by Peter Carlson | Mar 7, 2013 | Listen to Dharma Talks
During this talk, Peter reviewed the classic Buddhist concepts of craving and clinging in the context of the Second Noble Truth. Special emphasis was placed on the insights of modern neuropsychological research that relates Buddhist notions of craving to the experience of addictive craving. The three aspects of spiritual progress were reviewed as well: craving and clinging are to be understood conceptually, brought directly into mindful awareness, and noting and renouncing craving and clinging is to be mastered. Next week, Peter will continue to explore the nature of the Second Noble Truth as regards clinging.
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by Peter Carlson | Feb 28, 2013 | Listen to Dharma Talks
It is our custom to dedicate the Wednesday night meeting after a significant retreat to discussing the retreat experiences. This meeting is the first one after a one week retreat at the Deerhaven Retreat Center. It is hoped that finding the words to describe the insights and skills acquired during the retreat to a well-informed and interested Sangha will help the yogi understand more clearly what happened, and make the insights and skills more accessible and useful. It’s also hoped that those hearing the reports will benefit from the information and perhaps be inspired to attend a retreat themselves.
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by Peter Carlson | Feb 27, 2013 | Intro to Buddhism & Meditation, Listen to Dharma Talks
Mindfulness of the body is a fundamental practice in the Buddhist tradition. Body awareness includes physical sensation as well as hearing, seeing, smelling and tasting. There’s nothing imaginative about sensation-mindfulness is most important as the process of mental association emerges. During the body sweep meditation, the attention is persistently focused on whatever sensation emerges on the surface of the body. Beginning with sensational awareness at the rim of the nostrils, in this guided meditation, Peter repeatedly suggests progressive awareness of sensation, moving over the facial area, then the scalp, the neck and so on, ending with the sensations noticeable in the feet. Finally, the meditator is invited to sit with open awareness for whatever sensations appear in the body. The value of this practice is that, when practiced repeatedly, sensations become evident all over the body, subtle tingling or vibrations, and this awareness provides a stable and ever-present foundational focus, from which the meditator can note the emergence of thoughts and emotions through vipassana practices.
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by Peter Carlson | Feb 26, 2013 | Listen to Dharma Talks
During this final night discussion, after Tommy talked about gratitude and generosity, Peter talked about how to continue to develop the practices of cultivation concentration and insight after leaving the retreat. He referred to several areas of lifestyle arrangements that are enhanced and clarified by continuing a daily practice. The cultivation of serenity was the most emphasized.
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by Peter Carlson | Feb 26, 2013 | Listen to Dharma Talks
During this talk Tommy gave some background information about the Buddhist concept of dana, translated as generosity. He related this as an outgrowth of gratitude for the clarity and relief brought about through intensive meditation practice. He emphasized the application of gratitude and generosity as important applications of Buddhism, and that generosity depends more on the degree of awareness of the practitioner. He mentioned some of the possible applications of generosity in life. This was followed by the closing night Dhamma talk provided by Peter
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by Peter Carlson | Feb 26, 2013 | Listen to Dharma Talks
During another extensive Dhamma dialogue, Peter explained that the cultivation of concentration (samadhi) creates a platform of non-reactivity around the emergence of self-states that might otherwise cause strong craving and clinging tendencies. The unintegrated personality lacks cohesiveness, that is, one’s stated goals are not matched by their actual behaviors. As the various self-states are less conflicted, or overwhelmed by strong emotional urgency, raga, the mind is better prepared to see internally that all self-states are fabrications. As these fabrications are observed dispassionately (viraga), then their provisional nature is realized, leading up through what are called the progressions of insight, eventually leading to the experience of awakening, called Nirvana. This was again followed by a very lively discussion of the process of awakening.
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