Dhamma Talks
Reviewing Mindfulness of the Body
In the Four Foundations of Mindfulness Discourse, Mindfulness of the Body is the first of the four foundations. This talk reviews important elements of this teaching, including mindfulness of breathing meditation, mindfulness while involved in everyday activities and...
What Is Satipatthana?
This talk provides an overview of what most Buddhist practitioners consider to be the most comprehensive teaching, the Satipatthana Sutta, typically translated as the Four Foundations of Mindfulness Discourse. During the talk, the history of this discourse is...
Guided Satipatthana Contemplation
The Satipatthana Sutta, often translated as the Four Foundations of Mindfulness Discourse, is a key teaching in the various forms of Buddhism around the world. This guided meditation is intended to provide a contemplative review of the four categories: mindfulness of...
What Is Mindfulness?
Sati, the Pali word we translate as mindfulness, functions as a composite--present moment awareness combined with investigation and Right Effort. This interactive process is reviewed during this talk. Additionally, there is an interesting quote included in the talk...
Lezlie Laws’ Retreat Review
It is customary for our Sangha to provide the opportunity for those members who recently completed a residential retreat to talk about their experience. It fosters the integration of the meditative experience through "thinking out loud" and responding to questions...
Reviewing Right Effort
This talk is part of a series reviewing the Four Noble Truths. Right Effort is an important element of the Noble Eightfold Path and can be understood as a process of channeling the energy of attention away from unwholesome self-states towards wholesome self-states. ...
Guided Channeling Right Effort Meditation
This guided meditation offers a different approach to cultivating Right Effort by suggesting that, while meditating, we can view the flow of experience as metabolic energy derived from food and oxygen, that feeds the brain's activities. Rather than trying to "stop"...
Reviewing Right Livelihood
This talk reviews the third attribute of the Virtue aggregate in the Noble Eightfold Path, Right Livelihood. in addition to traditional renderings of this topic, contemporary considerations of "Right Lifestyle" are described, including the importance of physical and...
Reviewing Right Action
Right Action is a category of the Virtue Aggregate within the Noble Eightfold Path. This talk reviews the various traditional aspects of virtue--harmlessness, not stealing and not in ways that are sexually harmful--including commentaries that focus on contemporary...
Reviewing Right Speech In These Trying Times
This talk continues a review of the Four Noble Truths with a focus on the first of the Virtue Aggregates contained within the Fourth Noble Truth, Right Speech. In addition to the traditional rendering of Right Speech, Peter adds his insights as a psychotherapist...
