Joseph Goldstein explores the suffering that comes with wanting, the three types of desire, and why our investigation is to notice the ways the mind gets caught and the ways it can be free.
This dharma talk from October 10, 1999, at the Insight Meditation Society, was originally published on Dharma Seed.
“When we’re lost in the wanting mind, in the mind of desire, it solidifies and strengthens the sense of self, the sense of ‘I,’ and it obscures the natural clarity, the recognition of the natural clarity and lucidity and emptiness of our own minds. So it’s a great obscuring force when we’re not paying attention.” – Joseph Goldstein
In this episode, Joseph examines:
- Craving and the wanting mind
- The desire for sense pleasures
- The power of expectation
- The comparing mind
- Unnoticed desires
- The suffering that comes with wanting
- The craving for existence and the desire for non-existence
- Ways we can investigate the force of desire and craving in the mind
- The power of renunciation
Jack Kornfield talks about why suffering isn’t the end of the story in Heart Wisdom Ep. 122
About Joseph Goldstein:
Joseph Goldstein has been leading insight and loving kindness meditation retreats worldwide since 1974. He is a cofounder of the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts, where he is one of the organization’s guiding teachers. In 1989, together with several other teachers and students of insight meditation, he helped establish the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies.
Joseph first became interested in Buddhism as a Peace Corps volunteer in Thailand in 1965. Since 1967 he has studied and practiced different forms of Buddhist meditation under eminent teachers from India, Burma and Tibet. He is the author of Mindfulness: A Practical Guide to Awakening, A Heart Full of Peace, One Dharma: The Emerging Western Buddhism, Insight Meditation: The Practice of Freedom, The Experience of Insight, and co-author of Seeking the Heart of Wisdom and Insight Meditation: A Correspondence Course.
“I have two main aims in teaching. The first is to spread the dharma as widely as possible, offering it to as many different people as I can. The second is to teach a smaller number of people over sustained periods of time. This in-depth teaching engages my tremendous love for intensive, long-term meditation practice, where people can immerse themselves in the retreat experience and see how it transforms their understanding.” – Joseph Goldstein