During this talk, Peter summarized the effect of overcoming the five hindrances through the cultivation of the seven factors of awakening. The interaction between the mind’s idealized expected outcome and the self organization that emerges, producing stress, was described as “self state conflicts”. The example used was “I’ll do this perfectly and everyone will be grateful and admire me” to illustrate that this expectation will not show up as predicted, producing stress and confusion. Peter described how activating and perfecting the cooperative functioning of the seven awakening factors produces “self state integration”, the clarity and stability of which provides support for using vipassana for “self state transcendence”, the process of awakening, which will be explored at the next meeting.
Here are the notes that were prepared for the talk: