Dhamma Talks
Karma And The Five Hindrances
During this talk on the second night of the 2014 one week retreat, Peter talked of the contemporary views on karma, relating this to the characteristics of the five hindrances. Ways to use the skills developed during the retreat to set the hindrances aside were...
2014 Retreat Introductory Report
During this talk, the first night of the annual one week retreat, Peter revisited the meaning of "retreat", "the three refuges" and the concept of the precepts from a contemporary perspective. The importance of silence was emphasized, both external and internal. He...
Mindful Breathing And Insight
This Dhamma dialogue reviews three levels of awareness related to mindfulness of breathing and how they interact with the practice of vipassana, that is, insight into the impermanent and selfless nature of personal experience. The first level is simply being aware...
Peter’s 2014 Year-end Retreat Report
As is the custom, this evening's talk is a review of Peter's two week self-retreat. During the talk, he quoted from Achaan Chah: "Life brings suffering. The untrained mind turns suffering into more suffering. The trained mind turns suffering into the path that...
2013 Franciscan Retreat Review
It is our custom to dedicate the meeting after sangha members have participated in a significant retreat experience to talking about each person's insights and experience. Peter briefly described the format of the retreat, which was progressively more intimate...
Why? How? Who?
Why do we practice meditation? How do we practice meditation? Who practices meditation? During this dialogue, these questions were explored by the sangha members, to increase practice skills and facilitate integrating these skills into daily life. The final...
Thanksgiving 2013
It's our custom to devote the meeting on Thanksgiving Eve to shared experiences on how Buddhist practices foster gratitude, and how gratitude fosters generosity, which the Buddha regarded as the foremost of the qualities we develop as the awakening process unfolds. ...
Mindfulness Of Breathing Guided Meditation with Question and Answer Dialogues
During this meeting, Peter provided a guided meditation regarding breath awareness that tracks the progression of focus on the sensations of breathing from the simple awareness "this is the in-breath...this is the out-breath" to cultivate continuity of breath...
Mindfulness of the Body
This talk focuses on the practice of Right Mindfulness in the Noble Eightfold Path discourse. Peter emphasizes how finding a neutral feeling like breath awareness provides a stabilizing point of reference that can interrupt the escalation from an initial stimulus...
The Precepts As Commitments
During this dialogue, Peter reviewed previous dialogues on The Power Of Commitment and the Five Precepts, hoping to foster a different perspective on the precepts. In the history of Buddhism, the precepts are worded as "abstentions", that is, behaviors that are to be...
