Insight Hour with Joseph Goldstein – Ep. 256 – The Experience of Consciousness: Question About Cultivating Awareness & Focus On the Buddhist Path

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

Photo by Daniel Farò

Listen to more from Joseph:

In the search for liberation, we must explore the nature of our existence. Joseph investigates the wisdom of impermanence in Insight Hour Ep. 2.

There are deeper levels of truth about reality. Joseph explores different ways of freeing the mind by understanding the habits of preference and the emptiness of thoughts in Insight Hour Ep. 41.

It’s possible to smile at the antics of one’s own mind. Joseph offers responses to questions about selflessness, shame, cravings, and more in Insight Hour Ep. 111.

Metta practice can penetrate deeply. Joseph explores how love, kindness, gratitude, and friendship can revolutionize our lives in Insight Hour Ep. 117.