Dhamma Talks
Brian’s Retreat Review
As is our custom, one of the sangha members, Brian Tamm, talked about two recent retreat experiences: a 10 day retreat in the manner taught be S. N. Goenka, followed by a weekend retreat in the Korean Zen tradition. He described the daily practice schedules followed...
The Benefits Of Perfecting Determination
This week's talk focused on the Parami of Determination (Adhitthana in Pali). The current English word determination can have two applications: the first is resolve or commitment and the second is the ability to be clear about what delineates an object (an example...
The Benefits Of Perfecting Truthfulness
This talk focuses on the Parami of Truthfulness (Sacca in Pali). Truth is a core concept of Buddhism, most importantly at the core of the Four Noble Truths. The traditional application of this Parami relates to verbal action, that is, Right Speech. In this talk,...
Buddhism And Existentialism by Armando Garcia
This week's talk involved a guest speaker, Armando Garcia, who recently wrote a book entitled "Buddhism & Existentialism-Not Self, Nothingness And Being". This was the topic of the evening's discussion. Armando explained the basic assumptions of existentialism,...
The Benefits Of Perfecting Patience
Patience is the ability to train the mind to be non-reactive enough over a period of time for effective, mindful investigation to function well. Most often, impatience is driven by urgency and attachment to an expected outcome, and is experienced as reactive...
The Benefits Of Perfecting Right Effort And Persistence
This week's talk focuses on the perfection of viriya, typically translated as Energy/Right Effort/Persistence. Peter described contemporary understanding of energy as the provision of glucose and oxygen to the neural pathways associated with wholesome or unwholesome...
The Benefits Of Perfecting Wisdom
This discussion continues to explore the qualities of mental functioning called Paramis (or Paramitas in Sanskrit), and the focus is on Wisdom (Panna, pronounced pahn-yah). This quality represents the product of the application of the Noble Eightfold Path, that is,...
Renunciation Exercise
This evening's project is to use the worksheet attached below to list various beliefs, values and expectations we experience on a hierarchical scale, in order to practice noticing how craving and clinging occurs as well as how to activate and strengthen nekkhamma,...
The Benefits Of Renunciation
This talk explores the benefits of the Parami of renunciation, which is the ability to disregard any self-state organization that interferes with the process of liberation from distress and confusion. Peter quoted excerpts from an article that describes different...
The Value Of Virtue
This continues a series of discussions regarding the Paramis, the qualities of the mind to be perfected in support of the awakening process. Tonight's topic is Sila (pronounced shelah), virtue. During the talk, Peter read excerpts from the Sigalavada Sutta, within...
