by Peter Carlson | Sep 3, 2015 | Listen to Dharma Talks
This week’s talk focuses on the value of building a lifestyle around daily meditation practice and integrating the lojong aphorisms into daily life routines. Peter talked of how his spiritual growth matured over the 33 years as a householder committed to realizing the Noble Eightfold Path. Peter mentioned the slogans from Alcoholics Anonymous, “One day at a time”, and “Progress, not perfection” as useful in the process of awakening.We live in a culture that does not foster monastic living, and must find a way to make use of the opportunities we have for spiritual development in a materialistic society.
Here are the notes prepared for this talk: Dedicate your life to the process of awakening
Next week’s talk will begin to explore the aphorisms of lojong that increase proficiency in the development of clear awareness and benevolent intention.
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by Peter Carlson | Jan 26, 2012 | Listen to Dharma Talks
This dhamma dialogue continues an ongoing exploration of the importance of using mindfulness practice to examine the classic Buddhist teachings so they can be adapted to a world experience that is much more complex than the time of the Buddha. Virtue is examined as the manifestation of wisdom (clear awareness plus benevolent intention) in our daily routines. This talk is laying the foundation for exploring the meaning of Right Speech, Right Action and Right Livelihood in the 21st century, drawing on modern psychological research.
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by Peter Carlson | Apr 19, 2018 | Listen to Dharma Talks
This is the second in an extensive series of talks investigating the Satipatthana Sutta, the Four Foundations of Mindfulness Discourse. Tonight’s focus is on the First Foundation, Mindfulness of the Body, specifically Mindfulness of Breathing meditation. Peter went through the stanzas focused on that core practice to illuminate the meaning and application of each part. The importance of the four applications of “diligence, clear awareness, mindfulness and setting aside covetousness and grief for the world” to realize the benefits of the practice was emphasized.
This was followed by discussion to clarify the terms and practice.
Here are the notes prepared for this talk: Understanding Mindfulness of Breathing
Next week’s talk will focus on the next two topics of the First Foundation regarding posture and of clear comprehension.
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by Peter Carlson | Nov 30, 2023 | Listen to Dharma Talks
This talk provides a brief overview of traditional American holidays from Halloween through New Year’s Eve, from their origins centuries ago up to how current consumerism and social conflict has created a stressful and potentially damaging series of events during the Fall and early Winter periods. The overview is followed by a review of a Buddhist “decision tree” process called “The Four Clear Comprehensions” that provides a way to integrate mindfulness and Right Effort to realize appropriate goals for gift giving that don’t disrupt the principles of Right Speech/Action/Livelihood. The review is followed by a dialogue between Peter and a few of the participants to illustrate how this decision-making process works.
Here are the notes prepared for this talk, which includes a description of The Four Clear Comprehensions: Giving Presence Over The Holidays
The talk for next week will provide a review of the basics of mindfulness practices.
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by Peter Carlson | Mar 28, 2013 | Listen to Dharma Talks
During this dialogue, Judy reviewed kayanupassana, mindfulness of the body, from the Satipatthana Sutta, which is usually translated as the Four Foundations of Mindfulness. She explained that the “body” referred to is the aggregation of all the parts of the body, including the senses and breath awareness–in Pali, kaya can apply to a group of people, a bunch of bananas, etc. She placed emphasis on the aspect of kayanupassana called satisampajjhana, which can be translated as mindfulness/clear comprehension of how the body moves during the experience of moving, that is, while standing, walking, eating, reaching, etc. Additionally, the value of awareness of a worthy goal, suitable means for achieving the goal, the field of awareness that’s applied to maintain the suitable means–all in the context of non-greed, non-aversion and wisdom.
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