by Peter Carlson | Mar 24, 2016 | Listen to Dharma Talks
This talk and discussion continues exploring last week’s review of what research is revealing about what happens in the brain to manifest consciousness and a sense of self. The focus of the current night was on what happens in the brain when Buddhist mindfulness of breathing training is applied to strengthen the neurological functions to manage self-awareness and self-regulation, fostering the process of awakening from greed, aversion and ignorance.
The intention of the explanation is to increase understanding that there are two processes that mindfulness effectively cultivates: a “top-down” function that becomes aware of distorted and dysfunctional self-talk and substitutes more adaptive and functional internal narratives (equivalent to modern cognitive psychotherapy), and a “bottom-up” function that focuses on the feeling tone generated by the emotional and motivational structures of the limbic brain system, disregarding any self-talk, to just experience “feeling as feeling” to decrease impulsive reactivity, as described in the second foundation of mindfulness. This second function is more in line with traditional Buddhist teachings on the path to awakening.
This was followed by discussion among those present for clarification and sharing of how this applies to lived experience.
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by Peter Carlson | Sep 17, 2020 | Listen to Dharma Talks
This meditation focuses on the first two of the listed “Universal Wholesome Cetasikas”, Confidence and Mindfulness, in the complete list of 52 cetasikas found in Buddhist commentaries. The emphasis during this training exercise is on diligent and persistently mindful attention focused on the sensations noticed while practicing mindfulness of breathing meditation. The commentaries state that when mindfulness is present in each moment of self-formation, there will be no dukkha, that is, no distress and confusion. It is suggested that each time the attention becomes “enchanted” with a thought process through craving and clinging, intentionally becoming mindful of that process as impersonal and conditional will intervene in the craving and clinging. This intervention, combined with redirecting attention back to the breath sensations, will release the mind from dukkha. As this practice becomes more repeatable and routine over time, the wholesome cetasika of confidence will be strengthened, with great benefit. This meditation is intended to accompany studying the talk entitled “Mindfulness and Confidence”, recorded the same day, after this meditation.
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by Peter Carlson | Mar 23, 2023 | Listen to Dharma Talks
This talk reviews the Buddhist underpinnings of the book “Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ”, by Daniel Goleman, who has practiced mindfulness meditation for over 50 years. Emotional intelligence, often termed as EQ, has been considered a more important characteristic of a successful personality than IQ. The five characteristics of EQ mentioned in the book are reviewed: Self-Awareness, Self-Regulation, Social Skills, Empathy and Motivation, along with any correlations .associated with mindfulness of breathing meditation practice. The talk was followed by descriptions by some of the participants regarding how EQ applies to their lived experience.
Here are the notes prepared for this talk: Mindfulness and Emotional Intelligence
The topic for next week’s talk will be sunnata (soon-yah-tah), translated as emptiness. This concept is typically misunderstood, and will be more thoroughly described and related to the effects of well-developed mindfulness meditation.
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by Peter Carlson | Dec 8, 2014 | Listen to Dharma Talks
This recording was made during the first night of the weekend retreat at the Franciscan Center, a delightful retreat facility on the Hillsborough River in Tampa, Florida, from December 5th to the 7th. This recording is extraordinarily long, almost 95 minutes. The first part is Peter’s introduction to the practice of anapanasati, mindfulness of breathing. Included in the talk is a description of the “three refuges”: “I take refuge in the Buddha…I take refuge in the Dhamma…I take refuge in the Sangha.” Peter described the Buddha as the reality of awakening, not with an emphasis on nirvana, but on the release each person can experience from the burdens of craving and clinging. The Dhamma was described as the principles and practices described in the Buddhist tradition that foster awakening, from the perspective of what is called “Secular Buddhism”, that is, the Westernized approach that is relatively free from traditional rites and rituals, and draws on scientific research that validates the important insights of mindfulness meditation practices. The Sangha was presented as the community of “truth seekers” who gather for the practices leading to awakening.
The last 45 minutes of the recording involves a guided mindfulness of breathing meditation session that provides useful periodic comments to foster “noticing distractions, disregarding them and returning to the practice of aiming and sustaining attention to the in- and out-breath”.
This posting is accompanied by a recording from December 6, during which Peter described the different levels of intimate breath awareness that can be acquired with diligent attention to the in- and out-breath.
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by Peter Carlson | Feb 18, 2021 | Listen to Dharma Talks
This guided meditation does not represent Zen shikantaza, translated as “just sitting”; instead using persistent mindfulness of breathing practice to stabilize focused attention on the cycle of inhalation/exhalation, with emphasis on exhalation, to facilitate expanding awareness gradually and systematically to areas of the body. Beginning with the head, you carefully investigate whatever sensation might be discovered, then moving attention to the shoulders, etc., down to the feet, with the goal of integrating the concentration developed through mindfulness of breathing to eventually include the entire body.
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