Sunday Dharma Talk
Religion & Spirituality
About
A dharma talk given by Peter Doobinin offered weekly on Sunday.
Episodes
- The Path of the Heart
In this episode of Sunday Dharma Talk, Peter Doobinin explains the spiritual path of the heart. He highlights generosity, virtue, renunciation, and meditation as key elements, leading to happiness of heart.
- The Dharma is Inside
Peter Doobinin explains that the dharma is found within each of us, in our body and life. Developing meditation and mindfulness of the body tunes us into this inner dharma. This talk was offered in February 2026.
- This Very Life
Peter Doobinin explains how students can seek greater happiness and live with an awakened, joyful heart by moving beyond doubts and self-judgments. This dharma talk was given at a New York Dharma daylong retreat in January 2026.
- Cultivating Affirmative Thinking
This Dharma talk by Peter Doobinin, the final in a series on Skillful Thinking, explains how to cultivate affirmative thoughts to achieve greater happiness and a joyful life.
- Asking Skillful Questions
In this dharma talk from January 2026, Peter Doobinin discusses the skill of asking questions in a way that frees the heart from burdens and leads to inner happiness. This talk is the third in a series focused on cultivating skillful think…
- Cultivating Skillful Thinking
This dharma talk, the second in a January 2026 series on Skillful Thinking, discusses how happiness depends on our thought patterns and resulting actions. Peter explains the methods for cultivating skillful thinking, which leads to genuine…
- Fundamentals of Skillful Thinking
This talk introduces the fundamentals of skillful thinking, presented by Peter Doobinin as part of the Sunday Dharma Talk series. Developing this skill is presented as integral to the Buddha's path, enabling wisdom, compassion, and happine…
- Time Well Spent
This Sunday Dharma Talk episode, "Time Well Spent," features Peter Doobinin discussing the challenges and rewards of meditation. Doobinin explains that despite its difficulty, meditation is valuable.
- Here & Now
This dharma talk by Peter Doobinin, offered on December 21, 2025, discusses the practice of being aware in the here and now. It explains how to observe present experience clearly and develop an unshaken heart by not dwelling on the past or…
- True Dhamma
Peter Doobinin's January 2025 talk, "True Dhamma," discusses the eternal nature of dhamma, emphasizing that the Buddha discovered rather than invented it. The talk encourages following the path to discover dhamma and living from that timel…
- The Dhamma is Timeless
This Sunday Dharma Talk, featuring Peter Doobinin, discusses the timeless Dhamma found within each person. The talk was delivered in December 2025.
- The Truth of Impermanence
This dharma talk by Peter Doobinin explores the concept of impermanence, suggesting that understanding what is subject to birth and death can lead to discovering a lasting happiness of the heart. The talk was delivered at a New York Dharma…
- A Greater Happiness
This dharma talk explores how Buddhist practice facilitates change in karma and actions, ultimately fostering a greater happiness in this life. It is the fourth in a series on The Law of Karma given by Peter Doobinin in September 2025.
- Discernment: The Practice of Heedfulness
This dharma talk by Peter explains the practice of heedfulness, which the Buddha teaches is the root of all skillful qualities. Heedfulness helps discern actions leading to greater happiness and is crucial for developing the skill.
- Transcending Past Karma
This Sunday Dharma Talk, 'Transcending Past Karma,' explains how taking skillful actions, guided by lovingkindness and compassion, can lead to greater happiness. The talk, part of a September 2025 series on the Law of Karma, details the pr…
- Law of Karma
This dharma talk by Peter Doobinin focuses on the law of karma, explaining its centrality to the Buddha's path and the process of awakening. It is the first in a series of talks on the subject.
- The Way of the Heart
In this dharma talk, Peter Doobinin explains that the practice of the dharma is a way of life, referred to as the way of the heart. He discusses how to develop this practice and encourages listeners to consider their resolve to follow it.
- A Spiritual Cure
This dharma talk features Peter Doobinin discussing the Buddha's view of humans as having a spiritual disease and the Buddha's proposed spiritual cure. It addresses the nature of this disease and cure, and how to apply it.
- Stages of Meditation
This dharma talk by Peter Doobinin, given in September 2024, describes the basic stages in meditation practice. It explains that practicing meditation is a skill that involves effort and develops through stages, leading to strong and usefu…
- Taking Care of the Heart
In this dharma talk from March 2024, Peter Doobinin explores how to cultivate a limitless heart and care for it from day to day, moment to moment, quoting Sn 1.8.
- The Power of Gratitude
Peter Doobinin's dharma talk explores gratitude as a spiritual practice, detailing skills for cultivating appreciation to achieve happiness. The talk was given in May 2024.
- Joy of Simplicity
In this talk, Peter Doobinin explains the skills dharma students develop to practice simplicity and counter cultural norms. The talk, given in fall 2025, focuses on recognizing the downsides of seeking sense pleasures and embracing the joy…
- A Life of Goodness
Peter Doobinin discusses the elements of a life of goodness and how developing it leads to happiness in this dharma talk from a NY Dharma daylong retreat.
- There's a Place for You
This dharma talk by Peter Doobinin, given at a New York City retreat in autumn 2025, discusses the meditative journey to the present moment and how dharma practice affirms our place and the importance of our actions.
- Living Up to Your Potential
In this dharma talk from spring 2025, Peter Doobinin describes how the Buddha's path, the dharma, cultivates virtue, concentration, and insight to help us realize our greatest human potential and find happiness of heart.
- Passion for Dhamma
Peter Doobinin discusses how enthusiasm for the dharma is developed and how it aids progress in practice, highlighting its importance for awakening and making the most of life. The talk was given in summer 2025.
- Finding Dhamma
In this talk, Peter Doobinin discusses how dharma students can incline to knowing the dhamma by practicing in accord with the Buddha's teachings. He provides practical suggestions for recognizing moments of freedom, peace, and true happine…
- Moving Beyond Fear: Fear of Death
This dharma talk by Peter Doobinin explores the Buddha's teachings on the fear of death. It identifies four specific qualities a dharma student can develop to move beyond this existential fear, concluding a series on the topic.
- Moving Beyond Fear: The Other Side of Fear
This dharma talk by Peter Doobinin discusses skillfully relating to fear by meeting it with love, compassion, and joy. The practice of meeting fearful experiences with the heart is elemental to dharma training, ultimately allowing practiti…
- Moving Beyond Fear: Mindfulness of Fear
This dharma talk by Peter Doobinin details the skill of practicing mindfulness of fear. Developing this skill allows practitioners to confront fear and ultimately move beyond it, supporting the series' theme of
- Moving Beyond Fear: A Home for the Mind
This dharma talk by Peter Doobinin, the second in a June 2025 series on Moving Beyond Fear, explains the crucial role of concentration in helping dharma students overcome fear and how to effectively utilize it.
- Moving Beyond Fear: Qualities to Develop
This dharma talk by Peter Doobinin, the first in a June 2025 series on Moving Beyond Fear, explains the Buddha's principle that developing specific qualities is essential for confronting fear. Doobinin details these qualities, how to culti…
- The Values of the Dharma Student
In this talk from the spring of 2025, Peter Doobinin discusses the values of a dharma student and how Buddhist teachings provide the skills needed to cultivate them for greater happiness.
- Your True Home
This dharma talk by Peter Doobinin explores the path of dharma as a journey to one's true home, found within the body and heart, leading to genuine happiness. The talk was delivered in the spring of 2025.
- Effort Pleasure Love
In this dharma talk, Peter Doobinin discusses the process of developing concentration on the Buddha's path, describing it as a progression from effort to pleasure to love. The talk was delivered on the final night of the NY Dharma April 20…
- Time & Timelessness
In a dharma talk from the NY Dharma Retreat, Peter Doobinin explores the passing of time and contrasts it with timelessness, referencing concepts that transcend birth, death, coming, and going. The talk was given on the 6th night of the re…
- The Burdens on the Heart
This dharma talk by Peter Doobinin explains the concept of 'dukkha' or burdens on the heart and introduces the practice of insight meditation to release them. It was delivered during the NY Dharma April 2025 Eight-Day Retreat.
- Contentedness
Peter Doobinin discusses the meaning and development of contentedness in this dharma talk, exploring why it is a state to aspire to. The talk was given at the NY Dharma April 2025 Eight-Day retreat.
- Strength of Mind
Peter Doobinin explores the meaning and development of strength of mind, explaining how it enables us to face life's difficulties and fully experience the joy of living. This talk was given at the April 2025 Eight-Day Retreat.
- Training the Mind
This dharma talk by Peter Doobinin focuses on meditation as a practice for training the mind. It covers essential skills, with specific attention to working with restlessness, doubt, and self-identity view.
- The Path of Skillful Resolve
This dharma talk by Peter Doobinin addresses the importance of establishing skillful resolve in practicing the dharma. It explores what skillful resolve means and how practitioners can cultivate it, based on a talk given at the NY Dharma A…
- Freedom from Doubt
This Sunday Dharma Talk discusses encountering and skillfully practicing mindfulness of doubt on the path to awakening. Speaker Peter Doobinin explains how to meet doubt to develop conviction, referencing a talk given in winter 2024.
- A Window of Time
This talk by Peter explores the concept of 'mindfulness of death,' emphasizing that understanding life's brevity is key to maximizing our time and achieving true happiness as a dharma student.
- Compassion for Thinking
Peter Doobinin explains how wisdom and compassion help abandon unskillful thinking and painful narratives. This dharma talk from September 2024 focuses on developing mindfulness and compassion for one's own thinking patterns.
- Faith in the Goodness of Life
Peter Doobinin explains in this talk that while goodness exists in life, our awareness is often lacking. He details how to cultivate faith in this goodness and emphasizes the importance of making this effort.
- Compassion & Freedom
In this dharma talk, Peter Doobinin explains how meditation practice cultivates the capacity to open to difficulty and respond with wisdom and compassion, leading to true happiness and freedom.
- The Challenge of Compassion
This dharma talk by Peter Doobinin addresses the difficulties in cultivating compassion as a response to suffering. It explores the challenges faced by dharma students and offers guidance on developing the skill to foster this important at…
- Refuge Within
This dharma talk by Peter Doobinin, given in November 2023, discusses the importance of finding refuge within oneself and the community as a skill developed through dharma practice, essential for navigating life's difficulties.
- Respect for Concentration
This talk discusses the Buddha's encouragement to respect concentration, explaining how developing it through practice leads to jhana, skillful action, insight, and happiness. It references MN 19 and was given by Peter Doobinin in autumn 2…
- Consequences of Actions
In this dharma talk from November 2023, Peter Doobinin explains how understanding the consequences of our actions, by cultivating discernment, leads to greater happiness in this life, aligning with the Buddha's teachings that all beings de…