Sunday Dharma Talk

A Home for the Mind

Through the practice of breath meditation, the dharma student builds a home for the mind.  In this talk, Peter describes how we learn to build a home for the mind that's strong, secure, easeful, and realible, an abiding, inside, that's available to us no matter the circumstances of our lives.  The talk was given at the Downtown Meditation Community Sunday Night Meditation class in September 2017. 

Contentedness

As dharma students, we learn skills that enable us to meet the difficulties in life.  When we're developed in our practice, we're able to maintain the qualities of ease, inner pleasure, and contentedness amidst the ongoing challenges and uncertainty that human life, by its very nature, presents.  In this dharma talk, Peter describes how we learn to remain at ease and connected to the heart as we make our way through life.  The talk was given on Sunday, November 27, 2016, a few weeks after the 2016 election.  May all beings live with ease!

Inner Strength

In the practice of the dharma, we learn to develop inner strength; it is this quality of inner strength that sees us through in life.  What is inner strength?  How do we develop it?  In this dharma talk, Peter discusses these questions.  The talk was given at the Downtown Meditation Community Sunday night class in October 2017. 

Thoughts of Happiness

As human begins, we have the potential for true happiness.  As dharma students, we seek to know this happiness.  It begins with our thoughts.  With our thoughts, the Buddha teaches, we make the world.  In this dharma talk, Peter Doobinin describes how we cultivate skillful thinking in an effort to know the happiness of the heart.  The talk was given at Downtown Meditation Community on Sunday, August 13, 2017.  May all beings be well & happy!

Happiness Is Felt

True happiness is found inside.  It's not something abstract or conceptual; it's something we come to know as a felt sense in the body.  As dharma students we seek, gradually, day to day,  moment to moment, to put aside the kind of happiness that's dependent on things outside ourselves: the things of the world. Instead we learn, little by slowly, to know a more reliable happiness, the happiness inside.  This dharma talk was given by Peter Doobinin at the Downtown Meditation Community Sunday Night Meditation class on August 6, 2017.

Wisdom of the Body

As dharma students, we learn to alleviate our suffering by developing wisdom.  This is not an intellectual wisdom, but rather a wisdom that we cultivate in the body and in the heart.  In this dharma talk, given at a daylong Meditation & Yoga retreat, Peter Doobinin describes the wisdom we come to know in the body and how we learn to come to know it.

They awaken, always wide awake:
Gotama’s disciples
whose mindfulness, both day & night,
is constantly immersed
in the body.
(Dhp 299)

Patience & Compassion

The dharma talk, "Patience & Compassion," was given at a Downtown Meditation Community residential retreat in January 2009.  In the talk, Peter Doobinin describes how we cultivate these essential qualities, in the service of deepening our practice and knowing a greater happiness in life.  As Peter explains, quoting Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the dharma student must learn to develop a "tough mind and a tender heart."
May all beings live with patience and compassion.

The Nature of the Heart

In the heart we find compassion and love.  This is the nature of the heart.  The truth of the heart.  The dharma student learns to know the truth of heart, to cultivate the sublime qualities of the heart, to meet suffering with compassion, to live straight from the heart.  This talk was given by Peter Doobinin at a Downtown Meditation Community daylong retreat on December 3, 2016.

The Truth of Our Goodness

"The Truth of Our Goodness" is a dharma talk given by Peter Doobinin at a Downtown Meditation Community daylong retreat in March 2018.  As human beings we have a goodness ... and as dharma students we learn to develop our goodness.  We learn to know the truth of our goodness.  We learn to know the dharma inside us.  We learn to know the heart.

Heedfulness of Thinking

The dharma talk was given at a Downtown Meditation Community retreat in July 2015.  In the talk, Peter Doobinin describes how we practice "Heedfulness of Thinking."  When we're heedful of our thinking, in meditation and in our lives, we're able to abandon unskillful thinking: thinking that leads to suffering; and we're able to cultivate skillful thinking: thinking that leads to true happiness.  As Peter explains, this is a skill that all dharma students can all learn.