Dhamma Talks

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...

Buddhism Politics And Nonself

This week's talk continues to explore how Buddhist principles and practices can support developing wisdom in the current political environment.  Racism, sexism, homophobia and ethnophobia were described as themes woven into the fabric of political divisiveness.  The...

Mindfulness And Political Judgment

This talk continues to explore how Buddhist principles and practices can be beneficially applied during this contentious U. S. political season.  There is a phenomenon called "negativity bias", which predisposes a person to unconsciously be stimulated by potential...

Mindfulness Evolution And Politics

This seems to be a very conflicted year in our culture--economic and ecological upheaval, political divisiveness and hostility abound.  This talk begins a series of explorations of how the Four Noble Truths are relevant to current circumstances.  Peter proposed that...