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During this talk, Lezlie reviews four key liberating functions in the mind: diligence, mindfulness. clearly knowing what is emerging into awareness, supported by the integrative and unifying function of concentration–the persistent operation of the three qualities already mentioned.  She describes how these qualities help her investigate and deny unwholesome views of herself and others left […]

During this talk, Peter reviews the characteristics of intention, suggesting that this function of the mind emerges from the complex interactions between various neurological networks in the brain, not attributable to the existence of a self.  This contemporary view of how intentions form and operate describes two functions of consciousness–cognitive intentions and behavioral intentions.  We […]

The mindful investigation and effective management of intention is considered to be a primary goal of meditation practice, beginning with the intention to aim attention on the changing sensations occurring while practicing mindfulness of breathing meditation.  During this guided contemplation Peter suggests various ways to cultivate mindfulness of two ways that intention manifests, focused on […]

During this talk, Lili reviews how her studies and meditation practices have helped her effectively manage migraine headaches and the pain of sciatica.  She invited participants to ask questions or share their experience regarding pain, and several people provided reports about how their meditation practice was helpful for managing incidental or chronic pain effectively. There […]

This guided meditation provides suggestions for integrating mindfulness, investigation and letting go of impulsive reactivity while practicing body scanning, in order to cultivate more equanimity regarding pain as well as intrusive/demanding uncomfortable thoughts and moods.  it is intended to accompany the Dharma talk following the meditation titled “Mindfulness Based Pain Management”.

During this talk, April describes how important it is to integrate the benefits of formal mindfulness meditation with walking, particularly while outdoors in nature.  She shares her own experience and insights that emerge in a variety of settings during normal daily routines from this practice and invites others participating in the meeting to share their […]

One time per month, Peter provides the opportunity for those participating in the meeting to ask questions about Buddhist concepts and meditation practice. He also provides a brief review of the relationship between each of the Four Noble Truths, emphasizing that different subjective experiences require different focusing on each of the Truths.  During the meeting, […]

During this talk, Lezlie Laws uses references to several books on contemplative stillness to develop greater conceptual understanding of the characteristic of the mind when unburdened by craving and clinging.  She also shares the insights regarding stillness she realized while attending to the recent passing of her beloved dog Dash.  This talk was preceded by […]

Lezlie Laws provides useful suggestions for cultivating insights regarding stillness, a stable and non-reactive characteristic of the mind during meditation practice.  This recording is intended to provide support for discussion of stillness during the Dharma talk that followed this meditation titled “The Contemplation of Stillness”.

During this talk, Peter, a retired psychotherapist, describes the intersection between core Buddhist concepts and a well-researched contemporary psychotherapy approach called Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy.  He reviews the schema concept that categorizes various cognitive distortions and describes how Mindfulness of Feelings and Mindfulness of Mental Phenomena can be effectively applied to counter these distortions through […]

It has been the policy of the Orlando Insight Meditation Group to dedicate a meeting following a significant retreat experience to allow those who attended a retreat to “think out loud” about their experience in front of a supportive audience.  This provides an opportunity for those talking to “connect the dots” about the experience, as […]

This recording was made during the retreat to enhance vipassana meditation practice.

This final Dharma talk of the retreat provides suggestions for developing the themes and practices presented during the retreat at home, including cultivating a lifestyle that counters any cultural conditioning that reinforces unnecessary distress and confusion. Here are the notes prepared for this talk:  NURTURING AWAKENING AT HOME

During this talk, Peter describes how applying the principles and practices associated with being “diligent, mindful, clearly knowing” presented earlier in the retreat supports a beneficial progression from self-state conflict through self-state integration towards self-state liberation.  Self-state conflict represents the inescapable difference between how the selfing process idealizes oneself, others and the world and what […]

This Buddhist concept describes how our subjective experience of self hood is created multiple times per second.  Contemplating this provides a way to “deconstruct” the belief that there is an enduring/autonomous self, and this understanding supports the process of Awakening.  Peter uses a different term than Dependent Origination–he calls it “Contingent Provisional Emergence” which provides […]

The 7 Awakening Factors represent those wholesome qualities of mind developed for cultivating the process of Awakening.  During this talk, Peter explains how they operate and various ways to nurture their maturation. Here are the notes prepared for this talk:  Deerhaven 2025 Seven Awakening Factors

During this talk, Peter describes the development of Access Concentration, the quality of consciousness that is not affected by the Hindrances.  This is cultivated through developing the procedure of aiming/sustaining attention intentionally to develop stability and tranquility in the mind, preparing for the practicing vipassana, insight into the conditioned nature of the mind. Here are […]

During this talk, Peter reviews the 5 Hindrances, which he describes as “energy dumps”–setting them aside frees up energy for further development of the 7 Awakening Factors, creating more opportunities to liberate the mind from dukkha, the distress and confusion resulting from the action of the Hindrances. Here are the notes prepared for this talk:  […]

During this talk, Peter refers to the main themes of the retreat a a refuge from the stress of these times and the importance of developing “diligence, mindfulness and the intention to clearly know how to awaken the mind from greed, hatred and delusion.  He emphasizes that Awakening rather than Enlightenment is a better term […]

During this talk, April reviews what Buddhism calls “the Four Divine Abidings”: lovingkindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity.  She uses a translation of the Metta Sutta, the Lovingkindness Discourse as a guideline for her review.  Her presentation includes questions and comments from those participating. Here are April's notes regarding the topic:  The Four Divine Abodes […]

During this talk, Peter describes his favorite etymology of the word dukkha.  He then talks at length about the concepts of duality and non-duality, described as a progression from the simple action of intending to monitor the sensations that occur while breathing to a realization that there is no enduring/autonomous self, and the direct realization […]

This talk provided by April reviews how skillful insights from Buddhist teachings as realized through dedicated meditation practice supports a healthy level of self-respect and self-compassion.  The talk is followed by comments from those participating in the meeting. Here are the notes prepared for this talk:  Non-Self – What's Self-Love Got to Do with It

One meeting each month is intended to provide an opportunity for those attending to ask Peter questions about Buddhist concepts and meditation practice.  He has been studying and practicing Buddhism for over 40 years, and enjoys the dialogue involved in these discussions.  Among the topics discussed during this talk are the importance of intentions that […]

During this talk, Allie Vaknin reviewed the three elements of Dukkha–embodied suffering, the suffering the mind creates, and the suffering due to the unpredictability of change.  Her description is accompanied by various comments regarding current sociopolitical stresses described by those participating in the meeting.

This talk focuses on the importance of intentions, which are present in every moment of consciousness, either wholesome or unwholesome.  The ability to quickly and accurately note the formative function of intentions just as a moment of self-organization occurs is a key skill to cultivate on the path to Awakening.  The concept of karma basically […]

This guided meditation focuses attention on how to develop clear awareness of intentions, which organize and activate each moment of consciousness.  It is intended to support the topic for the Dharma talk of the same evening, “Working With Intentions and Karma”.

During this talk, April describes the neurological and psychological research supporting the Buddhist concept of anatta, non-self, and how the flexibility provided by non-self facilitates the development of Right Action, supporting a virtuous lifestyle.  Her review includes questions and comments from those participating in the meeting. This document provides references to the research that April […]

During this talk, Lili reviews contemporary psychological and neurological understandings about habit formation and how Buddhist concepts and practices support the ability to be mindful of, investigate, and alter unwholesome thoughts and actions that are habitual while reinforcing more wholesome habits.  Her comments were followed by questions posed by those participating in the meeting. Here […]

Each month Peter provides an opportunity for participants in the meeting to ask questions about Buddhist doctrine and meditation practice.  During this talk, Peter and others provided suggestions in response to an inquiry that focused on how to cultivate and maintain a regular daily meditation practice.  Another question focused on how to discern the difference […]

At the core of consumerism we find the “three poisons” that causes suffering–greed, hatred and delusion.  During this talk, Peter provides some background information about the history and adverse sociocultural and ecological effects of contemporary consumerism, emphasizing that, although we have all benefited from modern production and distribution technologies, we are persistently conditioned to want […]

During this talk, Peter follows a tradition in this community to provide opportunities for those who have recently completed a significant retreat experience to “think out loud” about the retreat.  Much of what is experienced during a retreat is not fully integrated without the opportunity to describe the retreat's routine and any important insights that […]

During this talk, Peter responds to questions, for example, the difference between concentration and insight, and the relationship between breath awareness and body awareness while practicing mindfulness of breathing meditaiton.

This talk provides a review of the Mindfulness of Breathing Discourse, the focus of a recently-completed course Peter participated in that used Analayo's “Mindfulness of Breathing”.  The Anapanasati Sutta is one of the core teachings of Theravada Buddhism and the meetings of the course helped validate some meditative insights emerging from his practice.  The 16 […]

This Mindfulness of Breathing meditation is intended to support a Dharma talk entitled “Anapanasati 16 Step Review”.  It provides a progression of practices beginning with persistent attention to mindfulness of breathing sensations through to the practice of “letting go”.

During this talk, which occurred on Thanksgiving Eve, Peter revises the holiday term Thanksgiving to emphasize the relationship between gratitude (thanks) and generosity (giving).  During a guided contemplation entitled “Contemplating Thanks-Giving”, recorded prior to this talk and posted on the website, the characteristic physical and emotional elements of these two wholesome states of mind are […]

This guided meditation revises the holiday of Thanksgiving through focusing on the interaction between gratitude (thanks) and generosity (giving), with emphasis on recognizing the physical and emotional components of gratitude.  Participants are invited to reflect on times when they experienced gratitude as a result of another person's generosity, or through recalling an event when witnessing […]

During this meeting, Peter answers questions about Buddhist concepts and provides suggestions regarding meditation practices.

During this talk, Lili reviews her research on the various ways that equanimity importantly factors into the process of Awakening. Here are the notes prepared for this talk:  Equanimity notes

During this talk, April reviews how the cultivation of mindfulness can be understood as an art form that creates a more beautiful self-experience.  This is supported by contemporary research regarding how the hemispheres of the brain interact and how meditation training benefits the art of living. Here are the notes prepared for this talk:  The […]

The Second Noble Truth describes attachment to views as a primary cause of dukkha, the experience of distress and confusion.  During this talk, Peter extends this understanding to review how the current circumstances of life–political divisiveness, the relentless demands of consumerism, and the increasing disruption of earth's atmosphere–are challenging our views regarding what is considered […]

During this talk, Peter responded to various questions about mindfulness of breathing meditation practice, understanding how to cultivate insights regarding the self-creating process, and the body scanning practice taught by S. N. Goenka.

We live during stressful times, and the Buddhist concept of dukkha seems appropriate to review in this context.  During this talk, Peter describes three aspects of dukkha–the physical experience of dukkha, the uncertainty we are confronted with regarding unexpected cultural and environmental changes, and the essential but unreliable nature of how the internal and private […]

We live in trying times, and it may be useful to increase our ability to observe and effectively manage the levels of distress and confusion that are termed Dukkha from a Buddhist perspective.  The comments during the guided meditation provide ways to recognize and contemplate three aspects of Dukkha–the physical experience of pain and muscle […]

During this talk, April reviews current neurological information associated with habituation, describing how our minds and bodies develop patterns that allow us to function more efficiently in regard to energy utilization, but can interfere with our ability to effectively adapt to changing circumstances.  She then talks about how Buddhist concepts and practices such as the […]

During this talk, Peter responds to various questions from those participating regarding their understanding of Buddhist concepts and their meditation experiences.  Examples of questions include clarification regarding how aiming and sustaining attention on breath sensations matures into investigation of what arises in the mind, consideration regarding Chogyam Trungpa's comments on gradual rather than sudden Awakening, […]

During this talk, Lili describes the progressions of faith that can be cultivated within Buddhism: Bright Faith, Verified Faith, and Abiding or Unwavering Faith.  Faith is also the antidote for doubt.  Her comments are followed by comments provided by those participating that describe their experience of faith. Here are the notes she prepared for this […]

During this talk, Allie Vaknin shares her research on a basic element of Buddhist doctrine, Right Intention.  Part of the presentation involves questions and insights about this important part of the Noble Eightfold Path provided by those participating in the meeting.

This talk presented by Peter is intended to provide information regarding three very important mental “skill sets” that are necessary for developing effective mindfulness meditation practice.  First, defining characteristics of each mind-conditioning function are reviewed, followed by suggestions for integrating their combined effects.  There is a guided “Contemplating Mindfulness, Investigation, and Right Effort” meditation preceding […]

This guided meditation provides opportunities to become more clearly aware of three important mind-conditioning functions and how to cultivate their functioning, which provides the basis for experiencing high degrees of mental clarity and stability, benefiting the practice of vipassana, insight meditation.  The coordinated and integrated effects of these three factors will be reviewed during a […]

Peter has decided to open one meeting each month to discussion in response to any questions or observations by the participants at that meeting, focusing on Dharma and practice oriented issues.  Questions and comments focused on the importance that the practice of mindfulness of feelings, along with the role of concentration in the practice of […]

Sympathetic Joy is listed as the third of the Four Divine Abidings, and Equanimity is the fourth.  During this talk, Peter reviews the characteristics of Sympathetic Joy as a celebration of another's success and happiness in an unselfish way.  It represents the spiritual development of empathy, which is hard-wired into the bodies of humans, but […]