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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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2017-03-15
Meditation: Letting Thought Clouds Come and Go
22:38
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Tara Brach
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This meditation guides us through a body scan and into a relaxed, open presence. When we realize we are lost in a thought cloud, our practice is to relax open, listening to and feeling the life of the present moment. We are training to become increasingly aware of the gap between thoughts, the space where the light of awareness shines through.
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2017-03-15
Realizing Your Deepest Desires
52:19
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Tara Brach
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This talk differentiates between egoic intentions (driven by wants and fears), and our true aspiration (deepest desires) to manifest our full potential for awake awareness and love. We explore ways to realize and open to our deepest desires when we are stuck in self-promotion, grasping and conflict, so that our aspiration becomes a compass of the heart that can guide us in living with wisdom and compassion.
“What’s my deepest intention. What really matters?”
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2017-03-22
Meditation - Relaxing Back into Full Presence
23:36
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Tara Brach
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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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2017-03-22
Taking the “Exquisite Risk”: An Undefended Heart
50:36
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Tara Brach
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Poet Mark Nepo uses the phrase “exquisite risk” to describe our willingness to be fully alive, open, available, living true to our heart. This talk explores the challenges and blessings of taking the exquisite risk, both in becoming more intimate with our inner life, and in engaging with others from full authenticity.
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2017-03-29
Meditation: Loving Presence – (with a smile body scan)
20:10
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Tara Brach
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This guided meditation helps cultivate the heartspace that can hold our life with tenderness and grace. We begin by using the image and felt sense of a smile in a body scan, and then open to the spacious presence that includes the changing moment to moment flow of experience. The meditation closes with a few minutes of offering loving blessings to our inner life, dear ones in need and all beings.
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2017-03-29
Healing Addiction: De-conditioning the Hungry Ghosts
52:38
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Tara Brach
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This talk examines the suffering that arises when due to unmet needs for love and safety, our desire becomes narrowed and fixated on substitute gratifications. We then explore how we can bring mindfulness and self-compassion to the habits of obsessing, over-consuming and hurting ourselves and others that keep us from true happiness, connectedness and peace.
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2017-04-05
Meditation: Awakening through the Inner Body
24:23
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Tara Brach
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When we attune to the inner body, we discover a field of energy and aliveness that is the portal to pure presence. This meditation guides our attention to the inner body, opens to the play of sound and invites us to rest in the awake awareness that includes and is the grounds of this living world.
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2017-04-05
Soul Recognition: The Practice of Namaste
52:19
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Tara Brach
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In our daily trance we experience ourselves and others through a filter of wants, fears, stories and beliefs. Drawing on an engaging story from the legends of King Arthur, this talk explores how we can see past this conditioning by learning to see – in ourselves and others – vulnerability, goodness and awareness itself. Sometimes called “soul recognition,” this seeing is the essence of “Namaste” – realizing and honoring the sacredness that shines through all beings.
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2017-04-26
Meditation: The Center of Now
16:19
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Tara Brach
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This meditation awakens our senses and then guides us to rest in the changing flow of experience. When the mind drifts, we are invited to relax back into full living presence, into that Beingness that is the center of now.
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2017-04-26
Relaxing the Over-Controller – Part I
51:49
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Tara Brach
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We all have conditioning to do what we can to protect and promote our wellbeing. Our suffering arises to the degree that our life and identity become organized around controlling our experience. These two talks look at the emergence of the fear based “over-controller,” and explore a wise way of witnessing the suffering that comes with over-controlling, and awareness practices that naturally relax and awaken us to our whole and natural Being.
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