Finding Peace and Freedom in Your Own Awakened Heart

JUST RECENTLY RETURNED 3 BOOKS,BUT I SHALL KEEP THIS ONE.
BEAUTIFULLY WRITTEN,AND UNDERSTANDABLE.EVEN JUST TO PICK
OUT A PAGE IS VERY REFRESHING.TRUE REFUGE IS A GOOD TITLE,BECAUSE
THAT IS WHAT YOU GET AFTER READING THIS BOOK,IF YOU WANT REFUGE!!
THANK-YOU.

I love the personal and intimate voice with which Tara Brach presents the eminently practical teachings of the Buddha, a voice which is feminine and perfectly pitched to touch the heart of 21st century readers. I highly recommend this book.

I found True Refuge to be well written, enlightening and expanding. I have purchased an additional book to give as a gift to someone very special to me. This is something that I will re-read multiple times as it opens me to be my more authentic self. I get it.

It would be difficult to express the solace, compassion and developing awareness Tara Brach's new book, "True Refuge," brought to me. It's a prescription to heal the self-inflicted wounds of obsessive thinking and separateness. There are anecdotes, reflections and guided meditations that will guide you toward a life of compassion and understanding. Suffering will diminish.

The only thing I'd change is the unfortunate selection of a narrator on the audio CD who didn't think it was worthwhile to ask how some rather key words were pronounced. Tara Brach has a wonderful soothing voice and listening to her read "Radical Acceptance" was a precious experience. The reader of "True Refuge," repeatedly mispronounces the name of Tara's son, Naryan, as well as various important terms like "rimopoche." If this is your job and you're not sure of how a word is pronounced, wouldn't you, as a professional, ask for a pronunciation guide before hundreds of thousands of copies of your audiobook are mailed throughout the world?

I am using all of the mispronunciations as a lesson in letting go, but I can't imagine Tara is thrilled that so little care went into the reading of her wonderful gift of a book.

I may not make it beyond the first three chapters of Tara's new book. They are chock full of helpful and inspirational concepts, frameworks, practices and stories. One could develop a complete and rewarding way of dealing with our complex world just by reading, studying, and practicing these 44 pages. They alone are worth the price of the entire book. I agree with Phil Jackson (former coach of the Chicago Bulls and Los Angeles Lakers) when he says "People often ask me for good books on the topic [of meditation]. I can now recommend True Refuge."

Tara Brach is wonderful. The practices in this book are the missing link to being fully alive, even during difficult times.This book came at just the right time in my life and fills the gap between living joyfully and dealing with painful things.

Great read. Lots of valuable information derived from Tara's work as a therapist and Buddhist practitioner. A definite read for anyone looking to develop a better understanding of themselves through this practice.

Great read. Lots of valuable information derived from Tara's work as a therapist and Buddhist practitioner. A definite read for anyone looking to develop a better understanding of themselves through this practice.

Excellent practical advice to assist you to live your life with more connection and to learn to relate to your feelings in the body rather than our usual default position of trying to 'work things out' in our head. This has the effect of bringing us home to ourselves, to who we are, rather than trying to conform to ideas we have of ourselves derived from familial, societal or cultural expectations. In this way it is radical.
Tara brings so much to this teaching because of her honesty and her willingness to share her own human struggles. Inspiring work. Thank you.

Settling in with Tara's book is like spending time with a cherished friend. It's an unusual experience to feel as if you're the one being listened to as you read another person's writing, but that's how I feel when I read in this book--as if Tara is listening to me. This is because she understands the human experience and writes about it in everyday language with everyday examples and anecdotes. And so it feels as if we're in a conversation together.

I particularly love the meditations and reflections because they give me a way to make "True Refuge" a living, breathing presence in my life. As one who suffers from chronic illness and has written about it myself, I am so grateful to have Tara's book to help me on my journey.

Toni Bernhard, author, "How to Be Sick: A Buddhist-Inspired Guide for the Chronically Ill and their Caregivers"

Tara Brach's first book, "Radical Acceptance", was one of the most important catalysts in bringing the transformative power of mindfulness into my own life - and my brain. I'm not a "woo" person (I'm a neuroscience geek and a neuropsychologist by profession), so I'm not just throwing flower petals when I say that in "True Refuge", Dr. Brach has once again hit the mark - for my own inner work, as well as my work with my psychotherapy patients. This book walks with you in the vital task of transforming your own experience of being fully human - and at the same time, provides refuge and freedom from the suffering that, being human, we're too often hijacked by. Real life stories, real struggles, real work are all here to keep you company and keep you honest. "Taking Refuge" goes well beyond the soft-hearted teachings so often found in other books, and has the power, heft, love, and practicality needed to transform your life.

tara brach is an amazingly charismatic teacher..went to see her at a retreat..and i soooooo much enjoy her podcasts..her books are very well written and i buy them to be supportive of her efforts however the truth is i enjoy the podcast much better..i just am not big into reading about her patients stories, or peoples stories she has met..i prefer a more general approach to dharma lessons and less based on "stories..purchasing the book is worth the money if you dont mind repetition from her other book and speeches, and are someone who is a visual learner..

tara brach is an amazingly charismatic teacher..went to see her at a retreat..and i soooooo much enjoy her podcasts..her books are very well written and i buy them to be supportive of her efforts however the truth is i enjoy the podcast much better..i just am not big into reading about her patients stories, or peoples stories she has met..i prefer a more general approach to dharma lessons and less based on "stories..purchasing the book is worth the money if you dont mind repetition from her other book and speeches, and are someone who is a visual learner..

I first happened upon Tara Brach's work several years ago, browsing my local bookstore and looking for a CD of guided meditations. I happened upon one by Tara, liked what I read on the cover, bought it, and soon played it. What I heard blew me away - here was an incredibly wise and compassionate Buddhist teacher, who had constructed several different types of guided meditations, geared to particular life situations, all delivered in her incredibly lovely and calming voice.

Intrigued, I sought more, and found many audio teaching talks on her web site, [...]. I listened to several and marveled, "How can she do this? She is turning out a 15-20 minute guided meditation and a 45-60 minute teaching talk about 40 weeks of the year, every year! And her stories in these talks? Sometimes they are quite humorous, some reflect everyday occurrences, and some have an incredible plot twist at the end - yet all perfectly illustrate her points." I became a Tara fan!

In her new book, "True Refuge: Finding Peace and Freedom in Your Own Awakened Heart," Tara shares her own search for a "place of peace, connectedness, and inner freedom, even in the face of life's greatest challenges," and how she then shared her work with therapy clients and meditation students to help them find their own "True Refuge" inside themselves. Filled with Tara's wonderful wisdom, teachings, and stories - and supplemented by guided meditations for each chapter - this book SOUNDS like Tara! In fact, when reading an excerpt at [...], I "heard" Tara's voice coming through loud and clear - as if she were speaking to me, rather than me reading her printed words. (You can also view a video on the same web page.)

Give yourself the gift of "True Refuge" - a book of practical thoughts and actions on how to slow down and find inner peace in a hectic world, as shared by this gifted teacher and spiritual leader. I consider Tara to be a major "Guide" in my own "Journey Inward," and I believe many others - regardless of faith tradition - will benefit from her work, just as I have.

Since her first book, Radical Acceptance, Tara Brach's experience of meditation and life has deepened. In True Refuge, she offers us the fruits of her practice.

Many teachers point to lofty places. Precious few let us in on their own struggles as Tara does here. As an author and a teacher, her voice is assured and kind. That kindness extends to herself as she contemplates her own challenges with a transparency and generosity of spirit that make her teaching invaluable.

Reading it, I found a friend and ally beside me as I contemplated where I was stuck. Tara connects with us in our trouble, shares hers, and shows us the way home. We discover a place of refuge that has always been there. She introduces us, as the Tibetans say, to "the mind's secret, too easy to believe."

Using the simple, practical method of R. A. I. N. every problem, disappointment, and joy, is a portal to awareness.

She tells the story of a Superior Court judge in Washington DC who felt "overwhelmed by the crowded courtrooms and the magnitude of suffering he observed day after day." After practicing the meditation Tara gave him, he told her, "Each person who approaches the bench these days has become a real person, someone who deserves my respect. More than that... each is really `not other' than me..."

I am thrilled that someone in the justice system possesses that kind of awakened consciousness. It's one thing to find peace on the meditation cushion. It's quite another to integrate that experience into our daily lives at work.

In many shamanic traditions, the shaman is not aloof. He or she toils in the fields with others. Tara is that kind of teacher. She is one of us and a dedicated spirit who points out the path as she walks it herself.

With the her wisdom and kindness, the author shows us how to directly face our emotional discomfort in order to heal ourselves and move forward. She shows us that when we run away from whatever bother us through false refuges such as materialism, endless TV and internet, or being busy, we perpetuate the problems and continue to make ourselves suffer. Instead, Brach explains that only by seeing the problems directly and experience them through our body that we can truly thrive and feel connected to ourselves and others.The meditations she provided are very practical and easy to implement. With most of them, I can feel the effects the first time I tried them out, such the RAIN or Buddha's Smile meditations.

I particularly like that beside being a spiritual teacher, Tara Brach is also a clinical psychologists. This means aside from offering wisdom and guidance, Brach includes many real life examples of her patients. The stories of their struggles and healing are very inspirational and greatly illustrates the concept the author talks about.

This wonderful book completely changes the way I treat myself and my difficult emotions, which surface quite often throughout the day. Before, I often tried to push discomfort out of my awareness through suppressing or distracting. While this might give me temporary relief, the problems persist and each time they come back, the emotional and mental damages they inflict become progressively greater.

This is a life changing book and an absolute must have book if you want to know more about discovering the aspects of your true identity of love, joy, and peace. This book will teach you how to cultivate love and compassion for 'your' self. You will learn how to be the observer and how to be less entangled with and identified with the suffering of 'the' self. This book has changed my life more than any book I have ever read.

True Refuge is not only a brilliant guide to mindful and compassionate living offering succinct and sage advice for life's journey. It is also a heartfelt memoir of Tara's own spiritual path and how her honest self-reflections brought her closer to truth, love, and presence. Through her personal stories (as well as the very relatable stories of her clients), she offers us a way out of our false refuges and mistaken identities into the vast open space of loving presence. We learn to become our own best advocate, and can finally trust that there is a refuge more powerful than any wave of experience, more attractive than any addiction, the true refuge of our own awakened hearts. We can't cultivate this loving awareness through aggression, but right understanding that calls for a sweet mixture of gentleness, kindness, and love. Thank you so much Tara for awakening this potential for freedom and path to unconditional love for all beings!

Tara is so amazingly good at relating to the experiences that we all face... being human.
She gives me faith in our existence and guidance in how to navigate the inevitable difficulties in life.
I love that she also helps us to cultivate feeling joy in our every day existence, too. So often that is forgotten.
She is a great writer and teacher. Love her podcasts!