Dhamma Talks
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...
The Awakening Process
This talk summarizes the series of of explorations of Buddhist psychology with discussion about what are called "The Progressions of Insight", which describe observable mental experiences that show progress in the the process of liberation from distress and confusion,...
Right Understanding And Wisdom
This is the last talk that focuses on the mind conditioners called the cetasikas. The Topic is the last of the cetasikas, Right Understanding, frequently termed Wisdom. The previous wholesome cetasikas were briefly reviewed to provide a conceptual context for...
The Virtuous Cetasikas
This talk focused on the mind conditioners associated with virtue, that is, Right Speech, Right Action, Right Livelihood, Compassion and Sympathetic Joy. The maturing of the wholesome cetasikas presents the virtues of the Noble Eightfold Path as being organized...
