Sunday Dharma Talk

Self Confidence

When we're developed in self confidence, we have the strength needed to make the journey of awakening.  In this dharma talk, Peter Doobinin describes by how cultivating parami, the elements of our goodness, we build in self confidence and support our efforts to make the path.  The talk was given in July 2022.

Your own self is
your own mainstay,
for who else could your mainstay be?
(Dhp 160)

Making a Commitment To the Truth

Our capacity to be truthful is essential to our efforts to alleviate suffering.  As the Buddha said, "Give me a person who  is truthful and I can teach that person the dharma."  In this talk, given in October 2021, Peter Doobinin discusses the quality of truthfulness that we're asked to develop in making our way across the river of suffering, toward a greater happiness in life.

Staying Awake

What does it mean to be awake?  How do we learn to be awake?  In this dharma talk, Peter Doobinin describes what it means not to be awake ... and what it means to be awake.  And he explains how we learn to stay awake.  Not just in meditation, but in all postures, as we go through our days.  The talk was given in October 2021.

The Light Within

Each of us has a light within.  As dharma students, our task is to know this light within us.  In this dharma talk, Peter Doobinin explains how, through the practice of breath meditation and the development of mindfulness of the body we come to know the light within.  The talk was given in June 2022.

Being In Tune With the Dharma

We learn, as dharma students, to be in tune with the dharma.  Instead of fighting our experience, we develop a relationship to experience that is informed by equanimity, acceptance, wisdom.  When we're able to do this, we come to understand what it means to be awake.  This talk was given by Peter Doobinin at a daylong retreat in June 2022.

The Possibility of Letting Go

What would it be like to let go of our suffering?  What would it be like to let go of our grasping?  Can we learn to consider the possibility of letting go?  In this dharma talk, Peter Doobinin discusses the process by which, little by slowly, we open to our potential to let go ... and, in turn, to know true happiness.  The talk was given at the Eight-Day Retreat in April 2022.

Freedom From Our Stories

What would it be like to find freedom from our stories?  Most of us cling to certain stories, habitual narratives about ourselves and the world.  These stories are a prison for us; they prevent us from moving forward in life.  But, as Peter Doobinin explains in this dharma talk, we can find freedom these stories.  And when we do, life opens up for us.  The talk was given in January 2018, at a Downtown Meditation Community daylong retreat.

The Teaching on Not Self

If we develop an understanding into not self, it will lead us toward an end of suffering.  But what is the Buddha's teaching on not self?  There are all kinds of misconceptions about what the Buddha taught in this regard.  In this dharma talk, Peter Doobinin explains the Buddha's teaching on not self and how to apply this teaching in our practice.  May all beings be well and at ease.

The Freedom of Simplicity

What are the burdens we're carrying through this life?  The things of life may bring us some happiness.  However, as dharma student, Peter Doobinin explains, we come to know a greater happiness when we let go of these things.  In this talk, Peter describes how the simplicity the path asks us to develop leads to awakening, freedom, bliss.  The dharma talk was given at the Eight-Day Retreat in April 2022.

A Light Touch

In this dharma talk, Peter Doobinin describes how we develop a light touch in meditation and in life.  As dharma students, this is elemental to our practice:  we seek to move through life with ease, connected to an internal pleasure, in tune with our aliveness.  The talk was given in July 2022.

And better than a hundred years
lived apathetic & unenergetic, is
          one day
lived energetic & firm.
(Dhp 110)