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The greatest gift is the
gift of the teachings
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Retreat Dharma Talks
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IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
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Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC
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2016-03-30
Embodied Awareness – Pain and Living Fully – Part 3
1:13:26
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Tara Brach
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The experiences we most value – feeling creative, loving, vital – require being awake in our bodies. Yet when faced with physical pain, our conditioning is to pull away from our bodies, and get lost in thoughts. This talk offers guidance in working mindfully with different levels of pain, as we cultivate our capacity to live from an embodied presence and open heart.
After the talk, Tara offers a short period of question and response on embodiment.
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2016-04-13
Meditation - Vipassana - Practice of Seeing Clearly
18:38
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Tara Brach
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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.
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2016-04-13
Releasing Self-Blame - Pathways to a Forgiving Heart
53:44
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Tara Brach
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When we are stuck in blaming, disliking or hating ourselves, we are unable to love our world. This talk explores what underlies our addiction to self-blame and the teachings and practices that loosen aversive self-judgment and help us cultivate a forgiving heart.
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2016-04-20
Love is Always Loving You
1:12:27
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Tara Brach
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Love is Always Loving You – This talk draws on Christian mystic Henri Nouwen’s book Return of the Prodigal Son. We explore the primary ways we leave home – leave presence, connection, beingness – and the pathways of deep attention and love that enable our return. The emphasis is on “letting in love” as a key and often missing element in practices that heal and free our hearts. Through the talk there are several reflections that lead to receiving the blessings of love and discovering that we are the source of that loving.
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2016-04-27
Listening with an Awake Heart
69:36
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Tara Brach
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True listening both nurtures and expresses evolving consciousness. This talk explores our ego-based conditioning to have an agenda or defendedness that prevents deep listening, and the strategies that evolve our capacity to listen fully to ourselves and others. When our listening is openhearted and full, it enables deep understanding and connectedness, and provides a transformative healing space for those who receive our listening attention.
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2016-05-04
RAIN of Forgiveness
1:14:37
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Tara Brach
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The capacity to release the armoring of hatred and blame is intrinsic to our evolving consciousness. This talk explores the process of authentic forgiveness, and how we can use the mindfulness-based tool of RAIN to heal and free our hearts.
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2016-05-18
Happy for No Reason - Part 1
1:11:01
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Tara Brach
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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.
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2016-06-01
Real but Not True: Freeing Ourselves from Harmful Beliefs
1:11:30
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Tara Brach
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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.
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2016-06-22
Reconnecting with our Lives - Healing from Dissociation
1:14:29
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Tara Brach
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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.
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2016-06-29
Stress and Everyday Nirvana - Part 1
1:15:16
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Tara Brach
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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.
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