Tara Brach

Desire is intrinsic to all living forms – the urge to exist and flourish. It turns to suffering when, due to unmet needs, it contracts, intensifies and separates us from our full aliveness and awareness. These two talks guide us in awakening from this trance, and discovering how within desire is the longing that can carry us to true belonging.   In this talk, Tara explores: how the “wanting mind” pulls us away from presence and freedom. how unmet needs fuel craving and why substitutes never bring lasting joy. the suffering of identifying with desire and how mindfulness offers release. using the RAIN practice to recognize, allow, and soften the wanting mind. tracing back desire to discover love, belonging, and freedom already here.

This guided meditation invites you to gently come home to the aliveness of the body. Through mindful awareness, you’ll learn to soften tension, release mental agitation, and rest in the simplicity of presence. As you bring a compassionate attention to sensations, you discover a refuge that is always here—an embodied wholeness that allows you to meet life with greater ease and tenderness.

Desire is intrinsic to all living forms – the urge to exist and flourish. It turns to suffering when, due to unmet needs, it contracts, intensifies and separates us from our full aliveness and awareness. These two talks guide us in awakening from this trance, and discovering how within desire is the longing that can carry us to true belonging. In this talk, Tara explores:  - how the “wanting mind” pulls us away from presence and freedom. - how unmet needs fuel craving and why substitutes never bring lasting joy. - the suffering of identifying with desire and how mindfulness offers release. - using the RAIN practice to recognize, allow, and soften the wanting mind. - tracing back desire to discover love, belonging, and freedom already here.

When our hearts open to the life that is here, just as it is, we discover vast loving presence. This meditation engages the smile as we scan through and awaken to our body and senses. Then we practice meeting the changing flow of life with a full allowing, wakeful and open awareness.

In an age of polarization, conspiracy thinking, and deepening mistrust, how can we cultivate a trust that is wise and healing –for our own heart and the world? This talk explores the personal and collective forces that foster mistrust, and through reflection and applied practices, we’ll explore how to nurture a trust in basic goodness and a felt sense of belonging, even in the most divided times.

This brief practice calls on conscious breathing, relaxing, letting go and a touch of lovingkindness to nurture inner balance, harmony and ease. 

As our societies unravel in fear and reactivity, we are called to live from our most awake and wise heart. This talk and meditation was first offered to Satyam, a community of Palestinians, Israelis, and internationals devoted to creating a future of justice, safety, freedom, and dignity for all. It invites us to move beyond the conditioning of “bad-othering,” and to cultivate clarity, compassion, and the capacity to respond in ways that seed healing.   In this talk, Tara explores:  how the trance of “bad othering” fuels division and how compassion can free us from blame. the practice of the U-turn—turning inward with kindness to transform anger, fear, and grief into care. the balance of a “strong back and soft front,” cultivating courage and tenderness in times of violence. how seeing the suffering beneath harmful actions allows us to meet others with wise compassion. how presence, RAIN practice, and shared belonging can guide us toward healing and peace.

Behind the activity of thinking, and the ever-changing flow of sounds, sensations and feelings, there is a great and awake silence that holds all that unfolds. This space of awareness is our formless essence, and learning to open and rest into this alert, knowing vastness has the blessings of homecoming.

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 nat

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: how embodied presence is the gateway to healing, love, and spiritual connection. the four common trances—obsessive thinking, judgment, distraction, and rushing—and how they block presence. how disconnection from the body fuels suffering, while mindful awareness restores empathy and wholeness. practical ways to return to the body throughout daily life and expand our capacity for presence. how slowing down, reconnecting with nature, and sensing the body open us to the sacred mystery of life.

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 as a spiritual path that heals wounds and deepens connection with ourselves and others. how to quiet the “dense forest” of thoughts to meet others with presence and care. practical ways to stay present—using anchors, pauses, and self-coaching in conversat

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 an

“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.