Meditation: Relaxing Back into Presence (11:35 min.)

Meditation: Relaxing Back into Presence (11:35 min.)

When we are stressed, our body and mind contract, and energetically we resist the life in the present moment. This meditation helps de-condition the stress reaction by guiding us to relax open from thoughts, relax physical tension, and gently relax back over and over...
Intimacy with Life (Part 1)

Intimacy with Life (Part 1)

Zen master Dōgen teaches that enlightenment is intimacy with all things. These two talks explore teachings and practices that cultivate intimacy – a liberating experience of relatedness and oneness with our living world. Listen and watch: Intimacy with Life...
Meditation: Present Heart (14:16 min)

Meditation: Present Heart (14:16 min)

We awaken a present heart by relaxing with the breath, and bringing the kindness of a smile into our bodily experience. This meditation ends with an offering of blessings to our inner life and all beings. Photo: Tara...
Being with Love, Death and Grief: Tara Brach and Frank Ostaseski

Being with Love, Death and Grief: Tara Brach and Frank Ostaseski

Grief is our natural way of expressing loss for what we love, and learning to open to grief serves the deepening and widening of our loving. This event, given at the Upaya Zen Center on June 25, 2023, includes short meditations and talks by Frank and Tara, and...
Meditation: Resting in Breath, Relaxing into Life (21:39 min.)

Meditation: Resting in Breath, Relaxing into Life (21:39 min.)

This meditation invites us to collect our attention with a calming breath, and then with the senses as a home base, settle into presence. The reminders encourage a letting go of thoughts, shifting from virtual reality into the aliveness of moment-to-moment experience....
Meditation – Cultivating a Relaxed Attention (21:28 min)

Meditation – Cultivating a Relaxed Attention (21:28 min)

In this meditation we engage a relaxed and alert attention by scanning through the body, opening to sound, and resting in the awareness that includes all the senses. This presence is stabilized with the use of a home base, for many the breath, and reminders to “relax...
Meditation: Relaxing with Life (20:53 min.)

Meditation: Relaxing with Life (20:53 min.)

This meditation begins with a body scan, and then we practice opening to and relaxing with our changing experience. The sitting closes with a beautiful poem by Danna Faulds, “Just for Now.” Just for now,Be boundless, free,with awakened energy tingling in...
Facing Fear (Part 2) – Awakening Your Fearless Heart

Facing Fear (Part 2) – Awakening Your Fearless Heart

Fear is a natural and universal part of our incarnation, and, when it goes on overdrive, we get imprisoned in the suffering of separation. These two talks explore how the RAIN meditation can help us face fear, and discover the boundless loving awareness that includes...
Meditation: Open-Hearted Presence (22:58 min.)

Meditation: Open-Hearted Presence (22:58 min.)

This meditation establishes a kind attention by bringing the imagery and felt sense of a smile into the body scan and then, with the breath as a home base, opens the attention to changing experience. We end with a brief loving kindness...
Facing Fear (Part 1) – Awakening Your Fearless Heart

Facing Fear (Part 1) – Awakening Your Fearless Heart

Fear is a natural and universal part of our incarnation, and, when it goes on overdrive, we get imprisoned in the suffering of separation. These two talks explore how the RAIN meditation can help us face fear, and discover the boundless loving awareness that includes...
Meditation: Letting Life Live through You (15:53 min)

Meditation: Letting Life Live through You (15:53 min)

This meditation awakens the senses and then guides us into the wakeful openness that includes the whole play of sensations, feelings and sound. We become fully awake and alive as we open to the awareness that allows life to live through us. Photo: Janet...
Releasing the Habits That Imprison Your Spirit – Part 2

Releasing the Habits That Imprison Your Spirit – Part 2

Addictions of all levels of intensity arise from disconnection and are spiking globally. Humans are experiencing epidemic levels of loneliness, and this combined with engineered products and substances that are highly addictive leads to great suffering. In these two...
Releasing the Habits That Imprison Your Spirit – Part 1

Releasing the Habits That Imprison Your Spirit – Part 1

Addictions of all levels of intensity arise from disconnection and are spiking globally. Humans are experiencing epidemic levels of loneliness, and this combined with engineered products and substances that are highly addictive leads to great suffering. In these two...