Listen to Dharma Talks – Orlando Insight Meditation Group

During this talk, Allie Vaknin continues to review the Paramis, qualities of consciousness that, when perfected, support the realization of Nirvana, the Unconditioned.   The topic focuses on the cultivation of the Parami of Wisdom from a Buddhist perspective.

R.A.I.N. (Recognize Accept Investigate Non-Identification) is an acronym which has been useful for meditators, and during this talk, Lezlie Laws provides a review of how two meditators can work as a team with this to understand how the mind can get trapped in an unwholesome self-identity and how to effectively create a more wholesome self-identity.  This talk is meant to be supported by the  “Guided RAIN Contemplation” recording that can be accessed through the Guided Meditation section of the website.

R.A.I.N. is described as a useful approach to cultivating insight.  During this guided contemplation, Lezlie Laws provides suggestions for inner reflection that supports including  R.A.I.N. in one’s meditation practice.  It is intended to support “Working With Rain”, the Dharma talk that follows this meditation, and which has been posted within the website archive.

During this talk, Peter responds to various questions regarding Buddhist concepts and coaching regarding meditation practice.  One topic frequently questioned about involves his current meditation practice and intentions regarding his annual self-retreat.

During this talk on Thanksgiving Eve, Peter describes how the cultivation of mindfulness of breathing meditation frees energy from being bound up by the Hindrances, creating the buoyantly engaged interest characteristic of the Awakening Factor of Joy, which provides the foundation for the experience of gratitude.  Gratitude often involves a reciprocal interpersonal manifestation of generosity.  He describes how different areas of brain/body interactions create the subjective experience of joy, gratitude and generosity.  The explanation is followed by questions and comments from those participating in the meeting. Here are the notes prepared for this talk:  Thoughts On Gratitude This talk was preceded by a guided meditation:  Contemplating Joy, Gratitude, and Generosity, which is posted in the guided meditation archive of the website.

During a meeting on Thanksgiving Eve, Peter leads a guided contemplation describing the progression from mindfulness of breathing meditation to joy and then through gratitude to generosity.  Concentrating the mind frees up energy normally bound up by the Hindrances, and when that energy is available, the experience of joy occurs.  Joy provides the heart/mind conditions for nurturing gratitude, which leads to generosity.  This contemplation precedes a Dharma talk presented by Peter that describes the various conditioning factors of the mind that make manifest joy, gratitude and generosity.

During this talk, Lezlie Laws describes the acronym RAIN: Recognize, Accept, Investigate, Non-Self as a way to approach the challenges of everyday life.  She is a proponent of spiritual journaling, and shares an excerpt from her personal journal entry to demonstrate how mindfulness, investigation and acknowledging the impersonal nature of our internal selfing process brings insight into our intrapersonal conflicts. Here are two  URL’s that provide descriptive content regarding RAIN: https://www.tarabrach.com/wp-content/uploads/pdf/TaraBrach_RAIN_A-Practice-of-Radical-Compassion.pdf Here’s a link of Michele McDonald’s version of RAIN, including the second half – DROP.  https://vipassanahawaii.org/resources/raindrop/

During this talk, April continues her review of the Noble Eightfold Path, focusing on Right Effort, describing the Four Noble Efforts and how to develop them skillfully.  Her review includes questions and comments from those participating in the meeting. Here are the notes prepared for the talk:  Right effort notes

This talk continues a series of reviews presented by Allie Vaknin focusing on the paramis, those wholesome conditions of the mind that, when cultivated to their greatest potential, create the conditions for Awakening, the direct realization of Nirvana.  Allie emphasizes the importance of direct subjective awareness of unwholesome conditions and the intentional “letting go” of the craving/clinging that creates the unwholesomeness.  Her presentation is accompanied by various comments and questions by those attending the meeting.

Each generation must understand the principles found in the Noble Eightfold Path in the context of the culture of that time.  During this talk, April Koester continues to review the Virtue component of the path, specifically how current developments such as artificial intelligence (AI) and the pressures of contemporary life can be associated with Right Livelihood.  The talk follows up on her previously posted talks on Right Speech and Right Action that were recently recorded. Here are the notes prepared for this talk:  RIGHT LIVELIHOOD DHARMA TALK – Google Docs

During this talk, Lezlie Laws continues her review of the Five Hindrances, emphasizing how various teachers such as Joseph Goldstein, Shaila Catherine, and Gil Fronsdal approach effectively setting them aside.

It is our custom to provide an opportunity for someone who has recently completed a significant retreat to “think out loud” about the experience, as sharing important insights helps that person integrate what was learned and informs those listening about the benefits of the immersive training experience.  Mitch attended a Black Heritage Retreat at the Shelbourne Falls retreat center in Massachusetts, following the teachings of S. N. Goenka, an internationally important teacher of mindfulness meditation.  Mitch provides a review of how the retreat operates as well as how it has benefited his own practice.  His comments were followed by questions and comments from those attending. Here are the notes regarding Mitch’s retreat experience: https://orlandoinsightmeditation.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/Mitch-Sullen-Retreat-Report.docx

During this talk, Allie provides a review of the Five Clinging Aggregates–form, feeling, perception, mental conditioning factors, and consciousness–as a way to understand how personality operates from a Buddhist perspective.  She relates this self-creating process to another fundamental Buddhist concept, Dependent Origination, which provides us with a way to understand how to reduce and eventually disregard craving and clinging–the aggregates continue to interact and create personality but without distress and confusion.

This talk continues to review how contemporary neuroscientific research supports the validity of important Buddhist concepts and practices, focusing on the first three of the Four Noble Truths.  Peter refers to a previous talk titled “Neuroplasticity and Non-Self”, posted September 4, 2025 as a precursor to this review.  A future talk will focus on reviewing how neuroscientific research validates the fourth Noble Truth, the Noble Eightfold Path, which provides the ethical and functional training necessary for realizing the potential for liberating the mind from distress and confusion, the focus of the Third Noble Truth. Here are the notes prepared for this talk:  Neuroscience and the Four Noble Truths

During this talk, Lezlie reviews the characteristics and effects of the five hindrances–desire, aversion, sloth and torpor, restlessness and doubt–and several approaches to setting them aside.  She intends to devote future talks to these different meditative skills, as described in “Unhindered” by Gil Fronsdal and “Beyond Distraction” by Shaila Catherine, among others.

During this talk, April describes real life occurrences to emphasize the unwholesome consequences of actions shaped by what are called “the three poisons”, greed, hatred and delusion. She associates this with the uncertainties associated with the current actions being taken through the medium of Artificial Intelligence.  She then reviews the relevant ethical values that shape […]

This talk, presented by Allie Vaknin, is the second of a series of reviews during which she focuses on the Perfection of what are called Paramis, qualities of consciousness that, when fulfilled in their potential, nurture the realization of Nirvana.  Tonight’s talk focuses on the Parami of Sila, virtuous thoughts and deeds, reflected in what […]

During this talk, Peter describes his research and contemplation regarding how contemporary neuroscientific research can increase understanding of anatta, the principle that asserts the absence of an enduring and autonomous self.  He explains the processes of neuroplasticity and long-term potentiation during the interactions between various networks of neuronal connection as supportive of insights regarding the […]

During this talk, Allie begins a series of reviews she will provide focusing on the Paramis, the skills and virtues to be perfected on the path to Awakening.  The topic for this talk is generosity, both material and non-material, as a way to cultivate kindness and renunciation of greed and miserliness.  She responds to questions […]

During this talk, April provides a review of Right Speech as a basic element of the Noble Eightfold Path, cultivating a clear conscience as the platform from which the process of Awakening develops.  An element of Right Speech, truthfulness, is associated with the challenges presented by media disinformation and Artificial Intelligence in contemporary life.  This […]