Meditation teacher Joseph Goldstein guides listeners in breaking identification with the body and self through short meditations. Topics include accessing deep meditative states, observing sounds and the 'knowing', experiencing bodily sensations, watching thoughts arise, and choosing helpful thoughts.
Breaking identification with the body through bodily sensation exploration and impermanence contemplation.
Enhancing mindfulness by recognizing the selfless nature of thoughts and empowering conscious decision-making.
Deep dives
Exploring Selflessness Through Meditation
The podcast discusses the practice of mindfulness and self-discovery, emphasizing the challenges of accessing meditative states amidst daily responsibilities. By offering a nine-minute daily meditation plan, listeners can explore areas of strong self-identification. The guided meditations focus on listening to sounds to understand the knower behind the hearing, contemplating the impermanence of the body, and observing thoughts as they arise to realize their empty nature and reduce identification with them.
Breaking Identification and Embracing Change
Within the meditations, participants are encouraged to break through identification with the self by contemplating the transient nature of the body and experiencing bodily sensations without attachment to the concept of self. By acknowledging the universality of birth, aging, and death, listeners can deepen their understanding of the impermanence of the physical form. The meditation also prompts the direct experience of changing sensations to recognize the dynamic, non-solid nature of the body.
Awareness of Thoughts and Choosing Wisely
The final meditation segment directs attention to the arising of thoughts to perceive their essence and diminish their influence. By observing thoughts as they appear and recognizing their lack of substance, individuals can empower themselves to choose which thoughts to engage with and which to release. This practice enables listeners to cultivate mindful awareness of thoughts, acknowledging their inherent selfless nature and promoting conscious decision-making in response to mental processes.
Guiding us in three short, guided meditations, Joseph Goldstein helps us break down our identification with the body and the self.
This talk from the Insight Meditation Society was originally published on Dharmaseed.
In this episode of Insight Hour, Joseph Goldstein guides us in:
Accessing deeper meditative states outside of a retreat
Turbo-charging our practice through shorter meditations we can do in our daily lives
Finding the mental areas where our mistaken sense of self is created
Listening to sounds and considering the ‘knowing’ rather than being a “knower”
Breaking through the identification we have with the body
Directly experiencing bodily sensations and their changing nature
Watching our thoughts and being aware in their moment of arising
Enlivening our understanding of the Buddha’s teaching through a combination of practices
“This exercise allows us to see the selfless nature of thought and gives us the ability to choose which are helpful, which are not. Which do I act on, which do I let go of.”– Joseph Goldstein