Dharmapunx NYC

Explore how the brain continually rebuilds a sense of self from memories, habits, roles, and survival strategies. The talk examines concentration, mindfulness, loving-kindness, and non-dual awareness as different ways to loosen self-focused thought. It concludes with guided practices for focused breathing, open awareness, and experiencing sensations without a fixed observer.

Why can addictive behaviors overpower logic and willpower? This talk explores how bodily cues, stress, fatigue, and unpredictable rewards shape decisions before conscious thought catches up. It covers gambling, phone use, binge eating, sugary foods, and compulsive shopping, then introduces cue exposure, mindfulness, urge surfing, breathing, and guided practices for meeting cravings in the body.

Explore how the brain uses past experiences to predict the present, shaping perception, emotion, and behavior. The discussion examines negativity bias, trauma, avoidance, and the Buddhist “second arrow” of suffering. It also turns practical, with grounding techniques, gradual exposure, relaxation, and guided exercises for updating difficult memories and anchoring attention in present safety.

A fascinating exploration of how the brain constructs the feeling of being a unified self. The talk examines perception, body ownership, personal narratives, free will, and the link between self-referential thinking and suffering. It concludes with a guided meditation focused on bodily awareness, observing thoughts, and loosening the sense of an owner behind experience.

Why do emotions feel automatic when the brain may be constructing them in real time? This talk explores predictive body signals, childhood survival patterns, cultural context, and the mental images shaping fear, anger, and desire. It also includes practical regulation techniques, progressive muscle relaxation, silent meditation, and rehearsal for stressful future situations.

A lively dive into shifting self-states, from the Buddhist idea of no fixed self to trauma-created splits between a functional persona and a wounded part. They map four traditional personality states onto modern attachment patterns and explain how moods and bodily predictions shape perception. The practice focus includes noticing affects, somatic decision cues, emotion contagion, and a guided body-and-breath exercise.

A talk about how rumination reorganizes life around an unavailable person and impairs functioning. Exploration of how brains build predictive models and resist updating them. Discussion of attachment history, repetition compulsion, and craving as distraction. Practical approaches include limiting contact, community support, CBT-style evidence checks, mindfulness of feelings, and contemplative practices.

They explore how ritual practice repairs the nervous system beyond talk therapy. You hear explanations linking predictive brain models to embodied change. Rhythm, breath, cold immersion and movement are presented as tools to retrain safety responses. Symbolic acts, communal rites and modern body-based therapies are highlighted as powerful ways to mark transitions and restore connection.

Conversations about the difference between helping and solving, and why people often need emotional presence rather than fixes. Exploration of how we unconsciously mirror others and catch emotions through right-brain empathy. Practical attention to grounding, bodily regulation, and safety skills to stay present without becoming overwhelmed. Guidance on honest boundaries, widening support, and avoiding carrying others' pain alone.

A lively dive into how the brain constructs time and why our sense of now is an internal model. Topics include neuroscientific experiments on delayed feedback, how attention and novelty stretch or compress perceived time, and cultural and hemispheric differences in temporal experience. The conversation also explores meditation and Buddhist perspectives on expanding the present moment.