by Peter Carlson | Aug 29, 2013 | Listen to Dharma Talks
During this first of two talks, Peter and the assembled sangha members discussed the complications that arise in trying to balance work requirements and home life. Peter described two boundary issues: internal boundaries and external boundaries, suggesting that much stress results from the conflicts between the “ideal self”, who’s expected to be able to please all people all the time, both at work and at home. Next week’s discussions will explore how the concepts and practices of the eightfold path can be usefully applied in the dynamic balancing process.
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by Peter Carlson | Aug 23, 2013 | Listen to Dharma Talks
During this second talk on a Buddhist way to cultivated benevolent relationship, Peter related the eightfold path to developing the quality of relationships, which he terms “practicing relationship”, from the most simple, as with a checkout clerk at a store, to the most enduring and intimate, as within families. Next week’s topic will be balancing energies between work and home life, as a continuation of Benevolent Lifestyle.
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by Peter Carlson | Aug 22, 2013 | Listen to Dharma Talks
During this dialogue, Peter continued exploring the topic of “Benevolent Intention”. The focus this week is on how the factors of the eightfold path can be applied to cultivating wholesome relationships. His presentation was followed by a lively discussion. Next week’s topic will be “Balancing Life Between Work and Home”.
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by Peter Carlson | Aug 16, 2013 | Listen to Dharma Talks
This is the first of two dialogues exploring the vital importance of relationship experience for developing an integrate sense of self, that is, ego. Peter combines Buddhist teachings with current psychological understanding of how necessary relationship is, from just out of the womb throughout the lifetime of a person. When interpersonal dynamics are distorted, the self-states of each person are confused and conflicted. Benevolent Intention (Right Intention), combined with Clear Awareness (Right Understanding), manifested through Right Speech and Right Action (Benevolent Narrative and Benevolent Behavior), provide more integration in the succession of “selfing moments”. This integrative process provides the foundation for spiritual growth; relationship is the field of play for this process. Next week, Peter will discuss various aspects of Buddhist meditative process that fosters skillful relationship experiences.
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by Peter Carlson | Aug 8, 2013 | Listen to Dharma Talks
Continuing the series of dhamma dialogues regarding the Four Noble Truths, this talk begins exploring what is traditionally called Right Livelihood, part of the virtue aggregate of the Eightfold Path. As previously, Peter emphasized the importance of developing new ways of describing the concepts of Buddhism that are more accessible in the modern era. Because our culture is more complex and has more variable stressors, more categories are presented; the focus of next week’s dialogue will be Benevolent Relationships. Of course, even though the concepts can be described or categorized differently because the stressors are different, our nervous systems are likely quite similar in functioning relative to the Buddha’s era, so strong emphasis is placed during all these dialogues on cultivating the mind through meditation practice.
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