by Peter Carlson | May 3, 2012 | Listen to Dharma Talks
With the hope that verbally describing his retreat experience will help integrate the experience and perhaps inform and inspire others to go on retreat, Peter describes his recent 2 week self-retreat, during which he got a staph infection and had to get medical treatment. We often have agendas for our lives, and unexpected events like this on a retreat may seem like a setback, but the practice is to help establish ways and means to see how the mind creates suffering, in this case illness, and learn how to deconstruct the suffering self to find peace and clarity.
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by Peter Carlson | Apr 12, 2012 | Listen to Dharma Talks
This discussion explores the development of service in Buddhism from the time of Anathapindika, who organized the first Buddhist monastery, through the Bodhisattva Ideal, to present opportunities for service. Three points were discussed: the importance of regular meditation practice and the cultivation of samadhi; the supporting of and support from the Sangha; and matching our personal skills and experience with appropriate opportunities to provide service for others. We also emphasized that service can include being a cheerful, unintrusive presence as well as volunteering to sit with a dying person.
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by Peter Carlson | Apr 6, 2012 | Listen to Dharma Talks
Once again, a member of our Sangha has completed a significant retreat–Robert just returned from a Korean Zen retreat organized by the Kwan Um School in Providence, Rhode Island. During this evening’s discussion he compared aspects of Zen practice and vipassana practices.
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by Peter Carlson | Mar 29, 2012 | Listen to Dharma Talks
The phrase we typically use is “mindfulness of the body”; this week’s talk is “mindfulness for the body” to emphasize the importance of taking good care of the body, which is the foundational vehicle for spiritual development. We talked of how important it is to not give in to the inactivity that the creature comforts of our culture promote and the effects that chronic stress has on the body. We then explored the benefits of regular meditation practice to cultivate a more relaxed body, and the value of insight (vipassana) practices to provide the discipline to exercise regularly.
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by Peter Carlson | Mar 22, 2012 | Listen to Dharma Talks
In order for the teachings of the Buddha to remain vital, it is necessary for each succeeding generation and culture to validate the Dhamma with a dedicated meditation practice, epitomized by attending retreats. It is the custom of the Orlando Insight Meditation Group to provide opportunities for members who’ve recently completed a significant retreat to describe their experience during a Wednesday night meeting.
Tommy recently completed a 5-day retreat with Paul Linn of Florida Vipassana. The benefit of these opportunities is allowing the participants to “think our loud” about what they learned. Much of what is experienced on a silent retreat happens outside of conscious awareness. We also know that recently acquired memories “metabolize” in the mid-brain for several days before being consolidated into long-term memory. Verbalizing the experience integrates the insights about the practice for the returning retreatant, while listening to the report hopefully inspires the listeners to dedicated meditation practice, including retreats.
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