Concluding a segment on the five aggregates, Joseph Goldstein explains how mindfulness of mental formations refines our consciousness.

The Satipatthana Sutta is one of the most celebrated and widely studied discourses in the Pāli Canon of Theravada Buddhism. This episode is the fourth part of an in-depth 48-part weekly lecture series from Joseph Goldstein that delves into every aspect of the Satipatthana Sutta. If you are just now jumping into the Satipatthana Sutta series, listen to Insight Hour Ep. 203 to follow along and get the full experience!

This episode is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/insighthour and get on your way to being your best self.

In this episode, Joseph thoughtfully outlines:

• The mental factor of intention / volition as the chief of the mind
• How the seeds we plant have tremendous potential
• Considering the motivations of our intentions
• Sorting out what is wholesome versus unwholesome
• The three roots of all unwholesome actions: greed, hatred, and delusion
• The three wholesome roots: generosity, loving-kindness, and wisdom
• Pausing before we act so we can make wiser choices in our lives
• How mindfulness attracts all of the fruits of wholesome action
• The unchanging nature of bare knowing
• The four causes of seeing consciousness
• Consciousness as a conditioned phenomena
• Focusing on what is arising through a passive voice and non-subject
• Cultivating the open sky of the mind

This talk was originally published on Dharmaseed

Grab a copy of the book Joseph references throughout this series, Satipaṭṭhāna: The Direct Path to Realization, HERE

“The Buddha is saying that consciousness itself is a conditioned phenomena. It’s impersonal, arising out of causes, arising out of conditions moment to moment. Here we see that consciousness is not something that’s permanent. It’s not something that’s always present waiting for an object to appear, to be known. But rather consciousness itself is a process continually arising and passing away moment after moment.” – Joseph Goldstein

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Continuing his discussion of the five aggregates, Joseph Goldstein dives deeper into perception and how we can get lost in mental formations.

The Satipatthana Sutta is one of the most celebrated and widely studied discourses in the Pāli Canon of Theravada Buddhism. This episode is the fourth part of an in-depth 48-part weekly lecture series from Joseph Goldstein that delves into every aspect of the Satipatthana Sutta. If you are just now jumping into the Satipatthana Sutta series, listen to Insight Hour Ep. 203 to follow along and get the full experience!

This episode is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/insighthour and get on your way to being your best self.

In another exploration of the Satipatthana Sutta, Joseph discusses:

• Balancing perception with mindfulness
• Using the frame of our perception to enter more deeply into experience
• Our tendency to solidify the world through superficial concepts
• The seduction of being lost in the future and past
• Reality and the concept of the present moment
• Created concepts of self-image
• The delineation of mental factors; universal, occasional, and unwholesome
• Considering the understanding of karma
• Having interest in our mental formations and taking time to investigate them
• How mindfulness of mental formations helps us see how impersonal everything is

Grab a copy of the book Joseph references throughout this series, Satipaṭṭhāna: The Direct Path to Realization, HERE

This talk was originally published on Dharmaseed

“We also create concepts about things that may seem even more fundamental like age, gender or race. But when we look more deeply, we see that these are concepts too. How old is your breath? It doesn’t make sense. Is the pain in your back male or female? What color is your mind? It’s not to say that the concepts don’t point to some differences of experience, but we often become so identified with and attached to the concept." – Joseph Goldstein

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In this profound investigation of subjective experience and direct reality, Joseph Goldstein looks at the first three of the five aggregates in Buddhism.

The Satipatthana Sutta is one of the most celebrated and widely studied discourses in the Pāli Canon of Theravada Buddhism. This episode is the fourth part of an in-depth 48-part weekly lecture series from Joseph Goldstein that delves into every aspect of the Satipatthana Sutta. If you are just now jumping into the Satipatthana Sutta series, listen to Insight Hour Ep. 203 to follow along and get the full experience!

In this episode, Joseph analyzes:

• The five aggregates of clinging and deconstructing subjective experience
• Opening the stainless dharma vision eye
• How the Buddha shows the way to those who are lost
• The direct realities underlying the surface appearance of being
• All of the elements which give rise to the experience of self / the aggregate of Rūpa
• The nature of material elements and the four great essentials
• Our experiences as a flow of changing vibrations
• The second aggregate, Vedanā, aka the feeling qualities of experiences
• Feelings as the conditioning factor of our reactions
• Collapsing into the identification with pleasant vs. unpleasant
• Saññā, the aggregate of perception
• Recognizing, naming, and remembering each arising object
• The function of mental noting and focusing on mindfulness

Grab a copy of the book Joseph references throughout this series, Satipaṭṭhāna: The Direct Path to Realization, HERE

This talk was originally published on Dharmaseed

“The Buddha uses this contemplation of the aggregates to analyze our subjective experience and, through this analysis, to deconstruct the very deeply held construct and belief in self.” – Joseph Goldstein

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Highlighting the danger of indecision, Joseph Goldstein examines the nature of doubt as taught by the Buddha.

This episode is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/insighthour and get on your way to being your best self.

The Satipatthana Sutta is one of the most celebrated and widely studied discourses in the Pāli Canon of Theravada Buddhism. This episode is the fourth part of an in-depth 48-part weekly lecture series from Joseph Goldstein that delves into every aspect of the Satipatthana Sutta. If you are just now jumping into the Satipatthana Sutta series, listen to Insight Hour Ep. 203 to follow along and get the full experience!

This week on Insight Hour, Joseph explains to listeners:

• How elements of mind and body function
• What the Buddha said about working with and overcoming doubt
• Recognizing whether or not doubt is present within ourselves
• The nature and character of the doubting mind
• The danger of being paralyzed by indecision
• Doubt within our meditation practice / Doubting parts of the dhamma
• Contemplating the unattractive elements of the body
• Doubting the value of practice in a world of suffering
• The deep pattern of self-doubt
• How doubt masquerades as wisdom
• Paying attention to what triggers doubt
• Understanding what is wholesome and unwholesome
• Investigation and the wisdom mind as the cure to doubt

Grab a copy of the book Joseph references throughout this series, Satipaṭṭhāna: The Direct Path to Realization, HERE

This talk was originally published on Dharmaseed

“When doubt is strong, and we’re paralyzed by indecision, this mental force doesn’t even allow us the opportunity to take a wrong turn and to learn from our mistakes; rather, we’re always checking ourselves, we’re vacillating, we’re trying to decide.” – Joseph Goldstein

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Diving into restlessness and worry, Joseph Goldstein outlines how to use the eye of wisdom to examine mental agitation.

The Satipatthana Sutta is one of the most celebrated and widely studied discourses in the Pāli Canon of Theravada Buddhism. This episode is the fourth part of an in-depth 48-part weekly lecture series from Joseph Goldstein that delves into every aspect of the Satipatthana Sutta. If you are just now jumping into the Satipatthana Sutta series, listen to Insight Hour Ep. 203 to follow along and get the full experience!

This time on Insight Hour, Joseph lectures on:

• The obvious and subtle expressions of restlessness and worry
• How we can easily become over-concerned with our practice
• Falling into spiritual self-absorption
• The conditions which cause the arising of restlessness and worry
• Examining all situations with the eye of wisdom
• The physical energies of restlessness and worry
• Making the mind wind and open or focusing the mind more microscopically
• Reflecting on the purpose of our practice
• Excessive striving and our tendency to self-judge
• Letting go of the past, future, and present

This talk was originally published on Dharmaseed

“When you feel that the mind is not settled, when it’s not at rest, become mindful of what’s going on. Let the unease that you’re feeling be the mindfulness bell.” – Joseph Goldstein

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Employing the Satipatthana Sutta, Joseph Goldstein shows us how to overcome the mental states of sloth and torpor.

The Satipatthana Sutta is one of the most celebrated and widely studied discourses in the Pāli Canon of Theravada Buddhism. This episode is the fourth part of an in-depth 48-part weekly lecture series from Joseph Goldstein that delves into every aspect of the Satipatthana Sutta. If you are just now jumping into the Satipatthana Sutta series, listen to Insight Hour Ep. 203 to follow along and get the full experience!

In this episode, Joseph instructs listeners on:

• The mind states of sloth and torpor
• Defining sloth as a sluggishness of mind which dispels energy
• Noticing when sloth and torpor are present in us
• How sloth and torpor can spread via unwise attention to boredom and depression
• Watching the thinking patterns we have around slothful mind-states
• How sloth and torpor can signal us to other hidden emotions
• Over-consumption and being attentive to what we put into our bodies
• The benefit and value of the eight precepts
• Having a balance of both concentration and energy
• Deepening our insight into the impermanence of the hindrances
• Mindfulness as the most basic strategy for overcoming laziness
• Adding in more objects to our meditation as an antidote to the sinking mind
• Being alert even in times of low energy as practice for conscious dying
• Finding inspiration in reading the dhamma, listening to a recording, or chanting

This talk was originally published on Dharmaseed

“Mindfulness, here, is deepening our insight into the impermanence of the hindrances. If we can stay with it, we see that they come and go by themselves. We don’t have to fulfill the desire, we don’t have to act on the anger, we don’t have to indulge the sleepiness, in order for them to go, we just need to stay with it and we’ll see their changing nature simply through the awareness of them.” – Joseph Goldstein

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Illuminating the shadows of our minds, Joseph Goldstein explains how to notice and investigate the emotions hiding underneath aversions.

This episode is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/insighthour and get on your way to being your best self.

The Satipatthana Sutta is one of the most celebrated and widely studied discourses in the Pāli Canon of Theravada Buddhism. This episode is the fourth part of an in-depth 48-part weekly lecture series from Joseph Goldstein that delves into every aspect of the Satipatthana Sutta. If you are just now jumping into the Satipatthana Sutta series, listen to Insight Hour Ep. 203 to follow along and get the full experience!

In this episode, Joseph offers a discussion on:

• What aversion is and how to recognize when it’s present
• The powerful underground force of hatred
• Looking clearly and deeply into our own minds through mindfulness
• Weakening and uprooting the very deepest tendencies of mind
• How even words themselves contain both desire and aversion
• The rising of aversion with respect to physical and emotional pain
• The nine thoughts that can stir up malice according to the Buddha
• Why we personalize situations which are impersonal
• Opening up to aversion as simply a noted mind-state
• Arousing the investigative aspect of the mind
• Reflecting on what purpose (or lack their of) our emotions serve
• Taking responsibility for our aversions
• The development of loving-kindness and wishing-well to all beings

This talk was originally published on Dharmaseed

“Really what we’re doing here is illuminating the shadow side of our mind, the aspects that we don’t usually see, the underground, the latent tendencies in which the milder forms of aversion are rooted.” – Joseph Goldstein

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Joseph Goldstein describes the causes of sensual desire and how to be aware of the wanting-mind rather than suppressing it.

The Satipatthana Sutta is one of the most celebrated and widely studied discourses in the Pāli Canon of Theravada Buddhism. This episode is the fourth part of an in-depth 48-part weekly lecture series from Joseph Goldstein that delves into every aspect of the Satipatthana Sutta. If you are just now jumping into the Satipatthana Sutta series, listen to Insight Hour Ep. 203 to follow along and get the full experience!

This time on Insight Hour, Joseph reveals to listeners:

• Dhamma as categories of phenomena
• The mental turbulence of anger and aversion
• Stagnation of mind, restlessness of mind
• How hindrances alter and condition our perceptions
• Paying particular attention to times of transition
• Abandoning hindrances without aversion, self-judgment, and suppression
• Recognizing when sensual desire is present
• Obsessive passion, expectations, addictive cravings, and other manifestations of the wanting-mind
• How what we frequently ponder upon becomes our inclination of mind
• The misconception that our desires will bring us happiness
• Seeing the insubstantial nature of desire through mindfulness
• Reflecting on the Buddha’s teachings in the very moment that they are applicable
• The prevention of craving through awareness of the cause of desire and non-clinging

“The question is: how can we practice working to abandon the hindrances without suppression, without aversion, and without self-judgment? In the sutta, the Buddha outlines five basic steps in working with the hindrances and finding the middle way between indulging in them and suppressing them. He charts the course for us.” – Joseph Goldstein

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.