by Peter Carlson | Jul 10, 2020 | Listen to Dharma Talks
This meditation focuses attention on the second of the three characteristics of subjective reality, Dukkha, distress and confusion. You are invited to cultivate anicca, the transitory nature of self-experience through mindfulness of breathing meditation. This awareness is brought to the experience of dukkha to notice the changing nature of distress in the body along with emotional distress. The primary focus of attention in this practice is cultivating an active and investigative quality of attention regarding breath sensations. The goal of the practice is to become detached from the emerging narrative that seems self-defining, thereby draining the impact of distress and bringing clarity to the mind. As this practice matures, the fabricated nature of the selfing process becomes more realizable, supporting liberation from the misconception of an enduring, autonomous self.
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by Peter Carlson | Jul 23, 2020 | Listen to Dharma Talks
This guided meditation focuses on identifying the subjective characteristics of anatta (ah-nah-tah), the absence of an enduring, autonomous self. Anatta is the third of the Three Characteristics: Anicca, Dukkha and Anatta. During the meditation attention is first stabilized with mindfulness of breathing meditation and this quiets the mind such that one can contemplate the interdependence of the human body with the environment on increasingly more subtle levels and then contemplate further on the “accumulation of a self” through language and other socially stimulating encounters over the course of a lifetime. Deep contemplation of these issues can illuminate the absence of an autonomous self that doesn’t require interactions with the physical or social environments. Another focus of contemplation is to deepen awareness of whole-body sensations along with the breath, including environmental sounds, in an undifferentiated way, relinquishing the “observer” belief. The more fully one releases the mind from “observing” these phenomena to “being” the phenomena, the less interest there is in a subject-object dualistic perception, thereby experiencing reality in a more fundamental, non-self way.
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by Peter Carlson | Jul 23, 2020 | Listen to Dharma Talks
This guided meditation focuses on cultivating upekkha (ooh-peh-kah), equanimity regarding one’s subjective experience. This quality of consciousness is frequently identified in Buddhist teachings: one of the Seven Awakening Factors, one of the Four Diving Abidings, one of the Ten Perfections, and the primary characteristic of the Fourth Jhana. During the meditation attention is established on mindfulness of breathing, with associations stated between prolonged breath awareness, concentration, tranquility and equanimity. The meditation student is invited to investigate mindfully the quality of consciousness to determine whether the mind is too excited or too sedated, too identified with what is in awareness, or if attention is too dispersed and distracted. Right Effort is brought to mind to find an equanimous balance between extremes of energy and identification, cultivating a “middle way”, suitable for the process of Awakening.
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by Peter Carlson | Jul 4, 2019 | Listen to Dharma Talks
This topic reviews the fulfillment of the Seven Awakening Factors in the seventh of them, Upekkha Bojjhanga, the Equanimity Awakening Factor. Upekkha doesn’t represent uncaring indifference but rather the ability to be aware of emotional responses to situations without being identified with them as a “self” and without being impulsively reactive. The term upekkha is synonymous with tatramajjhattata, a Buddhist concept conveying the “finding the middle” balancing function that manifests when the Seven Awakening Factors are in optimal dynamic harmony: not too much or too little energy, with a balance that avoids rigid mental identification and complete skepticism. The explanation was followed by vigorous discussion among those attending regarding the benefits of cultivating equanimity for everyday living in the workplace and parenting.
Here are the notes prepared for this talk: THE EQUANIMITY AWAKENING FACTOR
Next week’s talk will review the fulfillment potential realized through mastery of mindfulness of breathing as described in the Anapanasati Sutta and will be the final discussion of this important Buddhist teaching.
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by Peter Carlson | Jun 13, 2019 | Listen to Dharma Talks
Piti Bojjhanga is the Pali term usually translated as the Joy Awakening Factor, the fourth of the Seven Awakening Factors. During this talk, Peter described the traditional rendering of joy as rapture, an exquisitely potent physical/mental experience, referring to his prior practice of what Culadasa calls “pleasure jhana” in his book “The Mind Illuminated”. Peter then suggested that the intensity of that feeling can be an obstacle to the practice of vipassana, insight into the fundamental characteristics of lived experience. An alternate understanding, suggested by Nina Van Gorkom in her book “Cetasikas” is that of a heightened and engaged interest in what is forming in the mind that supports the functioning of other Awakening Factors such as Investigation of Mental Phenomena and Energy/Right Effort. This was followed by discussion among those attending about the implications of this factor in the practice of anapanasati, mindfulness of breathing.
Here are the notes prepared for this talk: THE JOY AWAKENING FACTOR
Next week’s focus is on the fifth Awakening Factor, Tranquility.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:04:35 — 118.3MB)