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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.
2012-09-19 Part 1: Embodied Spirit 1:15:43
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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

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