by Peter Carlson | Mar 14, 2014 | Listen to Dharma Talks
This is the second of two talks about the importance of the practice of mindfulness of feelings. During this talk, Peter reviewed paticca samuppada, usually translated as dependent origination. A new rendering of the term was explained, that is, contingent provisional emergence, with clarification of the non-linear, mutually influential functions that affect how the mind overlays a provisional interpretation of raw sense data input, thereby creating a “selfing moment”. In this creative process, attention becomes fixated on a particular feeling and perception, creating the craving and clinging dynamic that is the driving force of our distresses about life. Mindfulness of feelings as feelings allows the skilled meditator to avoid “personalizing” the emerging self-organization, providing relief from craving and clinging.
by Peter Carlson | Mar 7, 2014 | Listen to Dharma Talks
During this dialogue, Peter began to discuss the second Foundation of Mindfulness, vedanupassana (mindfulness of feelings). He talked of how feelings are not emotions as we might describe them in the West, but rather what in psychological terms is affect, the pull towards pleasant experience or away from unpleasant experience. Feelings are the bridge between physical sensations and the mental creations of meaning and self-organization we experience. He read a translation of the second foundation, and then led a brief guided meditation that illustrates concretely what to notice as a feeling, a perception and the mental formations that create what the Buddha called “the tyranny of I, me and mine”. This was followed by dialogues that further clarified the experiences of the guided meditation.
by Peter Carlson | Jan 30, 2014 | Listen to Dharma Talks
During this first of a series of talks exploring the Satipatthana Sutta, Peter talked of the mutually supportive functions of samadhi (concentration) and vipassana (insight). This was followed by a lively discussion regarding how different meditators cultivate these qualities, both during formal meditation and normal daily routines.
by Peter Carlson | Jan 24, 2014 | Listen to Dharma Talks
Much of the transformation in the brain during a retreat occurs outside of conscious awareness. We’ve realized over the years of retreat experience that talking about it, “thinking out loud”, with a group of well-informed people helps integrate the learning and insight, making it more clearly understood and accessible in daily life. This dialogue reviewed various retreat participant’s experience during the retreat and upon returning home.
by Peter Carlson | Jan 16, 2014 | Listen to Dharma Talks
During this talk, Peter described Paticca Samupadda, usually translated as the principle of Dependent Origination. This is one of the core concepts of Buddhism, as it explains how the dynamics of self formation and dissolution operate. Emphasis was placed on understanding that being able to directly experience feeling as feeling (the second of the four foundations of mindfulness) interrupts the formation and operation of craving and clinging, and that these functions are core to the problem of suffering. Feeling brings resolution to this problem, and is why so much emphasis is placed on body awareness, particularly on strongly pleasant or unpleasant feelings in a non-reactive way.