by Peter Carlson | Aug 7, 2014 | Listen to Dharma Talks
During this talk, Peter described the core concept of paticcasamuppada, traditionally translated as “dependent origination”. He has changed the translation to “contingent provisional emergence”, and this talk explains his rationale for this innovation. The talk continues to develop a detailed understanding of the 12 links of the concept as non-linear and co-creating, recurring multiple times a second, forming the momentary experience of “selfing”, the 5 aggregates of clinging. Next week’s discussion will focus on the development of Right Concentration.
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by Peter Carlson | Jul 31, 2014 | Listen to Dharma Talks
During this dhamma dialogue, Peter completed the exploration of the Five Aggregates, describing the function of sankhara, translated as the mind fabricator, the process of fabricating, and that which is fabricated. This concept is related to the paticcasamuppada, usually translated as dependent origination, which will be the next topic explored. This recording is accompanied by the notes prepared for the presentation.
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by Peter Carlson | Jul 24, 2014 | Listen to Dharma Talks
While Peter’s wife is away for a week, he decided to practice integrating mindfulness more thoroughly into daily life routines. The primary changes included more meditation periods and more reading about Buddhist practices; otherwise, the routines were the same as before. During the talk, he reviewed various ways to increase the application of mindfulness during the day: the cultivation of samadhi/passadhi (concentration and tranquility) as a buffer against impulsive reactivity, using body awareness to interrupt intrusive unnecessary thoughts, and simply reflecting “Is _______ really that important or valuable right now?”, focused on distractions and intrusive thoughts. This was followed by dialogue with sangha members regarding ways to enhance daily practice of mindfulness. Next week’s talk will focus on understanding what sankhara (mental conditioners) are, related to understanding one of the Five Aggregates of Clinging, sankharakkhanda.
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by Peter Carlson | Jul 17, 2014 | Listen to Dharma Talks
During this talk, Peter explained how feeling and perception function, transitional between raw sense data and higher cognitive processes. When the mind isn’t well trained, feeling become craving and perception becomes clinging. There was a guided meditation to illustrated concretely how to recognize feeling as feeling and perception as perception, that is, phenomena that are not a self, not “I, me or mine”. This was followed by a lively discussion exploring the presentation. Next week, Peter will engage a “domestic retreat”, during which he will function in a normal way at home, enhanced by more frequent meditation practice and integration into daily life routines. This will be the topic for the next Dhamma dialogue.
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by Peter Carlson | Jul 10, 2014 | Listen to Dharma Talks
This dialogue is a continuation of the previous week’s discussion. During the discussion, Peter led a guided meditation on how to use the four elements contemplations to provide a consistent focus for interrupting the elaboration the mind creates in the “selfing story.” This exercise was followed by a sharing from the attending Sangha members regarding their experience during the exercise and discussion of how this practice can benefit the process of awakening. Next week’s exploration will include the contemplation of vedana (feeling) and sanna (perception), with the hope that this information will further the process of understanding the Five Aggregates of Clinging.
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by Peter Carlson | Jul 3, 2014 | Listen to Dharma Talks
Continuing the ongoing exploration of the Four Noble Truths, Peter described the concept of the Five Aggregates affected by clinging, which is referred to in the Fourth Foundation of Mindfulness teaching. Using a graphic illustration, he showed how the factors of perception and feeling create a “bridge” between incoming sense data and the further processing that occurs before conscious awareness (the graphic and accompanying notes are posted on the site as well). Without the benefit of mindfulness, concentration and tranquility, perception is biased and distorted by the conditioning factors, with the result that what is transitory and non-self is misperceived as enduring and a self. The practice of vipassana can reveal the misperception and reorient the energy of the mind toward clear awareness and benevolent intention. This is the process of awakening.
during the next dialogue, Peter will describe how a conceptual and experiential understanding of perception and feeling is contained within the doctrine of paticca samuppada, dependent origination. Peter will develop a different translation of this term, as “contingent provisional emergence”
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