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Tara Brach

In a world where the pace and magnitude of change is beyond anything ever experienced by humans, we are being called to cultivate the qualities of calm, inner balance and a steady, wise heart. These two talks look at the conditioning that fuels our emotional reactivity, and the practices that cultivate equanimity, resilience and a full, openhearted presence. We dedicate to these practices for the sake of our own freedom, and the wellbeing of all beings.

Part 2: A Heart that is Ready for Anything - The Gateway of Equanimity

This meditation calls on the image and felt sense of a smile as we scan through the body, and invites a receptive and caring presence, as we open our attention to the changing flow of life.

Meditation: Cultivating a Gentle, Kind Attention (19:07 min.)

Our habit is to try to manage our experience from a mental control tower. This meditation awakens us through the body, and then invites us to rest in that vast presence that includes the changing flow of life. When we inhabit that openness, there’s a natural arising of peace, wakefulness and tenderness.

Meditation: Receiving Life in Open Awareness (16:06 min)

Drawn from Tara’s book, Radical Compassion (2020), these three talks explore how the RAIN practice (Recognize, Allow, Investigate, Nurture) awakens the active, embodied caring that heals and frees our hearts. Through the framework of this practice, we look at how we can reconnect with the gold of our true nature, navigating life’s challenges with mindfulness and love. 
 

 In Part 3, Tara explores:
 
 • How the RAIN practice fosters compassion and connection by dismantling barriers to belonging.
 • The three primary blocks to compassion: self-centered attention, creating a "bad other," and fear of overwhelm.
 • How "stealth metta" and the mantra "We are friends" can soften our habitual biases and awaken kindness.
 • The transformative power of seeing the "goodness behind the mask" in ourselves and others.
 • The practice of Tonglen - breathing in suffering and breathing out care, to transform pain into a source of strength and connection.

Radical Compassion – Loving Ourselves and Our World into Healing – Part 3

This guided meditation practice brings attention to the continuous space within and around the body, and the aliveness of sound, sensation and feeling that lives through us. While it’s natural for attention to get distracted, the pathway home is a relaxing back into presence – the awake space that is aware of this changing life.

Meditation: Open Awareness – Relaxing Back into Presence (19:20 min)

While meditation is widely practiced in today’s world, many miss the opportunity to tap into its profound potential to awaken the heart and mind. Beyond its surface benefits, meditation can guide us to the radiant light, boundless love, and pure awareness that is our true nature. This reflection explores how we often lose touch with the deeper possibility meditation offers, and guides us in approaching practice and daily life in a way that opens us to the timeless freedom and awakening of a Buddha.
 
In this week’s talk, Tara explores:
 
 • Ways that deepening our meditation practice can help us navigate personal and collective challenges with greater ease.
 • The power of mindful presence to awaken compassion and build resilience in the face of difficulty.
 • Self-compassion as an essential practice for healing and reconnecting with our inner goodness.
 • The transformative role of spiritual community (sangha) in nurturing belonging and shared purpose.
 • How the practices of mindfulness and self-compassion can help us awaken from habitual reactivity and find a greater sense of connectedness and freedom.

The Infinite Game - From Self-Improvement to Spiritual Freedom

Many recognize that love is the antidote to the suffering in our divided world, yet finding the path to an open heart can feel more challenging than ever. This talk explores the full spectrum of love—both tender and open, as well as fierce, protective, and engaged. When we cultivate this courageous love, we are able to hold even those we see as enemies in our hearts. In its true form, this love is not passive or soft. As Martin Luther King Jr. described, it is a powerful soul force, capable of bringing healing and liberation to all beings.
 
In this talk, Tara explores:
 
 • how mindfulness serves as a powerful tool for cultivating compassionate awareness
 • the importance of unarming our heart as a pathway to Radical Acceptance,
 • the deep connection between courage and an awake heart
 • the true connection that arises when we fully arrive in the moment.
 • the power of the “sacred pause”—how presence allows us to open to love in difficult times

Meeting these Times with Courageous Love

This meditation guides us to awaken to our senses through scanning through the body and then listening to sounds. When distracted by thoughts we relax open again and again, learning to rest in the formless awareness that includes sounds, sensations and all passing experience.

Meditation: Living Presence (21:08 min.)

Compassion – the tender resonance of heart – awakens as we allow ourselves to be touched by our shared vulnerability.
 
This series reflects on four primary expressions of an awake, wise heart: lovingkindness, compassion, joy and equanimity. In each talk we explore the habitual patterning that blocks our full realization of these innate capacities, and the understandings and practices that nurture their unfolding.

Compassion - Part 2 of Present Heart: The Universal Expressions of Love

This meditation scans through the body, and awakens attention to the open, inclusive awareness that all life arises in. We then explore experiencing that openness in the region of the heart, saying yes to life and including whatever is here with unconditional presence.

Meditation: The Heartspace Where All is Welcome (18:40 min.)

Meditation: Coming Home with the Breath - Our breath is always available as a pathway back to presence. This simple meditation guides us to relax and awaken in the body, and then establishes the breath as a home base for our attention. Our practice is to notice when the mind becomes distracted, and gently return to our breath and senses. This helps the mind to become increasingly settled, calm and clear. We close with a short heart blessing.

Meditation: Coming Home with the Breath

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