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.

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“When we’re lost in the wanting mind, in the mind of desire, it solidifies and strengthens the sense of self, the sense of ‘I,’ and it obscures the natural clarity, the recognition of the natural clarity and lucidity and emptiness of our own minds. So it’s a great obscuring force when we’re not paying attention.” – Joseph Goldstein

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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 of a great mythological journey. Now, mythological here does not mean unreal, it doesn’t mean imaginary. The great power of myth in our lives is that it connects our individual experiences with more universal principles.” – Joseph Goldstein

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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.

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“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 the sky? Everything is as it always was. In exactly the same way, our realization of selflessness does not change anything. Our experience is as it always was and will be. We’re simply seeing it in a truer way, we’re seeing it not limited by the conceptual overlay. We’re seeing it as it is. Then we can use the concept when it’s useful, but we’re not imprisoned by it, and we’re not limited by it, and we don’t contract in our identification with it.” – Joseph Goldstein

This dharma talk from February 11, 2003, at the Insight Meditation Society, was originally published on Dharma Seed.

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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, then our practice becomes a great purifying process.” – Joseph Goldstein

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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.

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This dharma talk from October 11, 2000, at the Insight Meditation Society Retreat Center, was originally published on Dharma Seed.

“At these times, great courage is needed. And courage here is not an absence of fear. Courage does not mean an absence of fear, it means an acceptance of fear.” – Joseph Goldstein

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Joseph Goldstein explores the mental factors of doubt, restlessness, and sloth, which are three hindrances that can cause a lack of vision and knowledge, and lead us away from Nibbana.  

This dharma talk from November 2002 at the Insight Meditation Society Retreat Center was originally published on Dharma Seed.

“This skeptical doubt, this indecision, this bewilderment, in terms of our meditation practice, is actually quite a dangerous mind state. Because unnoticed, if we’re not mindful of it, it brings our practice to a standstill.” – Joseph Goldstein

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Joseph Goldstein explores the quality of Metta, or lovingkindness, and offers advice on preparing the ground from which Metta can grow and flourish. 

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This dharma talk from February 5, 2000, was originally published on Dharma Seed.

“Something very beautiful begins to happen when we click onto the Metta channel, which comes by focusing on the good qualities in people, and that is: we become increasingly open to feelings of gratitude.” – Joseph Goldstein

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In this dharma talk, Joseph Goldstein describes the art of carrying our practice into the world through training in the areas of Right Effort, concentration, and wisdom.

This dharma talk from February 1994 at the Insight Meditation Society Retreat Center was originally published on Dharma Seed.

"You know, the Dharma's so beautiful because it's like everything feeds into everything else. And we can really begin to be leading our life with this kind of integration. Dharma practice is not a hobby that we do occasionally, it's really how we're living our life." – Joseph Goldstein

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In helping us with understanding desire, Joseph Goldstein explores the three types of desire that the Buddha spoke of and offers several ways of working with desire in our practice.

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This recording was originally published on Dharma Seed

“Usually we think that what we want is the object. But really what we want is the pleasant feeling that we think is going to come with that experience.” – Joseph Goldstein

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Joseph Goldstein explores the fabricated concept of self, the secret name of things beneath our perception, the illusion of solidity, and the deeper reality that exists beyond our concept of self.

This dharma talk from October 1999 at the Insight Meditation Society Retreat Center was originally published on Dharma Seed.

“So there’s a secret name under the conventional name. The conventional name is the perception… The secret name is the sight and feel of the thing itself. Each experience speaks itself directly when we can be mindful. When there’s perception without mindfulness, then we simply get caught in this naming process, we get lost in the concept, and we stay on the very surface appearance of the experience. We’re not listening or hearing the secret name, the sight and feel of the thing itself. We’re just staying on our surface recognition, our surface perception.” – Joseph Goldstein

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