Dhamma Talks

2016 Franciscan Retreat Review

During this talk, several people who participated in the annual weekend residential retreat at the Franciscan Center in Tampa reviewed their experience during and after the retreat.  It is hoped that the opportunity to "think out loud" about the experience, perhaps...

Occasional Mind Conditioners

During this talk, the exploration of the 52 cetasikas, categories that condition how the mind creates a self continues.  The focus is the Universal Cetasikas, that is mind conditioning categories that occasionally coordinate with the Universal Cetasikas.  These...

Universal Mind Conditioners

This talk continues to explore the functioning of the cetasikas, the categories of factors that condition the mind.  The focus this week in on the "Universal Cetasikas", that is, the cetasikas that cooperate in the formation of a self in every moment of consciousness:...

Feelings And Perceptions

This talk continues the exploration of the Abhidhamma, Buddhist psychology, focused on the first two of the 52 cetasikas (categories of mental function), vedana (feelings) and sanna (perceptions).  These factors provide a bridge between sensory stimulation and the way...

Abhidhamma A Psychology For Awakening

During this talk, Peter described the Abhidhamma, the Buddhist approach to psychology.  A distinction was made between the term cetasika, which is a category where memories are "stored" and sankhara, the content of the stored memory.  This analysis was followed with a...

How Selfing Operates

This talk adds to the discussion from last week, which focused on the Five Aggregates With Clinging doctrine.  This week's topic is paticca sammupada, typically translated as dependent origination.  Peter applies a new translation, contingent provisional emergence,...

Five Aggregates With Clinging

This talk provides a review of pancasammupada, the Five Aggregates With Clinging, an important Buddhist concept describing how personality is organized.  When Peter was in Graduate School, part of the required curriculum was a course on personality theory, citing such...

Cultivating Critical Analysis

Critical analysis is often termed critical thinking, and is a very important skill to cultivate in this era, as we are constantly bombarded with manipulative advertising and political "spin".  In the Buddhist conceptual structure, one of the 7 factors for awakening is...