by April Koester | Apr 17, 2025 | News
I have decided that the recommended reading for the next intensive study group is “The Issue at Hand—Essays on Buddhist Mindfulness Practice” by Gil Fronsdal. The book can be bought through Amazon or downloaded for free through this URL: https://www.insightmeditationcenter.org/books-articles/the-issue-at-hand/. The book is not very long and is divided into small chapters, but what the author writes is very congruent with my views about the Dharma and meditation practice. I think it will be fun and quite beneficial to have a series of discussions regarding what you are reading and how it applies to your meditation practice. As usual for this series, I encourage you to commit to daily meditation practice of at least 45 minutes—if that is hard for you, let’s talk about it! I hope to have individual interviews with each participant during every meeting, with time for general comments and questions between the interviews.
The format for the series of meetings is well-established: 8 weekly meetings on Saturday or Sunday afternoons from 3-4:30. I suggest a voluntary donation to the Orlando Insight Meditation Group of $160, paid either through the OIMG website or by sending a check made out to the Orlando Insight Meditation Group, sent to Peter Carlson, 1818 Carrigan Avenue, Winter Park, FL, 32789. If that is not affordable, please donate as much as you can, as this is the primary source of income for OIMG. I am not asking for any personal donation to me for the series.
Please respond to peter@orlandoinsightmeditation.org, as I would like the meetings to begin the weekend after the one-day retreat on May 10, which means the first meeting weekend would be May 17/18, and the last meeting July 5/6. The preferred number of participants in each group is 7, with the expectation that some folks will occasionally have other commitments and will miss a meeting. Please let me know which day you prefer but be willing to attend on a different day if that seems valuable for the group dynamics. We will not schedule the first meeting until I decide we have an appropriate number of participants; if there are not enough commitments, the meetings will occur on either Saturday or Sunday
Please contact me with any questions and email your commitments with your phone number ASAP in order to enroll even if I already have that information; I need the email address and phone number in case we need to reschedule a meeting. I wish you well. Peter
For more information call 407 339-5444 or email peter@orlandoinsightmeditation.org
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 April Koester | Mar 11, 2025 | News
The Psychology of Awakening
Buddhist Mindfulness of Breathing Meditation
Taught by
Peter Carlson
Presented by
The Orlando Insight Meditation Group at the
University Unitarian Universalist Fellowship
11648 McCulloch Rd, Orlando, FL 32817, near the UCF campus
Saturdays, 9:30-11 AM, April 12-May 3
These are stressful times, and years of careful research regarding mindfulness of breathing meditation practice has shown the benefits of this mental discipline for:
Relaxing muscle tension in the body
Experiencing greater emotional calmness
Reducing stress reactivity
Clarifying thought processes
This course is an introduction and review of Buddhist mindfulness of breathing meditation, providing students with effective training in stress management through an important teaching of the Buddha, “The Four Foundations of Mindfulness”.
There is no charge for this course, but donations of $60 are welcome, which will be shared 50/50 between OIMG and UUUF. There is no preregistration required, and we can only accept cash or checks made out to the Orlando Insight Meditation Group, a nonprofit corporation founded in 1993, by Peter, who has been teaching meditation since 1988.
For more information call 407 339-5444 or email peter@orlandoinsightmeditation.org
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)
