by Peter Carlson | Sep 8, 2022 | Listen to Dharma Talks
This talk reviews the 14 Unwholesome Cetasikas, categories of mind conditioning functions that create dukkha, the distress and confusion that constitute the “default mode” of one’s personality. The core functions are ignorance regarding karma, desire for pleasurable experience and aversion to unpleasant experience. The talk begins with a quick review of the Universal and Particular Cetasikas (Reviewed during the talk of August 31, 2022), which are considered to be ethically malleable, that is, influenced by either Unwholesome or Wholesome Cetasikas. The Unwholesome Cetasikas are driven by basic instinctual drives that are poorly investigated and poorly regulated without the training supported by the 25 Wholesome Mind Conditioners, especially Mindfulness, which provides relief from dukkha. The Wholesome Mind Conditioners will be reviewed in upcoming talks.
Here are the notes prepared for this talk: Reviewing The Mind Conditioners–Part 2
The focus for the next talk will be on the first 7 of the 25 Wholesome Mind Conditioners.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:05:38 — 60.1MB)
by Peter Carlson | Sep 1, 2022 | Listen to Dharma Talks
This is a first of a series of talks that review the cetasikas, “Those factors that condition the mind”. There are 52 mind conditioners in Theravada Buddhist doctrine, and this review focuses on the first two subsections, the Universal and Particular cetasikas. The remaining subsections, the Unwholesome and Wholesome cetasikas will be covered in future talks. The benefits of understanding these concepts are realized when they can actually be noted while practicing mindfulness meditation, as they indicate the impersonal and fabricated nature of self-experience.
Here are the notes prepared for this talk: Reviewing Mind Conditioners-Part 1
The focus of the next talk will begin a review of the Unwholesome mind conditioners, which are the primary cause of dukkha, the distress and confusion of life.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 58:05 — 53.2MB)
by Peter Carlson | Aug 25, 2022 | Listen to Dharma Talks
This talk provides a view of a core Buddhist concept that describes how karma is formed that differs from the traditional Theravaden understanding–instead of the terminology of Dependent Origination, a case is made for an alternative rendering, Contingent Provisional Emergence, which includes more contemporary concepts and research regarding the formative drives that create our personality structures. This view complements comments from the previous meeting of August 17, 2022 regarding the Five Aggregates of Clinging, part of the Fourth Foundation of Mindfulness.
Here are the notes prepared for this talk: Understanding Contingent Provisional Emergence
Next week’s talk will begin a review of the Seven Awakening Factors, qualities of attention that significantly develop liberation from distress and confusion in the mind, leading to a transformative understanding regarding our self-state organizations.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:05:14 — 59.7MB)
by Peter Carlson | Aug 19, 2022 | News
This talk continues an extensive review of the Fourth Foundation of Mindfulness, focusing on a Buddhist theory of personality, the Five Aggregates of Clinging. This concept provides a way to investigate the impersonal nature of one’s subjective experience, leading to insight regarding anatta, the absence of an enduring and autonomous self. The concept does not suggest that one’s personality is blank, rather that the self-experience is a process that coordinates the interactions between external stimuli and internal interpretive processes. This psychological discipline provides opportunities to investigate how the sense of self forms and can therefore be modified to provide a “better fit” for changing environmental circumstances, a useful skill in these trying times.
The complementary “Guided Five Aggregates Contemplation”, recorded the same night as this talk, is found in the Audio Archive of this site.
Here are the notes prepared for this talk: Five Aggregates of Clinging Review
The topic for next week’s review is the core Buddhist concept “Dependent Origination”. During the talk, a more contemporary rendering of the concept will be provided, “Contingent Provisional Emergence”.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:06:23 — 60.8MB)
by Peter Carlson | Aug 19, 2022 | Listen to Dharma Talks
This guided meditation provides an experiential review of the characteristic elements found in the section of the Fourth Foundation of Mindfulness dedicated to contemplating what is regarded as a Buddhist theory of personality. it is intended to supplement the talk of October 18, 2022 titled “Reviewing the Five Aggregates of Clinging”.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 44:56 — 41.1MB)
