by Peter Carlson | Aug 15, 2019 | Listen to Dharma Talks
This talk focuses on the arguably epidemic levels of anxiety Americans experience in these stressful times and what mindfulness of breathing meditation can offer as a way to manage the increasingly complex and uncertain aspects of contemporary life. Peter has implemented mindfulness strategies as a mental health professional to help clients cope with various anxiety disorders for over thirty years. The emphasis on the talk is on the correlation between the Buddhist concept of craving and the feelings of impulsive reactivity characteristic of anxiety disorders. Even though the core of Buddhist practice seeks liberation from the fundamental dukkha of life, modern research and clinical practice demonstrates the effectiveness of mindfulness and lovingkindness practices for overcoming anxiety as well as depression. The discussion was followed by discussion of how participants experience anxiety and how regular meditation practice has been beneficial.
Here are the notes prepared for this talk: Dukkha As Anxiety
Next week’s discussion will focus on Dukkha as Depression.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 59:43 — 109.4MB)
by Peter Carlson | Aug 8, 2019 | Listen to Dharma Talks
This talk is focused on the second of the two causes of dukkha which is clinging, upadana in Pali; last week’s posting of July 31 was focused on the other cause of dukkha, craving, tanha in Pali. Peter described ego as a dynamic process of the brain during which sorting through and prioritizing various sensory stimuli in the creation creates a “self”, emphasizing that this process is affected by “confirmation bias”, a psychological process which overrides new considerations, emphasizing already organized memories in self-state identifications. This is clinging, and it inevitably creates a more or less confusing conflict between what the mind creates from memory and what actually happens. He used the example of a personality organized around prior conditioning towards perfectionism that is adversely affected when a failure occurs, generalizing a mistake into “I am a stupid failure!”.
A Buddhist concept called sunnata (soon-yah-tah) was described, traditionally translated as emptiness, which misrepresents the term as similar to the space between stars. It is better understood as, for example, the absence of any determining description regarding sound before being interpreted by the mind’s confirmation bias. Referring to a concept that Daniel Siegel terms the “plane of possibility”, the progression of self-forming process was related to as being clearly investigated and understood through the cultivation of mindfulness of breathing, which allows insight into more creative and flexibly adaptive self-state organizing processes to alleviate the conflicted personality confusion of dukkha.
Here are the notes prepared for this talk: Dukkha As Mental Confusion
Next week’s talk will focus on clinical anxiety as a pschological example of dukkha, suggesting ways that mindfulness practices can bring relief to this mental disorder. Peter, who has a 35 year background in psychotherapy, will focus on how mindfulness has been clinically effective in resolving this condition, which is reaching epidemic proportions in current American culture.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:00:58 — 111.6MB)
by Peter Carlson | Aug 1, 2019 | Listen to Dharma Talks
This talk is the first of two addressing the problem of dukkha in current life. The first talk addresses craving, using the term distress to relate to subjective experience in this media-saturated consumer culture. Stress has two forms emotionally: distress refers to unpleasant experience and eustress refers to the stress associated with pleasant experience; Peter pointed out that consumerism cultivates distress through comparing one’s current life with the “happiness” that will come from consuming whatever is being advertised. Both distress and eustress generate adrenaline and cortisol, two hormones that activate the body; chronically high levels of cortisol are associated with stress-related disorders of the body and to clinical anxiety. During the talk, Peter emphasized how daily mindfulness of breathing practice lowers both circumstantial levels of stress and the cumulative effects of chronic stress, using the image of “The last straw that broke the camel’s back”, comparing the accumulation of stress to all the straws that preceded the last straw. Mindfulness practices generally lower stress, making it less likely to accumulate the “straws” of current life.
This talk was followed by discussion regarding contemporary stresses such as economic worries, the threats of mass violence, ecological changes, political strife and racial tension, with commentary about how to apply mindfulness practice to alleviating the distress and confusion that results from being deluged by contemporary media.
Next week’s talk will emphasize clinging, which Peter refers to as confusion, relating this to the complexity of modern life and the conflict between the ideal self and the immediate experience of confusion and doubt when the ideal isn’t achievable, suggesting ways that mindful investigation can clarify experience.
Here are the notes prepared for this talk and include statistical data regarding the levels of stress experienced in U.S. lifestyles: STRESS AND THE DHAMMA
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:00:07 — 110.1MB)
by Peter Carlson | Jul 25, 2019 | Listen to Dharma Talks
This talk is the first in a series that focuses on representing contemporary cultural distress as dukkha, the fundamental dissatisfaction we all experience. Peter reviewed the three forms of dukkha described by the Buddha: dukkha due to physical discomfort, dukkha due to mental fabrication and dukkha due to the impermanent fluctuations of life circumstances. During the next several weeks various causes and conditions conducive to dukkha such as consumerism and the rapidly escalating nature of modern media will be described relative to the practice of mindfulness of breathing meditation. Peter, through his training and experience as a mental health professional, made a distinction between the mental health benefits of regular meditation practice and the truly liberating goal of the practice which is the transformative experience of nirvana, the unconditioned. Mental health is a foundation through which liberation can be realized.
Here are the notes prepared for this talk: Awakening Through Distress and Confusion
Next week’s talk will focus on current levels of stress experience in this culture, using contemporary statistical data.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:00:57 — 111.6MB)
by Peter Carlson | Jul 11, 2019 | Listen to Dharma Talks
This talk is a final review of the series of discussions begun on January 10 of this year that focuses on the Anapanasati Sutta, the Mindfulness of Breathing Discourse. The discussion used quotes from the Sutta to clarify points regarding the concepts and practices of anapanasati. Peter emphasized the emphasis the Buddha placed on cultivating a wholesome lifestyle with a strong commitment to daily meditation practice, “ardent, alert and mindful”. The review is intended to relate the practice of breath awareness described as involving 16 stages to the development of a more integrated personality (the mundane or worldly goal) and then to the full realization of Awakening (the supramundane or liberation goal). As the 16 stages are brought to maturity, the meditation student realizes the full potential of the Satipatthana, the Four Foundations of Mindfulness, particularly the Seven Awakening Factors.
The review was followed by discussion among those attending regarding the application of anapanasati to their benefit.
Here are the notes prepared for this talk: Anapanasati Final Review and Commentary
Here is a copy of Thanissaro Bhikkhu’s translation of the Anapanasati Sutta, referred to during the talk: Mindfulness of Breathing (full) Thanissaro
Next week’s talk will be conducted by Daniel Logan and focused on this topic:
What’s the story of your spiritual practice? In this week’s dharma discussion we’ll engage in a participatory exercise known as currere. Currere is an autobiographical method of reflecting upon one’s experience through a subjective and narrative framework. Participants will be guided through the process of reflecting upon past, present, and future experiences related to their practice, and they will be encouraged to frame these experiences in a manner that serves to strengthen their practice. This method was pioneered by educational theorist William Pinar and has found broad application in professional, curricular, and spiritual education settings. So come prepared to share your story with a fellow meditator and perhaps with the group at large. (For inspiration, feel free to read these profiles of Sharon Salzberg and Jack Kornfield from Lion’s Roar.)
The following week’s discussion will begin a series of talks exploring how mindfulness and lovingkindness practices can be beneficially applied to coping with the complexity and stress of contemporary life.
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by Peter Carlson | Jul 4, 2019 | Listen to Dharma Talks
This topic reviews the fulfillment of the Seven Awakening Factors in the seventh of them, Upekkha Bojjhanga, the Equanimity Awakening Factor. Upekkha doesn’t represent uncaring indifference but rather the ability to be aware of emotional responses to situations without being identified with them as a “self” and without being impulsively reactive. The term upekkha is synonymous with tatramajjhattata, a Buddhist concept conveying the “finding the middle” balancing function that manifests when the Seven Awakening Factors are in optimal dynamic harmony: not too much or too little energy, with a balance that avoids rigid mental identification and complete skepticism. The explanation was followed by vigorous discussion among those attending regarding the benefits of cultivating equanimity for everyday living in the workplace and parenting.
Here are the notes prepared for this talk: THE EQUANIMITY AWAKENING FACTOR
Next week’s talk will review the fulfillment potential realized through mastery of mindfulness of breathing as described in the Anapanasati Sutta and will be the final discussion of this important Buddhist teaching.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:07:15 — 123.1MB)
