This guided meditation provides a review of the characteristics of the Five Aggregates of Clinging, which is described in the Fourth Foundation of Mindfulness. It is intended to supplement the Dharma talk of the same evening that reviews this topic.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 44:56 — 41.1MB)
This guided meditation provides training in monitoring how feelings affect the mind and the ways mindfulness of feelings can regulate impulsive reactivity.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 44:56 — 41.1MB)
This talk expands a review of the Four Clear Comprehensions, an important Buddhist concept, that was mentioned during the talk entitled “Mindful Consumerism” on December 7, 2022 and found in this site’s archives. The Four Clear Comprehensions provides a formula for decision making that originated as a spiritual pathway towards Awakening; this is still valid and important, but the emphasis during this talk is focused on using the formula for decision making regarding mundane lifestyle issues related to personal, social, environmental as well as spiritual issues. During the talk, participants are invited to write down the four aspects and then apply them–some participants shared their efforts.
Here are the notes prepared for this talk: Mindful Decision Making
The topic for next week’s talk will be on how Buddhist practice can be associated with the Winter Solstice, as the meeting will occur that day.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:01:59 — 56.8MB)
Contemporary life is inescapably affected by sophisticated indoctrination to create a reliable population of consumers, and the Christmas season is the strongest manifestation of this conditioning. While we can’t avoid the presence of advertising, product placement and social media conditioning, the application of the Four Noble Truths can be effectively applied to foster Awakening from compulsive consumption. This talk reviews the varieties of dukkha we and the world at large experience as the First Noble Truth, not only as distress and confusion in terms of material goods and services, but also through social media, such as Q anon. Dukkha also manifests in terms of global warming and environmental degradation. The nature of craving and clinging, the Second Noble Truth, is described as lifelong exposure to unquestioned propaganda in our lifestyles through commercial marketing as well as the misinformation and propaganda embedded in entertainment and social media. The Third Noble Truth can be realized as effective adaptation to changing world circumstances–a diminished “carbon footprint” and wiser choices regarding sociocultural issues. The Fourth Noble Truth, the Noble Eightfold Path, is reviewed as a way to effectively adapt through the cultivation of Wisdom, Virtue and Training.
Here are the notes prepared for this talk: Mindful Consumerism
The topic for next week’s talk is how atapi sati sampajanna, diligent mindful clear comprehension, can be effectively and beneficially applied to the issues of consumerism described during this talk.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:07:51 — 62.1MB)
This talk was recorded on Thanksgiving Eve, as it is customary for our group to have the opportunity to reflect on gratitude regarding the benefits of studying Buddhist concepts and cultivating mindfulness of breathing meditation. Various excerpts were quoted that validate the health and mental well-being that is developed through daily gratitude reflections and how important cultivating these states of mind are for effectively maintaining a positive sense of life in these stressful times. The quotes and supportive comments are followed by comments by some of those present in person or via Zoom that reflect gratitude for how his or her life has benefited from regular meditation practice.
Here are the notes prepared for this talk: Mindfulness and Gratitude
This talk was preceded by a “Guided Gratitude Contemplation”, which was recorded and posted in the Guided Meditation page of this website.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 47:23 — 43.4MB)
This talk continues an extensive review of the Fourth Foundation of Mindfulness, focusing on a Buddhist theory of personality, the Five Aggregates of Clinging. This concept provides a way to investigate the impersonal nature of one’s subjective experience, leading to insight regarding anatta, the absence of an enduring and autonomous self. The concept does not suggest that one’s personality is blank, rather that the self-experience is a process that coordinates the interactions between external stimuli and internal interpretive processes. This psychological discipline provides opportunities to investigate how the sense of self forms and can therefore be modified to provide a “better fit” for changing environmental circumstances, a useful skill in these trying times.
The complementary “Guided Five Aggregates Contemplation”, recorded the same night as this talk, is found in the Audio Archive of this site.
Here are the notes prepared for this talk: Five Aggregates of Clinging Review
The topic for next week’s review is the core Buddhist concept “Dependent Origination”. During the talk, a more contemporary rendering of the concept will be provided, “Contingent Provisional Emergence”.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:06:23 — 60.8MB)