Distinguishing aspiration from striving with ego, Joseph Goldstein gives listeners permission to have a sense of purpose along their spiritual path.

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This week on Insight Hour, Joseph Goldstein discusses:

• Having a sense of purpose within the impersonal nature of all things
• Aspiration: understanding why we are practicing
• What the Buddha said about purpose and aspiration on The Eightfold Path
• Seeing the world objectively without reference to the self
• Being a great faith follower versus a dharma follower
• Resting in our practice and letting go of unhealthy striving
• Insight Meditation Society and its commitment to diversity
• Maintaining the right attitude and openness to all experiences

This episode was recorded at the Insight Meditation Society Forest Refuge and originally published on Dharmaseed

"The Buddha definitely laid out a goal. The Eightfold Path leads someplace—it's not just meandering around, not going any place. The Eightfold path is leading to awakening, to enlightenment. We can have that aspiration which sets the direction for our practice, we can say that is a sense of purpose, but we're seeing it not so much in terms of an egoful striving, but a realization of our values and what leads to the accomplishment of our values." – Joseph Goldstein

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Joseph Goldstein discusses equanimity and how to remove the self from the knowing, effectively freeing ourselves from identification with awareness.

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.

This time on Insight Hour, Joseph Goldstein mindfully explores:

• Thoughts as passing phenomena that do not truly belong to anyone
• Seeing all experiences as the simultaneous arising of both knowing and object
• Letting go of our identification with knowing and awareness
• Shifting from active voice to passive voice as a mindfulness practice
• The near enemies of the mental qualities listed in the Brahmaviharas
• Equanimity and holding all things equally, seeing things for what they are
• The difference between impartiality and indifference, openness versus carelessness
• Navigating the complexity of our lives through the balance of compassion and equanimity
• Maintaining an interest in exploring rather than relying on our preconceptions about people and situations

This episode was recorded at the Insight Meditation Society Forest Refuge and originally published on Dharmaseed

“When you look for the mind there’s nothing to find and the not finding is the finding. It’s to see that there is nothing to find and when there is nothing to find, there is nothing to identify with.” –Joseph Goldstein

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Joseph Goldstein responds to questions on spiritual craving, mental focus, and what it truly means to become aware of awareness.

This time on Insight Hour, Joseph Goldstein mindfully explains:

• Bringing your daily life into your spiritual practice
• Mindfulness of seeing: focusing on the seeing itself rather than on what we are looking at
• Resting in open, non-reactive spaciousness
• The cognizing power of emptiness and realizing that there is nothing to know
• Keeping the mind steady and how concentration deepens insight
• Understanding both relative and ultimate reality
• Defining dukkha as the inevitability of unwanted experiences
• How to not waste suffering: taking an interest in the shadows of our own minds
• Having agency over our own minds during difficult experiences
• Mindfulness of anger and other negative emotions

This episode was originally published on Dharmaseed

“How do I become aware of awareness? Where is it? How can I put my finger on it? When we realize that there’s nothing to find, and yet the knowing is happening, then we relax back into the mystery of consciousness, and you’re very aware of the capacity of the mind to know.” –Joseph Goldstein

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