by Peter Carlson | Jun 3, 2020 | Listen to Dharma Talks
This meditation focused attention on how to contemplate Salayatana, the Six Sense Bases, a category within the Fourth Foundation of Mindfulness. The primary sense bases are the eyes and seeing, ears and hearing, tongue and tasting, body sensations and the mind with cognition. The first five bases are always processed by the sixth base, the mind, which functions to impose meaning on the raw data of sensory stimulation. The meditation student is encouraged to focus attention on the subjective difference between the sensory experience and the transitory and ephemeral nature of the mind’s operation in fabricating a self. This distinction is called namarupa in Pali, with nama representing the meaning-making function and rupa the unprocessed sensory stimulation. The goal of the contemplation is to nurture a mind that is not “enchanted” through craving and clinging to consider the conditioned nature of the mind with being an enduring and autonomous self.
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by Peter Carlson | May 14, 2020 | Listen to Dharma Talks
During this talk, Peter described the nature of one of the Five Hindrances, vicikiccha, translated as skeptical doubt. This hindrance interferes with the ability to cultivate confidence in the principles and practices of Buddhism, either by doubting the concepts or one’s ability to master the practices involved. During the talk various tactics for understanding, investigating and setting aside skeptical doubt were reviewed. The review was followed by discussion among those participating in the Zoom meeting about the topic.
Here are the notes prepared for this talk: Setting Aside Skeptical Doubt
Next week’s practice will review another category of concepts and practices found in the Fourth Foundation of Mindfulness, the Six Sense Bases.
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by Peter Carlson | May 14, 2020 | Listen to Dharma Talks
There are two initial stages in the practice of mindfulness of breathing meditation: persistently maintaining present-moment awareness of the in- and out-breath, followed by increasing investigation of phenomena that emerge into awareness during the breathing cycle. During this meditation, training attention to investigate the breath cycle was cultivated by inviting a primary investigation of the physical experience of breathing, then letting the breath awareness become secondary while investigating and “looking closer” at other predominant sensations in the body, or investigating the nature of attention while attending to physical sensations to discover the self-fabricating nature of the mind. An important goal of vipassana practice is to investigate the interactions between physical sensory experience and how the mind makes meaning of the sensations. In the progressions of insight during the process of Awakening, this awareness is called namarupa, with nama relating to the mind’s function and rupa to the physical sensations that occur.
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by Peter Carlson | May 7, 2020 | Listen to Dharma Talks
This is the second of three planned reviews of the Five Hindrances, which are the initial focus for contemplation in the Fourth Foundation of Mindfulness Discourse. Peter described the Buddhist concepts of Thina/Middha (tee-nah/mih-dah), Sloth/Torpor and Uddhacca/Kukkucca (ooh-dah-chah/koo-koo-chah), Restlessness/Worry as imbalances of the energy systems of the body and mind. Sloth/Torpor is an overactive parasympathetic system, producing too much tranquility, causing dullness and the inability to be clearly aware to dominate consciousness. Restlessness/Worry is an overactive sympathetic system, creating agitation, anxiety and worrisome, repetitive thought processes to dominate consciousness. The primary antidotes for these two hindrances is satisampajanna (sah-tee-sahm-puh-jahn-yah), mindful clear comprehension, cultivated through persisting present-moment awareness of the process of breathing. Earlier in the meeting, Peter provided a guided meditation for the cultivation of satisampajanna with mindfulness of breathing meditation; the recording of that practice can be found on the Audio page of the website. It is interesting to notice that steadfast investigation of the process of breathing can be beneficial in calming an anxious mind and alerting a dull mind. Other tactics for overcoming these hindrances were also reviewed. The review was followed by questions and comments by those attending the Zoom meeting.
Here are the notes prepared for this meeting: Notes For Overcoming Sloth and Restlessness May 6 2020
Next week’s topic will review the fifth hindrance, Skeptical Doubt.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:14:40 — 136.7MB)
by Peter Carlson | May 7, 2020 | Listen to Dharma Talks
This meditation focuses on practicing satisampajjana (sah-tee-sahm-puh-jahn-yah), mindful clear comprehension, alternatively termed knowing, which is part of the First Foundation of Mindfulness. It is reflected as “Breathing in long, he knows ‘I breath in long'”, and again “…”when walking, he knows ‘I am walking’; when standing, he knows ‘I am standing'”; this quality of knowing attention is found repeatedly throughout the Four Foundations of Mindfulness Discourse. During the guided meditation Peter made several suggestions regarding cultivating a knowing awareness, that is, being mindful of the three characteristics essential to Buddhist concepts about subjective reality: anicca (ah-nee-chah), the transient nature of experiences, dukkha (doo-kah), the distress and confusion that comes from being ignorant about anicca, and anatta (ah-nah-tah), the absence of an enduring, autonomous self. Clearly knowing functions to deconstruct craving and clinging and allows the mind to be free from the five hindrances and, alternatively, able to bring the seven awakening factors to maturity.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 44:56 — 82.3MB)