Dhamma Talks
Stages Of Breath Awareness
The evening's activities included a guided meditation posted below: "Looking Closer Meditation.mp3", during which Peter provided suggestions supporting a more persistent and intimate awareness regarding the sensations of breathing. During the talk following the guided...
Why We Meditate
During this talk, Peter provided the participants with a worksheet: MOTIVATIONS FOR MEDITATION. On this sheet, folks were invited to note three considerations: the benefits of meditation, ways to reinforce commitments to daily meditation practice, and ways to...
Peter’s 2016 Year End Retreat Review
We provide an opportunity for those in the Orlando Insight meditation community who have recently completed a residential meditation retreat a chance to "think out loud" about their experience. Research suggests that much of what happens on retreats impacts the...
Deerhaven 2016 Seventh Night Talk
This talk, during the last night of the retreat, focuses on how to continue to cultivate the process of awakening at home. The results of a one week retreat endure, but the ongoing influence of persistent mindfulness practice is subtle. Factors that contribute to...
Deerhaven 2016 Sixth Night Talk
As the process of vipassana matures, the Seven Awakening Factors are developed to their fullest potential: Mindfulness, Investigation of Mental Phenomena, Energy/Effort, Joy/Enthusiastic Interest, Tranquility, Concentration and Equanimity/Internal Balance. This talk...
Deerhaven 2016 Fifth Night Talk
This talk fosters understanding a key concept of the Buddhist process of awakening, paticca samuppadha, typically translated as dependent origination. Peter develops a different understanding of this concept, contingent provisional emergence. This view is intended...
Deerhaven 2016 Fourth Night Talk
The core mental conditions to foster liberation through the practice of vipassana are called the "Seven Factors For Awakening": mindfulness, investigation of mental phenomena, energy/effort, joy/enthusiastic interest, tranquility, concentration and equanimity. This...
Deerhaven 2016 Third Night Talk
This talk focuses on cultivating samadhi/passadhi more consistently, with the intention of manifesting access concentration, the flow of internal experience that is unburdened by the Five Hindrances. Access concentration is an optimal self-state organization for...
Deerhaven 2016 Second Night Talk
This talk focused on recognizing and overcoming the Five Hindrances: sense desire, aversion/ill-will, sloth and torpor, restlessness and worry and skeptical doubt. The main strategy for this is persistently aiming attention at the onset of breathing in, sustaining...
Deerhaven 2016 First Night Talk
This was the introductory talk for the annual one week retreat. Traditionally, Buddhist retreats begin with "Taking refuge in the Buddha, Dhamma and Sangha" and "The Five Precepts". Peter described the intention of "taking refuge" and "the precepts" through a...
