Taking a journey into the vastness of the mind, Joseph Goldstein explores the creative power of consciousness. In this episode, Joseph Goldstein elucidates: Consciousness as the creator of our inner and outer worlds. The suffering that can come from an uncultivated mind Mental illness, obsessions, addictions and thought-loops Being a prisoner of our own untrained mind Impermanence, empowerment, and the potential of the inner Buddha The Mahamudra and taming the mind Staying mindful during defilem...
Jul 12, 2023•59 min•Ep. 172
Joseph Goldstein explores the five Iddhis, or fulfillments of understanding, spoken of by the Buddha, and offers four different paths which can lead one to the completion of the fulfillments. “The Buddha spoke of five Iddhis, or five fulfillments of understanding. The first of them is the Iddhi of special knowledge, which means the knowledge or the understanding of things which go beyond the conventional realm of concepts.” – Joseph Goldstein In this episode, Joseph examines the following: The t...
Jul 05, 2023•56 min•Ep. 171
Joseph Goldstein explores the nature of Samsara, or endless wandering, and the three interdependent cycles of defilements, actions, and results that keep the wheel of Samsara rolling. “These three Kleshas in the mind – ignorance, craving, and grasping – they keep us moving around and around in this cycle of Samsara. There’s no balance in our lives, there’s no rest in our lives, as long as this cycle of Klesha is revolving.” – Joseph Goldstein In this episode, Joseph explores: The nature of Samsa...
Jun 28, 2023•55 min•Ep. 170
Joseph Goldstein guides us through the steps of integrating the science of meditation with the art of meditation as a way of awakening within us the heart of wisdom. This podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. Click to receive 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/insighthour “Through this integration, the art and the science, we really awaken in us this heart of wisdom. And the heart of wisdom means seeing the true nature of phenomena. Seeing the tr...
Jun 22, 2023•48 min•Ep. 169
Joseph Goldstein explores the different ways that we can strengthen and sharpen the five spiritual faculties that exercise a governing role in the mind when they are highly developed. “So out of the continuity of attention, the defilements have less strength. Because of this, the mind becomes more peaceful. We get a taste of a genuine inner peace, a sense of calm, a sense of tranquility. From this taste of peace within us – not peace dependent on any external situation, but actually arising with...
Jun 14, 2023•50 min•Ep. 168
Extricating us from dualist concepts of self and other, Joseph helps us move from the 'ego-center' to the 'zero-center' through opening to love. This podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. Click to receive 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/insighthour “There are so many parts of our experience which we don't like, we don't want to be there. We condemn, we judge, we push away—it can be difficult feelings in the body, difficult emotions, feelings o...
Jun 07, 2023•55 min•Ep. 167
Joseph Goldstein talks about working with and opening to fear as he pinpoints the three types of deeply conditioned fears that keep us from recognizing our own Buddha nature. “What happens as proceed along this journey of practice is that we come to our edges, we come up to our boundaries of what is acceptable; what is acceptable in terms of physical sensation, what is acceptable in terms of mind states or feelings or emotions. And those are our boundaries at which fears in the mind begin to rev...
May 31, 2023•49 min•Ep. 166
Joseph Goldstein explores the relationship of our meditation practice to the establishment of world peace by helping us understand the tendencies of the mind obstructing that peace. This podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. Click to receive 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/insighthour “There is a very powerful effect; it’s not just for ourselves that we practice, it is for ourselves and it is for everyone else, as well. Because as we free our ...
May 24, 2023•45 min•Ep. 165
Joseph Goldstein explores the concept of dependent origination – the law of causality and conditioning – so we can understand the process that keeps us bound to the Wheel of Samsara. “In every moment of noticing, in every moment of being mindful, when there is no ignorance, when there is no delusion, when we are seeing things actually as they are, in that moment, the mind is purified; we are breaking this chain of dependent origination, we are breaking the link of it.” – Joseph Goldstein In this...
May 17, 2023•56 min•Ep. 164
Joseph Goldstein explores wisdom from the Tao and talks about how we can learn to settle back into each moment and establish ourselves in the rhythm of experience. This podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. Click to receive 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/insighthour “When we can settle back and allow the change, allow the process of change to unfold without interfering, without pushing the river, then we establish ourselves in the rhythm of e...
May 10, 2023•51 min•Ep. 163
Joseph Goldstein examines what happiness is and how we get it, plus he outlines the very ordered stages of progress that occur on the path of insight and wisdom. “There’s another kind of happiness, which is higher even than the happiness of concentration, and that’s the happiness of insight, the happiness of wisdom, when we really come to a deep and profound understanding of who we are, of what this life is about.” – Joseph Goldstein In this episode, Joseph explores: The happiness born from sens...
May 03, 2023•54 min•Ep. 162
In this episode, Joseph Goldstein leads a powerful practice around cultivating equanimity and talks about why it’s important not to confuse equanimity with its near enemy, indifference. This podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. Click to receive 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/insighthour “Equanimity is the mind state of impartially, not indifference. So it’s like space which contains everything impartially. And one way of coming to this space...
Apr 27, 2023•19 min•Ep. 161
Joseph Goldstein explores the Buddha’s concept of the Five Iddhis, which are the five elements of the teachings we need to bring to completion in order to truly awaken our hearts and minds. “This Iddhi of psychic power is inferior to the Iddhi of understanding. When the Buddha was asked what the true miracle was, he said the real miracle is the awakening of people’s minds, it’s not the flying through the air or the diving in the earth, it’s the awakening of the mind, the awakening of the heart.”...
Apr 20, 2023•56 min•Ep. 160
Joseph Goldstein talks about how the tides of conceiving continually condition our lives and explores the ways we can directly experience the reality of Nibanna, the unconditioned. This podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. Click to receive 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/insighthour “Do we buy in? Do we buy into the content? Do we get lost in this mind-created world of ‘future,’ or can we see it as being as light as a momentary thought, a mom...
Apr 13, 2023•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 159
Joseph Goldstein covers the basics of metta, which he calls the generosity of the heart, and shares ways we can cultivate deeper feelings of loving-kindness in our practice. “Metta, as most of you are familiar, is a word from the Pali language, the language of the Buddha’s time, and it means loving-kindness or friendliness. And it refers to that basic quality or that basic feeling of generosity of the heart. It’s an expression of the generous heart that is simply wishing well, simply wishing or ...
Apr 05, 2023•57 min•Ep. 158
In this deep exploration of the union between compassion and emptiness, Joseph Goldstein breaks down the relative and absolute levels of Bodhicitta, the heart-mind of awakening. This podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. Click to receive 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/insighthour “The ultimate nature of Bodhicitta – the relative level is compassion – the ultimate level of Bodhicitta, is the empty, aware nature of the mind itself. And as one T...
Mar 30, 2023•56 min•Ep. 157
Joseph Goldstein talks about how wisdom arises from an understanding of the true nature of impermanence, and how experiencing the truth of change can be our doorway to freedom. In this episode, Joseph explores: The nature of impermanence and why going from an intellectual understanding of it to a direct experience of it can be our doorway to freedom The different ways we can gain liberating insights into the truth of impermanence, including reflecting on death and relationships How, when we begi...
Mar 22, 2023•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 156
Joseph Goldstein helps us understand the quality of samadhi, which he describes as embodied presence, and talks about the different methods we have available for cultivating it. This podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. Click to receive 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/insighthour “We settle back into the body, into the awareness of the body, and we allow the tensions and the knots, we allow them to unfold. We create the space, we create the s...
Mar 14, 2023•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 155
In this episode of Insight Hour, Joseph Goldstein explores what compassion is, the wisdom that gives rise to it, and how we can manifest it in the world. This podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. Click to receive 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/insighthour “When compassion and wisdom are both present in our lives, even to a small extent, there’s really a remarkable transformation, because they bring a creative power to the way we live, the wa...
Mar 01, 2023•55 min•Ep. 154
Joseph Goldstein explores the path to freedom that the Buddha laid out for all of us and talks about the importance of developing and sustaining the quality of ardor in our practice. This podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. Click to receive 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/insighthour “What is ardency? I think we all have some sense of it in our very worldly lives. Just think of the feeling of ardor in the great love of your life, or in the f...
Feb 14, 2023•54 min•Ep. 153
Joseph Goldstein and Sharon Salzberg recall their early lives and initial years of mindfulness practice and share what drew them to meditation in the late sixties and early seventies. This podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. Click to receive 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/insighthour This podcast is being released in tandem with Sharon Salzberg’s Metta Hour Hour Podcast . Sharon is a meditation pioneer, world-renowned teacher, and New York ...
Feb 01, 2023•1 hr 8 min•Ep. 152
In this unique offering from the Love Serve Remember Foundation archives, Joseph Goldstein joins Ram Dass for a conversation around love, emptiness, soul, the notion of self, and much more. NEW Meditation Series: Pause, Breathe, Be Here Now with Ram Dass, Sharon Salzberg, Jack Kornfield, Tara Brach, Joseph Goldstein, John Lockley, Ram Dev, Trudy Goodman, Lama Tsultrim Allione—FREE January 16 to 25. Sit in true peace, love, and tranquility. Join thousands of people around the world for this colle...
Jan 25, 2023•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 151
Exploring the dharma of liberation, Joseph invite us beyond delusion and into the true nature of mind as innate wakefulness. This podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. Click to receive 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/insighthour NEW Meditation Series: Pause, Breathe, Be Here Now with Ram Dass, Sharon Salzberg, Jack Kornfield, Tara Brach, Joseph Goldstein, John Lockley, Ram Dev, Trudy Goodman, Lama Tsultrim Allione—FREE January 16 to 25. Sit in...
Jan 18, 2023•58 min•Ep. 150
Joseph Goldstein explores the tendency of desire, how we can understand this driving force of Samsara, and how we can practice being free of it. “Desire is not an insignificant conditioning in us, and it takes many forms. And it’s really not the form or even the object that’s terribly important or interesting. It’s that force, it’s that energy, it’s that habit pattern of wanting. When we don’t see it, when we’re caught, when we’re identified with that wanting mind, it obscures the natural freedo...
Jan 11, 2023•57 min•Ep. 149
Joseph Goldstein explores the 10 unwholesome activities and actions of the body, speech, and mind that the Buddha advises us all to refrain from for our own happiness and well-being. NEW Meditation Series: Pause, Breathe, Be Here Now with Ram Dass, Sharon Salzberg, Jack Kornfield, Tara Brach, Joseph Goldstein, John Lockley, Ram Dev, Trudy Goodman, Lama Tsultrim Allione—FREE January 16 to 25. Sit in true peace, love, and tranquility. Join thousands of people around the world for this collective m...
Jan 05, 2023•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 148
Joseph Goldstein explores the suffering that comes with wanting, the three types of desire, and why our investigation is to notice the ways the mind gets caught and the ways it can be free. This dharma talk from October 10, 1999, at the Insight Meditation Society, was originally published on Dharma Seed . This podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. Click to receive 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/insighthour “When we’re lost in the wanting mind...
Dec 29, 2022•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 147
Joseph Goldstein explores the Buddha’s life and journey, reflecting on the four stages of this mythological unfolding of awakening and how we can all achieve the enlightenment that is the end of craving. This dharma talk from May 5, 2004, at the Insight Meditation Society – Forest Refuge, was originally published on Dharma Seed . “On this archetypal level, the Buddha’s life is not simply the strivings and realizations of a particular individual, we can also understand his life as the unfolding o...
Dec 22, 2022•54 min•Ep. 146
Joseph Goldstein provides an uncommon sense view of selflessness to help us understand the often vexing notion of no-self and talks about how we can be free from the illusion of self. This podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. Click to receive 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/insighthour “Self is like the Big Dipper. It’s a name, it’s a designation for a constellation of experiences. So when we say there’s no Big Dipper, does anything change in...
Dec 14, 2022•59 min•Ep. 145
Joseph Goldstein takes a deep dive into the law of karma, how it affects us in our practice and daily lives, and how can we apply it in a way that it becomes the condition for our happiness. This dharma talk from November 11, 2003, at the Insight Meditation Society, was originally published on Dharma Seed. “So we can see these are karmic results of one thing or another coming as impressions in the mind. But when we bring awareness to them, when we bring a certain compassionate understanding, the...
Dec 08, 2022•59 min•Ep. 144
Joseph Goldstein talks about the nature of fear, how it’s conditioned in the mind, how we can work with it, and embracing the possibility of transforming fear into wisdom and freedom. This podcast is sponsored by BetterHelp. Click to receive 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/insighthour This dharma talk from October 11, 2000, at the Insight Meditation Society Retreat Center, was originally published on Dharma Seed . “At these times, great cour...
Nov 30, 2022•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 143
