Taking a journey through the Buddha’s history, Joseph Goldstein reveals how we can relate the Bodhisattva’s experiences to our own lives.
This 2003 talk was originally published on Dharmaseed.
“In this archetypal level, the Buddha’s life reveals to us aspirations in our own. It helps us find a deeper meaning, a deeper purpose, a fuller context for our own life choices. On this archetypal level, it connects the Buddha’s journey with our own.” – Joseph Goldstein
In this Episode, Joseph teaches on:
- The history of Siddhartha Guatama
- Archetypes and myths within the Buddha’s journey
- Connecting individual experiences into universal principals
- Joseph Campbell’s description of the Buddha’s life stages
- Calls to destiny and the illusion of having a self
- The profound truth of impermanence and change
- Anxiety and unease from trying to posses things
- Facing realities such as death and disease
- One of Joseph’s first major insights into his mind
- Renunciation and getting out of the seduction of appearances
- Meditation and recognizing vastness
- Examining what is a hindrance and what is skillful
- The great struggle and developing a courageous heart
- The Bodhisattva’s three watches of the night
- The great awakening and working for the good of others
“In talking about his own call to destiny, call to awakening, he said, that this thought came to him: ‘Why should I, being subject to decay and death, subject to change, keep seeking that which is subject to decay and death, keep seeking that which is subject to change?’ In these great cycles of birth and death, where are freedom and happiness to be found? What is the nature of birth and death and is there something beyond this cycle? These are the same questions really for all of us. What are we doing with our lives? What choices are we making with our lives? In a world of change and impermanence, what really is of value?” – Joseph Goldstein