by Peter Carlson | Apr 10, 2025 | News
During this talk, Lezlie Laws uses references to several books on contemplative stillness to develop greater conceptual understanding of the characteristic of the mind when unburdened by craving and clinging. She also shares the insights regarding stillness she realized while attending to the recent passing of her beloved dog Dash. This talk was preceded by a guided meditation entitled “Guided Stillness Contemplation”, which is posted within the Guided Meditation folder in the archives.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:07:31 — 61.8MB)
by Peter Carlson | Apr 10, 2025 | News
Lezlie Laws provides useful suggestions for cultivating insights regarding stillness, a stable and non-reactive characteristic of the mind during meditation practice. This recording is intended to provide support for discussion of stillness during the Dharma talk that followed this meditation titled “The Contemplation of Stillness”.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 45:10 — 41.3MB)
by Peter Carlson | Mar 13, 2025 | News
During this talk, April reviews what Buddhism calls “the Four Divine Abidings”: lovingkindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity. She uses a translation of the Metta Sutta, the Lovingkindness Discourse as a guideline for her review. Her presentation includes questions and comments from those participating.
Here are April’s notes regarding the topic: The Four Divine Abodes Dharma talk notes (1)
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:06:23 — 60.8MB)
by Peter Carlson | Mar 6, 2025 | News
During this talk, Peter describes his favorite etymology of the word dukkha. He then talks at length about the concepts of duality and non-duality, described as a progression from the simple action of intending to monitor the sensations that occur while breathing to a realization that there is no enduring/autonomous self, and the direct realization of that manifests as non-duality. Other questions about meditation practice are also discussed.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:02:34 — 57.3MB)
by Peter Carlson | Feb 20, 2025 | News
One meeting each month is intended to provide an opportunity for those attending to ask Peter questions about Buddhist concepts and meditation practice. He has been studying and practicing Buddhism for over 40 years, and enjoys the dialogue involved in these discussions. Among the topics discussed during this talk are the importance of intentions that are associated with the targeted focused attention on various meditation subjects, and the relationship between ethics and spiritual development.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:01:03 — 55.9MB)
by Peter Carlson | Feb 13, 2025 | News
During this talk, Allie Vaknin reviewed the three elements of Dukkha–embodied suffering, the suffering the mind creates, and the suffering due to the unpredictability of change. Her description is accompanied by various comments regarding current sociopolitical stresses described by those participating in the meeting.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 56:22 — 51.6MB)
