Tara Brach

If we are suffering, we are believing an interpretation of reality that is limiting and untrue. At these times we are imprisoned in a painful looping of fear-driven thoughts and feelings. This talk explores the ways our practices of mindfulness, compassion and loving presence can guide us from addictive thinking to perceiving life with a wise heart. In this talk, Tara explores: * how fear-based thoughts create suffering and keep us locked in cycles of insecurity and separation. * the pathway of moving from the prison of looping thoughts to the freedom of open-hearted presence. * Ihow recognizing thoughts as “real but not true” opens the door to compassion and release. * three pathways—returning to presence, awakening the heart, and resting in awareness—that guide us from head to heart. * how mindfulness and loving awareness reconnect us with our wholeness and the joy of simply being.

"It only takes a reminder to breathe, a moment to be still, and just like that, something in me settles, softens, makes space for imperfection. The harsh voice of judgment drops to a whisper and I remember again that life isn’t a relay race; that we will all cross the finish line; that waking up to life is what we were born for. As many times as I forget, catch myself charging forward without even knowing where I’m going, that many times I can make the choice to stop, to breathe, and be, and walk slowly into the mystery."

This two part series explores how we regularly leave our body and skim life’s surface in a mental trance, and the ways we can train our attention to come home again. We look at working with physical and emotional pain, and the gifts of love, wisdom, creativity and aliveness that arise as we learn to fully inhabit these living forms and all our senses with awareness. In this talk, Tara explores: how embodied presence awakens love, creativity, and wisdom—inviting us to meet life’s moments with full attention and an open heart.the universal tendency to leave our bodies when discomfort arises, and how returning to direct sensation reconnects us to aliveness.practical ways to stay present with physical and emotional pain, transforming “pain” into the changing flow of sensation.mindful strategies like pendulating between ease and discomfort, softening resistance, and “resting in love” to reduce suffering.how waking up in the body opens a portal to mystery, dissolving the small self and revealing our true nature as vast awareness.

The practice of visualizing and feeling a smile spreading through the body helps us access the natural tenderness and openness of our being. This meditation guides us in the smile-down, and then invites a full opening and resting in openhearted presence. We close by bringing that awake heart to an area of difficulty in our life.

This two part series explores how we regularly leave our body and skim life’s surface in a mental trance, and the ways we can train our attention to come home again. We look at working with physical and emotional pain, and the gifts of love, wisdom, creativity and aliveness that arise as we learn to fully inhabit these living forms and all our senses with awareness. In part 1, Tara explores: https://www.tarabrach.com/embodied-presence-portal-to-the-sacred-part1-2/

We miss many moments of this precious life drifting in a virtual thought world. This meditation helps us collect and calm ourselves with the breath; relax through our bodies; and then include the changing dance of sounds, sensations and feeling in open awareness. Our practice is to recognize the quality of Hereness, and when we drift, return again to this open presence, relaxing with the changing flow of life.

Listening is more than a communications skill, it is a capacity that awakens our awareness. And given our current times, this capacity is essential if we are to navigate the great divides that separate us from our inner life and others. As we learn to listen inwardly, we begin to understand and care for the fears and vulnerability that ask for our attention. And as we listen to others, that same intimacy emerges. In this two-part series we examine the blocks to listening and the practices that cultivate this essential domain of human potential. Our focus is both on the transformational power of listening in our personal lives, and also the necessity for deep listening if we are to bring healing to our wider society. In this talk, Tara explores:

Listening to sound is opens up to the space of pure being. In this guided practice we begin by awakening through the body, and then explore listening to sounds and silence, and to inhabiting the receptive presence that is listening, awareness itself.

Listening is more than a communications skill, it is a capacity that awakens our awareness. And given our current times, this capacity is essential if we are to navigate the great divides that separate us from our inner life and others. As we learn to listen inwardly, we begin to understand and care for the fears and vulnerability that ask for our attention. And as we listen to others, that same intimacy emerges. In this two-part series we examine the blocks to listening and the practices that cultivate this essential domain of human potential. Our focus is both on the transformational power of listening in our personal lives, and also the necessity for deep listening if we are to bring healing to our wider society.

This meditation begins with listening to sounds as a portal to spacious awareness. In addition to guiding attention to naturally occurring sounds, Tara plays chimes and gongs to deepen the experience of receptivity and openness. The meditation progresses to include all experience - sounds, sensations, thoughts, feelings - in the vast, transparent, timeless space of awareness.

What if a key to personal and collective transformation lies in reclaiming our deep capacities for presence and imagination? In this two-part series, we’ll explore how mindfulness awakens us from the trance of fear and separation, reconnecting us with our innate clarity and compassion. And we’ll discover how imagination, when grounded in presence, becomes a superpower—allowing us to envision new possibilities for our lives, our relationships, and our world. These talks include reflections that activate imagination in ways that can heal our hearts, deepen connection with others and help bring forth a more loving, just and awakened world. In this week’s talk (Part 2), Tara explores: How shifting our perceptions through imagination can free us from habitual fear and separation. The power of storytelling to awaken compassion and soften rigid patterns of reactivity. How imagination helps us reconnect with our inner wholeness and sense of possibility. The practice of mindful presence as a gateway to creative and loving awareness. How we can reimagine our identity, releasing limiting beliefs and touching into our true belonging.

“Peace is this moment without judgment,” writes poet Dorothy Hunt, “this moment in the heart-space where everything that is, is welcome.” This meditation is a guide to opening to the truth of what’s here, and meeting it with a gentle, allowing presence. As we do, we can touch the inner peace of non-judging awareness, and source our actions in that balance and wisdom.

This two-talk series explore​s how spiritual imagination can awaken us to our deepest potential for healing and transformation. ​​In times of fear and division, our imagination often contracts, fueling separation and suffering, yet through mindful presence we can reconnect with our basic goodness and the goodness in others. Through inquiry and story, ​w​e can imagine what’s possible—personally and collectively—when we trust in our shared capacity for change, belonging, and wise hope.

This meditation scans through the body – arriving in the foreground with sounds, feelings and sensations, like the surface waves of the sea coming and going. And in the background, experiencing an alert inner stillness – a vast presence from which all activity pours forth.

The ritual of Namaste – bowing to the sacred in ourselves and others – helps us live from the loving awareness that is our true nature. This talk looks at how we suffer because we forget this basic goodness, and explores the pathways of remembering that carry us home. In this talk, Tara explores

When we are lost inside thoughts we lose connection with our heart, aliveness and spirit. This meditation guides us to a wakeful presence and invites us to return over and over from virtual reality into the mysterious, tender vastness that is our true being.

Our suffering arises from fear-based stories that are often outside our awareness. These include stories of our deficiency or importance, of being a victim, of being unseen or unloved, of facing failure or rejection. This is true collectively too. We have shared stories of bad “others” that fuel wars, shared stories of the value of continued growth in consumption and production that destroy our earth, shared stories of our human right to enslave and violate other animals. We have the capacity to bring the stories that separate and imprison us into the light of awareness, and with great compassion, loosen their grip. These two talks look at the ways fear-based stories create suffering, and how awakening from them reveals the freedom of our true, and universal, belonging.

This meditation guides you to arrive fully in embodied presence—awakening through the senses, relaxing into the breath, and gently returning to the aliveness of the here and now. With a nurturing blend of body scan, mindful breathing, and open awareness, you’re guided to soften habitual tension and rest in a spacious, receptive presence. Whether you stay with a primary anchor or open to the changing flow of sensations and sound, this practice offers a refuge in stillness and self-compassion. A beautiful way to ground, reconnect, and simply be.

Our suffering arises from fear-based stories that are often outside our awareness. These include stories of our deficiency or importance, of being a victim, of being unseen or unloved, of facing failure or rejection. This is true collectively too. We have shared stories of bad “others” that fuel wars, shared stories of the value of continued growth in consumption and production that destroy our earth, shared stories of our human right to enslave and violate other animals. We have the capacity to bring the stories that separate and imprison us into the light of awareness, and with great compassion, loosen their grip. These two talks look at the ways fear-based stories create suffering, and how awakening from them reveals the freedom of our true, and universal, belonging. Includes a story from Frank Ostaseki's new book, The Five Invitations - https://fiveinvitations.com/

Perhaps the most universal place to collect and deepen attention is the breath. This meditation begins with an intentional breath that calms the nervous system, and then opens to a clear, intimate presence with our natural breathing. With breath as our home base, we practice returning again and again when the mind becomes distracted. As presence grows, we can let the breath be in the foreground, and include whatever waves of life come and go. This brings a quiet mind, and a peaceful, happy heart.