— Sounds True Presents —
April 26 to May 5, 2021
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DAY TEN
will be available Wednesday, May 5.
"Loving Ourselves into Healing"
Our teaching session and guided meditation for Day Ten focus on seeing the truth of our shared vulnerability and essential goodness, and cultivating reverence for all of life.
Continue offering your kindness and compassion in service to a world that needs it! Please share your experience with our Facebook community.
How do we open our hearts wide enough to include those we fear or distrust? When we feel inspired to take action to address injustice, how do we determine the first step—and how do we avoid the trap of “becoming what we’re fighting”? These are some of the tough questions Tara Brach and Van Jones discuss in “Bridging the Divides That Separate Us.”
Session highlights:
- Finding our common purpose in the struggle against addiction and poverty
- Why activism must be grounded in compassion to be effective
- How we grow stronger through perseverance in the face of ongoing adversity
- Bringing healing and harmony to our political system
Van Jones, host of The Van Jones Show on CNN, is past president and cofounder of the nonprofit Dream Corps, which houses the following initiatives: #cut50, #YesWeCode, Green for All, and #LoveArmy. Van has led a number of other justice enterprises, including the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights and Color of Change. A Yale-educated attorney, Van has written three New York Times bestsellers, including his most recent book, Beyond the Messy Truth: How We Came Apart, How We Come Together. Van has earned many honors, such as the World Economic Forum’s "Young Global Leader" designation, Rolling Stone’s "12 Leaders Who Get Things Done," Fast Company's "12 Most Creative Minds on Earth," and Time’s "100 Most Influential People in the World." He is a political commentator for CNN and a regular guest on political talk shows.
- What are some opposing viewpoints you could learn more about?
- Can you identify where the common ground may be found?
- When have you needed to create what Van calls a “common ground agenda”?
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Thank you! You are the finest person I’ve ever heard speak.! Can we clone you?
If only more of us could think the way you do, what a pleasant place this world would be.
Thank you, Tara, for the remarkable experience of this challenge. I’ve gained so much from it. And thanks for introducing me to Van Jones and others. It’s all been very special.
What a beautiful invitation to find common ground. You have reminded me that there have been times in the past when I sought that and was rewarded with grace. I think i have become discouraged by the chatter. I will get back to it! Thanks. Anne
There’s alot to think about here…sometimes I see the system dismantling and a cleaner more honest system evolve. I like the way you speak to both sides and listen. I like that you address the pain first and commit to finding ways to win over and work together. Stop the fight and start the dance.
Well, I am in awe of these 10 days, and can say that my heart has opened in ways I would not have expected. I sense because there actually is a knowing within, that this is the only way to move onward and upward, and it depends on how much of the old narrative we are finally willing to release, – and to reach for a harmonious, unfettered and surrendered place of acceptance that we are more than we have thought we are. Deep gratitude for the integrity of this final conversation with Van Jones, – which sums up the wholeness of Tara’s inquiry into our evolutionary ethos.
thank you so much! together we can do more
love love love
Thank you. To all for allowing us to listen and hear and be together.-all; listening or not listening.
That was extraordinary and just what I needed to hear on the week that my country leave the EU. I don’t understand why people voted as they did, but my compassion towards them has grown and I can see light at the end of the tunnel.
Ouch! Robert Kraft is on Van’s Reform Alliance web site. He’s a founding partner. This is the human condition Van speaks to so eloquently.
My garden is so small (chronically ill and depressed) that my sweep consists of noticing when the contacts in my phone change their profile pics and complimenting them with it.
Stretch out your hand and we will hold it as we walk each other home in love, peace and understanding . You are not alone. I feel you.
I went through a period where I felt the best I could do was to let someone into traffic or pick up one piece of trash in the parking lot. Don’t think it might not be enough. Your recognition of a new picture might be exactly what this person needed to feel seen and of value.
Dear Adie,
What helped me recently with a 16 day hospital & 19 day rehab stay was listening to various singers versions of the song”Gracias a la vida” on YouTube.
So beautiful in Spanish or English & with such a history of being sung by
those interested in civil
rights south of the border &
timely now collectively &
Individually all over the world.
I am so glad you were able
to join all of us in these 10
Days of self & other compassion.
May you rest in well-being &
healing.
Jane🌹
Dear Tara, I continue to feel so very grateful and blessed by you and your teachings and I will continue to follow you and them. My great appreciation for this training and for all your guests. In terms of today’s comment, Van, you are such an important force in this world at this time. “Building not burning bridges is the way to others. You are helping us to build. As an activist myself, thank you for sharing how you found your way from burning to building bridges. I am helped and healed by you.
I find that just doing the RAIN process in myself around people with whom I struggle politically, racially or otherwise not only transforms my attitudes but magically seems to transform them!
Thank you so much for this interview. Van Jones gives me hope that healing in our Country is possible with more compassion for all people and issues. His comment on a bird not flying with just one wing was perfect. Thank you.
The Van Jones conversation capped 10 days of wonder.
I hope this experience — which has been so moving and helpful for me — will be made freely available so I can share it widely with family, friends and colleagues who will absolutely benefit from it as I have and will then be able to help make the world better with more open, compassionate hearts.
So grateful for Tara and the entire team.
Bob
Washington, D.C.
Here! Here! I have the same need to share this whole program. Tara, please make it available without charge. It would be a transformative act.
Thank you Tara for this wonderful gift and for igniting the fire of radical compassion. Namaste
In tears
Van the BEST of the 10, hands down. Saved the BEST for last.
Blessings and deep appreciation for this beautiful gift of this offering.
I attend Alcoholics Anonymous meetings almost daily. I’ve done so since getting sober in 2007. I have to accept that my well-being depends upon it. I’ve also experienced threatening divides within this community. Though a central tenet is anonymity, personal stories reveal much about how we walk in life. The primary purpose of ‘carrying a message of recovery to others’ sometimes gets lost when ideological differences penetrate our meetings in charged social and political times. I often become aware of otherness and separation. I’ve seen individuals driven away because of differences, perceived and sometimes spoken. Sometimes in self-protection, sometimes as an ally trying to protect others, I become defensive and blaming. For most of us, our very survival once depended on feeling loved and accepted within AA groups. For many, having the loving support of others that have suffered and that continue to suffer from addiction, is an absolute. What has helped me is to, as pointed to throughout this challenge, and capped in Van’s interview, has been to be willing to see, to remember the common ground of suffering and the mutual support for continued recovery.
I’ve seen this play out with potential schisms within AA. I’m agnostic with Buddhist practices. I follow principles of AA’s 12 steps and an 8-fold path mostly seamlessly. Adopting a secular approach within some AA groups creates differences that have sometimes become confrontational. I’ve helped formally start some secular AA groups within my primary AA community that were met with some resistance. I continue to participate fully in ‘traditional’ AA meetings if you will. I’ve noticed that most of the time, what I share, how I share, is not affected by which meeting that I am in. I learned to focus what I share on what I believe, what I do to stay sober, to stay well, rather than what I don’t believe in, why I don’t practice in certain ways. When we began secular AA meetings, we were carefully intentional that they not be anti-AA, not anti-god, rather that they be an open space where we freely share our experiences through stories of recovery. It’s been very encouraging to see ‘believers’ attend our meetings out of curiosity or sometimes just happening upon a secular meeting, and not feel separate, indicated by their willingness to talk about the helpful role of religion in their own life. What I’ve seen is that the sense of what a ‘believer’ is dissolve whether religious or secular. I think that common ground is hope and support for recovery.
Robert, thank you so much for describing this experience of finding common ground. I can anticipate the fear that this effort triggered on both sides. What courage. There are people who need the safety of the secular. Thanks.
Robert, if Van’s interview with Tara should become available for viewing by all, how about making it available to your AA group where divisions are appearing? Perhaps it can help heal those divisions, too. It is a shame to see the healing power of AA be diminished by such splits.
Van Jones ….. you are The Mandela, The Luther-King of these modern times. Thank you for your courage, bravery, voice and unmeasurable great work x 🙏🏼🌱
This was honestly one of the most moving and inspiring talks I have ever listened to, as were so many others in this program.
Thank you Tara for creating this space, it opened me in ways I was totally not expecting.
I have finally become aware of some of the limiting thoughts and beliefs I have had about myself – the lack of compassion for myself. And in opening to that I am at once really sad and really hopeful.
Before I listen to Van, I need to thank you Tara, Tami, and all your mindful contributors for a wonderful, enriching 10 days of widening our compassion, awareness, and kindness. I am now more fully grounded and confident in going forward mindfully. Thank you ever so much.
Thank you. This has come full circle for me.
The stories we tell are important. Let them be kind.
Stories have many dimensions and sides – let’s challenge ourselves to be curious, find the surprise and honour this for others and ourselves by both finding and sharing common ground with loving acceptance.
Thank you Tara from the bottom of my heart! May you and Sounds True continue being a light in this world. We need more love and compassion in our lives.
So grateful for these 10 days. I love all the presenters and you, Tara. Blessings.
Please, please, please do not put this video behind a paywall. Everyone needs to hear this, everyone needs to feel this. The entire program is beautiful, but this particular video is so desperately needed today. Thank you for creating the environment that allowed this to be created.
Shannon, I wholeheartedly agree–this needs to be seen and heard far and wide, most especially in our very divided, hurting USA. I’ve been forwarding the emails each day telling of the new lesson and hoping people who didn’t initially register for the course can still access it all. Though all were terrific, this one with Van Jones is A-1 for me with its message and EXAMPLES of love and compassion in action.
we are one , recognizing that from a position of identity is a challenge, wonderful sharing
Truly inspiring & enlightening . Gives a sense of ‘hope where previously I may have felt overwhelmed. Thank you so very much Tara & Van. Cheryl, Cairns, Australia.
Deep and warm blessings, namaste.
Thank you Tara for this wonderful opportunity. I am so grateful. I feel more humble, more connected, more hopeful. My heart is larger now, and I know it can expand more as I put all of this into regular practice. I feel changed. I am blessed. Thank you. Namaste.
Resilience, goodness, , work together, ….these are all good action words.
Let’s do these words….
Thank you for these beautiful 10 days of compassion. All the different layers we have covered will surely manifest the instinct of compassion in all of us here. I have used my hurt and difficult phases of life as weapons against people who love and care for me, I will try consciously to change that to understand these experiences as stepping stones to one of my goals of serving this world with mental health awareness, appreciating those who are fighting everyday and hugging those who are struggling to find a way out.
Thank you for an inspirational 10 days Tara both for the nurturing meditations and the reflective talks with like minded warriors of their fields. I feel hopeful and energised for the future that is 2020 as from the other side of the pond we seem to be having the same sort of issues that are focused by the media. I will endeavour to use both my wings to develop trust,respect and compassion going forward. Namaste🙏
Thank you Tara for sharing your teaching and this beautiful meditation.
Amazing final guest. Thankful. A true heart warrior translator of compassion in Action. I am a white man working to find common ground with young self righteous mainly white art students, that are self hating or self avoidant , in an art school that does not call out the echo chamber and call forward to the exploration of radical unreflective moral certainty; there is pain I need to better understand. People I must be radically compassionate toward.
I’ve just watched the closing video which is, I think, the same one we watched at the beginning (but great to review!). Thank you so much Tara for inviting all of us the privilege to be part of the journey of this programme. It has been both wonderful, and humbling, to listen to your teachings, and to hear the stories of others. I would like very much to offer you the words of George Fox, one of the founding fathers of Quakerism, in 1656 as a gift, as they seem, to me, to resonate strongly with so much of what has been offered here.
“Be patterns, be examples in all countries, places, islands, nations, wherever you come, that your carriage and life may preach among all sorts of people, and to them; then you will come to walk cheerfully over the world, answering that of God in everyone”. Thank you again.
This has been an amazing experience. I feel inspired and hopeful.
Truly inspiring! #VanJones4President
P.S. I love when you said you want your Republican friends to be great Republicans and your Dems to be great Dems. Brilliant!
S/weeping now…
Recent messages in Radical Compassion remind me of Joanna Macy’s story about the Shambhala Warrior. I would like to share this link with your audience connecting us all to an ancient Tibetan prophecy. It tells us that at a time in the future when all looks lost we have the powerful gifts of compassion and insight to help save our world.
http://www.awakin.org/read/view.php?tid=236
Van Jones is one of my heroes! Thanks Tara for all the wonders you have shared with us during our 10 days together.
Thank you for the link. It was beautiful and so true!
Thank you for this link. How aligning is this message as we begin a 2020 Year of Vision. In unity with compassion, we become a powerful key to unlock healing for ourselves and others.
Amazing. I never knew about the power of Van! I wonder Van if you have links with people or organisations in the UK where the Brexit issue has revealed old and deep divides? Here people living in poverty, homeless people and abused people are ignored or treated as criminals, an embarrassment because they point to societal greed, exposing cold hearts, broken souls and addiction to distraction . Its a struggle to find an umbrella organisation for like minds and hearts here where the RAIN of compassion is so needed right now. Can you help please Tara ? Van ? Thank you is not enough. Deep appreciation for your radiance. Wishing you well today and everyday.
Totally agree where are these umbrella organisations .? Maybe we could create some in
The Uk
sound is down on this interview.
Brilliant Van Jones. Profound in the wisdom to engage what we see as the enemy by being open. So challenging to do when the people in power have the ability to pass laws that could potentially inflict untold harm and physical maiming to babies and small children without any form of natural intelligence and logic
OT: I went through a period of time when I had difficulties generating loving-kindness towards people because of ways that I had been hurt in the past. I still tried to be a good person, but I didn’t get that sense of warmth from doing so because it would just bring back memories of my past.
Thankfully, with continued practice and reading on the matter, I think I’m at the stage (though I still have work to do, of course) where I can abide in good-will without having that combination of resentment and fear. I think learning to think in terms of “is this *helpful* to myself and others?” rather than “but does this satisfy my grudges?” and doing a lot more loving-kindness meditation and meditation in general helped tremendously. It’s a great weight that comes off your shoulders when you internalize the fact that the past, perceptions and grudges aren’t fundamentally who you are – they’re just stories that your mind creates. There’s no magical reason why they should prevent you from enjoying the here and now.
Hope you have a wonderful life!
Your message moved me to tears because I am where you were and I want so much to leave the ANGER ( the mask of pain) in the past and move on!!
It helps to know there is hope!!
Tammy
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You’re not alone Tammy.. I’m in the same place .
But all things are possible. I believe that.Hang on to that hope!
Wow, Thanks 🙏🏽 for All of that!!
Blessings
Your words have been my story exactly for the last 3 years. I’m just beginning to have enough clarity to sift through my painful stories and baggage and let some light back in. I’m reading and listening to anything that will show me another way and Taras meditations have been helpful. I really related to her rain on blame meditation.
Wishing you peace
Thank you so very much Tara, for a wonderful 10 days of wonderful heart opening interviews and guided meditations! Deeply grateful!
I love this analogy “I’ve never seen a bird fly with only one wing: all birds need both wings, the left and the right”
We need both to fly and to be great! Such a wonderful and inspiring image! Thanks Van
“Move from the fight to the dance.” Such beautiful imagery, Van. Thank You.
Thank you! Mahalo! So heart warming!
I love this quote, it’s so inspiring “The unspoken imperative should be this: I want to understand you and I want to understand me; whether or not we ever agree”
Love it!
“It’s in that convergence of spiritual people becoming active and active people becoming spiritual that the hope of humanity now rests”
Yes!♥️
Yes, great quote and much wisdom over the last 10 days. May that convergence happen at greater frequency. May we all “move from the fight to the dance”!
Yes, Lawrence! It’s always felt counter-intuitive to me as well as counter-productive to put so much energy into anything that is “against, anti” instead of “for” which means leaning into, embracing, including. Knowing that what we resist persists, what we focus on expands, I wonder whether it wouldn’t be more beneficial to mankind to start reconsidering the way we deal with all our issues… So, the thought of moving from fight to dance resonates profoundly. It seems more appealing and appropriate even if it may feel frightening or uncomfortable it is where we meet and share our common vulnerability and common goodness. We can thus follow the footprints of great way showers like Mandela, Gandhi and many others for our own sake… Why not? Let’s partake in the manifestation of a whole new paradigm on planet Earth! Yes, we can.
Namaste! 🙏🌹💜