness (2016-05-09) - This meditation from the morning of spring retreat begins with a body scan, then widens to include sounds, senses and open energetic awareness. Includes an application of the RAIN of Compassion to close. (from a morning guided meditation at the IMCW 2016 Spring Retreat)

Reflection: Waking Up from Limiting Beliefs (2016-06-01) - A guided meditation that addresses limiting beliefs surrounding interpersonal conflict. Full talk, "Real but Not True: Freeing Ourselves from Harmful Beliefs" is at: https://www.tarabrach.com/real-not-true/.

Real But Not True: Freeing Ourselves from Harmful Beliefs (2016-06-01) - Thoughts and beliefs are navigational maps that are not inherently true. Rather, some serve us and others cause feelings of separation, self-aversion and/or blame of others. We can free ourselves from harmful beliefs by investigating them with a dedicated, mindful and courage presence. This talk guides us in mindful investigation through an illustrative story, an outline of steps, and a guided meditation that addresses limiting beliefs surrounding interpersonal conflict. Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/. With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation: The Silence That is Listening (2016-06-01) - Listening to sounds is a powerful way to quiet the thinking mind and connect with the natural openness of awareness. This meditation emphasizes the anchor of listening, and guides us to relax through our bodies and let sounds wash through us. In this receptivity we find a homecoming to full presence and peace.

Morning Question and Response from Retreat (2016-05-09) - Tara responds to questions on deepening our meditation practice, working with unpleasant and pleasant thoughts, and forgiveness. Free download of Tara's 10 min meditation: "Mindful Breathing: Finding Calm and Ease" when you join her email list.

Happy for No Reason - Part 2 (2016-05-25) - These two talks explore the two different kinds of happiness, the blocks to happiness, and the ways that mindful presence and intentional gladdening the heart (positive neuroplasticity) can open us to our full potential for true happiness. Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/. With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation: Living Presence with Body Scan (2016-05-25) - A key pathway to full presence is awakening through the body. This meditation guides us through a body scan, relaxing and receiving the play of sensations. We then deepen attention to the breath, and rest with the rhythmic waves of breathing, experiencing the background of the whole domain of physical aliveness.

Happy for No Reason - Part 1 (2016-05-18) - These two talks explore the two different kinds of happiness, the blocks to happiness, and the ways that mindful presence and intentional gladdening the heart (positive neuroplasticity) can open us to our full potential for true happiness. Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/. With gratitude and love, Tara

Meditation: Letting Life Live through You (2016-05-18) - This meditation awakens the senses and then guides us into the wakeful openness that includes the whole play of sensations, feelings and sound. We become fully awake and alive as we open to the awareness that allows life to live through us. Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks freely. If you value them, I hope you will consider offering a donation at this time at www.tarabrach.com/donation/. With gratitude and love, Tara