Joseph Goldstein On: Impermanence, Impersonality, And How To Use Mindfulness To Be More Creative
10% Happier with Dan Harris
10% Media, LLC
4.6 • 12.2K Ratings
🗓️ 19 February 2025
⏱️ 80 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
One of my favorite episodes that we’ve recorded in a long while.
Joseph Goldstein is a cofounder of the Insight Meditation Society and the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies, both in Barre, Massachusetts. He is the author of Mindfulness: A Practical Guide to Awakening, A Heart Full of Peace, One Dharma: The Emerging Western Buddhism, Insight Meditation and The Experience of Insight: A Simple and Direct Guide to Buddhist Meditation. Joseph has studied and practiced meditation since 1967 under the guidance of eminent teachers from India, Burma, and Tibet and he leads Insight Meditation retreats around the world.
This year, IMS printed a collection of Joseph’s poetry, titled Dreamscapes of the Mind: Poems and Reflections. The book includes 21 poems and almost a dozen short verses.
We have made copies available for a suggested donation of $12 to support IMS’s Retreat Center scholarship fund (shipping to U.S. addresses only).
For a copy of Joseph’s book, visit give.dharma.org/JGpoetry
In this episode we talk about:
- Impermanence, impersonality, and the vast spaciousness of the mind
- Mortality
- How we can use mindfulness to be more creative
- Joseph reads one of his favorite poems (and a couple others)
- Thoughts on how to approach death
- What Joseph means by dreamscape of the mind
- Deep Dharma topics like Nirvana, rebirth, taking refuge and more
Related Episodes:
- Joseph Goldstein + Mark Epstein On: How To Handle Unwanted Experiences, How Not To Waste Your Suffering & The Overlap Between Buddhism + Therapy
- I Just Did A 10-Day Silent Meditation Retreat With Joseph Goldstein. Here’s What I Learned
- Dr. Mark Epstein On: How To Transform Your Neuroses Into “Little Shmoos”
- Nirvana | Joseph Goldstein
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Full Shownotes: https://meditatehappier.com/podcast/tph/joseph-goldstein-dreamscapes
Additional Resources:
- For a copy of Joseph’s book, visit give.dharma.org/JGpoetry
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | It's the 10% Happier Podcast. I'm Dan Harris. |
| 0:08.6 | Hello, my fellow suffering beings, how we doing? This truly is one of my favorite episodes that we've |
| 0:25.2 | recorded in a long while. A few years ago, a really interesting thing happened to my great friend, |
| 0:30.6 | the meditation teacher Joseph Goldstein. At age 75, seemingly out of nowhere, he started writing poetry, |
| 0:40.3 | as he says, a channel opened up for him. |
| 0:45.7 | Just to say right here at the jump, if you're like me and you're not especially interested in poetry, |
| 0:52.0 | don't worry. Yes, technically, this is a conversation about Joseph's poems. He just published a slim volume of poetry. But those poems are really a way to talk about the depth of Joseph's Dharma teachings. So really, this is a conversation about impermanence, impersonality, and the vast spaciousness of the mind. And quite practically, it's also a conversation about how to think about mortality and how we can use mindfulness to be more creative. |
| 1:13.5 | Also, obviously, if you love poetry, which many people do, then you're probably going to love this |
| 1:17.7 | episode with no disclaimer required. Anyway, just before we dive in here, for those of you who |
| 1:23.5 | don't know Joseph, he is the co-founder of the Insight Meditation Society and the Berry Center |
| 1:28.9 | for Buddhist Studies, both in Barry, Massachusetts, two amazing places I highly recommend. |
| 1:34.7 | Joseph is also the author of several books, including mindfulness, one Dharma, and the Experience |
| 1:40.0 | of Insight. |
| 1:41.2 | His new book is called Dreamscapes of the Mind. |
| 1:46.0 | That's the poetry book. It's available through the IMS website, and I will put a link in the show notes. Joseph Goldstein coming up right |
| 1:52.2 | after this. Before we get to the show, I just want to mention that the dump it here journal |
| 1:58.2 | that my wife and I created, and that sold out double quick. |
| 2:01.8 | It's back in stock. |
| 2:03.1 | Just go to Dan Harris.com and click on Shop to find it or go to shop. |
| 2:07.3 | com. |
| 2:08.8 | It's a really cool journal. |
| 2:10.3 | It's pretty non-dogmatic. |
... |
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