Dharma Talks at Front Range Meditation Groups
Live to Wimp Again
February 7, 2023 1:01:37 AUD
As the joke goes, aging is not for wimps. I recount a string of accidents in January, 2023 – I fell off my mountain bike at 20 mph and broke my collarbone, I collided with a tractor trailer and totaled my car, and I had emergency surgery to remove my appendix. The talk focuses on how dharma practice has helped me navigate these challenges and the valuable lessons learned. The talk is at David Chernikoff’s group in Boulder.
Making the Holidays Holy Days
December 22, 2022 18:03 AUDVID
Holiday is derived from the words Holy Day. The word change reflects the way this season has been secularized and commercialized. This talk explores how to put spirituality back in this season, celebrating the wonders science reveals about the cosmos, the earth, and our bodies, as well as the root spiritual qualities of Buddhist practice – generosity, kindness and mindfulness. These three practices are the key to making the holidays more spiritual and more workable.
I Think, Therefore I Am…Confused
This talk explores the limits of thinking mind. Thoughts can be true, but only relatively. They can never be absolutely true because they are merely conceptual symbols of reality, and, as such, are riddled with errors. Includes a guided exercise on mindfulness of thinking. Being able to mindfully observe thoughts dethrones them and gives us freedom of heart and the ability to make better life choices.
Healing Grief and Trauma: Practical Advice in Response to the King Soopers Shooting
This talk explores practical responses to the tragedy of the recent mass shooting at King Soopers grocery story in South Boulder. We need to work with two key impacts – grief, which is a response to losing something, and trauma, which is the fallout from being overwhelmed – and they each need a particular type of attention. Meditation practice is a very helpful way to move through these two impacts so that we can heal, return to our loving hearts, and live more fully in the present moment.
Anxiety, Lovingkindness and Spiritual Bypass
March 8, 2021 56:40 click here
This is a conversation with Adam Asdel on his Learning to Surf podcast on how to integrate Western psychological approaches to challenging emotions with the Eastern approaches of Buddhist mindfulness practice. The conversation integrates the healing and liberating sides of the spiritual path.
The Joy of Loving Well
February 17, 2021 25:53 AUDIO
What if we could make loving well central to the meaning of life and to our spiritual path? Loving well is not an innate ability, but a practice of tending your mental habits. Are you practicing kindness and remembering your shared humanity with others, or are you getting in your own way, practicing habits such as anger, judging, comparing, and pettiness?
Three Insights that Free the Heart
February 14, 2021 17:43 AUDVID
Insight meditation is mindfulness directed at the three key insights that lead to deep letting go and the end of suffering – change, unreliability and not-self. The talk demystifies these subtle concepts with practical advice about how to work with them in meditation practice.
Just Sit There
December 31, 2020 20:21 AUDVID
Peter explores the lighter side of Buddhist practice, poking fun at both our mindfulness and our mindlessness practice. From the follies of retreat practice to Peter’s time as a monk-in-training in Thailand, the spiritual path provides plenty of opportunity for laughter. See part two of the talk near the top of this page.
How to See a Rainbow: The Practice of Equanimity
December 17, 2020 23:38 AUDVID
Equanimity is a meditation practice that roots our love in reality. It is based on the understanding that mental habits are the primary determinant of one’s happiness. Skillful habits such as generosity, love and wisdom lead to well-being while states such as greed, aversion and delusion lead to suffering. Rooted in this knowledge, we can truly wish people well. Includes an 11-minute guided meditation.
The Practice of Joy
December 10, 2020 21:32 AUDVID
Sympathetic joy is a meditation practice that uplifts our heart by focusing on the happiness in people’s lives. This counteracts the negativity bias of our brain and rewires us to be more receptive to joy and to taking ourselves lightly. Includes a nine-minute guided meditation.
Opening the Heart of Compassion
December 3, 2020 22:17 VIDEO
In these difficult times we need a way to open to pain without being swept away by it. Compassion is just the ticket, allowing us to connect with the humanity of others through their pain. The care and heart connection of compassion uplifts us and makes us happy. Includes a guided compassion meditation.
Sensory Clarity Leads to Real Happiness
May 20, 2020 18:36 AUDIO
The Buddha said that the complexity of our experience actually consists of only six things: sights, sounds, tastes, touches, smells, and the mind. The sixth sense of the mind is where all the complexity lies, encompassing all mental activity such as thoughts, images, and consciousness. We suffer because we place so much emphasis on the sixth sense, which creates time, separateness, and stress. When we drop out of the mind and into the five physical senses we drop into happiness, presence, and belonging.
Kindness is the Basis of Strength
February 5, 2020 41:56 AUDIO
Kindness is not a sign of weakness, but is, in fact, the basis of strength. When we are kind to ourselves we come to know all parts of ourselves, which makes us undivided and whole inside; we dissolve shame; and we discover our true passion and life direction. When we are kind to others we dissolve self-reference and we feel our good and big heart. All of this is the true source of personal power.
The Fate of the Earth as We Know It
November 6, 2019 31:51 AUDIO
Our dysfunctional lifestyle is causing desertification, the disappearance of coral reefs, the loss of polar ice, massive species extinction, an increase in natural disasters and a drastic warming of the climate. To avoid dramatic social and ecological upheaval, we must initiate major reductions in greenhouse gas output by 2030. Includes a practice to talk to nature and ask for help in facing our feelings about the ecological crisis.
Meditation in Action: Tending Relationships, Tending the World
October 30, 2019 27:39 AUDIO
The basis of effective action, be it advocating for an issue at work or protesting the climate crisis, is tending to the relationships involved. Reviews key principles of deep relating. Reviews insight dialog practice, a form of deep conversation that is imbued with mindfulness.
The Entire Buddhist Path in a Single Sentence
At David Chernikoff’s weekly group, Boulder, Oct. 16, 2018 51:57 AUDIO
The Buddha was such a skillful teacher that he made it possible to boil down his 45 years of teaching on awakening into a single sentence. To give this sentence maximal impact, the talk first reviews key elements of the Buddha’s teaching, including the eightfold path, the four noble truths and the four foundations of mindfulness.
Mindfulness, Concentration and The Deepening of Your Practice
At David Chernikoff’s weekly group, Boulder, March 13, 2018 52:25 AUDIO
What is mindfulness? What is concentration? The answers are much subtler and more complex than one might imagine. For instance, there is much more to mindfulness than being conscious and present. Knowing what the two factors are and how they work together deepens meditation practice and leads to penetrating insight.
The Art of Letting Go
September 30, 2016 52:23 AUDIO
Letting go is widely misunderstood in meditative circles. Thinking they are letting go, meditators often practice instead a subtle aversion to their experience, which ends up strengthening rather than weakening the ego. True letting go begins with mindfulness of ourselves exactly as we are, where we welcome all mind states while recognizing that the stories we tell ourselves are often untrue.
Principles of Spiritually-Informed Action
August 27, 2016 1:02:52 AUDIO
How do we stay true to our spiritual path and the longing of the heart to love deeply as we oppose actions we believe are harmful? The talk describes principles for doing so, such as: opposing actions not people, letting go of attachment to views and results, working skillfully with anger and making one’s privilege conscious to better understand and oppose oppression.
If You Are Thinking It, It Isn’t True
August 18, 2016 58:36 AUDIO
Because our thoughts are always representations of reality, they can never, in an ultimate sense, be true. At best, thoughts can be useful, in that they accurately indicate an element of reality. The view that objects have essences is the fundamental thought error and it leads to the perception that we are separate from everything else, which is the primary source of our pain. As meditation shows us the limits of thinking, we learn to let go of unhelpful thoughts and put energy behind helpful ones. This helps us construct a life aligned with our deepest wishes, while dissolving the veil of separateness that so afflicts us.
Taking Care of this Moment Takes Care of All Moments
April 9, 2015 1:05:17 AUDIO
Because our life is nothing other than a series of present moment experiences, the ultimate reality need is to know how to be aware and present. This skill is more practical, even, than having a good job, paying the bills, or upgrading one’s health insurance. When we shift our allegiance from the fabrication of past and future, which is the source of all stress, to the refuge of present-moment awareness, our life becomes less stressful, more workable, and more satisfying.
Fire Up Your Love Light, Part One – Principles of Kindness
February 12, 2015 41:38 AUDIO
While we want to feel loving towards others, we obstruct feeling friendly through mental habits such as judgmentalism; replacing being connected to someone with trying to get what we want from them; and focusing on trivial differences at the expense of remembering the deep humanity we share with others. With practice, we can become aware of and abandon these patterns of creating separation and experience much more warmth and friendliness. The talk continues in part two below with a guided meditation.
Fire Up Your Love Light, Part Two – The Practice of Kindness
February 12, 2015 41:58 AUDIO
This is the second part of the talk above, with instructions and a guided meditation on developing metta (lovingkindness) towards others, in this case a benefactor and a dear friend.
Sacred Longing
May 29, 2014 1:10:51 AUDIO
While we tend to be driven by desire and longing, these states often don’t lead to fulfillment because the objects of our desire tend to be fleeting and unreliable. However, desire is a truly helpful spiritual force when it is directed towards what provides lasting happiness. Our passion and inspiration for spirituality sets our priorities straight, energizes our practice, and makes us more authentic and spontaneous. Ends with a guided meditation on what we most deeply want.
Spiritual Bypass, Psychological Bypass
February 16, 2014 1:12:33 AUDIO
This talk explores two common pitfalls of the contemplative path: spiritually bypassing the shadow material of the psyche through meditative avoidance and psychologically bypassing the deep happiness of letting go through relentless self-analysis. The talk includes how to know when you are caught on either side of the equation, presents a vision for a path that integrates spirituality and psychology, and has instructions on meditating in a psychologically wise way.
The Many Scientifically Documented Health
Benefits of Mindfulness
April 4, 2013 56:20 AUDIO
This talk reviews the extensive scientific documentation of the health benefits of mindfulness. The focus is especially on how mindfulness reduces the impacts of stress on the body, thereby improving conditions such as high blood pressure, heart problems, asthma, rheumatoid arthritis, insomnia, headaches, back pain, ulcers, irritable bowel syndrome, and even conditions as serious as HIV positive. In essence, if you want to be more healthy, be more mindful.
Making True Contact
February 21, 2013 1:07:59 AUDIO
Neuroscience has discovered that mindfulness uses the social circuitry of the brain. This is not surprising, since mindfulness is essentially wise and loving relationship with ourselves. Making true contact internally is a powerful practice for relating with others. And mindfulness goes even further, offering true contact with all of life, as we taste the deep sense of belonging that arises when our minds quiet down.
Urge Surfing: Freedom with Desire
January 17, 2013 50:45 AUDIO
We can change unskillful habits without judging ourselves or getting into restrictive, control oriented approaches. Instead, we can employ a skill that addiction treatment specialist Alan Marlatt calls “urge surfing.” This involves refraining from compulsive behavior by accepting and being mindful of the desire that propels it. In the light of kind attention, desire can resolve itself and in the process we initiate real change in our habits.
Ethics without Right and Wrong
December 6, 2012 1:02:39AUDIO
Buddhist ethics avoid judgmental codes of right and wrong, by focusing, instead, on harm and benefit. This prevents guilt, which is just another kind of self-centeredness, and focuses on the real issue at hand – the effects of our actions. Since morality is essentially about relationship, ethical behavior can come from love and care, rather than shame. Buddhist ethical precepts, rather than commandments, are mindfulness bells that wake us up to our behavior.
Reducing Stress through “Don’t Know Mind”
November 15, 2012 1:06:47 AUDIO
Just as trying to control what we cannot control makes us suffer, so, too, does thinking we know something we do not know. Although sitting with uncertainty takes some getting used to, it has large payoffs in reducing our stress. It is actually a great relief to let what is uncertain be uncertain. Includes four simple principles for reducing stress.
Finding Peace in a Life Filled with Problems
November 8, 2012 1:02:49AUDIO
Meditation practice is not about going to some distant, enlightened cloud that floats above all the ordinary troubles of life. It is about finding peace amidst the very turbulence of our relationships, our families, and our work. The more we accept that life will always have problems, the less we stress about stress. As we argue with reality less, we begin to taste the natural peace and ease that is part of our true nature.
Got Freedom, If You Want It
October 18, 2012 57:48 AUDIO
Imagine being at ease in a stressful situation, empathic toward a person with whom you are in conflict, compassionate towards your pain, and uplifted when you see joy in the world. These are expressions of the freedom of heart cultivated by meditation practice. Such freedom is available instantly and inexhaustibly, but only to the degree that you want it.
Sexism, Violence, and Other Buddhist Oxymorons
September 27, 2012 1:07:40AUDIO
While spiritual practice undercuts religious dogma, and such practice has historically held a central role in Buddhism, even this tradition has succumbed, at times, to fundamentalism, nationalism, and even militarism. The talk reviews historical and contemporary examples, such as the militarism of Japanese Zen in World War II, the support of Buddhist monks of the civil war in Sri Lanka, and the current controversy regarding the full ordination of Theravada nuns.
A Dialog on Tibetan, Theravada, and Western Buddhism
September 20, 2012 53:29 AUDIO
This is a question and answer session between Peter and group members on the misunder-standings between Tibetan and Theravada Buddhism, the promise and perils of the emerging Western Buddhism, the relationship of lay and monastic life, and the dangers of both spiritual and psychological bypassing.
Healing Trauma to Live in the Now
July 26, 2012 1:00:36 AUDIO
Since traumatic responses to past events are a key reason we lose touch with the present moment, healing trauma is an important spiritual task. Trauma responses occur along a continuum, from events as horrific as the Aurora shootings, to lesser disturbances such as being verbally abused. Describes the Somatic Experiencing approach to trauma, which emphasizes mindfulness of body. For the experiential exercise, email ptrwllms98@gmail.com
Trust the Difficult, Trust the Easy
July 12, 2012 54:53 AUDIO
As spiritual practitioners we need to learn to trust the power of difficult times to strengthen us, humanize us and wise us up. But since awakening is about relaxing on the deepest possible level, trusting the easy is just as important as trusting the difficult. The trick is knowing when to employ which kind of trust.
Integrating Psychology and Spirituality
February 16, 2012 1:05:24 AUDIO
Spiritual opening for Westerners often requires attention to psychological obstructions. Western Buddhism is becoming increasingly skillful at integrating the healing domain of psychology with the liberating domain of spirituality, providing a powerful transformative combination for the modern psyche. The talk outlines a framework for the roles of the two domains in supporting awakening.