by Peter Carlson | Aug 25, 2016 | Listen to Dharma Talks
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, which connects the ancient Buddhist doctrine to modern theories regarding the complexity of the brain’s functioning. The twelve functions of paticca sammupada were listed and briefly reviewed to clarify how the brain creates a meaningful self organizing process relative to what external circumstantial stimulation provides. This review was followed by discussion about the implications of this conceptual understanding for fostering a less stressful self experience.
This exploration continues next week with a further elaboration of paticca sammupada, which is regarded as a core concept on the Buddhist path towards liberation from distress and confusion. Here are the notes prepared for this discussion: Contingent Provisional Emergence. Participants are encouraged to read the notes to further familiarize with the twelve functions of this concept in order to understand this complex concept more thoroughly. Next week’s talk will “dive deeper” into the doctrine to clarify the ways it might be psychologically and spiritually beneficial.
Here is an additional .doc file that replicates the Cetasikas poster on the wall of the meditation hall, referred to during the discussion: CETASIKAS POSTER
by Peter Carlson | Jul 16, 2015 | Listen to Dharma Talks
This talk introduces a new topic, the Tibetan Buddhist Lojong trainings. These trainings were developed around the year 1,000 C.E. to support integrating Buddhist principles and practices into daily life routines. The core of Buddhist teaching is compassion, that is, the path leading to liberation from distress. This core practice is integrated into Lojong through Tonglen, which is a Tibetan compassion meditation. The most famous contemporary representative of the benefits of Lojong is Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama.
The talk provides an overview of the training; over the next several weeks, different training points will be explored. Peter’s approach to this training is an attempt to make the archaic nature of the training aphorisms more understandable for contemporary American meditation students.
The notes prepared for this talk will be posted after this posting.
by Peter Carlson | Jun 4, 2015 | Listen to Dharma Talks
This recording introduces a new topic for ongoing discussion and application. The typical translation of dukkha has been “suffering”; many modern students of Buddhism prefer the term “stress” as being more appropriate for our culture. During the talk, Peter described the psychological and biological aspects of stress, the cultural values that produce stress and the prevalence of current stress and stress-related physical, interpersonal and psychological problems recently discovered by researchers.
Following this post the notes prepared for the presentation will be posted.
Over the next several meetings the various manifestations of stress will be explored from psychological and Buddhist perspectives. Next week’s discussion will describe anxiety in the culture, reviewing the characteristics of anxiety, what happens to a person suffering from anxiety, and what Buddhism has to offer as a factor for alleviating anxiety.
by Peter Carlson | Mar 14, 2014 | Listen to Dharma Talks
This is the second of two talks about the importance of the practice of mindfulness of feelings. During this talk, Peter reviewed paticca samuppada, usually translated as dependent origination. A new rendering of the term was explained, that is, contingent provisional emergence, with clarification of the non-linear, mutually influential functions that affect how the mind overlays a provisional interpretation of raw sense data input, thereby creating a “selfing moment”. In this creative process, attention becomes fixated on a particular feeling and perception, creating the craving and clinging dynamic that is the driving force of our distresses about life. Mindfulness of feelings as feelings allows the skilled meditator to avoid “personalizing” the emerging self-organization, providing relief from craving and clinging.
by Peter Carlson | Aug 8, 2013 | Listen to Dharma Talks
Continuing the series of dhamma dialogues regarding the Four Noble Truths, this talk begins exploring what is traditionally called Right Livelihood, part of the virtue aggregate of the Eightfold Path. As previously, Peter emphasized the importance of developing new ways of describing the concepts of Buddhism that are more accessible in the modern era. Because our culture is more complex and has more variable stressors, more categories are presented; the focus of next week’s dialogue will be Benevolent Relationships. Of course, even though the concepts can be described or categorized differently because the stressors are different, our nervous systems are likely quite similar in functioning relative to the Buddha’s era, so strong emphasis is placed during all these dialogues on cultivating the mind through meditation practice.