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In Memoriam: Rick Woudenberg


The greatest gift is the
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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.
2008-10-01 Inviting Mara To Tea 1:12:00
One of the great archetypal themes in the Buddha's life is facing Mara, the shadow side of greed, hatred and delusion. Rather than being seduced, fighting or running away, the Buddha simply recognized Mara's presence and invited him to tea. This talk and guided meditation explores the theme of a radical and engaged presence, and how it directly translates into a sacred path of healing and freedom.
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
2008-09-24 Soul Retrieval 1:12:07
When we become stressed and reactive, we lose contact with our natural spontaneity, wisdom and openheartedness. This talk investigates the ways we become caught in the stress-trance and the key elements in awakening: pausing and remindfulness. Using the gateway of the senses, we explore both the pathway of presence and the gifts of reconnecting with soul, spirit, essence.
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
2008-09-17 A Committed Presence 66:43
Our conditioning is to feel separate, creating an "other" out there, and often being at war with ourselves. By cultivating a committed presence we awaken beyond this conditioning. This talk includes stories and reflections that identify limiting beliefs and reveal our intrinsic oneness and love.
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
2008-09-03 Turning Towards What You Love 49:55
There is a saying: The road to hell is paved with bad intentions. From the Buddha we learn the path to freedom arises from wise intentions. Yet because we habitually grasp after what will immediately relieve or comfort or please us, we often do not listen to our deepest intentions. We forget that in this brief life, what matters most is loving presence. This evening of talk and guided meditations invites participants to examine intentions in their relationships, and to reflect on living from a more awake connection with our heart.
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
2008-08-27 Listening To Our Life 1:21:28
Listening in a full and open way allows us to come home to our natural state--awake, vast awareness. In an immediate way, a listening attention dissolves the tangles of fear and craving that obscure our wholeness. This class includes both a talk and guided meditations on deep listening to our inner experience and with others.
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
2008-08-20 Behind The Mask 1:16:13
We each develop and become identified with masks that express a false or narrowed sense of self. Whether it's the helper mask or addict mask, the controller mask or loser mask, the beliefs and emotions creating the mask prevent us from realizing our natural wholeness and beauty. This talk explores how, in the face of inevitable change and loss, we can remember the presence and love that is peering through the mask.
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
2008-08-13 Let Everything Happen To You 1:16:40
The ways we try to control our life imprisons us in a contracted, fearful sense of self. Yet when we contemplate letting go of control, there is a sense that we will be endangered, that we will fail, that something will go wrong. This talk explores how, if we have the courage to "let everything happen" we discover a presence that is healing and freeing. As we learn to live from this allowing presence, our actions become naturally wholesome and wise.
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
2008-07-09 Three Attitudes That Awaken And Free Our Spirit 1:13:12
Our predicament is intuiting our true nature--love, awareness--and yet regularly contracting into the self-identity conditioned by wants and fears. This talk explores three essential and liberating ways of relating to our human conditioning: forgiving that it arises, interest in what is true, and regarding experience with friendliness and kindness.
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
2008-07-02 Conscious Activity 1:19:34
Most meditation guidance is aimed at formal sitting practice. Yet we spend much of our lives "doing" activities and often, in a way that lacks presence. This talk explores the practical ways that we can transform ego-based doing into activity that is aligned with our heart and expresses our natural creativity, joy and wisdom.
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
2008-06-25 The Blessings Of Soul Recognition 1:20:37
Based on one of the great legends from the court of King Arthur, this talk examines the freedom that is possible when we can see past the veil of illusion and realize the true nature that shines through all beings.
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks

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