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Tara Brach

Tara Brach, Ph.D is an internationally known meditation teacher and author of bestselling Radical Acceptance and True Refuge. Tara shares a weekly guided meditation and talk that blend Western psychology and Eastern spiritual practices. The podcast addresses the value of mindfulness meditation and self-compassion in relieving emotional suffering, serving spiritual awakening and bringing healing to our world.

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48 episodes
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English

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Friday · 55 min
Your Future Self Turning Towards Your Awakened Heart-Mind
In this talk, Tara Brach explores how we can awaken to our deepest potential by connecting with our future self—the wise, loving, and compassionate awareness that is already within us. While our habitual patterns of fear, judgment, and self-protection can keep us feeling separate or limited, there is also a natural longing to live more fully, with an open heart and a sense of inner freedom. Through stories, reflections, and the practice of RAIN, Tara illuminates how mindfulness and self-compassion help us recognize the protective patterns that obscure our true nature. She guides us in a meditation of calling on our future self, inviting us to listen to the wisdom of our awakened heart and meet our vulnerabilities with tenderness rather than judgment. As we learn to trust this loving presence, we discover the possibility of responding to life's challenges with greater clarity, kindness, and connection—and living more fully from the love that is already here. Some of the key themes include: ✨ Our evolutionary potential – How we can move beyond habitual reactions and reconnect with the wisdom and love of our awakened heart. ✨ The protective patterns that keep us stuck – Recognizing the fear, defensiveness, and self-judgment that obscure our true nature. ✨ RAIN and the healing power of compassion – Bringing mindful awareness and tenderness to the vulnerable places within us. ✨ Calling on our future self – A guided reflection for accessing our wisest, most loving perspective and bringing that presence into everyday life. ✨ Living from our awakened heart – Learning to trust our inner wisdom, deepen connection, and recognize the goodness in ourselves and others. Our introduction music is from "Opening" by Adrienne Torf, © 2025 ABT Music
Thursday · 20 min
Meditation: Vipassana - Insight or Mindfulness (20:44 min)
In this guided meditation, Tara Brach invites us into the practice of Vipassana, or insight meditation, gently awakening to the present moment through mindful awareness of the body, breath, thoughts, and emotions. With a soft and receptive attention, we learn to relax into the aliveness of our experience and discover the possibility of being fully here, just as we are. As Tara guides us in using the breath as a home base, we practice recognizing when the mind wanders and returning with kindness, without judgment or resistance. When strong sensations or emotions arise, we learn to open our attention, allowing life to unfold and change naturally. This meditation offers a gentle pathway to greater presence, inner ease, and loving awareness, closing with a blessing of kindness for ourselves and the world around us. Our introduction music is from "Opening" by Adrienne Torf, © 2025 ABT Music
October 30 · 1 hr 5 min
The Wings of Awakening – Self-Honesty & Love
When we struggle with fear, shame, or feelings of unworthiness, we often add another layer of suffering by judging ourselves for what we feel. These deeply conditioned patterns of self-criticism can keep us caught in a trance of separation, unable to recognize the goodness and love that are already here. I n this talk, Tara Brach explores the two wings of awakening: the courage to see our experience with radical honesty and the tenderness to hold what we discover with love. Drawing on Buddhist wisdom, mindfulness, and the RAIN practice, she guides us in meeting difficult emotions, softening self-judgment, and bringing compassion to the vulnerable places within us. Through moving stories and practical reflections, Tara reveals how self-honesty and self-compassion work together to free us from limiting beliefs and habitual reactivity. As we learn to embrace our own suffering with greater kindness, we become more available to the suffering of others, opening the way to forgiveness, deeper connection, and healing. This path of awakening invites us to move beyond the belief that something is wrong with us and discover the freedom of living with an open, loving heart. Our introduction music is from "Opening" by Adrienne Torf, © 2025 ABT Music
October 29 · 18 min
Meditation: Arriving in Open Presence (18:24 min)
In this guided meditation, Tara Brach invites us to settle into the stillness of the present moment and rediscover the open, awake awareness that is always here. Through gentle attention to the breath, body, and heart, we begin to soften, release tension, and experience a deeper sense of ease and belonging. Our minds naturally wander into thoughts about the past or future, often carrying us away from the aliveness of this moment. Rather than struggling to quiet the mind, this mindfulness practice encourages us to return with kindness and curiosity, allowing sounds, sensations, and feelings to arise and pass within the spaciousness of awareness. Tara guides us through a gentle body scan, mindful breathing, and an expanding awareness that includes the whole body and the world around us. The meditation closes with a loving-kindness practice, extending compassion and wishes for peace to ourselves and all beings. As we learn to arrive again and again with gentleness, we discover a quiet inner stillness—a loving presence that can become a trusted refuge amid the changing experiences of life. 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/ Stay connected to Tara: ▪️Website: tarabrach.com ▪️YouTube: /@tarabrach ▪️Facebook: /tarabrach ▪️Instagram: @tarabrach ▪️Threads: @tarabrach
October 23 · 1 hr
Cultivating a Courageous Heart - Part 2
How do we keep our hearts open when our world is filled with fear, anger, uncertainty and division? Tara continues our exploration of how mindfulness and compassion can help us meet difficult times without becoming imprisoned by reactivity. Courage, at its deepest, is a greatness of heart—the willingness to stay present with vulnerability and respond to life from wisdom and love. When we encounter violence, suffering or injustice, anger and fear are natural. Yet the pathway toward genuine compassion is not to bypass these feelings or force ourselves to forgive. It begins by courageously turning toward what is underneath our reactivity—the fear, hurt and vulnerability asking for our attention. We'll look at the powerful practice of cultivating a "strong back and soft front": grounding ourselves in belonging, strength and presence while remaining open to the tenderness of our own hearts. When we can stay with vulnerability rather than defend against it, it becomes a doorway to compassion and a wiser response to our lives and our world. In this talk: • Cultivating courage in uncertain and challenging times • Working mindfully with fear, anger and reactivity • Discovering the vulnerability beneath anger and blame • Practicing a "strong back and soft front" • Transforming vulnerability into compassion, wisdom and love Our world needs hearts that are both strong and tender. The invitation is to discover how meeting what is difficult with courageous presence can become a pathway to healing.
October 22 · 19 min
Meditation: Calling on Loving Presence (19:05 min.)
In this guided meditation, Tara Brach invites us to discover the healing power of calling on loving presence—a practice of taking refuge in compassion, opening to our deepest longings, and remembering the love that is always here. When we feel afraid, vulnerable, or separate, we often try to manage our pain on our own. Yet there is another possibility: to gently turn toward what hurts, listen to what our hearts most deeply need, and open ourselves to receiving love. Through mindful awareness and imagination, Tara guides us in connecting with a source of unconditional love—whether through a spiritual presence, a beloved person, nature, or a felt sense of compassion. As we soften into this loving presence, we discover that what once seemed outside of us may already be here, within and around us. This meditation offers a tender pathway from fear to trust, from longing to belonging, and from separation to the healing refuge of love. Our introduction music is from "Opening" by Adrienne Torf, © 2025 ABT Music
October 15 · 49 min
Cultivating a Courageous Heart – Part 1
How do we keep our hearts open when our world is filled with fear, anger, uncertainty and division? In Part 1 of Cultivating a Courageous Heart, we explore how mindfulness and compassion can help us meet difficult times without becoming imprisoned by reactivity. Courage, at its deepest, is a greatness of heart—the willingness to stay present with vulnerability and respond to life from wisdom and love. When we encounter violence, suffering or injustice, anger and fear are natural. Yet the pathway toward genuine compassion is not to bypass these feelings or force ourselves to forgive. It begins by courageously turning toward what is underneath our reactivity—the fear, hurt and vulnerability asking for our attention. We'll look at the powerful practice of cultivating a "strong back and soft front": grounding ourselves in belonging, strength and presence while remaining open to the tenderness of our own hearts. When we can stay with vulnerability rather than defend against it, it becomes a doorway to compassion and a wiser response to our lives and our world. In this talk: • Cultivating courage in uncertain and challenging times • Working mindfully with fear, anger and reactivity • Discovering the vulnerability beneath anger and blame • Practicing a "strong back and soft front" • Transforming vulnerability into compassion, wisdom and love Our world needs hearts that are both strong and tender. The invitation is to discover how meeting what is difficult with courageous presence can become a pathway to healing. Our introduction music is from "Opening" by Adrienne Torf, © 2025 ABT Music
October 14 · 20 min
Meditation: Everything Belongs (20:31 min.)
In this guided meditation, we explore the freedom that comes from allowing our experience to be just as it is. Beginning with the breath and a gentle body scan, we soften habitual tension and awaken to the aliveness within and around us. As the practice deepens, we sense thoughts, emotions and physical sensations as waves moving through a larger sea of awareness. When fear, sadness, anger or discomfort arises, rather than pushing it away, we practice making room—remembering that this, too, belongs. This meditation offers a pathway to greater presence, self-compassion and emotional resilience. By learning to rest as the ocean rather than becoming lost in the waves, we discover the spaciousness and tenderness that can hold the whole of our lives. In this meditation: • Mindfulness of breath and body • Releasing physical tension • Working with difficult emotions • Allowing thoughts and sensations to come and go • Cultivating acceptance and self-compassion • Resting in the spaciousness of presence Our introduction music is from "Opening" by Adrienne Torf, © 2025 ABT Music
October 8 · 57 min
The Healing Power of Imagination: Transform Yourself and the World, Part 2
What becomes possible when we learn to imagine from presence rather than fear? In Part 2 of this series, Tara explores spiritual imagination as a powerful capacity for healing, transformation and awakening. When we are caught in stress, fear or limiting beliefs, our imagination contracts and reinforces a world of separation. Yet when grounded in mindful presence, imagination can open us to new possibilities—to our basic goodness, our capacity to change and our potential to create a more loving world. Through teachings, stories and guided reflections, Tara explores how mindfulness, prayer and imagination can help us loosen the grip of old narratives, heal self-judgment and envision new ways of relating to ourselves and others. We discover how learning to trust what is deepest in us can bring wise hope, resilience and greater freedom to our lives. Ultimately, spiritual imagination invites us to sense beyond who we have believed ourselves to be and begin living from the love, awareness and goodness that are already here. In this talk, Tara explores: ✨ Spiritual imagination as a pathway to healing and transformation ✨ Moving from fear-based thinking toward possibility and wise hope ✨ Trusting our basic goodness ✨ Using mindfulness and prayer to awaken imagination ✨ Healing limiting beliefs and self-judgment ✨ Imagining more loving relationships and a more compassionate world Our introduction music is from "Opening" by Adrienne Torf, © 2025 ABT Music
October 7 · 20 min
Meditation: Alert Inner Stillness (20:34 Min.)
Behind the changing sounds, sensations, feelings and thoughts is an alert inner stillness that is purely aware. This meditation begins with accessing the receptivity of a smile, awakening through the body and opening the senses. We then sense the background of awareness and relax back to inhabit that wholeness. When the mind is distracted, the pathway home is a relaxing back, and the essential practice is non-doing, allowing life to be just as it is. Our introduction music is from "Opening" by Adrienne Torf, © 2025 ABT Music
September 30 · 1 hr 6 min
The Healing Power of Imagination: Transform Yourself and the World, Part 1
What becomes possible when we learn to imagine from presence rather than fear? In Part 1 of this series, Tara explores spiritual imagination as a powerful capacity for healing, transformation and awakening. When we are caught in stress, fear or limiting beliefs, our imagination contracts and reinforces a world of separation. Yet when grounded in mindful presence, imagination can open us to new possibilities—to our basic goodness, our capacity to change and our potential to create a more loving world. Through teachings, stories and guided reflections, Tara explores how mindfulness, prayer and imagination can help us loosen the grip of old narratives, heal self-judgment and envision new ways of relating to ourselves and others. We discover how learning to trust what is deepest in us can bring wise hope, resilience and greater freedom to our lives. Ultimately, spiritual imagination invites us to sense beyond who we have believed ourselves to be and begin living from the love, awareness and goodness that are already here. In this talk, Tara explores: ✨ Spiritual imagination as a pathway to healing and transformation ✨ Moving from fear-based thinking toward possibility and wise hope ✨ Trusting our basic goodness ✨ Using mindfulness and prayer to awaken imagination ✨ Healing limiting beliefs and self-judgment ✨ Imagining more loving relationships and a more compassionate world Our introduction music is from "Opening" by Adrienne Torf, © 2025 ABT Music
September 30 · 20 min
Meditation: Embodied Metta (20:07 min.)
In this guided meditation, Tara Brach invites us into an embodied practice of metta—loving-kindness—awakening a felt sense of openness, warmth and care throughout the body. Beginning with the image of a smile, we soften the eyes, face, throat, heart and body, allowing this spirit of friendliness to gradually permeate our whole being. As we deepen into presence, we learn to bring this same loving attention to places that feel wounded, blocked or in need of healing. This meditation offers a simple and nourishing pathway back to an embodied, kind presence—a way of meeting whatever is here with greater space, tenderness and acceptance. We close by resting in the shared field of loving awareness and offering the prayer that all beings everywhere may be held in loving-kindness and live from an awake and loving heart. This practice is especially supportive for cultivating self-compassion, metta, mindfulness, emotional healing, nervous system relaxation and a more loving relationship with ourselves and our lives. Our introduction music is from "Opening" by Adrienne Torf, © 2025 ABT Music
September 24 · 1 hr 5 min
Pathways to Trusting the Gold
What would it mean to truly trust the goodness that lives within you? In this talk, Tara Brach explores what she calls "trusting the gold"—awakening from the stories of deficiency, fear and separation that keep us from recognizing our deepest nature. We may spend much of our lives trying to improve ourselves, earn approval or finally become "enough," while overlooking the loving awareness that is already here. Tara explores how our early experiences of nurturing and belonging shape our capacity to trust ourselves, and how mindfulness and compassion can help heal the places that feel unworthy, unsafe or unloved. Through the practice of RAIN and what she describes as a "U-turn," we learn to step out of familiar stories, turn toward our vulnerability with care, and discover the wakeful presence beneath them. Ultimately, trusting the gold means learning to recognize and rest in the awareness, goodness and love that are intrinsic to who we are. In this talk, Tara explores: - Awakening from the trance of unworthiness - How early conditioning shapes self-trust - RAIN, self-compassion and "spiritual reparenting" - Moving beyond limiting stories and beliefs- Recognizing our intrinsic goodness - Resting in loving awareness and true nature Our introduction music is from "Opening" by Adrienne Torf, © 2025 ABT Music
September 23 · 23 min
Meditation: Resting in Reality (24 min)
In this guided meditation, Tara Brach invites us to relax out of the thinking mind and return to the living presence of the moment. Through a gentle body scan, awareness of breath, sound and sensation, we begin to sense the aliveness that is always here—and to rest more fully in reality. As the mind naturally wanders into thought, we practice letting go and opening again to the changing river of experience. Whatever arises—ease or discomfort, sorrow, fear or peace—can be met with kindness and allowed to belong. This meditation offers a pathway to embodied presence, inner stillness and the natural awareness that holds all of life. It closes with a loving-kindness prayer for our own well-being and for the peace and freedom of all beings. This meditation can support: Mindfulness and present-moment awareness Relaxing the body and quieting the mind Meeting difficult emotions with kindness Deepening embodied awareness Cultivating loving-kindness and inner peace Our introduction music is from "Opening" by Adrienne Torf, © 2025 ABT Music
September 17 · 1 hr 7 min
The Wise Heart of Radical Acceptance
What would your life be like if you were no longer at war with your imperfections? In this talk, Tara explores Radical Acceptance as a pathway out of self-judgment, shame and the trance of unworthiness. Rather than believing that acceptance will keep us from changing, we discover the opposite: when we stop making ourselves wrong for what we feel and who we are, we create the conditions for genuine healing and transformation. Through stories, reflection and the practice of RAIN, Tara explores how we can meet our imperfect, conditioned selves with honesty and compassion while remembering the deeper goodness that is our true nature. Radical Acceptance doesn't mean becoming passive or ignoring harmful patterns—it allows us to respond to ourselves, others and our world from greater wisdom, clarity and love. In this talk: ✨ Making peace with our imperfections ✨ Healing self-judgment and the trance of unworthiness ✨ Understanding Radical Acceptance as a path to change ✨ Using RAIN to meet shame, anger and difficult emotions ✨ Remembering and trusting our basic goodness Our introduction music is from "Opening" by Adrienne Torf, © 2025 ABT Music
September 17 · 20 min
Meditation: Aware and Alive (20 min.)
Just as a cup is full with water, this body is filled with awareness. As we sense the awareness inside the body, and the awareness that listens to sounds beyond the body, we discover the continuous space of awareness that includes, and gives rise to this entire creation. Opening in this way allows for homecoming to wholeness and freedom. Our introduction music is from "Opening" by Adrienne Torf, © 2025 ABT Music
September 10 · 26 min
Ask Me Anything, Part 3: Tara Answers Questions on Forgiveness, Injustice & Compassionate Parenting
How do we keep our hearts open when we've been deeply hurt? How do we respond to injustice without becoming consumed by anger? And how can we love without trying to control or change another? In this final installment of the Ask Me Anything series, Tara responds to questions about some of the most challenging places on our spiritual path. She explores how tending our own wounds can open the way to forgiveness, how we can stay awake to the suffering of our world without losing touch with joy, and how meeting the fear and grief beneath anger can reconnect us with compassion. Whether we are facing injustice, conflict or struggles with those we love, the invitation is to act with clarity while remembering our shared humanity—and to trust the healing power of seeing the goodness in one another. In this talk, Tara explores: ✨ Navigating forgiveness after deep hurt ✨ Finding joy amid suffering and injustice ✨ Keeping a soft heart in difficult times ✨ Moving beyond anger and othering ✨ Parenting with compassion rather than judgment Our introduction music is from "Opening" by Adrienne Torf, © 2025 ABT Music
September 9 · 20 min
Meditation: Inner Refuge of Calm (20:25 min.)
In this guided meditation, we explore the possibility of finding an inner refuge of calm—a presence that can hold whatever is moving through our lives. Beginning with the breath, we gradually soften tension through the body and settle into a relaxed, awake presence. As thoughts, emotions or physical discomfort arise, the invitation is not to resist or control our experience, but to acknowledge what is here and allow each wave to come and go. Like the depth of the ocean that remains present beneath the movement of the surface, we can discover an inner stillness spacious enough to include the changing currents of life. Each time we notice that the mind has wandered and return to the immediacy of breath, body and sound, we deepen the pathway home. This meditation offers practices for relaxation, mindfulness, emotional regulation and returning to presence in times of stress or uncertainty. We close by resting in this inner refuge and offering a prayer or blessing to ourselves and our world. Our introduction music is from "Opening" by Adrienne Torf, © 2025 ABT Music
September 3 · 48 min
Ask Me Anything: Questions & Responses with Tara - Part II
How do we return to presence when we're overwhelmed? How do we heal the trance of unworthiness, navigate difficult relationships, set healthy boundaries—and find compassion without abandoning ourselves? In Part 2 of this Ask Me Anything series, Tara responds to questions from listeners about some of the most tender and challenging places in our lives. Together, we explore practical ways to come home to presence when emotions take over, how RAIN and self-compassion can help loosen deeply conditioned patterns, and how community and small moments of mindfulness can support us when life feels like too much. We also look closely at relationships: what happens when someone we love is struggling and we cannot change them; how inner healing can transform the way we relate to a partner; and how we might meet betrayal, hurt and conflict with wisdom and care. A central theme is the practice of a "strong back and soft front"—learning to set clear, courageous boundaries while keeping our hearts open. Compassion does not mean allowing harm, bypassing our wounds or forgiving before we are ready. Sometimes love asks us to protect ourselves, create distance and allow accountability. From that ground of safety and truth, genuine healing and compassion can unfold. We close with a guided reflection for bringing mindful awareness to conflict, tending our own vulnerability and listening inwardly for what love is asking of us. In this talk: • Returning to presence during overwhelm • RAIN and the trance of unworthiness • Self-compassion and emotional healing • Mindfulness in difficult relationships • Healing after betrayal • Healthy boundaries and clear communication • "Strong back, soft front" • Compassion without enabling harm • Forgiveness, safety and accountability • Working skillfully with conflict and reactivity Our introduction music is from "Opening" by Adrienne Torf, © 2025 ABT Music
September 2 · 20 min
Meditation: Basic Body Scan (20 min.)
In this guided body scan meditation, we explore a simple and nourishing pathway into presence—awakening awareness through the living sensations of the body. Beginning with a gentle softening of the eyes, face and shoulders, we gradually move awareness through the hands, heart, belly, legs and feet, sensing the aliveness that is already here. As the meditation unfolds, we widen our attention to experience the whole body as a field of sensation, allowing the breath and this moment to be just as they are. When the mind wanders, we practice simply relaxing back into presence—again and again choosing a relaxed, receptive attentiveness. We close by bringing kindness to our own being and allowing that care to widen outward toward all beings. This meditation can support relaxation, embodied awareness, mindfulness, nervous system settling and a deeper sense of presence in daily life. Our introduction music is from "Opening" by Adrienne Torf, © 2025 ABT Music

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