Going through questions submitted by meditators on retreat, Jill Shepard asks Joseph about discernment and other Buddhist practices.
This episode was recorded as part of a three month retreat at the Insight Meditation Society and originally published by Dharmaseed
“It’s really important to be honest about the range of our own motivations because if we’re not honest about it, we’re not going to see it. If we don’t see it, we may very well be acting on the unwholesome motivations.” – Joseph Goldstein
In this episode, Joseph answers questions on:
- What it means to waste your suffering
- Turning attention inward and looking at the cause of suffering
- Attachment, resistance, and false perception
- Self and anatta (not-self)
- The wholesome and unwholesome roots of all skillful actions
- Looking honestly at our intentions and motivations
- Honoring the presence of our emotions versus being caught by them
- The message we can receive from anger
- Discernment and bringing mindfulness into love
- Liberation through non-clinging
- Working with doubt and the inner voice that fools and seduces us
- Surrendering to the Dharma
- How practice prepares us for growing old
“What are the consequences of feeling love? Usually, it’s something beautiful. What are the consequences of the feeling of attachment? Fear, insecurity, uncertainty. So, isn’t it strange that we just think they’re inextricably woven together? It’s because we just have not taken the time, in this very precise way, to discern. This discernment, what’s skillful, what’s unskillful, this is a really important part of our practice.” – Joseph Goldstein
About Jill Shepherd:
Jill Shepherd began practicing insight meditation in Thailand in 1999, and since that time has lived and worked at several meditation centers and monasteries in the US, Australia, England, and Thailand. She recently spent seven years on staff at the Insight Meditation Society (IMS) in Barre, Massachusetts, where she participated in several long retreats and Buddhist study programs, as well as offering weekly meditation classes at a nearby men’s prison. She is a graduate of the IMS / Spirit Rock teacher training program in the US, under the guidance of Joseph Goldstein and Gil Fronsdal.