Tara Brach

While it's natural to try to control our life experience, our chronic controlling cuts us off from presence and obscures the loving awareness that is our essence.  This series of talks explores how we can let go in four key domains of controlling: clinging to thoughts, resisting feelings, holding tight to beliefs and armoring our heart. We look at how egoic controlling manifests individually and as a society; the process of awakening from exclusive identification with a separate ego/self; what it means to die into a larger reality and the similarities of psychedelics and meditation in the process of letting go. The gift of releasing the grip of controlling is true freedom; inhabiting the intrinsic beauty of our beings, and having our lives be an expression of creativity, wisdom and love.   Our introduction music is from "Opening" by Adrienne Torf, © 2025 ABT Music

In this guided meditation, we explore how true peace and happiness arise not from controlling life, but from gently opening to it. When we meet our moment-to-moment experience with tenderness and awareness, the heart naturally softens into ease. This practice begins by awakening presence in the body and senses—feeling the breath, sensations, and sounds as they are. From there, we widen into a spacious, kind awareness that includes the changing flow of thoughts, emotions, and experience. Rather than pushing away or judging what arises, we learn to rest in a welcoming heart. This meditation supports: ✨ Mindfulness and embodied presence  ✨ Emotional healing through non-judgment ✨ Self-compassion and inner peace ✨ Nervous system regulation ✨ Living with greater openness and love We close with a short verse from poet Dorothy Hunt, "Peace Is This Moment Without Judgment," reminding us that freedom is found right here—in allowing life to be just as it is. ________________ Our introduction music is from "Opening" by Adrienne Torf, © 2025 ABT Music Support Tara's Work: If you find value in these talks and wish to support their continuation, please consider making a donation. Your generosity helps us keep these teachings available to all. Visit: https://www.tarabrach.com/donation/ 

While it's natural to try to control our life experience, our chronic controlling cuts us off from presence and obscures the loving awareness that is our essence.  This series of talks explores how we can let go in four key domains of controlling: clinging to thoughts, resisting feelings, holding tight to beliefs and armoring our heart. We look at how egoic controlling manifests individually and as a society; the process of awakening from exclusive identification with a separate ego/self; what it means to die into a larger reality and the similarities of psychedelics and meditation in the process of letting go. The gift of releasing the grip of controlling is true freedom; inhabiting the intrinsic beauty of our beings, and having our lives be an expression of creativity, wisdom and love.   Our introduction music is from "Opening" by Adrienne Torf, © 2025 ABT Music

This meditation begins with a period of relaxing and collecting our attention with intentional long, deep breathing. We then deepen embodied presence, and widen to the awareness that includes sounds, sensations, feelings, breath, and all experience. When the mind drifts from this open, awake awareness, we gently return, re-relaxing and resting in an easeful, alert presence. Recorded at Tara's Wednesday night class, the meditation ends with a sense of melting into community – relaxed and alert.   Our introduction music is from "Opening" by Adrienne Torf, © 2025 ABT Music

What might change if you were three degrees friendlier than you are now? Not more accommodating or self-sacrificing, but authentically friendlier—to your inner life, with others, and in how you meet the world. In this talk, I explore what friendliness actually is, why it so often shuts down under stress, and how small, accessible practices can bring it back online—and, over time, uplevel your friendliness quotient.   As our hearts become more friendly, we become more inwardly free. Our everyday interactions grow more alive, engaging, and surprisingly heart-opening. And finally, friendliness can offer just the kind of global warming we most need in these times.   Our introduction music is from "Opening" by Adrienne Torf, © 2025 ABT Music

This meditation establishes a gentle and caring presence through bringing the image and felt sense of a smile to various domains in the body. We then settle with the breath, and practice relaxing with whatever arises, letting life be just as it is. The underlying intention is to regard all experience with a clear, interested and friendly attention. The gift is a homecoming to our naturally loving presence.   Our introduction music is from "Opening" by Adrienne Torf, © 2025 ABT Music

This meditation awakens a receptive attention to the senses, starting with physical sensations and opening to sound. Then we sense how open awake awareness is receiving the moment to moment arising and passing life. In the final part of the practice, we explore how awake awareness is receiving the experience of our heart and offer blessings to our inner life and all living beings.   Our introduction music is from "Opening" by Adrienne Torf, © 2025 ABT Music

What if hope is not something we cling to—but a capacity we can cultivate? In this talk, we'll explore how hope becomes a healing and liberating force when it is rooted in awareness, trust, and compassionate action. The mature expression of hope includes three interwoven elements: the aspiration to awaken our full potential, a trust in the possibility of that unfolding, and the energy to engage in service to life. We'll also look at why hope matters so deeply on the spiritual path, how it can support emotional healing and resilience, and how to recognize its shadow forms—when hope turns into striving or denial. Through mindful reflection, we discover how to nourish a hope that is spacious, embodied, and aligned with love. This teaching is offered for anyone seeking guidance in staying open-hearted and engaged during uncertain and painful times.   Our introduction music is from "Opening" by Adrienne Torf, © 2025 ABT Music

The mature expression of hope includes three elements: the aspiration for manifesting our full potential, a trust that this is possible, and an energy that engages to serve this unfolding. In this talk, we explore the importance of hope on the spiritual path, its shadow side, and how we can nourish hope through these three elements in a way that serves inner freedom and the healing of our world.    Our introduction music is from "Opening" by Adrienne Torf, © 2025 ABT Music

We cut off from our aliveness when we are lost in thoughts and on auto pilot. This meditation arouses a receptivity to sensation from "the inside out," opens the awareness to sound, and then invites a full resting in receptive, dynamic presence (from the archives).   Our introduction music is from "Opening" by Adrienne Torf, © 2025 ABT Music

In this talk, we'll  explore what it truly means to find refuge—not through controlling life, but by coming home to the living truth of our experience. Our deepest refuge—the source of peace, safety, and freedom—is discovered through direct realization of reality itself. Drawing on the Buddhist understanding of refuge, we explore three timeless and archetypal gateways: • Awareness (Buddha) — the wakeful presence that knows our experience • Truth (Dharma) — the wisdom that liberates us when we see clearly • Love (Sangha) — the tenderness and belonging that arise through connection Through short guided reflections, we practice opening to each of these portals, allowing refuge to become a lived and embodied experience rather than an abstract idea. This talk is especially supportive if you are: Seeking inner peace during times of uncertainty or stress Exploring mindfulness, meditation, or Buddhist teachings Longing for a deeper sense of belonging and spiritual homecoming Interested in awakening compassion and wise awareness in daily life   Our introduction music is from "Opening" by Adrienne Torf, © 2025 ABT Music  

In this guided meditation, Tara Brach invites you to step out of the trance of incessant thinking and return to the living presence of your body, breath, and awareness. As we move through life identified with thought, we can lose touch with the aliveness, vastness, and mystery of Being. This practice offers a gentle pathway to inhabit your energetic form—sensing the vibrancy of life moving through you—while also resting in the boundless, formless stillness that is the source of all experience. This meditation is especially supportive if you're seeking: • Relief from overthinking and mental fatigue • A deeper sense of embodied presence • Connection with stillness, awareness, and source • Mindfulness meditation for inner peace and awakening   Our introduction music is from "Opening" by Adrienne Torf, © 2025 ABT Music

This talk explores how to see past the mask of personality and glimpse the sacred goodness shining through each person we meet. As we become mirrors of this goodness, we help one another trust the divine essence that connects us all.   Our introduction music is from "Opening" by Adrienne Torf, © 2025 ABT Music

This practice guides us to a receptive, kind presence by starting with listening, and moving through a body scan. We then rest in an open awareness, responding to whatever arises with a gentle attention.   Our introduction music is from "Opening" by Adrienne Torf, © 2025 ABT Music

The portal to presence is awakening through the body from the inside out, and then opening to include sound in field of aliveness. This reveals  the awake space that everything's happening in; the space that lets everything be, just as it is. It's in that full allowing that we discover the center of now, that pure still presence that is the very source of our being. The meditation ends with an offering of prayer as that presence is experienced in the domain of the heart.   Our introduction music is from "Opening" by Adrienne Torf, © 2025 ABT Music

While we can't change our past, we have the capacity in this moment to remember our deepest intention and seed the future. Intention can become the compass of our heart, guiding and creating our life experience.   In these two talks we explore how we awaken mindfulness of intention and how, when we are caught in habits that create suffering, we can find our way home to the deep intention that heals and frees us. The two talks include reflections and practices that can bring the power of intention alive in your life.   Our introduction music is from "Opening" by Adrienne Torf, © 2025 ABT Music

While we can't change our past, we have the capacity in this moment to remember our deepest intention and seed the future. Intention can become the compass of our heart, guiding and creating our life experience.   In these two talks we explore how we awaken mindfulness of intention and how, when we are caught in habits that create suffering, we can find our way home to the deep intention that heals and frees us. The two talks include reflections and practices that can bring the power of intention alive in your life.   Our introduction music is from "Opening" by Adrienne Torf, © 2025 ABT Music

In this guided meditation, we explore the power of intention—the quiet inner compass that reconnects us with our sincerity, our longing, and the truth of our own hearts. Through gentle breath awareness, a relaxing full-body scan, and an invitation to listen deeply inward, this practice helps us arrive in presence and remember what truly matters.   Our introduction music is from "Opening" by Adrienne Torf, © 2025 ABT Music

In this week's talk, we explore the heart practice of generosity—a teaching at the very center of the Buddhist path and a medicine so deeply needed in our world.  Together, we reflect on the two patterns that shape our lives: the tightening of grasping—the sense of not enough—and the natural ease that arises when we open our hearts and offer our care. When we become more mindful of giving, even in small and spontaneous ways, we reconnect with our innate goodness and with the love that flows through all of life. And, as we let go of the habits that create separation and reflect on the goodness within and around us, we discover the joy of a generous heart.   Our introduction music is from "Opening" by Adrienne Torf, © 2025 ABT Music

This meditation is adapted from a meditation called "Open Focus." Let whatever comes spontaneously to your awareness to be there as you follow along with the questions, which begin with, "Can you imagine…?" (adapted from Open Focus Meditations led by Les Fehmi, Ph.D.)   Our introduction music is from "Opening" by Adrienne Torf, © 2025 ABT Music