Ask Me Anything #14

Q&A with Joseph Goldstein

How should people with a history of trauma practice meditation?

How do meditation teachers recognize progress in their students?

How can a person’s claims to freedom and "enlightenment" be evaluated?

What are further indicators of progress on the path of meditative insight?

If the goal of meditation is to transcend desire, how is that different from mere apathy and purposelessness?

How should we view the unethical behavior of certain (supposedly great) meditation masters?

How do you reconcile concerns about racial and gender diversity with the illusion of the self?

Do psychedelics supersede the practice of meditation?

What is a thought? And how can something so insubstantial define our subjectivity?

Is being lost in thought analogous to a mental illness?

What is the right amount of effort to apply in meditation?

What is the biggest misconception about Buddhism?

What’s the difference between mindfulness and other techniques of meditation, such as TM?

Speaking of "consciousness and its contents" seems to suggest a duality between subject and object. In what sense can this duality be transcended?

Does mindfulness exist on a spectrum of strength or depth, or is progress simply a matter of having more moments of it?

Is there a range of natural talent among meditators?

Can we think about traditional Buddhist concepts like karma and rebirth in a fully secular, rational way?

How can we understand the concept of “emptiness” in Buddhism?