by Peter Carlson | Jul 17, 2025 | Listen to Dharma Talks
During this second of a series of reviews of women who are influential among contemporary meditators, Allie Vaknin begins by inquiring among participants who might have familiarity with Pema Chodron’s books, and then goes on to briefly recounting Chodron’s life: she was born in New York City as Deidre Blomfeld-Brown and was inspired to become a Tibetan Buddhist Nun after a significant loss in her life. Allie then reviewed the gist of Chodron’s work, which focuses primarily through a willingness to cultivate compassion for oneself, then expressed towards others. This posting includes comments by others in response to Allie’s questions.
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by Peter Carlson | Jul 10, 2025 | Listen to Dharma Talks
During this first of several Dharma talks about important female teachers, April reviews the life and teachings of Upasika Lee Nanayon, a lay teacher in Thailand. First she describes the determination of a person whose teaching comes from a simple lifestyle and deep meditation practice dedicated to providing women with unbiased access to the Dharma. The presentation includes several quotes from Nanayon’s teaching. Here description is followed by comments from a very large attendance, in person and online.
Here are the notes prepared for this talk, including the URL that accesses a free .pdf translation download of Nanayon’s teaching: Final Upāsikā Kee Nanayon notes
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by Peter Carlson | Jul 3, 2025 | Listen to Dharma Talks
During this talk, Peter responds to questions about the concepts described in “Seeing That Frees”, by Rob Burbea. The concepts of “the fading of perception”, “awareness”, and “emptiness” were discussed, derived from these questions.
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by Peter Carlson | Jun 26, 2025 | Listen to Dharma Talks
The Paramis are categories of intentionally cultivated virtuous mind-states that promote the process of Awakening. With this talk, Lezlie describes the Parami of Generosity, both materially and interpersonally being unselfish regarding others. She intends to periodically provide commentaries about the various Paramis, using “Creating a Life of Integrity–A Conversation With Joseph Goldstein”, by Gail Anderson Stark and Joseph Goldstein as her reference. The book describes a systematic, ongoing review and practice of the Paramis over nearly a year, and she is following that format, without actually talking with Goldstein, as Stark did.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:03:13 — 57.9MB)
by Peter Carlson | Jun 19, 2025 | Listen to Dharma Talks
Once a month, Peter provides an opportunity during the meeting for those participating to ask questions regarding Buddhist concepts and practices. The questions posed during this meeting focus on the “Four Foundations of Mindfulness Discourse”, for example the “noting” method for cultivating insight, compared to practices that first emphasize the cultivation of high levels of concentration called jhana (jah-nah), before developing insight. He reviews the development and integration of the Seven Awakening Factors, facilitated through whole-body meditation practice. He also describes different approaches to cultivating and making use of concentration and the characteristics of what has been termed “big sky mind” and his way of using relaxed curiosity–letting go with every out-breath with a concentrated mind–to have a deeper understanding of sunnata (soon-yah-tah), translated as emptiness–the absence of a separate, enduring self.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 59:34 — 54.5MB)