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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.
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2012-10-27 Loving the Life Within Us 66:31
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If we don't love the life we consider "self," we will not realize or live from the loving awareness that is our essence. This talk guides us in bringing a kind, accepting presence to our inner life, and discovering the vastness of what we really are.
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC :  2012 IMCW Fall Residential Retreat: Intimacy with Life
2012-10-24 Wise Investigation: Dissolving the Trance 1:20:25
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If we are suffering, it is because we are believing something that is not true and caught in emotional reactivity. A key tool in meditation is investigation--actively inquiring into what is happening inside us. When we investigate with sincere interest and care, the light of our attention untangles difficult emotions and nourishes intimate relationships. As this light is turned toward awareness itself, it reveals the radiance and emptiness of our true nature.
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC :  IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
2012-10-17 Question and Response with Tara 1:15:58
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Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC :  IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
2012-10-10 Part 2: Wise Intention: Living in Truth 1:19:16
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Evolution has conditioned us to identify as an egoic self and to protect that identity. A key strategy is trying to control how others perceive us through pretense and deception. This talk explores the ways we disarm though dedicating ourselves to truthfulness, forgiving our defenses and taking a chance to name and make room for the vulnerability we have been armoring.
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC :  IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
2012-10-03 Part 1: Wise Intention: the Compass of our Hearts 67:42
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One of the most powerful spiritual practices in the world is to reflect on your heart's deepest intention. These two talks look at the way that ego-based intentions perpetuate thoughts, feelings and actions that keep us imprisoned in feeling separate and limited. In contrast, remembering our deeper intentions call us home to the freedom of our true nature.
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC :  IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
2012-09-26 Part 2: Embodied Spirit 1:19:36
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Our body--this changing field of sensation--is a portal into pure Being. These talks explore the resistance we have to embodied presence, the pathways that enable us to awaken through our bodies, and the blessings of realization that arise as we let go over and over into the aliveness of our senses. NOTE: Part 2 specifically addresses the challenge of arriving in embodied presence when we are facing traumatic fear, and other intense and difficult emotions.
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC :  IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
2012-09-19 Part 1: Embodied Spirit 1:15:43
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Our body--this changing field of sensation--is a portal into pure Being. These talks explore the resistance we have to embodied presence, the pathways that enable us to awaken through our bodies, and the blessings of realization that arise as we let go over and over into the aliveness of our senses.
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC :  IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
2012-09-12 The Freedom of Yes 1:24:10
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How do we accept ourselves or others when our actions are causing harm? Does acceptance mean passivity? Does it undermine our efforts towards change? This talk responds to these questions with a simple, illuminating and challenging principle about genuine transformation: Acceptance is the prerequisite of true healing and awakening. Only when we've paused to recognize and allow this moment's experience to be fully as it is, can we respond from our intelligence and compassion to prevent future suffering.
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC :  IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
2012-09-05 Trance of the Unreal Other 1:22:49
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We are conditioned to perceive people as unreal others- two dimensional characters who lack sentience, vulnerability and goodness. This is often most insidious when we filter people through demeaning culturally driven stereotypes. This talk explores the suffering of living in a trance that separates us from others, and how our practices of mindfulness and compassion enable us to experience what Thoreau calls the "miracle" of seeing through another's eyes, if only for a moment.
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC :  IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
2012-08-29 Intimacy with Our Inner Life 1:18:49
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Jung wrote that our suffering arises from the unseen, unfelt parts of our psyche. This talk explores ways we can establish a healing presence by recognizing and communicating with the parts of our being that we habitually ignore or judge.
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC :  IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
2012-08-22 Part 2: 1000 Serious Moves 1:21:27
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We easily habituate to feeling stressed, leaning forward, trying to figure things out and get things done. The undercurrent is we are living reactively--resisting unpleasant experience, seeking out more comfort and ease--perpetually wanting life to be different than it is. In response to this confined way of living, the Buddha invites us to discover our innate capacity for happiness, the well-being that arises in full presence. These two talks explore the ways we get caught in the trance of reactivity and grimness, and the pathways to unconditioned happiness.
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC :  IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
2012-08-15 Part 1: 1000 Serious Moves 1:26:15
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We easily habituate to feeling stressed, leaning forward, trying to figure things out and get things done. The undercurrent is we are living reactively--resisting unpleasant experience, seeking out more comfort and ease--perpetually wanting life to be different than it is. In response to this confined way of living, the Buddha invites us to discover our innate capacity for happiness, the well-being that arises in full presence. These two talks explore the ways we get caught in the trance of reactivity and grimness, and the pathways to unconditioned happiness.
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC :  IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
2012-08-08 Real But Not True 1:18:24
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One of the most liberating realizations is that we don't have to believe our thoughts. In this talk we look at the suffering caused by limiting beliefs--"I am unworthy, unlovable, unsafe"--and the process by which we open into the full aliveness and potential of our being.
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC :  IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
2012-08-01 Back to the Garden 1:16:45
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The suffering of perceiving ourselves as separate selves expresses as fear, aggression, shame and a host of other afflictive emotions. This talk examines how, by taking refuge in the present moment, and taking refuge in love, we reconnect with our wholeness, and the timeless presence that is home. This inquiry includes a guided meditation on the power of prayer to carry us back to our natural belonging.
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC :  IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
2012-07-25 Listening with an Awake Heart 1:15:48
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Listening to our inner life and each other is the grounds of healing, intimacy and love. This talk explores the challenges to offering a listening presence, and the qualities of open receptivity and interest that nourish true communicating.
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC :  IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
2012-07-04 Part 2 - Freedom: Taking the Backward Step 57:54
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This talk investigates the core conditioning that creates and sustains trance. We then explore two gateways to realizing and inhabiting our true nature - inquiry and letting go.
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC :  IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
2012-06-27 Part 1 - Freedom: Seeing Who Is Looking Through the Mask 1:12:19
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We suffer when we are identified with our egoic conditioning and unable to recognize the spirit - the love and awareness - that animates our own and all beings. In this talk we explore how recognizing our vulnerability and basic goodness helps us to see through the mask and realize who is here.
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC :  IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
2012-06-20 Cultivating Equanimity (Duck Meditation) 1:14:14
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Equanimity, the mindful presence that neither grasps nor resists experience, is the grounds for unconditional love and wise action. This talk explores the conditioning that entraps us in reactivity, and two primary pathways for coming home to this natural state of balance and presence.
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC :  IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
2012-06-13 Committing to Joy 69:04
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What makes joy rare? How do we awaken this beautiful capacity to embrace life? In this talk we explore the obstacles to joy and the attitude and practices that free us to "love what is."
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC :  IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
2012-06-06 Cultivating Compassion 1:15:00
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We each have the potential to live with a compassionate, open heart. In this talk we explore the conditioning that closes us off to authentic caring, and the ways of deepening our attention that help us live to include widening circles of beings in our heart.
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC :  IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
2012-05-30 Intimacy with Life - Awakening Love 67:10
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The Buddha taught about four Divine Abodes--dwelling places of the awakened heart mind: lovingkindness, compassion, joy and equanimity. In this four-part series, we will explore the ways our conditioning blocks us from these expressions of inner freedom, and the understandings and practices that enable us to inhabit our full potential.
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC :  IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
2012-05-23 Training for Intimacy with Life 69:00
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"Enlightenment is intimacy with all things" teaches Zen Master Dogen. While we long for this intimacy, we are conditioned to avoid the vulnerability and fear that an intimate presence can arouse. This talk explores how our mindfulness and heart practices cultivate the capacity to be intimate with our sensations of aliveness, our emotions and the beings in our life.
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC :  IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
2012-05-16 Part 2 - The Lion's Roar 1:13:31
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The Buddha taught that faith--trust in our true nature--is intrinsic to the spiritual path and the expression of wisdom. These two talks investigate the practices of presence that awaken our faith and the freedom that arises when our faith becomes radiant and full.
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC :  IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
2012-05-09 Part 1 - The Lion's Roar 1:18:46
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The Buddha taught that faith--trust in our true nature--is intrinsic to the spiritual path and the expression of wisdom. These two talks investigate the practices of presence that awaken our faith and the freedom that arises when our faith becomes radiant and full.
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC :  IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
2012-05-03 ThuAM-Guided-Meditation-Backward-Step 24:04
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Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC :  2012 IMCW Spring Retreat: Intimacy with Life
2012-05-02 WedPM-Be-Who-You-Are 62:13
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By bringing a surrendering presence to mental, emotional and physical domains, we undo the trance of separation and discover our true nature. This talk explores the practices that cultivate the non-resisting space of presence, and the flavors of our essential being that are revealed: open awareness, love and a vibrant flow of awareness.
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC :  2012 IMCW Spring Retreat: Intimacy with Life
2012-05-02 Meditation - Inner Space: Gateway to Awareness 28:51
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Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC :  2012 IMCW Spring Retreat: Intimacy with Life
2012-05-02 ThuAM-Instructions-Question/Response 13:07
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Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC :  2012 IMCW Spring Retreat: Intimacy with Life
2012-05-01 TuePM-Meditation-RAIN-of-Compassion 37:04
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Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC :  2012 IMCW Spring Retreat: Intimacy with Life
2012-05-01 TueAM-Instructions-Q-A 14:28
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Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC :  2012 IMCW Spring Retreat: Intimacy with Life
2012-05-01 TueAM-Guided-Meditation 24:16
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Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC :  2012 IMCW Spring Retreat: Intimacy with Life
2012-04-29 SunAM Q and A 11:22
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Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC :  2012 IMCW Spring Retreat: Intimacy with Life
2012-04-29 SunAM Guided Meditation 21:52
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Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC :  2012 IMCW Spring Retreat: Intimacy with Life
2012-04-28 SatPM-Instructions-and-Metta-Meditation 39:55
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Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC :  2012 IMCW Spring Retreat: Intimacy with Life
2012-04-25 The World in Our Heart 1:24:54
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Some contemporary evolutionary theories track our development from survival of the fittest to group selection whereby we have the capacity for cooperation and empathy. This talk explores how our meditation practice of attending and befriending consciously facilitates the unfolding of our full evolutionary potential. The talk includes a guided meditation that helps us widen the circles of belonging to include all beings.
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC :  IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
2012-04-04 Beyond the Prison of Beliefs 1:13:33
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Most of us have core fear beliefs that obscure our true nature and bind us in repeating patterns of painful emotions and behavior. This talk looks at the beliefs that limit us and the freedom that is possible when we investigate them with a kind, mindful awareness.
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC :  IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
2012-03-28 Attend and Befriend: Healing the Fear Body 1:25:49
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Our fear management strategies--versions of fight/flight-- contract our body and mind, and separate us from others. As we learn to pause and contact the bodily fear with a gentle, mindful awareness, our sense of being enlarges. We rediscover our belonging to presence, love and life.
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC :  IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
2012-03-21 Alchemy of Wise Effort in Spiritual Life 1:22:46
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The ground of wise effort is our sincere intentionality toward presence, love and freedom. Yet our habit is to go into trance, and latch on to narrowed intentions of self-enhancement or defense. When this goes on for years, we feel disappointment in our lives, a sense of not being true to ourselves. Through guided reflections, we explore how--in spiritual practice and in relationships--we can connect with our deepest intention and live in a way that expresses our awakening heart and awareness.
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC :  IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
2012-03-14 Flowering, From Within, of Self-Blessing 1:21:03
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This line from poet Galway Kinnell reminds us of the possibility of meeting our inner life with a loving, healing presence. When we do, we loosen the trance of unworthiness and reconnect with our intrinsic goodness. In turn, we can offer our blessings to others--serving as reminders of the awareness and love that can blossom in all beings.
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC :  IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
2012-03-07 Freedom in the Midst of Difficulty 1:27:55
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We suffer when we forget who we are and get caught in a limited sense of self. This talk explores how we become identified with a sliver of what we are, and the pathway to remembering our wholeness. When we know we're the ocean, we are free to relate to the waves with respect, compassion and love.
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC :  IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
2012-02-29 Embodied Presence 1:21:01
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We often move through the day in a reactive trance, removed from the aliveness of our bodies and this natural world. This talk explores how coming home to our bodies awakens us to living love, creativity and the deepest realization of who we are.
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC :  IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
2012-02-08 Questions, Guided Meditation and Group Sharing - Led by Tara 1:16:48
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Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC :  IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
2012-02-01 Part 2: Three Blessings on the Journey 1:19:25
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Drawing on a wonderful teaching story from the Upanishads, these two talks explore the role of forgiveness, inner fire and looking at our own minds, in finding freedom.
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC :  IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
2012-01-25 Part 1: Three Blessings on the Journey 1:24:06
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Drawing on a wonderful teaching story from the Upanishads, these two talks explore the role of forgiveness, inner fire and looking at our own minds, in finding freedom.
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC :  IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
2012-01-18 Part 2: Trusting Your Basic Goodness 1:21:29
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Einstein says the most important question we will ever ask ourselves is, "Is this universe a friendly place?" Do we trust that there is something essentially benevolent or good about this universe? That we are essentially good? These two talks explore what it means to trust basic goodness, and how this trust naturally emerges through cultivating a meditative presence. (also in video - show tracks)
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC :  IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
2012-01-11 Part 1: Trusting Your Basic Goodness 1:24:04
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Einstein says the most important question we will ever ask ourselves is, "Is this universe a friendly place?" Do we trust that there is something essentially benevolent or good about this universe? That we are essentially good? These two talks explore what it means to trust basic goodness, and how this trust naturally emerges through cultivating a meditative presence. (also in video - show tracks)
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC :  IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
2012-01-04 Taking Refuge 1:26:09
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This class explores the three classic gateways to true refuge - Buddha (awareness); Dharma (path, truth of reality) and Sangha (spiritual friends, loving relatedness). It includes reflections and a ceremony that supports us in remembering the pathway home. (also in video - show tracks)
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC :  IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
2011-12-31 Guided Meditation - Awakening Compassion / Tonglen 37:09
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Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC :  2011 - IMCW New Year's Retreat - Awakening the Heart of Compassion
2011-12-30 Guided Heart - Forgiveness and Compassion 28:36
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Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC :  2011 - IMCW New Year's Retreat - Awakening the Heart of Compassion
2011-12-29 The Blessings of Embodied Presence 57:27
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All that we cherish - love, creativity, wisdom and aliveness - becomes available when we come home to an embodied presence. This talk looks at how the two wings of mindfulness and compassion guide us in the midst of difficulty to our inner sanctuary of freedom.
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC :  2011 - IMCW New Year's Retreat - Awakening the Heart of Compassion

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