During this talk, Peter responds to various questions regarding Buddhist concepts and coaching regarding meditation practice. One topic frequently questioned about involves his current meditation practice and intentions regarding his annual self-retreat.
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During this talk on Thanksgiving Eve, Peter describes how the cultivation of mindfulness of breathing meditation frees energy from being bound up by the Hindrances, creating the buoyantly engaged interest characteristic of the Awakening Factor of Joy, which provides the foundation for the experience of gratitude. Gratitude often involves a reciprocal interpersonal manifestation of generosity. He describes how different areas of brain/body interactions create the subjective experience of joy, gratitude and generosity. The explanation is followed by questions and comments from those participating in the meeting.
Here are the notes prepared for this talk: Thoughts On Gratitude
This talk was preceded by a guided meditation: Contemplating Joy, Gratitude, and Generosity, which is posted in the guided meditation archive of the website.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:02:11 — 56.9MB)
During a meeting on Thanksgiving Eve, Peter leads a guided contemplation describing the progression from mindfulness of breathing meditation to joy and then through gratitude to generosity. Concentrating the mind frees up energy normally bound up by the Hindrances, and when that energy is available, the experience of joy occurs. Joy provides the heart/mind conditions for nurturing gratitude, which leads to generosity. This contemplation precedes a Dharma talk presented by Peter that describes the various conditioning factors of the mind that make manifest joy, gratitude and generosity.
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During this talk, Lezlie Laws describes the acronym RAIN: Recognize, Accept, Investigate, Non-Self as a way to approach the challenges of everyday life. She is a proponent of spiritual journaling, and shares an excerpt from her personal journal entry to demonstrate how mindfulness, investigation and acknowledging the impersonal nature of our internal selfing process brings insight into our intrapersonal conflicts.
Here are two URL’s that provide descriptive content regarding RAIN:
https://www.tarabrach.com/wp-content/uploads/pdf/TaraBrach_RAIN_A-Practice-of-Radical-Compassion.pdf
Here’s a link of Michele McDonald’s version of RAIN, including the second half – DROP. https://vipassanahawaii.org/resources/raindrop/
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:07:19 — 61.6MB)
During this talk, April continues her review of the Noble Eightfold Path, focusing on Right Effort, describing the Four Noble Efforts and how to develop them skillfully. Her review includes questions and comments from those participating in the meeting.
Here are the notes prepared for the talk: Right effort notes
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:05:52 — 60.3MB)
This talk continues a series of reviews presented by Allie Vaknin focusing on the paramis, those wholesome conditions of the mind that, when cultivated to their greatest potential, create the conditions for Awakening, the direct realization of Nirvana. Allie emphasizes the importance of direct subjective awareness of unwholesome conditions and the intentional “letting go” of the craving/clinging that creates the unwholesomeness. Her presentation is accompanied by various comments and questions by those attending the meeting.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 57:14 — 52.4MB)