Retreat Talks Archives - Tara Brach: Recent Episodes
Retreat Talks Archives - Tara Brach
If we realized how profoundly our chronic judgment creates separation and blocks the flow of love, we’d dedicate more deeply to disarming our hearts.
Drawing on practices from the Bodhisattva path, these two talks explore the process of disarming—bridging divides with those close in, and opening our hearts to those at a distance who we consider a ‘bad other” or enemy.
As we cultivate the capacity for true disarming, we experience a growing sense of belonging, Oneness and the freedom of an awakened heart.
photo: Janet Merrick
The post Disarming Our Hearts: Guidance from the Bodhisattva Path – Part 2 appeared first on Tara Brach.
If we realized how profoundly our chronic judgment creates separation and blocks the flow of love, we’d dedicate more deeply to disarming our hearts.
Drawing on practices from the Bodhisattva path, these two talks explore the process of disarming—bridging divides with those close in, and opening our hearts to those at a distance who we consider a ‘bad other” or enemy.
As we cultivate the capacity for true disarming, we experience a growing sense of belonging, Oneness and the freedom of an awakened heart.
photo:
The post Disarming Our Hearts: Guidance from the Bodhisattva Path – Part 1 appeared first on Tara Brach.
We have strong conditioning to identify as a separate self, and to feel all the fears and attachments that arise from not realizing our true belonging. This talk includes teachings and several experiential reflections that help us wake up from the trance of separation.
As we grow familiar with the awareness and love that is our shared true nature, we naturally live from that loving, and experience a growing freedom and joy. [Spring Retreat, April 2024 – Art of Living Retreat Center]
photo: Gary Hillesland
The post Homecoming to Loving Awareness (retreat talk) appeared first on Tara Brach.
Prayer is a communing with our enlarged being. This talk examines less conscious forms of prayer, and how we can evolve the power of our prayers by opening into the […]
The post Conscious Prayer – Finding Refuge in Loving Awareness (retreat talk) appeared first on Tara Brach.
We evolve our consciousness by bringing a clear and kind attention to the tangles of suffering. This talk explores how the “second arrow” of self-judgment imprisons us in emotional reactivity, and the pathways of awakening awareness that reconnect us with our full human potential. (This talk was given at the 2016 IMCW fall retreat.)
photo: Jonathan Foust
The post The Wings of Awakening – Self-Honesty & Love (retreat talk) appeared first on Tara Brach.
Our True Nature – Emptiness Dancing (retreat talk) The most profound question in spiritual life is “who (or what) am I?” This talk explores ways of inquiring into the nature of awareness, and the blessings of embodying the realization of our radiant, empty essence. This audio talk was first offered at the 2011 IMCW Fall Weeklong Retreat, and it includes several guided reflections.
Photo: Janet
The post Emptiness Dancing: Inquiring into the Nature of Awareness (retreat talk) appeared first on Tara Brach.
Only when we face our fears can we discover the freedom to love without holding back. This talk looks at how unprocessed fear contracts our body, heart and mind, and […]
The post Fear and Love appeared first on Tara Brach.
Living in a fear-based society fuels the trance of separation and unworthiness. This talk explores how we can bring an engaged compassionate presence to the suffering of this trance—in our […]
The post Repairing our Hearts – Healing with the RAIN of Compassion appeared first on Tara Brach.
Our capacity to live and love fully is entirely intertwined with how we relate to change and loss. These two talks are an invitation to look honestly, and without judgment, […]
The post Change, Loss and Timeless Love – Part 2 (Retreat Talk) appeared first on Tara Brach.
We all encounter “demons” of fear, anger, hurt, craving and shame. This talk explores our key ways of resisting difficult emotions, and how “when the resistance is gone, the demons […]
The post The Power of Awake Awareness (retreat talk) appeared first on Tara Brach.
This meditation explores the meaning of forgiveness and its role in healing and transformation. We then are guided in a forgiveness practice that helps us release the armoring of blame, and inhabit an inclusive and open heart (given at the Fall 2019 IMCW 7-Day Silent Retreat).
The post Short Talk and Guided Heart Meditation – Releasing Blame (retreat)(37:50 min.) appeared first on Tara Brach.
This meditation introduces the domain of “heart practices” and then guides us in how to cultivate a deep quality of friendliness in relating to our inner life and each other. The gift of this practice is a direct sense of belonging – knowing that we can never be alone (given at the Fall 2019 IMCW 7-Day Silent Retreat).
Photo: Jon McRay
The post Short Talk and Guided Heart Meditation – Loving Kindness – Befriending our Lives (39:29 min.) appeared first on Tara Brach.
When we are suffering, we are believing something untrue – usually a limiting story about who we are. This talk explores the roots of our self-doubts, and the teachings and […]
The post Trusting Who We Are (retreat talk) appeared first on Tara Brach.
The boundary to what we accept is the boundary to our freedom. This talk explores the often unconscious ways we create separation by judging ourselves and others, and the key […]
The post Judgment, Acceptance and Freedom (Retreat Talk) appeared first on Tara Brach.
This talk looks at how our upbringing and culture lead us to mistrust who we are and become identified as a separate, deficient self. We then explore the practices of […]
The post Trusting the Gold (retreat talk) appeared first on Tara Brach.
Prayer is a communing with our enlarged being. This talk examines less conscious forms of prayer, and how we can evolve the power of our prayers by opening into the […]
The post Conscious Prayer – Finding Refuge in Loving Awareness (retreat talk) appeared first on Tara Brach.
When we’ve turned on ourselves with blame and aversion, it’s very difficult to arouse self-compassion. This talk looks at the role of nurturing in freeing our hearts, and offers practice […]
The post From Judgment to Self-Compassion (retreat talk) appeared first on 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.
NOTE: Tara was traveling this week, so we offer this special short talk and meditation from the Fall 2018 IMCW Fall Silent Retreat – published for the first time.
The post Vipassana or Insight Meditation and Instruction: A Path of Practice from Retreat (31:15 min.) appeared first on Tara Brach.
While fear is a natural part of our make up, many of us suffering when the “on” button gets jammed. This talk looks at how our fears generate habitual patterns […]
The post Worrier Pose – Finding Freedom from the Body of Fear (retreat talk) appeared first on Tara Brach.
This short talk and guided meditation remind us that we each have the capacity to awaken our hearts. We explore together the lovingkindness (metta) meditation, and emphasize holding our own being and dear ones with a tender, open and loving presence (from the IMCW 2018 Fall Retreat).
Free download of Tara’s 10 min meditation:
“Mindful Breathing: Finding Calm and Ease”
when you join her email list.
The One Who is at Play Everywhere said:
There is a place in the heart where everything meets.
Go there if you want to find me.
Mind, senses, soul, eternity, all are there.
Are you there?
Enter the welcoming vastness of the heart.
Give yourself to it with total abandon.
Quiet ecstasy is there –
and a steady, regal sense of resting in a perfect spot.
Once you know the way
the nature of attention will call you
to return, again and again,
and be saturated with knowing,
“I belong here, I am at home here.”
-Lorin Roche, The Radiance Sutras
The post Retreat Short Talk & Meditation: Loving Kindness – Awakening and Expressing Our Heart (36:50 min.) appeared first on Tara Brach.