Ep. 263 – The Certainty of Direct Experience- Q&A & Guided Practice

Touching into the selfless nature of experience, Joseph Goldstein explores uprooting the defilements through the clarity that comes from practice. This episode is the 3rd and final part of a 3-part series. It was originally published on Dharmaseed and recorded at the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies, a non-profit organization founded by renowned meditation teachers Joseph Goldstein and Sharon Salzberg to integrate Buddhist study and practice. To start at the beginning, check out Ep. 261 – Gradual Cultivation in Buddhist Practice: https://soundcloud.com/beherenownetwork/joseph-goldsteins-insight-1 This time on Insight Hour, Joseph Goldstein provides his perspective on: - Engaging with mindfulness - The radical uprooting of self and identification with experience - Seeing a glimpse of the deathless in our practice versus the transcendent moment of the unborn - Slowly seeing clearly over time with dedicated practice - The emptiness within the defilements - Taking all things as an invitation to explore rather than to believe - A brief guided meditation with Joseph - Moving our mental dialogue into a passive voice “If you put your hand in fire, do you know that it burns? Do you have any doubt about it? In the genuine experience of things being uprooted, there is that quality of certainty. It is very different than what you were saying about ‘Yeah, it looks to me that the defilements are uprooted.’ The experience that results in the uprooting, which is the experience of the unborn. It has that same immediacy and certainty as putting your hand in fire and knowing it burns.” –Joseph Goldstein