The Ingredients for Selfing (Part 1)
The Ingredients for Selfing (Part 1)
Talk by Peter Carlson
In this talk—the first of a two-part series—Peter Carlson explores the cetasikas, or mental factors, described in Buddhist psychology (Abhidharma). Using the metaphor of mixing ingredients to create a recipe, Peter explains how these conditioning factors combine to form our experience of "selfing" (sankhara), shaping how we perceive and react to the world around us.
This installment covers:
The Historical Context: How the early, straightforward teachings of the Buddha evolved into the analytical compilations of the Abhidharma and texts like the Visuddhimagga.
The Five Aggregates (Pancha Khandha): How sensory form (rupa), feeling, perception, and conditioning factors interweave with consciousness (nama).
Universal & Occasional Mental Factors: Key, ethically malleable functions such as contact, volition (cetana), concentration, attention, aiming (vitakka), and sustaining (vicara) attention.
Unwholesome Factors (Dukkha): How factors like ignorance (avijja), shamelessness, recklessness, restlessness, desire, aversion, wrong view, sloth, torpor, and doubt drive distress and confusion.
Peter breaks down how examining these mental components through mindfulness practice can help deconstruct our rigid sense of self, foster clarity, and pave the way for liberation from habitual suffering.
(Part 2 will explore the wholesome mental factors and their role in spiritual awakening.)
