by Peter Carlson | Apr 29, 2016 | Listen to Dharma Talks
Last week’s discussion was organized around how stressful contemporary life is, compared to the largely agrarian cultures that characterized the earliest centuries of what is now called Buddhism. The results of culturally induced stress in this consumeristic era were emphasized. This week’s topic was the prevalence of anxiety (18% of Americans were diagnotically anxious in 2007, the latest data found on the internet while preparing this talk; this was before the economic stress of 2008 and beyond!). Peter described the Buddhist perspective on anxiety, again related to the first and second noble truths, that is, stress and how craving and clinging bring about stress. This was followed by quotes from a recent peer reviewed research article, “Neural Correlates Of Mindfulness Meditation-Related Anxiety Relief”, published in 2013, which correlated the difference between “state” and “trait” anxiety and the neurological processes that occur.
Suggestions were offered regarding how the regular practice of mindfulness of breathing meditation can reduce the frequency, intensity and duration of anxiety. Peter also described the varieties of clinical anxiety, which are reviewed in this document: ANXIETY FROM A BUDDHIST PERSPECTIVE
Next week’s discussion will focus on depression from a Buddhist perspective.
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by Peter Carlson | Apr 21, 2016 | Listen to Dharma Talks
The Buddhist First Noble Truth, the reality of dukkha, was described in contemporary terms. The traditional translation of dukkha is “suffering”; modern commentators prefer words such as “stress”, “insufficiency”, and “dissatisfaction”, among others, to describe current cultural experience. Peter talked of the increasingly stressful characteristic of modern cultures, with the imposed stressors of consumerism and media indoctrination, and the impact stress has on the human body/mind process. This was related to the Five Hindrances, with emphasis on the hindrance of restlessness/worry.
The ways and means that Buddhism provides relief from contemporary stress was described, followed by lively discussion of what this means to those attending the meeting.
Here are the notes prepared for this presentation: STRESS AND THE DHAMMA The notes provide data on the prevalence and impact on contemporary society as a result of stress, derived from the National Institute for Mental Health, a governmental organization.
Next week’s topic will address the issues associated with anxiety, from a Buddhist perspective as well as various levels of clinical anxiety disorders.
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by Peter Carlson | Apr 14, 2016 | Listen to Dharma Talks
During this talk, Peter describes how mindfulness meditation supports the development of “Emotional Intelligence”, which is the title of a book written by Daniel Goleman. Emotional intelligence provides internal resources such as self-awareness, self-regulation, self-motivation and empathy to foster social competency.
Here are the notes prepared for this talk: MINDFULNESS AND EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE
Next week’s talk will focus on how mindfulness effectively addresses the range of anxiety from restless agitation to panic attacks.
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by Peter Carlson | Apr 8, 2016 | Listen to Dharma Talks
After a retreat, we set aside one evening’s talk for reviewing the experience. Much of what happens during a retreat is not clearly registered in the mind; talking about the retreat with well-informed people helps clarify the gains from the intensive practice and the skills gained are more generally accessible. It is also often the case that those hearing of the benefits of retreat experience are inspired to participate in future retreats.
Recently Peter watched an episode of “Super Soul Sunday”, during which Oprah interviewed Daniel Goleman about “Emotional Intelligence”. This inspired him to revisit the book, which will be the topic of next week’s Wednesday night meeting.
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by Peter Carlson | Mar 31, 2016 | Listen to Dharma Talks
This talk concludes a series of explorations of the neuroscientific discoveries about how mindfulness of breathing meditation restructures important neural pathways during the process of awakening. The topic for this discussion reviews some of the progressive steps in mindful breath awareness as they are manifested in important neural pathways to promote samadhi/passadhi (stable attention/emotional balance), and how that supports vipassana (insight) during the process of awakening.
Next week’s discussion will begin a series of explorations of how various difficult mental processes such as depression, anxiety, addiction and substance abuse are beneficially addressed by mindfulness and lovingkindness meditation practices.
Here are the notes prepared for this talk: NEUROPHYSIOLOGY AND MINDFULNESS OF BREATHING
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by Peter Carlson | Mar 24, 2016 | Listen to Dharma Talks
This talk and discussion continues exploring last week’s review of what research is revealing about what happens in the brain to manifest consciousness and a sense of self. The focus of the current night was on what happens in the brain when Buddhist mindfulness of breathing training is applied to strengthen the neurological functions to manage self-awareness and self-regulation, fostering the process of awakening from greed, aversion and ignorance.
The intention of the explanation is to increase understanding that there are two processes that mindfulness effectively cultivates: a “top-down” function that becomes aware of distorted and dysfunctional self-talk and substitutes more adaptive and functional internal narratives (equivalent to modern cognitive psychotherapy), and a “bottom-up” function that focuses on the feeling tone generated by the emotional and motivational structures of the limbic brain system, disregarding any self-talk, to just experience “feeling as feeling” to decrease impulsive reactivity, as described in the second foundation of mindfulness. This second function is more in line with traditional Buddhist teachings on the path to awakening.
This was followed by discussion among those present for clarification and sharing of how this applies to lived experience.
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