Sunday Dharma Talk

A Spiritual Life

What is our commitment to living a spiritual life?  What is required of us in making an effort to live a spiritual life?  In this dharma talk, Peter Doobinin discusses these questions and others that the dharma student is asked to ask.  The talk was given in December 2022.

Looking Back, Looking Forward

This dharma talk was offered on New Year's Day 2023.  In the talk, Peter explains why it's important to remember the past.  If we engage skillfully in this process of remembering, it will enable us to live fully in the present moment ... and it will enable us, in looking forward, to establish skillful resolve. 

Wishing all beings happiness of heart in the new year! 

The Most Favorable State

In practicing meditation, developing concentration, according to the Buddha's instructions, we seek to cultivate an easeful, pleasurable abiding in the body.  As Peter Doobinin explains, when we're able to establish this pleasant abiding in meditation and maintain it to some extent in the course of our lives, we're able to live most effectively.  We're able to make the most of our lives.  This dharma talk, in which Peter describes why and how this pleasant abiding is the most favorable state, was given in March 2022.

Looking In the Right Places

As human beings, we have an extraordinary capacity for compassion.  But this potential of the heart must be cultivated.  As Peter explains, this is our task as dharma students.  To develop in compassion, we learn to put an effort toward practicing the certain skills that the Buddha teaches.  The talk was given in November 2022.

 

Being True to the Heart

In dharma practice, we learn to be true to the heart.  As Peter Doobinin explains, this means seeing to it that the way we live is true to the wish in the heart for happiness: happiness of heart: true happiness.  It means developing understanding, including the understanding that we have the capacity for true happiness.  The talk was given in October 2022.

Awakening

What is awakening?  What is our conviction in our ability to know it?  What are some of the indications that we are, in fact, in the process of awakening?  In this dharma talk, Peter Doobinin explores these questions.  The talk was given at the April Eight-Day Retreat in April 2022.

Full Body Awareness

If we can develop mindfulness of the body, the Buddha tells us, we can awaken.  Leaving how to establish and maintain full body awareness is an important element of developing mindfulness of the body.  In this dharma talk, Peter describes how we learn to cultivate full body awareness and why it's so important that we do.  The talk was given in May 2022.

Sense of Urgency

How are we spending our time?  Are we looking for happiness in the pleasures of the world?  Or are we making an effort to know a more reliable happiness?  Cultivating a sense of urgency, understanding that our time is limited, we make an effort to practice the dharma while there's still time to do so.  As Peter Doobinin explains, mindfulness of death supports us in our ability to develop this sense of urgency.  The dharma talk was given in November 2022 at a daylong retreat in New York City.

Path of Freedom

In following the path of freedom, we learn to abandon our thought worlds.  These thought worlds are a prison for us.  Beyond them is freedom and the potential to shape our lives in the service of knowing a greater happiness.  In this talk, Peter Doobinin explains how we learn to abandon thought worlds and use thinking in a skillful way to make the most of our lives.  The talk was given in August 2022.

The Practice of Clear Seeing

Freedom from afflictive emotions is found through clear seeing.  In this dharma talk, Peter discusses the practice of clear seeing.  As he explains, when concentration is developed we're able to see clearly and achieve a liberating wisdom.  The talk was given in September 2022.

“Over there are the roots of trees; over there, empty dwellings. Practice jhana, monks. Don't be heedless. Don't later fall into regret. This is our message to you."
(MN 19)