by Peter Carlson | Jul 26, 2012 | Listen to Dharma Talks
Beginning with a long excerpt from the Kalama Sutta, Peter emphasized the Buddha’s teaching on personal validation of the concepts within Buddhism. The Kalamas were a tribe of critical thinkers who enjoyed challenging priests and philosophers regarding their presentations to the tribe. The Buddha exhorted them to not take anything on face value, but instead to validate or invalidate a particular self-state through mindfulness, organized around the ethics described in the Five Precepts: not to kill, steal, misbehave sexually, speak deceptively or hurtfully, and to not intoxicate the body/mind. The group was challenged to examine carefully how they can assess in their own experience how, for example, hostility toward an insect might be acceptable–but then, where does one draw the line? What is it about your direct, immediate experience that forms your response? The dialogue was so engaging and lively that it was agreed to continue the discussion at the next meeting.
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by Peter Carlson | Jul 19, 2012 | Listen to Dharma Talks
The Jataka Tales are Buddhist teachings on ethics in the form of a story. They’re quite numerous, and have been retold over the centuries in different cultures. Judy told the story of the Elephant King (except she renamed the main character “The Elephant Queen”). In this story, the insatiable quality of greed was contrasted with the total surrender to compassion and generosity on the part of the Elephant Queen.
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by Peter Carlson | Jul 13, 2012 | Listen to Dharma Talks
During this dialogue, Tommy described the development of dana, which is the Pali word translated as generosity. He talked of the value the Buddha placed on generosity as a fundamental way to cultivate renunciation, the ongoing process of letting go of attachments. During his presentation, he cited several examples of how he had experienced the benefits of generosity in his life.
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by Peter Carlson | Jul 5, 2012 | Listen to Dharma Talks
Since this meeting occurred on July 4, Peter talked about the Buddhist approach to “…life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”. We explored the concept of the Middle Path, between agitation and sedation, too much faith/rigidity and too much skepticism/disorganization. Peter emphasized that the application of mindfulness cultivates equanimity, a dynamic process of balancing energy and cognition, guided by benevolent intention.
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by Peter Carlson | Jun 28, 2012 | Listen to Dharma Talks
As is our custom, after a retreat, the participants have the opportunity to “think out loud” about their retreat experiences, and how being at home has been affected by the intensive meditation practices. It’s also hoped that the folks who weren’t at the retreat might benefit from the insights of the retreatants, and perhaps inspired to go on retreat themselves. This year’s retreat, called “A Peaceful Abiding”, lasted from Friday night until Sunday lunch, and had the most participants ever on a retreat sponsored by OIMG.
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by Peter Carlson | Jun 21, 2012 | Listen to Dharma Talks
During this dialogue, Tim explored the importance of paticca sammupada, typically translated as dependent origination. This core concept of the Buddha’s teachings describes how karma (past experience) shapes our perceptions and responses in current events, followed by our behavioral responses. After the karmic influence is enacted, the result (called vipakka) goes back into our memory banks until new circumstances occur that have enough potency to re-enact the karma. During the dialogue, Peter commented on how the process changed toward alleviating suffering when mindfulness monitors the emergence of the karmic influence, determines whether it’s wholesome or unwholesome, and responds accordingly to discard the unwholesome and enact wholesome actions.
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