In this conversation, Sam Harris and Tara Brach discuss the importance of compassion in mindfulness practice. They discuss her personal experience learning and teaching meditation, the tension that underlies any effort to seek enlightenment, and trusting the process of becoming more mindful. Sam and Tara also discuss differing perspectives on how to respond to the problem of racism and close the conversation by questioning whether the guru-disciple relationship is, in principle, broken.

Tara Brach is the founder and guiding teacher of the Insight Meditation Community of Washington. She is the author of the international bestselling books Radical Acceptance and Radical Compassion, and her popular weekly podcast is downloaded over 3 million times a month. Along with Jack Kornfield, Tara leads the Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Certification Program (MMTCP) serving participants in over 50 countries.