by Peter Carlson | Aug 15, 2019 | Listen to Dharma Talks
This talk focuses on the arguably epidemic levels of anxiety Americans experience in these stressful times and what mindfulness of breathing meditation can offer as a way to manage the increasingly complex and uncertain aspects of contemporary life. Peter has implemented mindfulness strategies as a mental health professional to help clients cope with various anxiety disorders for over thirty years. The emphasis on the talk is on the correlation between the Buddhist concept of craving and the feelings of impulsive reactivity characteristic of anxiety disorders. Even though the core of Buddhist practice seeks liberation from the fundamental dukkha of life, modern research and clinical practice demonstrates the effectiveness of mindfulness and lovingkindness practices for overcoming anxiety as well as depression. The discussion was followed by discussion of how participants experience anxiety and how regular meditation practice has been beneficial.
Here are the notes prepared for this talk: Dukkha As Anxiety
Next week’s discussion will focus on Dukkha as Depression.
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by Peter Carlson | Aug 1, 2019 | Listen to Dharma Talks
This talk is the first of two addressing the problem of dukkha in current life. The first talk addresses craving, using the term distress to relate to subjective experience in this media-saturated consumer culture. Stress has two forms emotionally: distress refers to unpleasant experience and eustress refers to the stress associated with pleasant experience; Peter pointed out that consumerism cultivates distress through comparing one’s current life with the “happiness” that will come from consuming whatever is being advertised. Both distress and eustress generate adrenaline and cortisol, two hormones that activate the body; chronically high levels of cortisol are associated with stress-related disorders of the body and to clinical anxiety. During the talk, Peter emphasized how daily mindfulness of breathing practice lowers both circumstantial levels of stress and the cumulative effects of chronic stress, using the image of “The last straw that broke the camel’s back”, comparing the accumulation of stress to all the straws that preceded the last straw. Mindfulness practices generally lower stress, making it less likely to accumulate the “straws” of current life.
This talk was followed by discussion regarding contemporary stresses such as economic worries, the threats of mass violence, ecological changes, political strife and racial tension, with commentary about how to apply mindfulness practice to alleviating the distress and confusion that results from being deluged by contemporary media.
Next week’s talk will emphasize clinging, which Peter refers to as confusion, relating this to the complexity of modern life and the conflict between the ideal self and the immediate experience of confusion and doubt when the ideal isn’t achievable, suggesting ways that mindful investigation can clarify experience.
Here are the notes prepared for this talk and include statistical data regarding the levels of stress experienced in U.S. lifestyles: STRESS AND THE DHAMMA
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by Peter Carlson | Mar 14, 2019 | Listen to Dharma Talks
The presentation title of this talk is “Starving the Demons, Feeding the Angels”, as part of the Anapanasati Sutta focused on “calming the mind conditioners”. Peter mentioned that during the first years of his vipassana practice he was “warding off the demons” and then began “feeding the angels”, that is, the wholesome mind conditioners. This discussion covers the first of the Wholesome Cetasikas: Confidence, Mindfulness, Moral Shame, Fear of Blame, Non-Attachment, Non-Aversion and Equanimity. These mind conditioners combine with the Universal Cetasikas: Feelings, Perceptions, Contact, Volition, Concentration, Vitality and Attention in every moment of self-organizing processes. They are often combined with the Occasional Cetasikas: Bringing attention to a focal point, Sustaining attention, Determination, Energy, Enthusiasm and Zeal.
Peter reviewed these mind conditioning factors, emphasizing that the ability to mindfully note the presence of them clearly as details of perception increases the ability to deconstruct the Wrong View of an enduring and autonomous self; the practice of vipassana incorporates these conditioners at high levels of insight, manifesting as liberation from dukkha, distress and confusion.
This was followed by discussion regarding how to use mindfulness of breathing practice to facilitate this investigation.
Here are the notes prepared for this discussion: WHOLESOME-MIND-CONDITIONERS
Next week’s discussion will explore the “Beautiful Pairs” of cetasikas, which are not universal and manifest as the result of increasingly activating the Universal Wholesome Cetasikas to a high level of functioning. Peter regards them as the results of intensive and persistent application of mindfulness meditation, most likely experienced first on a one-week or longer residential retreat.
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by Peter Carlson | Jun 21, 2018 | Listen to Dharma Talks
This is the second talk exploring the Fourth Foundation of Mindfulness, specifically focused on identifying and overcoming the Five Hindrances. The talk described how Byapada, (Aversion and Ill Will) come to be and how the practice of mindfulness of breathing, or, alternatively, metta (lovingkindness) practices counter the contraction and rigidity in the mind created by Byapada. This description was followed by general discussion of how to overcome Byapada.
Here are the notes prepared for this talk: OVERCOMING AVERSION AND ILL
Next week’s discussion will focus on the overcoming the hindrance of Sloth and Torpor.
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by Peter Carlson | Oct 27, 2016 | Listen to Dharma Talks
During this talk, Peter describes the categories of mind-conditioning functions called cetasikas that are always operating when the mind is free from dukkha, that is, unburdened from the distress and confusion caused by craving and clinging. The descriptions clarified the ways these cetasikas, particularly mindfulness, set aside the dysfunctional five hindrances.
Here are the notes prepared for this discussion, including a graphic that illustrates the dynamic interactions of the wholesome conditioners involved in the practice of vipassana: universal-wholesome-cetasikas
Next week’s discussion will focus on the “Beautiful Pairs” of cetasikas, that is the harmonious interactions between consciousness (citta) and cetasikas (Those conditioning functions that “belong to” the citta). These functions are cultivated through diligent practice of mindfulness of breathing meditation, promoting a flow of subjective experience that is remarkably productive of insight into the nature of experienced reality.
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