In this session of Awareness in Action, spiritual teacher, psychologist, and author Tara Brach begins by acknowledging the profound pressures in our society and the importance of building solidarity in these times. She frames her exploration around the question of what it means to “keep choosing love.” Drawing on Father Gregory Boyle’s work with LA gangs, Tara highlights two unwavering principles of his healing community: “everyone is unshakably good, no exceptions,” and “we belong to each other, no exceptions.” She examines how “bad othering”—reducing someone to an enemy or threat—creates a trance in which we lose sight of basic humanity and belonging. As she puts it, “Humans are not the enemy. It’s the suffering from delusion, fear, and hatred that takes over and possesses us.” She also quotes Thich Nhat Hanh’s insight: “This, my dear, is the greatest challenge to being alive: to witness injustice in the world, cruelty, violence, and not allow it to consume our light.”

Tara invites participants into practices such as “the U-turn” and RAIN (Recognize, Allow, Investigate, Nurture), pausing to examine what’s happening inside us beneath our reactions and opening us to genuine understanding and resolution. By reconnecting with our own vulnerability and what we truly care about, she suggests that we can begin to perceive the vulnerability in others and ask, “What is love asking of us now?”

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