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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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2009-10-26 Self Compassion 58:31
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC 2009 - IMCW Fall Residential Retreat - "Intimacy with Life"
2009-10-26 Self-Compassion 58:31
(retreat talk) We can only find love and peace in this life if we are able to hold our inner life with compassion. This talk explores the subtle and therefore often unseen ways that we turn on ourselves, and the pathways to a forgiving heart.
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC 2009 - IMCW Fall Residential Retreat - "Intimacy with Life"
2009-10-21 Behind the Mask 49:00
The development of a mask or persona based on our activities and roles is a natural way the ego tries to protect and enhance itself. Yet unless we wake up from our identification with the mask, we are unable to discover the truth and wholeness of what we are. This talk investigates how our masks manifest and the process of wise attention that can free us from a limiting sense of separate self. Includes a guided meditation.
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
2009-10-14 Question and Response 58:09
Tara responds to questions from the sangha.
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
2009-10-07 Skeleton Woman 45:55
If we can embrace the whole of our nature with unconditional presence - including the inevitability of change and loss--we discover deep wisdom and enduring love.
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
2009-09-30 Two Wings of a Liberating Attention 49:46
The attention that serves spiritual awakening is based on the capacity to recognize clearly what is happening in the present moment, and to regard what arises with a kind heart. This talk explores the challenges to a clear and honest presence, and how we cultivate understanding and compassion.
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
2009-09-23 Wise Effort and Spiritual Freedom 51:12
In the Buddhist tradition, wise effort, or the purposeful dedication of our energy, is an essential part of the spiritual path. While the attitudes of grasping or fear can contract the quality of our effort and create suffering in our lives; when our effort arises from sincerity and wisdom, it creates the conditions for liberation.
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
2009-09-16 Embracing the Unlived Life 43:55
This talk explores how we cut off from the energetic parts of our inner experience and the healing and spiritual freedom that is possible when we bring awareness to the life of the body.
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
2009-09-02 The Grounds of Living Compassion 53:04
A critical question on the spiritual path is how we can bring the loving presence awakened by meditation into every facet of daily life. This talk explores the conditioning that keeps us in reactive trance and the ways we can deepen our attention and align our lives with our hearts.
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
2009-08-26 Genuine Acceptance 69:43
Our capacity to accept this life is key to our freedom, yet there are many misconceptions about acceptance: People wonder, if acceptance makes us a doormat in relationships? Isn't acceptance akin to resignation? Doesn't it make us passive when what is needed is action? This talk explores some of the misunderstandings about acceptance and offers teachings on the nature of genuine and liberating acceptance.
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
2009-08-19 Enchantment and Freedom 1:20:28
When caught in suffering we are perceiving reality through a distorted lens. We are unable to see what we really are, and we latch on to the surface appearances of others. By training our minds to pay attention we begin to recognize the conditioning that entraps us, and the love and awareness that shines through these changing forms.
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
2009-08-12 Happiness 1:10:35
The Buddha taught of two dimensions of happiness--that which is based on particular circumstances, and that which arises from unconditional presence. This talk explores the ways we block happiness; the attitude and meditative practice that give rise to worldly happiness and the state of Being that is experienced as pure happiness and freedom.
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
2009-08-05 Let Everything Happen to You 1:15:39
The now common adage "what you resist, persists" is a deep and important truth. This talk explores the often unconscious ways that we avoid the difficult parts of our experience, and the meditative strategies for cultivating an accepting and healing presence.
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
2009-07-08 Part 4 - Wise Practice - Taking Refuge in Awareness 1:15:55
This four week series reviews many key components of Buddhist meditation practice. Beginning with intention and attitude, we cover the strategies that help us arrive in presence, the key elements of mindfulness, working with difficult emotional states and the practices that awaken our heart. Each week will include guided meditations and reflections.
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
2009-07-01 Part 3 - Wise Practice - The Heart of Buddhism 1:14:17
This four week series reviews many key components of Buddhist meditation practice. Beginning with intention and attitude, we cover the strategies that help us arrive in presence, the key elements of mindfulness, working with difficult emotional states and the practices that awaken our heart. Each week will include guided meditations and reflections.
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
2009-06-24 Part 2 - Wise Practice 1:18:00
This four week series reviews many key components of Buddhist meditation practice. Beginning with intention and attitude, we cover the strategies that help us arrive in presence, the key elements of mindfulness, working with difficult emotional states and the practices that awaken our heart. Each week will include guided meditations and reflections.
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
2009-06-17 Part 1 - Wise Practice 1:15:56
This three week series reviews many key components of Buddhist meditation practice. Beginning with intention and attitude, we cover the strategies that help us arrive in presence, the key elements of mindfulness, working with difficult emotional states and the practices that awaken our heart. Each week will include guided meditations and reflections.
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
2009-06-10 Don't Know Mind 1:14:31
Thoughts, and more broadly, conceptual knowledge, cannot lead to the direct realization of truth, of reality. While thoughts are an essential part of surviving and thriving, spiritual awakening only becomes possible when we step out of the trance of thinking. This talk invites listeners into the radical openness and freedom of not-knowing.
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
2009-06-03 The Attitude that Perpetuates Suffering 1:10:46
Our conditioning is to conclude that "something is wrong" when we encounter difficulty. This way of relating to experience binds us in a trance--it locks in the identification with a separate, victimized, self; it leads to unwise action and it removes us from presence. This talk guides us in recognizing our often unconscious attitude towards what is happening, and arriving in the unconditional presence that is the source of love, wisdom and freedom.
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
2009-05-27 Celebrating Vesak: Oh Nobly Born 1:12:28
Vesak is the Buddhist holiday that celebrates the Buddha's birth, enlightment and death. What links these events is the radical and powerful message of all Buddhist teachings: We each have the potential to realize and live from and awakened heart and mind. This talk explores how the key mythological, psychological and spiritual junctures of the Buddha's life are entirely relevant to our own transformation.
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
2009-05-20 Three Gifts That Serve Freedom 56:43
There are three spiritual capacities that are essential for our freedom. The first, forgiveness, is the releasing of stories that this self, or another, is bad. It is an opening of the heart to include all parts of our own being and this world. The second, inner fire, is the energy of devotion to what most matters to us. The third, looking within to realize what we are, reveals the truth of reality itself. This talk uses an ancient Indian teaching tale and guided meditations to explore these core elements of spiritual liberation.
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
2009-05-13 Tara Brach and Jack Kornfield: An Evening of Questions and Responses 1:22:21
Tara Brach and Jack Kornfield: An Evening of Questions and Responses
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
2009-04-29 Wise Investigation 1:11:37
This talk focuses on the use of inquiry and investigation in energizing a lucid, mindful presence. The interest and care that underlies wise investigation is essential in both healing difficult emotional tangles and in revealing the very nature of reality. Guided meditation included.
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
2009-04-22 Part 2 - Intention and Spiritual Freedom 1:17:19
While we can't change the past, it is our intention in this present moment that determines the unfolding of happiness and freedom in our life. When unconscious, our intentions are often shaped by craving and aversion. These two talks explore how we can become mindful of intention, and realize the depth and purity of our innate aspiration toward awakening and freedom.
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
2009-04-15 Part 1 - Intention and Spiritual Freedom 1:22:01
While we can't change the past, it is our intention in this present moment that determines the unfolding of happiness and freedom in our life. When unconscious, our intentions are often shaped by craving and aversion. These two talks explore how we can become mindful of intention, and realize the depth and purity of our innate aspiration toward awakening and freedom.
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
2009-04-08 Downwind from Flowers 1:14:08
This talk reflects on ways that we can attend to nature--our inner body, the natural world and our relatedness to each other. Through these domains we can discover the impermanent flow of life, a gateway to pure Beingness and the healing to wholeness that arises from love.
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
2009-04-01 Awakening Through Conflict 1:20:40
The wisdom of the Buddha can guide us not only in discovering inner freedom, but in healing that which divides us from each other. While conflict is inevitable--we are wired toward flight and flight when our needs are not met--it is possible to have our patterns of interpersonal reactivity be the very grounds for awakening. This talk draws on the work of Non Violent Comunications (Marshal Rosenberg) and explores how mindful communications are an interpersonal meditation that gives rise to compassion and understanding.
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
2009-03-25 Part 2 - The Body as a Gateway to Full Presence 1:20:28
We have strong conditioning to take false refuge in our mind, and disconnect from our senses. These two talks explore the pathways and gifts of coming home to embodied awareness.
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
2009-03-18 Part 1 - The Body as a Gateway to Full Presence 1:16:48
We have strong conditioning to take false refuge in our mind, and disconnect from our senses. These two talks explore the pathways and gifts of coming home to embodied awareness.
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
2009-03-11 Without Anxiety About Imperfection 1:17:06
The nature of being human is that we get caught in anger and judgment, hurt and fear. This talk explores what it means to be without anxiety towards this universal emotional conditioning as it appears in ourselves and others. Condemning imperfection binds our identity with an imperfect self. As we learn to pause and open to the direct embodied experience of emotions, we discover a space of presence that is filled with compassion and wisdom. Like the ocean, we can include difficult waves of experience and yet remember our inherent vastness, mystery and wholeness.
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
2009-03-04 The Divine Abodes: Equanimity 1:15:36
Lovingkindness, compassion, joy and equinimity, are natural expressions of our awakened heart. In this series of four talks, we will examine what arouses these qualities of a wise heart. Each talk will include guided reflections. Equanimity is the balanced and open quality of presence that arises when there is no resisting or grasping after experience. It is through the space of this wise presence that unconditional love is free to shine through.
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
2009-02-25 The Divine Abodes: Joy 1:18:31
Lovingkindness, compassion, joy and equinimity, are natural expressions of our awakened heart. In this series of four talks, we will examine what arouses these qualities of a wise heart. Each talk will include guided reflections. Joy naturally arises from the heart space that welcomes all that is. This talk describes four pathways of discovering and inhabiting this intrinsic openness of Being.
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
2009-02-18 The Divine Abodes: Compassion 1:17:46
Lovingkindness, compassion, joy and equinimity, are natural expressions of our awakened heart. In this series of four talks, we will examine what arouses these qualities of a wise heart. Each talk will include guided reflections. Compassion naturally arises as we allow ourselves to be touched by suffering--our own, those we know, all beings. As we discover our shared vulnerability, the pain of separation dissolves and our hearts open to widening circles of belonging.
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
2009-02-11 The Divine Abodes: Lovingkindness 1:20:27
Lovingkindness, compassion, joy and equinimity, are natural expressions of our awakened heart. In this series of four talks, we will examine what arouses these qualities of a wise heart. Each talk will include guided reflections. A key theme in cultivating lovingkindness is learning to see the secret beauty--the sacred--that shines through all beings.
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
2009-02-04 Part 2 - True Refuge In The Face Of Fear 1:19:24
One understanding of the spiritual path is relating wisely to fear. Our conditioned reaction is to feel aversion to fear and do anything but simply experience it. We discover freedom when instead of reacting, we recognize and open to fear with a kind, committed presence. While fear might or might not remain, with awareness, the suffering of being identified as a fearful self dissolves. In Part I of this talk, we look at how to recognize the physical, mental, emotional and behavioral facets of the body of fear. In Part II we explore a range of pathways for cultivating a healing and freeing presence in the midst of fear.
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
2009-01-28 Part 1 - Freedom In The Midst Of Fear 1:11:07
One understanding of the spiritual path is relating wisely to fear. Our conditioned reaction is to feel aversion to fear and do anything but simply experience it. We discover freedom when instead of reacting, we recognize and open to fear with a kind, committed presence. While fear might or might not remain, with awareness, the suffering of being identified as a fearful self dissolves. In Part I of this talk, we look at how to recognize the physical, mental, emotional and behavioral facets of the body of fear. In Part II we explore a range of pathways for cultivating a healing and freeing presence in the midst of fear.
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
2009-01-21 The Courage To Awaken 1:17:43
Courage is the greatness of heart that allows us, in the face of fear, to be true to what matters. This talk is a reflection on how we can become increasingly courageous in those parts of our lives where we have held back from living and loving fully.
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
2009-01-14 Humble Of Heart 1:11:49
As consciousness evolves, there is a deepening understanding of the interdependence of all of life. This wisdom naturally leads to an authentic humility--an awakening from the burden and violence of self-importance. In this talk we explore the relationship between being humble of heart, and living with kindness and compassion. There is particular attention to the necessity of humility and deep listening--as individuals and societies--if we are to respond to conflict in a way that can bring peace to this earth.
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
2009-01-07 The Three Refuges 1:26:28
The spiritual path can be understood as forgetting and remembering. We suffer when we lose sight of truth, of love, of awareness. And we touch freedom in the moments of remembering. This talk includes guided reflections on three gateways to remembering: three refuges--buddha, dharma and sangha--that are the foundation of classical Buddhist teachings and profoundly relevant in our contemporary lives.
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
2008-12-17 The Undefended Heart 1:21:40
Our dedication to not pushing anyone--or any part of ourselves--out of our hearts, serves the healing of our world. This talk includes a short guided meditation on opening to our human vulnerability and forgiving another person.
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
2008-12-10 Relaxed Attentiveness 1:14:34
While the heart of meditation is resting in open awareness, our conditioning to be distracted and reactive can keep us on the wheel of suffering. We awaken from trace by developing skillful ways of paying attention that create the environment for natural presence. This natural awareness, while sometimes hidden, is always here: It is our true home.
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
2008-11-26 Thanksgiving 2008 - Living The Life Fully - Gratitude And Generosity 1:19:19
While generosity and gratitude are natural capacities, our conditioning to want life different can often keep us from living from a free and open heart. This talk explores three gateways to awakening and expressing love in our daily life.
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
2008-11-19 The Three Characteristics - part 3: No-Self 1:15:27
At the center of the Buddhist teachings is the understanding that the passing phenomena of this world--sounds, sensations, thoughts, bodies and minds--have no self at the center, no self as owner, and are not happening to a self. In other words, our familiar sense of self is an illusion. When there is full presence, a presence not filtered by thoughts, this illusion dissolves, freeing us to realize our true nature. This talk exploring the teachings of no-self, or emptiness, includes several reflections and practices that guide us in awakening to this essential and liberating truth.
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
2008-11-12 The Three Characteristics - part 2: Impermanence 46:03
The Buddha taught that when our understanding of impermanence is direct and non-conceptual, it is liberating. By directly opening to the radical impermanence of all experience, including the truth of our own mortality, we discover the natural capacity to let go. With this "mind that clings to no thing" awakens wisdom, authentic spontaneity and a natural cherishing of life.
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
2008-11-05 The Three Characteristics - part 1: Unsatisfactoriness 1:20:04
The Buddha described three basic and interrelated insights into nature of reality that are revealed through a clear and deep attention. Called "the three characteristics," these insights include dukkha (unsatisfactoriness), annicha (impermanence) and annata (selflessness or emptiness). In the first of this three week series of talks, we explore the meaning of dukkha, how we directly recognize the varied expressions of dukkha and it's gift when met with full presence.
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
2008-10-15 Equanimity In The Face Of Conflict 67:02
This talk, given on the eve of a presidential debate, explores how we can awaken from the conditioning that turns us against ourselves and others. The guided meditation offers an opportunity to choose a place of conflict and reactivity with others, and discover what is possible when we turn towards our deepest wisdom and compassion.
Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC IMCW Wednesday Evening Talks
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

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