Sunday Dharma Talk

Priorities for Life

What are our priorities for our dharma practice?  What are our priorities for life?  How can we change our priorities?  In this talk, Peter Doobinin discusses these questions; questions that dharma students are asked to ask.  The talk was given on 6 February 2022.

Noble Escape

In making a noble escape, dharma students seeks escape from the prisons of painful thought worlds, from habitual patterns of desire and aversion, from ways of living that can't bring a reliable happiness.  In this talk, Peter Doobinin, describes how we learn to find this kind of noble escape.  The talk was given at a daylong retreat in New York City in November 2023.

The Happiness of Morality

In this dharma talk, Peter Doobinin describes how the development of ethical conduct - the practice of non-harming - leads to happiness of heart.  In the talk, Peter explains why it's important to learn to prioritize the cultivation of our goodness, in the form of virtue, and how, when we do this, it has a great benefit in our lives and the lives of others.  The talk was given in the autumn of 2023.

The Path of Truthfulness

As Peter Doobinin explains, spiritual growth depends on our ability to be truthful.  About ourselves.  About our habitual attitudes.  In this talk, Peter describes how we develop in truthfulness; and how, in turn, this leads us to a greater happiness in life.  The talk was given in August 2023.

Changing Your Attitude

Much of our capacity to find a greater happiness in life depends on the degree to which we're able to change our attitudes.  The dharma student learns, by developing her skill, to abandon unskillful attitudes and cultvate skillful, sublime attitudes.  In this dharma talk, Peter Doobinin decribes the skills we seek to develop in this effort.  The talk was given in the summer of 2023.

Finding the Light

Our dharma practice is one of gradually letting go of that which obscures the heart.  As we develop in concentration and insight, we're more and more able to access the heart, to find the light within.  And as we're more able to find the light in the heart, we're more able to take action that will lead to a greater happiness in our lives.  In this dharma talk, offered in September 2023, Peter explains how, little by slowly, we find the light within.

Developing a Sublime Attitude

What is our attitude?  As Peter Doobinin explains, being able to develop a sublime attitude is crucial to achieving good results in meditation ... and to knowing a greater happiness in life.  In this dharma talk, Peter describes the skill for developing a sublime attitude in meditation and in all postures.  The dharma talk was given in the summer of 2023.

Suffering & the End of Suffering

As the Buddha, perhaps famously, said, he taught, "Suffering and the end of suffering."  What does this mean...?  As Peter Doobinin explains, as dharma students we come to understand that suffering and the end of suffering are not simply intellectual concepts.  They're objects for awarness.  We're meant to bring awareness to suffering.  And, in turn, to the end of suffering.  In this talk, offered in the spring of 2023, Peter describes how we learn to do this.  .

Be Who You Are

In practicing the dharma, we're learning that we don't have to "be somebody."  Instead our practice, as Peter explains in this talk, is about learning to be who we are.  Each of us is uniquely different.  And each of us has everything we need to know happiness in this life.  The talk was given at a daylong retreat in New York City in September 2023.

Being In Rhythm

Not an intellectual or academic process, dharma practice is a process of coming into rhythm.  In "coming out of the head" and into the body, we move toward having a felt experience of life.  More and more we meet life from the place of our innate wisdom.  We come into rhythm.  This dharma talk was given by Peter Doobinin in April 2023.