In a dharma talk on working with thoughts and emotions, Joseph Goldstein explains the impersonal and empty nature of the mind.

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This week on Insight Hour, Joseph Goldstein teaches us about: 

• Observing how mind states and thoughts mutually condition each other
• The way that thoughts carry us away into different emotional states
• Looking at the direct nature and meaning of thought
• Noticing the difference between being lost and being awake
• Viewing our thoughts just as they arise
• Not overthinking and focusing on the simplicity of a practice
• The six things that are ever arising or passing: our senses
• Maintaining open awareness and experiencing the flow

“Well, what is a thought? It’s quite remarkable because when we look at that level, not on the level of the story or the content, but thought as a phenomenon, we see that it is barely more than nothing. It is so phenomenal. These thoughts arise, and the content can be so compelling, but as a phenomenon, as the nature of thought, it’s just this little energy blip in the mind. If we’re not getting hooked by the content, it has no power at all.” – Joseph Goldstein

This 2019 dharma talk from Insight Meditation Society was originally published by Dharmaseed

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