by Peter Carlson | Jun 22, 2023 | Listen to Dharma Talks
Continuing a review of the Noble Eightfold Path, this talk focuses on Right Effort, emphasizing the importance of avoiding or letting go of unwholesome mind states and supporting the arising and fulfillment of wholesome mind states. The teacher for this talk is Lezlie Laws. The next talk will begin an extensive review of Right Mindfulness, focusing on the first element of the Four Foundations of Mindfulness, Mindfulness of Breathing Meditation.
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by Peter Carlson | Mar 16, 2023 | Listen to Dharma Talks
It is our custom to provide an opportunity for anyone who recently completed a significant retreat to reflect upon their experience, because “thinking out loud” about it helps integrate their insights. Lezlie has practiced Ashtanga Yoga for decades and is certified to teach yoga. She recently completed a one-week retreat that integrated yoga, longevity practices, and mindfulness meditation. She reviewed the characteristics of the site and organization of the retreat, which emphasized the importance of using breath awareness while practicing hatha yoga, as well as during other daily activities. She also reviewed Ashtanga Yoga, which uses “The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali” as a primary resource for study, and this discourse has significant parallels to the conceptual structures associated with Buddhism, Her review was followed by questions from those participating in the meeting.
The topic for next week’s talk will review the association between what is called “emotional intelligence”, (The ability to cultivate self-awareness and self-discipline to more fully realize one’s social, professional and spiritual development) and the application of mindfulness and Right Effort.
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by Peter Carlson | Mar 29, 2014 | Listen to Dharma Talks
This talk begins several weeks of exploration of the Fourth Foundation of Mindfulness, dhammanupassana. During the discussion, Peter pointed out that Mindfulness of the Body and of Feelings are projected onto the Third Foundation, that of consciousness, and that the culminating practice of this teaching is to notice the interactions between the foundations, Mindfulness of Mental Phenomena. He also suggested that the word “dhamma” conveys something static, a thing; however, a dhamma is transient, lasting a fraction of a second, and therefore is best considered as a dynamic process that commingles the four foundations. During the next several weeks, the dhamma called the five hindrances, the dhamma called the five aggregates, the dhamma called the six sense bases (which he terms “the six sense functions”, the dhamma of the seven awakening factors, and the dhamma called the full realization of the Four Noble Truths (which he called the Four Ennobling Truths) will be explored.
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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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by Peter Carlson | Jul 7, 2022 | Listen to Dharma Talks
Sati, the Pali word we translate as mindfulness, functions as a composite–present moment awareness combined with investigation and Right Effort. This interactive process is reviewed during this talk. Additionally, there is an interesting quote included in the talk that was downloaded from Wikipedia describing the contemporary term metacognition in ways that are strikingly similar in form and function to sati, without making any reference to Buddhist psychology. This talk is intended to be a prelude to a relatively thorough series of talks reviewing the Four Foundations of Mindfulness Discourse, which many consider to be the most important teaching in Buddhism.
Here are the notes prepared for this talk, including the extensive quote from Wikipedia: The Four Foundations of Right Mindfulness
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