by Peter Carlson | Nov 12, 2020 | Listen to Dharma Talks
This meditation combines mindfulness of breathing meditation with focused attention on the area around the heart for contemplating the joyful feelings that can be realized in witnessing the happiness of others. Breath awareness stabilizes attention and sets aside the hindrances, while focused attention on the heart invites emotional awareness in the context of celebrating the joy and happiness of others. During the meditation you can recall experiences when you benefited from the generosity of others and then use that as a model for realizing the benefits of empathically resonating with the success and happiness of people or other beings such as pets. This meditation is intended to complement the talk entitled “Enjoying the Happiness of Others” recorded on November 11, 2020.
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by Peter Carlson | Jan 21, 2021 | Listen to Dharma Talks
This guided meditation offers training to use mindfulness of breathing as a stabilizing point of reference, comparable to how an anchor attached to the bow of a boat anchors the hull in the current of a river in a streamlined way. Attention is then directed to noticing the turbulence and drag that occurs when the mind becomes attached to a thought or mood that, like an object in the stream, bumps into consciousness. meditators are encouraged to simple let go of attachment to the turbulence, focusing persistently on investigating the subtleties of breath awareness, which becomes very quiet and subtle, with barely any in- or out-breath. Attention is finally directed to the subtle and ever-present expanse of consciousness unaffected by the turbulence of craving and clinging. This is a very subtle phenomenon because it is so quiet and peaceful, but can be realized with enough practice. The experience is expansive, seeming to be limitless in awareness.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 44:56 — 82.3MB)
by Peter Carlson | Jan 28, 2021 | Listen to Dharma Talks
One of the benefits of mindfulness of breathing meditation is the neutral feeling tone of the sensations stimulated as air moves in and out of the nostrils. Another is the fact that this awareness is always focused on present-moment experience, whereas thought processes often create narratives that are trapped in fabricating recollections of the past or projections into the future. This guided meditation provides occasional reminders of this reality of experience, with suggestions to notice the distress and confusion that accompanies the past- or future-oriented narratives, compared to the clarity and peacefulness of breath sensations. It is also suggested that all sensations are facts of the present moment, whether they are body sensations, sounds, flavors, odors or visual in their nature. These sensations are also present-moment phenomena whether they are pleasant or unpleasant in feeling tone, and there are suggestions during the meditation that facilitate also using this awareness beneficially, to interrupt the craving and clinging associated with self-talk regarding the past or future.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 44:59 — 82.4MB)
by Peter Carlson | Feb 11, 2021 | Listen to Dharma Talks
It is customary for our Sangha to provide opportunities for those who have completed a residential retreat to have the opportunity to share their experience, as this integrates what they learned for themselves and offers inspiration for those not on retreat to further their practice with a residential retreat. Andy Quinn is the founding teacher of the Lakeland Insight Meditation Group and has been on dozens of retreats. He completed a two-week self-retreat recently and shared his experience with those participating in the meeting. During the talk, Andy spoke favorably of the value of Analayo’s book “Mindfulness of Breathing” as a resource during the retreat to guide his practice.
Next week’s talk will resume a review of the history of Buddhism, focusing on how the various Buddhist traditions entered into American culture over the last century. The intention of this review is to create a cultural context regarding the creative mixing of various Oriental traditions within contemporary American Buddhism, which will be reviewed during the next few talks.
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by Peter Carlson | Feb 25, 2021 | Listen to Dharma Talks
This guided meditation follows the insight meditation system promoted by Mahasi Sayadaw and through the Insight Meditation Society that practices “noting” briefly what arises in consciousness as a way to cultivate vipassana, insight into the the impermanence of subjective experience. The primary object of meditation in this method is noting the expanding and contracting of the abdomen while practicing mindfulness of breathing. During the guided meditation, various suggestions are provided to prompt the noting process, which is intended to cultivate a rapidly sequenced moments of direct knowing, known as khanika samadhi, momentary concentration, to advance the practice of vipassana.
This recording is intended to supplement the talk of February 24, 2021 entitled “Mahasi Sayadaw Vipassana With Noting Review”.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 44:58 — 82.3MB)