Dhamma Talks

Guided Sympathetic Joy Contemplation

This guided meditation focuses attention the cultivation of empathetic joy, which supports and celebrates the success and happiness of another sentient being.  This experience is most often related to the joy of another human, but can also be experienced regarding...

Cultivating Compassion

This talk reviews the second of the four Divine Abidings, Karuna, which emerges from the cultivation of lovingkindness.  Compassion involves developing mindful awareness of empathy regarding the experience of dukkha, distress and confusion, in one's subjective...

Guided Compassion Contemplation

This guided meditation provides a review of how to cultivate compassion through developing targets of focused attention: First, establish stability of attention and emotional tranquility through mindfulness of breathing meditation; second, cultivate lovingkindness;...

Cultivating Lovingkindness

This talk is the third in a series that review what are termed the "Divine Abidings".  The first talk is entitled "Reviewing the Brahma Viharas", and the second "Manifesting Equanimity"--both can be found in the archive.  Lovingkindness is an over-arching...

Reviewing The Brahma Viharas

The Brahma Viharas are better known as the Four Divine Abidings and include lovingkindness, compassion, sympathetic joy and equanimity.  Future meetings will review each of these qualities of consciousness individually, while this talk reviews the factor of skillfully...

Peter’s 2021 Year End Retreat Report

Peter has committed to two-week self-retreats for the last 15 years.  This talk reviews that experience during the retreat last December, using excerpts from Analayo's "Mindfulness of Breathing--a practice guide and translations" to complement what occurred during the...

Cultivating An Intentional Life

This last Dharma talk of 2021 builds on the previous week's review, "Working With Intentions", recorded on December 5th, 2021.  That talk emphasizes the core importance of intention, which can be associated with wholesomeness or unwholesomeness, depending upon the...

Working With Intention

This talk reviews the function of intention, which coordinates and initiates each moment of self-experience, whether wholesome or unwholesome. The ability to monitor and effectively manage intention to promote liberation from greed, hatred and ignorance is considered...