Joseph Goldstein explores how karma and Samsara shape our lives and shares wisdom on integrating Dharma practice into our lives.

Today's dharma talk from May 16, 2023, was recorded at the Insight Meditation Society and originally published on Dharma Seed

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In this talk, Joesph shares his wisdom on:

• Applying Buddhist practice and wisdom to our daily lives
• Better understanding the interworkings of the mind and how our lives unfold
• How Karma and Samsara feed into one another
• The importance that our motivations play in Karma and Samsara

“The challenge in our practice is integrating this understanding of karma with our growing insight into emptiness, selflessness, and the selfless insubstantial nature of phenomena. Can we hold both?” – Joseph Goldstein

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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 defilement

“The Buddha talked of how this mind, this force or power of consciousness, can be our worst enemy or the most benevolent friend.” – Joseph Goldstein

About Joseph Goldstein:

Joseph Goldstein has been leading insight and loving-kindness meditation retreats worldwide since 1974. He is a co-founder of the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts, where he is one of the organization’s guiding teachers. In 1989, together with several other teachers and students of insight meditation, he helped establish the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies.

“What’s most helpful to remember, in this part of the process where we become so aware of these defilements of the mind, is that they are visitors. They are not the nature of the mind itself. And because they are visitors we don’t have to judge ourselves, and we don’t have to judge them.” – Joseph Goldstein

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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 term Iddhi, which is best translated as fulfillment of understanding
• The five Iddhis that the Buddha placed the most emphasis on: understanding all the constituent elements of what we call self; opening to the truth of suffering; abandoning the causes of suffering; realizing the end of suffering; developing a path to the end
• The four different paths which can lead one to the completion of the five Iddhis

“These are the fulfillments that the Buddha talked about, the true miracle for us, the true development of understanding. In many of the texts, one of the ways in which somebody who got enlightened would celebrate the event, one of the common refrains, which has always been very inspiring to me, they would often say, ‘Done is what had to be done.’ Wouldn’t that be nice? Done is what had to be done. Finished. Come to completion. Come to fulfillment. We have actually done what needs to be done. What needs to be done is the realization or the development of these five Iddhis.” – Joseph Goldstein

This dharma talk from November 26, 1988 was originally published on Dharma Seed.

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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 Samsara and the profound questions it raises for us
• The first interdependent cycle that keeps the wheel of Samsara rolling, the cycle of defilements, or Kleshas 
• The three root defilements that keep the cycle of defilements turning – ignorance, craving, and grasping
• The second interdependent cycle, the cycle of actions and karma
• The third interdependent cycle, the cycle of results
• How mindfulness can help us escape the wheel of Samsara

This dharma talk from October 23, 1988, was originally published on Dharma Seed.

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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.

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“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 true nature very deeply and very profoundly. It means going from the level of concept, from the level of our ideas and opinions about things, to the nature of the reality of it.” – Joseph Goldstein

In this episode, Joseph explores:

• How our practice is about awakening the heart of wisdom within us by integrating the science of meditation with the art of meditation
• The steps to integrate the science and art of meditation, including opening ourselves to all aspects of experience and refining the quality of our relationship to experience
• How we can drop from the level of concept to the level of what’s really happening, the true nature of experience
• How we can further develop concentration and mindfulness

This dharma talk from September 24, 1988, was originally published on Dharma Seed.

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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 within our own hearts – because of this taste of peace, the spiritual faculty of confidence arises, strong faith arises, based on our own experience of it.” – Joseph Goldstein

In this episode, Joseph explores:

• The five spiritual faculties – confidence, effort, mindfulness, concentration, and wisdom – and how they exercise a governing role in the mind when they are highly developed
• The various ways in which we can strengthen and sharpen those spiritual faculties: the understanding that everything which arises passes away; respect for the practice and respect for ourselves; care and meticulousness in our awareness; perseverance and continuity of attention; the suitability of conditions for practice; the sign of samadhi; balancing the factors of enlightenment; and understanding what heroic effort really means

This dharma talk from November 16, 1986, was originally published on Dharma Seed.

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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.

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“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 of hatred, rage, unworthiness, loneliness, profound alienation. It can be so many things, so many parts of the mind that are the shadow side. The process of healing, the process of integration, is a willingness to open to all of those sides, to see the shadow in all its manifestation.” – Joseph Goldstein

In this episode, Joseph dives into:

• How we create the concept of duality/seperation (self and other, inside and outside, persona and shadow, etc.)
• Understanding our practice of Dharma as reintegrating and unifying
• Using mindfulness to shine light on our shadow by making the subconscious conscious
• Moving from the 'ego-center' to the 'zero-center' using the intermediate space of love (a very deep appreciation, respect, and openness for every moment's experience)
• Carlos Castaneda and the relationship between impeccability and emptiness

This episode recorded 11/29/1986 at the Insight Meditation Society was originally published on DharmaSeed

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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 reveal themselves. Can we go beyond these boundaries? Can we go beyond the edges? Is there a way of working with fear and understanding it so that it is no longer a limitation for us?” – Joseph Goldstein

In this episode, Joseph explores:

• How the practice of Dharma is a path of opening, but fear is often something that closes us down
• How fear is a manifestation of aversion
• The three types of deeply conditioned fears that keep us closed down: fear of pain, fear of insecurity, and fear of death
• How we can work directly with the mind state of fear through loving acceptance and discriminating wisdom

“So we learn how to open, we learn to come to our boundaries, our edges, our limitations; we see the fear that may be operating there, and we learn to work with the fear, we include the fear in our practice.” – Joseph Goldstein

This dharma talk from November 11, 1985, was originally published on Dharma Seed.

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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.

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“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 minds from craving and wrong view and conceit, when we reduce this tendency, this attitude of mind to expand and grab and take and exploit, when we can purify our own minds of these tendencies, we establish peace in ourselves, and it becomes a force of peace in the world.” – Joseph Goldstein

In this episode, Joseph explores:

• The relationship of our meditation practice to the establishment of world peace
• How we can better understand the three tendencies of the mind that are the root causes of the conditions that obstruct peace: craving, wrong view, and conceit
• How the practice of mindfulness can help us uproot those three tendencies of the mind by deepening our insight into impermanence, suffering, and the selflessness of phenomena

This dharma talk from October 18, 1985, was originally published on Dharma Seed.

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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 episode, Joseph explores:

• The Wheel of Life, also known as the Wheel of Samsara
• Why the law of dependent origination, or the law of causality and conditioning, keeps us bound to the Wheel of Samsara
• Each link along the chain of dependent origination
• How cycles within the 12 links in the law of dependent origination keep the wheel forever spinning
• How Vipassana practice can help us cut into those cycles and break the chain of dependent origination

This dharma talk from October 29, 1985, was originally published on Dharma Seed.

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