by Peter Carlson | Jun 24, 2022 | Listen to Dharma Talks
This guided meditation offers a different approach to cultivating Right Effort by suggesting that, while meditating, we can view the flow of experience as metabolic energy derived from food and oxygen, that feeds the brain’s activities. Rather than trying to “stop” unwholesome self-states, we can redirect the energy of attention away from the “weeds” (the Five Hindrances) towards nurturing the “flowers” (the Seven Awakening Factors), as if attention is water flowing through a hose. This guided meditation is intended to supplement the Dharma talk entitled “Reviewing Right Effort”, which was presented and recorded on June 23, 2022.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 44:52 — 41.1MB)
by Peter Carlson | Jun 24, 2022 | Listen to Dharma Talks
This talk is part of a series reviewing the Four Noble Truths. Right Effort is an important element of the Noble Eightfold Path and can be understood as a process of channeling the energy of attention away from unwholesome self-states towards wholesome self-states. The cooperation among the first three of the Seven Awakening Factors–Mindfulness, Investigation of Mental Phenomena and Energy, as Right Effort–is essential for fulfilling one’s potential for Awakening, and this talk discusses their interactions. Various characteristics of Right Effort are also included in the review. There is a guided meditation posted in the Audio archives of this website entitled “Guided Channeling Right Effort Meditation”, which is intended to provide supplementary support for the contents of this talk.
Here are the notes prepared for the talk: Reviewing Right Effort
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 53:19 — 48.8MB)
by Peter Carlson | Oct 20, 2022 | Listen to Dharma Talks
This talk reviews the remaining two of the Seven Awakening Factors, Concentration/Unification and Equanimity/Balance. The first three factors, Mindfulness, Investigation of Mental Phenomena and Energy/Effort/Persistence (In the form of Right Effort), monitor and regulate the other factors. The next two factors, Joy/Enthusiastic Engagement and Tranquility, provide appropriate interactions between emotions–the manifestation of mental energy without emotional turbulence. Concentration/Unification is reviewed to reflect the traditional cultivation of jhana states, along with more contemporary practices involving developing enough stability of attention to coordinate the Awakening Factors functions. Equanimity/Balance is reviewed to clarify how the coordinated actions of the factors are balanced and not subject to either desire, aversion or ignorance.
Here are the notes prepared for this talk: The Seven Awakening Factors, Part 3
The next talk will review the Progressions of Insight, a conceptual structured description of what can be recognized subjectively as the mind becomes more Awakened, leading ultimately to the experience of Nirvana.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:01:39 — 56.4MB)
by Peter Carlson | Jul 11, 2024 | Listen to Dharma Talks
During this talk, April provides her research and insights regarding the Seven Awakening Factors, emphasizing the importance of the factors of Mindfulness, Investigation of Dhammas, Energy and Joy. Investigation, Energy and Joy activate the Wholesome Mind Conditioning Factors, monitored by Mindfulness. Next week’s talk will provide Part 2 of the review, focusing on the moderating Awakening Factors, Tranquility, Concentration, and Equanimity, once again monitored by mindfulness.
Here are the notes prepared for this talk: Orlando Insight The Seven Factors of Awakening
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:05:26 — 59.9MB)
by Peter Carlson | Nov 27, 2025 | Listen to Dharma Talks
During a meeting on Thanksgiving Eve, Peter leads a guided contemplation describing the progression from mindfulness of breathing meditation to joy and then through gratitude to generosity. Concentrating the mind frees up energy normally bound up by the Hindrances, and when that energy is available, the experience of joy occurs. Joy provides the heart/mind conditions for nurturing gratitude, which leads to generosity. This contemplation precedes a Dharma talk presented by Peter that describes the various conditioning factors of the mind that make manifest joy, gratitude and generosity.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 44:58 — 41.2MB)
