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The greatest gift is the
gift of the teachings
 
Tara Brach's Dharma Talks
Tara Brach
A pervasive but often invisible source of suffering in our culture is self-aversion. We are a busy culture, and we move through our life feeling anxious and dissatisfied, but not fully conscious of how we neglect or judge our inner experience. We suffer from a lack of belonging: to our own bodies, to each other and to the earth. When we practice Buddhist meditation, we learn how to listen deeply and hold our life tenderly.
2011-03-09 Trusting Our Secret Beauty 1:20:58
When caught in emotional suffering, we sense that we are living from a reactive, contracted place, and don't trust or like ourselves. This talk explores the severed belonging that is the genesis of that doubt, and the two wings of mindful presence and love that carry us home to our natural wholeness and goodness of Being.
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
2011-03-02 Healing into Life and Death 1:18:34
Given the universal truth that these bodies get sick and they die, what allows us to find freedom, happiness and peace in the midst? This talk explores how, when we get caught in the suffering that arises from physical sickness, we can take refuge in presence and love.
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
2011-02-23 When We are Lost 1:19:30
It's part of our make up to get lost in the trance of thinking-- to believe our thoughts to be real and to live in the story of a separate, endangered self. It is also our capacity to recognize our trance and choose presence. This talk explores how the practice of pausing and arriving in the aliveness of our senses opens us to our natural compassion and wisdom, and enables us to experience the great mystery we are part of.
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
2011-02-16 The Sure Heart's Release - Part 2 1:16:14
Our longing is to realize and embody loving presence, yet we each have deeply conditioned habits that bind our hearts. This talk reflects on these habits, and explores how we can free ourselves by bringing a mindful, compassionate attention to places where we are most trapped in feeling separate, fearful and unworthy.
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
2011-02-09 The Sure Heart's Release - Part 1 1:23:46
Our longing is to realize and embody loving presence, yet we each have deeply conditioned habits that bind our hearts. This talk reflects on these habits, and explores how we can free ourselves by bringing a mindful, compassionate attention to places where we are most trapped in feeling separate, fearful and unworthy.
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
2011-01-19 Inviting Life's Difficulties to Tea 1:19:43
One of the most illuminating themes in the Buddha's life story was the regular appearance of Mara--god of selfishness and greed, anger and fear, doubt and shame. Each time Mara surfaced, the Buddha's response was to say "I see you Mara," and invite him to tea. This talk explores how such unconditional friendliness and wisdom can bring healing and freedom to our lives.
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
2011-01-12 Evolving Consciousness--Beyond limiting Identities 1:19:36
The flag of trance is identifying as a separate, deficient self. This talk explores how developmentally we can get fixated on fears and unmet needs and cut off from the wholeness of Being that is our true nature. We explore the power of mindfulness --seeking not to change but to understand--and the expression of that understanding as love. The talk includes guided reflections that can help us recognize and awaken from the confines of trance.
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
2011-01-05 True Refuge: Three Gateways to Freedom 1:26:34
This talk invites a contemplation of three archetypal domains of spiritual awakening: Buddha-awareness, Dharma- truth (the way things are), and Sangha-loving relatedness. We explore our habit of turning toward false refuges, and the way we can find refuge in that which truely heals our hearts and frees our mind. The evening ends with a living ritual of dedicating ourselves to each of these three gateways to awakening.
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
2010-12-31 Minting Gold - Embodying the Awakened Heart 65:43
Our core conditioning expresses as both a longing for love and the pain of not trusting we are loveable. This talk explores how we create the experience of separation, and the key meditative heart- trainings that lead us to realizing and living from the truth of our connectedness.
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC 2010 - IMCW New Year's Retreat - Awakening the Heart of Compassion
2010-12-29 The Path of Transformation 62:31
Awakening arises out of presence with the changing ground of our lives. This talk explores three key gateways to liberating presence: forgiveness, inner fire (aspiration) and a deep inquiry into the nature of our own mind.
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC 2010 - IMCW New Year's Retreat - Awakening the Heart of Compassion

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