by Peter Carlson | Jul 13, 2017 | Listen to Dharma Talks
This week’s talk involved a guest speaker, Armando Garcia, who recently wrote a book entitled “Buddhism & Existentialism-Not Self, Nothingness And Being”. This was the topic of the evening’s discussion. Armando explained the basic assumptions of existentialism, a Western philosophy developed in the late 19th and 20th centuries in Europe. This philosophy has striking similarities to the concepts of anatta (the absence of an enduring as autonomous self) and anicca (the transient nature of reality). What is absent in existentialism is clarity about the nature of dukkha (dissatisfaction, distress and confusion) and the ways and means to resolve dukkha. Existentialism describes “bad faith” as the absence of responsibility for the consequences of the inevitable choices life presents to human experience, and proposes life as presenting the opportunity to repeatedly choose an “authentic” life. This has similarity to the nature of dukkha, but existentialism doesn’t provide the Noble Eightfold Path strategies for cultivating authentic responses to life.
Armando’s book can be purchased through Amazon.
Next week’s discussion will resume the exploration of the Paramis with “Truthfulness”. This Parami can be understood as the attainment of an existentially “authentic” life.
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by Peter Carlson | Feb 22, 2014 | Listen to Dharma Talks
The subtitle of this talk could be “The Four Elements Meditation”. Several years ago, Peter found the title quote in a book by Jack Kornfield. In the book, he talked of visiting Las Vegas in his monastic robes and seeing “You Must Be Present To Win” signage above the door into a casino, presumably announcing rules regarding a lottery. Peter appreciates the irony, so painted a sign with those words that’s posted above the room where our Sangha meets to meditate. During the talk, he described the nature of the four elements, earth, air, fire and water as subjective awarenesses, that is, earth is density or pressure, air is movement, fire is temperature, and water is cohesiveness. These focus points for meditation practice are for developing mindfulness of the body, and are mentioned in the Satipatthana Sutta. Mindfulness of the body is useful as being several ways to interrupt the internal chatter in order to cultivate concentration and tranquility. After this, Peter led a brief guided meditation to familiarize participants regarding the practice. This was followed by discussion about the experience and utility of the practice.
by Peter Carlson | Mar 23, 2023 | Listen to Dharma Talks
This talk reviews the Buddhist underpinnings of the book “Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ”, by Daniel Goleman, who has practiced mindfulness meditation for over 50 years. Emotional intelligence, often termed as EQ, has been considered a more important characteristic of a successful personality than IQ. The five characteristics of EQ mentioned in the book are reviewed: Self-Awareness, Self-Regulation, Social Skills, Empathy and Motivation, along with any correlations .associated with mindfulness of breathing meditation practice. The talk was followed by descriptions by some of the participants regarding how EQ applies to their lived experience.
Here are the notes prepared for this talk: Mindfulness and Emotional Intelligence
The topic for next week’s talk will be sunnata (soon-yah-tah), translated as emptiness. This concept is typically misunderstood, and will be more thoroughly described and related to the effects of well-developed mindfulness meditation.
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by Peter Carlson | Feb 29, 2020 | Listen to Dharma Talks
This is the first of a long series of in-depth reviews of the Satipatthana Sutta, known as the Four Foundations of Mindfulness Discourse. Peter is using several of the books on this topic written by the German Theravadin Monk Analayo on the Sutta, including “Satipatthana-The Direct Path To Realization” and “Satipatthana Meditation-A Practice Guide”. Analayo is highly regarded as a scholar of Buddhism and is also a dedicated meditation practitioner, who is currently in residence at the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies. During this talk Peter described the history of the Satipatthana Sutta and important structural elements, required because the Discourse had to be memorized over many generations before it was written and preserved. Two categories described by Analayo were listed–Definitions and Refrains.
This was followed by discussion of the impact of the Sutta on the participants.
Here are the notes prepared for this talk: Satipatthana Via Analayo
Next week’s talk will begin the focus on the first of the Four Foundations, Kayanupassana, Mindfulness of the Body.
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by Peter Carlson | Jun 10, 2021 | Listen to Dharma Talks
This talk continues a review of the Four Foundations of Mindfulness Discourse, focusing on parts of the First Foundation, known as the Four Postures and the Contemplation of Daily Activities with Full Awareness. There is further reference to what are called the Four Comprehensions: Worthy Goal, Suitable Means, Domain (the Four Foundations) and Non-Delusions; these are considered to be a spiritual “decision tree” process to be integrated into one’s lifestyle to further liberation from dukkha. The primary reference for these reviews are from two of Analayo’s books, “Satipatthana–Direct Path To Realization” and “Satipatthana Meditation–A Practice Guide”.
Here are the notes for this talk: Clearly Knowing The Body
The Satipatthana Sutta review for next week will focus further on the First Foundation of Mindfulness, with some modern commentary and practices included.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 53:59 — 98.9MB)
