by Peter Carlson | Dec 13, 2013 | Listen to Dharma Talks
It is our custom to dedicate the meeting after sangha members have participated in a significant retreat experience to talking about each person’s insights and experience. Peter briefly described the format of the retreat, which was progressively more intimate investigation of the breath process. After this, a lively discussion ensued, with opportunities to explore further the experiences and implications for ongoing practice. Since Peter will be on a 2 week self-retreat until the end of the month, there will be no further dhamma talk recordings until the first weekend of January, and that will focus on Peter’s experience during his retreat. We hope that all who listen to these talks will enjoy a safe and happy holiday season.
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by Peter Carlson | Dec 10, 2013 | Listen to Dharma Talks
Why do we practice meditation? How do we practice meditation? Who practices meditation? During this dialogue, these questions were explored by the sangha members, to increase practice skills and facilitate integrating these skills into daily life. The final question is an ongoing inquiry–actively investigating how the “who” is fabricated, to discover the impermanence and selflessness of being.
by Peter Carlson | Dec 1, 2013 | Listen to Dharma Talks
It’s our custom to devote the meeting on Thanksgiving Eve to shared experiences on how Buddhist practices foster gratitude, and how gratitude fosters generosity, which the Buddha regarded as the foremost of the qualities we develop as the awakening process unfolds. We hope that listening to this dialogue will inspire your practice of awakening.
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by Peter Carlson | Nov 22, 2013 | Intro to Buddhism & Meditation, Listen to Dharma Talks
During this meeting, Peter provided a guided meditation regarding breath awareness that tracks the progression of focus on the sensations of breathing from the simple awareness “this is the in-breath…this is the out-breath” to cultivate continuity of breath awareness, then “looking closer” to note carefully the textural quality of each breath cycle to increase interest and investigation in awareness. Finally, the meditation students are invited to hone in on one specific touch sensation exclusively in order to cultivate the quality of awareness preparatory to practicing jhana, or alternatively, to maximize the practice of vipassana. A separate file is associated with this notation that reflects the question and answer period following the guided meditation, during which particular points of meditation practice were explored.
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by Peter Carlson | Nov 14, 2013 | Listen to Dharma Talks
This talk focuses on the practice of Right Mindfulness in the Noble Eightfold Path discourse. Peter emphasizes how finding a neutral feeling like breath awareness provides a stabilizing point of reference that can interrupt the escalation from an initial stimulus moment to a rapidly escalating “enchantment” of mental conditioning that creates and sustains a false impression that a transient mental experience is a “self”. During the dialogue, Peter repeatedly emphasized the value of the intensive training that meditation retreats provides, allowing mindfulness to be more strongly established and therefore more capable of interrupting the onset of what he calls the “selfing story”. Next week’s dialogue will be a “coaching” review of the practice of mindfulness of breathing, to help participants have more conceptual clarity about accessing breath awareness in daily life routines.
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