Audio Teaching Talks:
Library 2009
The talks below are freely available. All files are in .mp3 format - you can play them on your computer, iPod, or other .mp3 player. To download, right-click (or Control-click on the Mac) and select "Save As" or "Save Target As."
All talks below occurred Wednesday nights at River Road Unitarian Universalist Congregation, Bethesda, MD at 7:30pm.
| Date | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 12/16/2009 | Meditation | 18:31 |
| Awakening from the Trance of Separation - 2009 Solstice Celebration This talk explores both our perception and feelings of separation, and the capacity, through a wise attention, to move from judgment and reactivity to the full flowering of love. Also, hear La Sarmiento sing, "Yogi in Black" with Kristin on guitar |
56:33 | |
| 12/09/2009 | Meditation | 25:38 |
| Longing to Belong Spiritual practice reveals our belonging through bringing presence to three gateways: the aliveness of the present moment, loving relatedness, and the openness and lucidity of awareness itself. This talk includes guided meditations in exploring each gateway. Note: poem, "She Dreamed of Cows" is by Norah Pollard. |
54:28 | |
| 12/02/2009 | No class this evening. The chuch had to get ready for its annual bazaar. See you next week. There will also be no class on 12/23 and 12/30. Have good holidays and safe travels! |
|
| 11/25/2009 | Meditation | 24:53 |
| Gratitude and Generosity While we value gratitude and generosity, our daily life can often have an undercurrent of complaint and an anxious kind of self-centeredness. This Thanksgiving Eve talk explores teachings and practices that reconnect us with the sense of wonder and abundance that characterizes our own awakened heart. |
51:17 | |
| 11/18/2009 | Meditation | 26:20 |
| Refuge in Loving Presence There are times when there is so much fear and reactivity, that the first step in moving toward freedom is to connect with some sense of safety and love. This talk explores how an inner pathway to loving presence can support us in facing and awakening through traumatic wounding. |
52:56 | |
| 11/11/2009 | Meditation | 26:27 |
| Choosing Presence Spiritual awakening is energized by conscious intention. This talk explores how we get waylaid by habitual wants and fears, and the ways we can connect with the power and purity of our deep aspiration for love, truth and freedom. |
52:54 | |
| 11/04/2009 | Meditation | 24:00 |
| Intimacy with Life Zen mast Dogen taught that "...to study the Buddhist way is to be Intimate with all Things." This talk reviews the often unconscious ways that we habitually block intimacy and two trainings of attention that foster a natural sense of belonging to this living world and to timeless presence. |
1:00:03 | |
| 10/21/2009 | Behind the Mask 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. |
49:00 |
| 10/14/2009 | Question and Response Tara responds to questions from the audience on applying Buddhist practices to our lives. |
58:09 |
| 10/07/2009 | Skeleton Woman 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. |
45:56 |
| 09/30/2009 | Two Wings of a Liberating Attention 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. |
49:46 |
| 09/23/2009 | Wise Effort and Spiritual Freedom 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. |
51:12 |
| 09/16/2009 | Embracing the Unlived Life 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. |
43:56 |
| 09/09/2009 | Meditation | 23:03 |
| From Story to Presence A fundamental skill cultivated through meditation is awakening from our stories and arriving back in the aliveness of the moment. If we investigate, we find that a large portion of our stories create physical and emotional stress, separate us from others, and obscure the truth of who we are. In this talk you are invited to identify several of your "top ten hits", explore how these stories live in your body, and reconnect with living presence. |
43:50 | |
| 09/02/2009 | The Grounds of Living Compassion 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. |
53:04 |
| 08/26/2009 | Meditation | 22:28 |
| Genuine Acceptance 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. |
47:17 | |
| 08/19/2009 | Meditation | 24:35 |
| Enchantment and Freedom 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. |
55:55 | |
| 08/12/2009 | Meditation | 25:46 |
| Happiness 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. (Note: Judy Brown's poem, "Fire," can be found at: http://www.judysorumbrown.com/resources/poems.html) |
44:49 | |
| 08/05/2009 | Meditation | 24:40 |
| Let Everything Happen to You 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. |
50:59 | |
| 07/08/2009 | Meditation - Resting in Awareness - (enjoy the meditation before the talk, if you have time!) | 29:18 |
| Part 4 - Wise
Practice - Taking Refuge in Awareness 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. |
46:37 | |
| 07/01/2009 | Meditation | 25:01 |
| Part 3 - Wise
Practice - The Heart of Buddhism 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. |
49:18 | |
| 06/24/2009 | Meditation | 23:20 |
| Part 2 - Wise
Practice 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. |
54:41 | |
| 06/17/2009 | Meditation | 27:39 |
| Part 1 - Wise Practice 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. |
48:11 | |
| 06/10/2009 | Meditation | 24:21 |
| Don't Know Mind 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. |
50:11 | |
| 06/03/2009 | Meditation (enjoy the sounds of the intense rainstorm that ran through Bethesda that evening!) | 25:55 |
| The Attitude that Perpetuates Suffering 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. |
44:51 | |
| 05/27/2009 | Meditation | 24:21 |
| Celebrating Vesak: Oh Nobly Born 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. |
48:09 | |
| 05/20/2009 | Three Gifts That Serve Freedom - 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. | 56:48 |
| 05/13/2009 | Meditation | 21:20 |
Tara Brach and Jack Kornfield: An Evening of Questions and Responses |
1:01:05 | |
| 05/05/2009 | Freedom from Trance - (This talk given at the IMCW Spring Retreat at Sevenoaks, VA.) We live in the story of being a separate entity, and often, with the felt sense that something is wrong. This talk investigates the genesis of this trance, and the awakening that is possible when our thoughts, feelings and sense of presence itself are recognized by awareness. |
57:55 |
| 04/29/2009 | Meditation | 25:54 |
| Wise Investigation 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. |
45:50 | |
| 04/22/2009 | Meditation | 25:20 |
| Intention and Spiritual Freedom - Part 2 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. |
52:06 | |
| 04/15/2009 | Meditation | 26:09 |
| Intention and Spiritual Freedom - Part 1 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. |
55:59 | |
| 04/08/2009 | Meditation (Note: Due to technical difficulties in recording, the first 10 minutes is missing, but the mockingbird in the background and the remaining meditation is very worthy of a listen. Metta from the editor.) | 18:57 |
| Downwind from Flowers 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. |
55:16 | |
| 04/01/2009 | Meditation | 26:49 |
| Awakening Through Conflict 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. |
53:55 | |
| 03/25/2009 | Meditation | 26:07 |
| Part 2 - The Body as a Gateway to Full Presence 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. |
54:28 | |
| 03/18/2009 | Meditation | 28:32 |
| Part 1 - The Body as a Gateway to Full Presence 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. |
49:28 | |
| 03/11/2009 | Meditation | 27:42 |
| Without Anxiety About Imperfection 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. |
49:28 | |
| 03/04/2009 | Meditation | 26:14 |
| Divine Abodes - Equanimity 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. |
49:28 | |
| 02/25/2009 | Meditation | 24:59 |
| Divine Abodes - Joy 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. |
53:40 | |
| 02/18/2009 | Meditation | 24:36 |
| Divine Abodes - Compassion 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. |
53:14 | |
| 02/11/2009 | Meditation | 23:26 |
| Divine Abodes - Lovingkindness 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. "DASI: Prayers by Women" - CD is available at www.karnamrita.com. You hear her beautiful chanting at the end of this talk. Chanting with Karnamrita Dasi that is at the end of this talk. |
57:02 | |
| 02/04/2009 | Meditation | 27:20 |
| Freedom In the Midst of Fear - Part II 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 II of this talk we explore a range of pathways for cultivating a healing and freeing presence in the midst of fear. |
52:09 | |
| 01/28/2009 | Meditation | 23:42 |
| Freedom In the Midst of Fear - Part I 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. |
47:32 | |