by Peter Carlson | Mar 21, 2013 | Listen to Dharma Talks
During this dialogue, Tommy reviewed the last two presentations Peter provided on craving and clinging. Tommy’s frequent use of facilitating questions opened up a lively dialogue among the folks attending. Wendy asked for comments from others about how they approach cultivating mindfulness at the start of the day, and received an abundance of reports from various Sangha members that were quite helpful.
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by Peter Carlson | Mar 14, 2013 | Listen to Dharma Talks
During this talk, Peter continues the discussion begun in the last meeting on the Second Noble Truth. Again it was emphasized that there are three levels of approach to the Four Noble Truths: to be understood conceptually, to be noted upon emerging into awareness, and for the first two to be mastered. This talk explored the concepts associated with clinging, particularly from a neuropsychological perspective. The value of this approach is to demonstrate the impersonality of the various neural networks involved as initial sensory input is processed through association to prior experience. This is another way to look at the Buddhist concept of karma and the resultant effects, known as vipaka.During the next talk Peter will present in a few weeks, we will discuss the Third Noble Truth as a progression from personality integration (the mastery of virtue) to spiritual attainment (the mastery of wisdom).
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by Peter Carlson | Mar 7, 2013 | Listen to Dharma Talks
During this talk, Peter reviewed the classic Buddhist concepts of craving and clinging in the context of the Second Noble Truth. Special emphasis was placed on the insights of modern neuropsychological research that relates Buddhist notions of craving to the experience of addictive craving. The three aspects of spiritual progress were reviewed as well: craving and clinging are to be understood conceptually, brought directly into mindful awareness, and noting and renouncing craving and clinging is to be mastered. Next week, Peter will continue to explore the nature of the Second Noble Truth as regards clinging.
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by Peter Carlson | Feb 28, 2013 | Listen to Dharma Talks
It is our custom to dedicate the Wednesday night meeting after a significant retreat to discussing the retreat experiences. This meeting is the first one after a one week retreat at the Deerhaven Retreat Center. It is hoped that finding the words to describe the insights and skills acquired during the retreat to a well-informed and interested Sangha will help the yogi understand more clearly what happened, and make the insights and skills more accessible and useful. It’s also hoped that those hearing the reports will benefit from the information and perhaps be inspired to attend a retreat themselves.
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by Peter Carlson | Feb 27, 2013 | Intro to Buddhism & Meditation
The Buddhist concept of selflessness is not well understood by many Westerners. The misperception is that selflessness means emptiness like interstellar space, or a blank mind. This is not the understanding expressed by Peter in this guided meditation. When the mind is stable in focus and serenity is experienced, there’s a quality of softness or spaciousness in the mind. When the mind is caught up in the internal narrative that we call “myself”, it’s as if looking at a page and only seeing the print. The spaciousness is noticing the paper around the print as well as the print. Selflessness goes even further–it’s noticing the paper, the print, what’s around the paper, what sounds are apparent–the totality of present moment awareness without preference for any part of the experience, including the “self” that seems to be witnessing all this! During this meditation, Peter helps the listener open more and more to the inner spaciousness and quietude, until all the sensations that are in awareness have no reference to a body. Sensations that would normally be assigned a “space” in the body, such as pressure of the back on the chair, aches in the knees, sounds, etc., would not necessarily be identified as such. Instead, what is noticed is a difference in vibration, contraction, pressure, heat, etc. that exists as different than where there’s no sensation. Even the “self” that’s noting the sensations becomes another area of very fine vibrations, but doesn’t demand a location–just present awareness. This direct awareness of the field of awareness without any designation can be considered as selflessness. It’s quite peaceful, and reduces the strongly conditioned concept of self that we normally identify with.
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