by Peter Carlson | Aug 25, 2016 | Listen to Dharma Talks
This talk adds to the discussion from last week, which focused on the Five Aggregates With Clinging doctrine. This week’s topic is paticca sammupada, typically translated as dependent origination. Peter applies a new translation, contingent provisional emergence, which connects the ancient Buddhist doctrine to modern theories regarding the complexity of the brain’s functioning. The twelve functions of paticca sammupada were listed and briefly reviewed to clarify how the brain creates a meaningful self organizing process relative to what external circumstantial stimulation provides. This review was followed by discussion about the implications of this conceptual understanding for fostering a less stressful self experience.
This exploration continues next week with a further elaboration of paticca sammupada, which is regarded as a core concept on the Buddhist path towards liberation from distress and confusion. Here are the notes prepared for this discussion: Contingent Provisional Emergence. Participants are encouraged to read the notes to further familiarize with the twelve functions of this concept in order to understand this complex concept more thoroughly. Next week’s talk will “dive deeper” into the doctrine to clarify the ways it might be psychologically and spiritually beneficial.
Here is an additional .doc file that replicates the Cetasikas poster on the wall of the meditation hall, referred to during the discussion: CETASIKAS POSTER
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by Peter Carlson | Aug 19, 2016 | Listen to Dharma Talks
This talk provides a review of pancasammupada, the Five Aggregates With Clinging, an important Buddhist concept describing how personality is organized. When Peter was in Graduate School, part of the required curriculum was a course on personality theory, citing such authorities as Freud and Jung, among others. One of the chapters, written by Daniel Goleman, focused on Buddhism as a theory of personality, with the five aggregates as the topic of interest. The aggregates represent the dynamic interaction between external reality and various functions operating within the mind to impose meaning and a sense of self.
These aggregates were reviewed to clarify how mindfulness practices provide opportunities to “deconstruct” the aggregates, fostering the process of awakening from distress and confusion.
Here are the notes prepared for the talk, including a graphic presentation to clarify the interactions of the aggregates: THE FIVE AGGREGATES OF CLINGING
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by Peter Carlson | Aug 12, 2016 | Listen to Dharma Talks
Critical analysis is often termed critical thinking, and is a very important skill to cultivate in this era, as we are constantly bombarded with manipulative advertising and political “spin”. In the Buddhist conceptual structure, one of the 7 factors for awakening is called dhammavicaya, that is, the intentional, mindful investigation of mental phenomena. This talk describes how the practice of intentionally and mindfully investigating the changing sensations of breathing matures into the ability to critically analyze how the mind creates an internal narrative in response to external circumstances, and then determine whether the narrative fosters a benevolent and effective response.
Here are the notes prepared for this talk: BUDDHISM AND CRITICAL ANALYSIS During the talk, Peter quoted parts of the Kalama Sutta, which focuses on the Buddha’s description of the value of critical analysis to support the process of awakening. Here is that sutta: Kalama Sutta
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by Peter Carlson | Aug 4, 2016 | Listen to Dharma Talks
This discussion continues to explore the application of mindfulness and compassion to interpersonal conflict resolution. Peter introduced some points from the website metta.org focused on procedures developed in Gregory Kramer’s book “Insight Dialogue-The Interpersonal Path to Freedom”. Kramer’s work closely parallels what has been explored in previous discussions on this topic, in this case specifically related to fostering close relationships in the context of current political conflicts. These approaches were also related to discussions in previous meetings of the Tibetan Buddhist lojong mind training and conflict resolution.
Here is the handout downloaded from the metta.org website that Peter distributed to those who attended the meeting: GREGORY KRAMER INSIGHT DIALOGUE GUIDELINES
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by Peter Carlson | Jul 29, 2016 | Study Resources
Regretably, we are having some technical software problems, so there’s no .mp3 post for this talk. We are taking steps to fix the problems, so hopefully the posts will resume as usual next week. Here are the notes Peter prepared for the talk: NEGOTIATING A MIDDLE WAY The gist of the talk presented some of the principles of Right Speech in the context of modern strategies for interpersonal conflict resolution.
