Sunday Dharma Talk

The Buddha was considered a spiritual doctor.  We have a spiritual disease, he tells us.  And he offers us a spiritual cure.  What is this spiritual disease?  What is the spiritual cure?  How do we apply it?  In this dharma talk, Peter Doobinin discusses these important questions.  The talk was given in August 2024.

In practicing meditation, we go through a process.  It requires learning a skill and putting in the effort.  As we develop in this process, we go through certain stages.  The development of these stages leads us to concentration, a concentration that is strong and useful, a concentration that enables us to come to the heart.  In this dharma talk, Peter Doobinin describes basic stages in meditation...

How is the heart?  Are we taking good care of the heart?  These are important questions for us to ask.  In this dharma talk, Peter Doobinin explains how we learn to take care of the heart from day to day, moment to moment.  The talk was given in March 2024.   "As a mother would risk her life    to protect her child, her only child,    even so should one cultivate a limitless heart    with regard t...

Gratitude is an essential element of the spiritual path.  When gratitude is developed, we're able to function at the highest level.  We're able to know the happiness of heart.  In this dharma talk, Peter Doobinin describes the skills for cultivating gratitude and the quality of appreciation.  The talk was given in May 2024. New York Dharma: www.nydharma.org  

Dharma practice is inherently countercultural.  We're asked to go against the current.  Doing this requires that we develop certain skills.  In an effort to practice simplicity, we practice certain skills.  We learn to see the drawbacks of chasing after sense pleasures; and we learn to know the joy of simplicity.  In this talk, Peter Doobinin describes the skills that the dharma student cultivates...

What does it mean to develop our goodness?  How do we express our goodness in the world?  In this dharma talk, Peter Doobinin describes the elements of a life of goodness.  As he explains, we seek, as dharma students, to live this kind of life because it brings happiness.  The talk was given at a NY Dharma daylong retreat in the spring of 2025. NY Dharma: www.nydharma.org  

In the practice of meditation, we make a journey to the present moment.  We make an effort to be here, now.  We may feel at times like we don't want to be here, we may feel like we don't belong.  But the practice of the dharma offers us a way to make this often difficult journey.  In doing so we come to realize that what we do in this life matters.  We come to learn that there is a place for us. ...

The Buddha's path, the dharma, leads us to our greatest potential as human beings.  To use a metaphor the Buddha often offered, we learn to cross the river to the further shore.  By developing in virtue, concentration & insight, we come to the heart.  We come to know a greater happiness: happiness of heart.  In this dharma talk, Peter Doobinin describes the path that leads us to the potential...

In this dharma talk, Peter Doobinin explains how we develop enthusiasm for the dharma, for our practice, for the path that leads to a greater happiness.  He talks about what this enthusiasm comprises and how it enables us to move forward in our practice.  As he notes, this kind of enthusiasm for dhamma is essential for us to cultivate as we make an effort to awaken and make the most of our lives. ...

As dharma students, practicing in accord with what the Buddha taught, we learn to incline to knowing the dhamma.  We learn to know moments of freedom, peace, true happiness.  In this talk, Peter Doobinin explains how we put ourselves in position to know dhamma.  He offer practical suggestions for finding dhamma in our day-to-day lives.  The talk was given in the summer of 2025 NY Dharma:  www.nydh...

In this talk Peter Doobinin discusses an elemental teaching of the Buddha's, the Buddha's teaching on fear of death.  As the Buddha tells us, if we develop certain qualities, we'll be able to move beyond the fear of death.  Specifically, there are four qualities that the dharma student develops that will enable her to move beyond this existential fear.  The dharma talk is the concluding talk in a...

We learn, as dharma students, to relate to fear skillfully.  In this effort, we learn to meet fear with love.  We learn to meet experience that is fearful with the heart, with metta, compassion, joy.  This is elemental to our training.  We have this profound potential, to meet things with love.  We become more and more able, as we practice, to move beyond fear.  The other side of fear is love.  An...

As dharma students, we're asked to confront fear.  And, in this effort, we're asked to be skillful.  We're asked to develop certain skills.  In this talk, Peter Doobinin explains the elements of the skill for practicing mindfulness of fear.  If we develop this skill, we'll be able to meet fear and, in turn, move beyond it.  The talk is the third in a series of dharma talks offered in June 2025 on...

This dharma talk is the second in a series of talks given by Peter Doobinin in June 2025 on the theme: "Moving Beyond Fear."  In this talk Peter explains the critical role that concentration plays in the dharma student's ability to move beyond fear.  He describes how we learn to "put to good use" our concentration in this effort. May all beings find freedom from fear! New York Dharma:  www.nydharm...

This talk is the first in a series of dharma talks given by Peter Doobinin in June 2025 on the theme of "Moving Beyond Fear."  In this talk Peter describes an essential principle of the Buddha's, that to meet fear we must develop certain qualities.  In the talk Peter discusses these qualities, what they are, how we become developed in them, and how they enable us to meet fear.  

In this talk, Peter Doobinin describes the values of a dharma student and how we can develop these values.  The values that we cultivate as dharma students lead us to a greater happiness in this life.  And the teachings of the Buddha provides us with skills that enable us to cultivate these values.  The dharma talk was given in the spring of 2025. www.nydharma.org  

The path of the dharma is path that leads us home.  We find our true home inside us.  In the body.  And, ultimately, in the heart.  In this dharma talk, Peter Doobinin describes the journey to our true home.  To the place where we know true happiness.  The talk was given in the spring of 2025.

The development of concentration, the unfolding of the path, is a process.  We move, in deepening our practice, from effort to pleasure to love.  In this dharma talk, Peter Doobinin explains the elements of this process, the cultivation of the Buddha's path.  The talk was given on the final night of the NY Dharma April 2025 Eight Day Retreat www.nydharma.org  

In this dharma talk, Peter Doobinin offers thoughts about the passing of time and that which transcends birth & death, coming & going.   The talk was given on the 6th night of the NY Dharma April 2025 Retreat at Powell House. May all beings live in ease and peace.

To know a greater happiness, to make the most of our lives, we're asked, as dharma students, to free the heart of its burdens.  We're asked in this effort to practice mindfulness of these burdens, the afflictions that prevent us from the heart.  Indeed, the Buddha's first noble truths gives us this task:  to comprehend these burdens:  dukkha.  In this dharma talk Peter Doobinin describes the burde...

What does it mean to know contentedness...?  And how do we develop this sublime state of being...?  In this dharma talk, Peter Doobinin discusses what it is to be content ... and why it is something that we should aspire to.  The talk was given at the NY Dharma April 2025 Eight-Day retreat. www.nydharma.org  

When developed in strength of mind we're able to meet the difficulties and challenges in life; and we're able to make the most of life, to know the joy of living.  What does it mean to have strength of mind?  How do we develop it?  And why should we?  In this dharma talk Peter Doobinin discusses these important questions.  The talk was given at the April 2025 Eight-Day Retreat.

Meditation is the practice of training the mind.  In this talk, Peter Doobinin describes some essential skills for training the mind.  Particular attention is paid to working with the "fetters" of restlessness, doubt, and self identity view.  The dharma talk was given on the second night of the NY Dharma April 2025 Eight-Day Retreat.

Why, in practicing the dharma, is it important to learn to establish skillful resolve?  What does it mean to establish skillful resolve?  How do we establish skillful resolve?  In this talk Peter Doobinin discusses these essential questions for every dharma student.  The dharma talk was given at the NY Dharma April 2025 Eight-Day Retreat.

As we make an effort to be present, to practice the dharma, we'll encounter doubt.  Doubt in ourselves.  Doubt in the path.  All beings experience doubt; those who are able to move forward on the journey of awakening are those who learn to meet doubt skillfully.  In this talk Peter Doobinin explicates the skill for practicing mindfulness of doubt.  And how, in turn, we develop in conviction.  The...