by Peter Carlson | May 1, 2025 | Listen to Dharma Talks
This guided meditation provides suggestions for integrating mindfulness, investigation and letting go of impulsive reactivity while practicing body scanning, in order to cultivate more equanimity regarding pain as well as intrusive/demanding uncomfortable thoughts and moods. it is intended to accompany the Dharma talk following the meditation titled “Mindfulness Based Pain Management”.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 44:54 — 41.1MB)
by Peter Carlson | May 2, 2013 | Listen to Dharma Talks
Judy continued her exploration of the Mindfulness of the Body section of the Satipatthana Sutta, the foundational Sutta for the practice of insight meditation in all it various forms throughout the world. She explored how the various Vipassana schools used the sections on body parts and body elements as the locus of their practices and how these meditations can be used to overcome anger, conceit, desire, and aversion. She concentrated on the use of the body sweep as an insight and purification practice. This dialogue was designed to expand the practitioner’s “tool kit” of meditation skills beyond breath exercises alone.
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by Peter Carlson | Sep 5, 2024 | Listen to Dharma Talks
This guided meditation provides opportunities to become more clearly aware of three important mind-conditioning functions and how to cultivate their functioning, which provides the basis for experiencing high degrees of mental clarity and stability, benefiting the practice of vipassana, insight meditation. The coordinated and integrated effects of these three factors will be reviewed during a talk occurring just after this meditation training exercise, recorded and posted as “Reviewing Mindfulness, Investigation, and Right Effort”.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 44:58 — 41.2MB)
by Peter Carlson | Jan 20, 2017 | Listen to Dharma Talks
The evening’s activities included a guided meditation posted below: “Looking Closer Meditation.mp3”, during which Peter provided suggestions supporting a more persistent and intimate awareness regarding the sensations of breathing.
During the talk following the guided meditation, Peter drew on a book entitled “Right Mindfulness” by Thanissaro Bhikkhu (available as a free .pdf download from: https://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/thanissaro/rightmindfulness.pdf ) to emphasize the importance of being “ardent, alert and mindful” regarding breath awareness. The word ardent means heartfelt, actively interested and engaged. The above quoted phrase is mentioned multiple times in the book, which draws from the Pali Canon as the reference. This investigating function supports increasing stability of attention and tranquility, setting the conditions for vipassana, investigation of self-state organizations. There are 8 stages mentioned in the commentaries to the suttas, and these were described during the talk. This was followed by general group discussion regarding the importance of persistent, intimate breath awareness.
Here are the notes prepared for the talk: STAGES OF BREATH AWARENESS
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:03:13 — 115.8MB)
by Peter Carlson | Jun 27, 2019 | Listen to Dharma Talks
The topic for this talk is Samadhi Bojjhanga, the Concentration Awakening Factor. During the talk, the progressive stages of developing mindfulness of breathing to high levels of concentration were reviewed. Peter described current debates about the difference between “Sutta Jhanas” and “Visuddhimagga Jhanas”, suggesting that the goal in cultivating jhana states is to heighten the coherence and potency of the Seven Awakening Factors towards Awakening, and that it is not necessary to master jhana practice to perfect the functioning of the Seven Awakening Factors. The compound word samadhi/passadhi (concentration/tranquility) was presented as a workable parallel to the traditional access concentration as the platform for cultivating vipassana. The developmental stages of samadhi are illustrated graphically in the accompanying notes prepared for the talk:
SAMADHI AWAKENING FACTOR
Here is another document downloaded from Leigh Brasington’s website providing an overview of the different approaches and understandings of jhana experience: Interpretations of the Jhanas
Next week’s discussion will address the Equanimity Awakening Factor.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:03:18 — 115.9MB)
