Unpacking the Buddha’s notions of self and nonself, transience and suffering, Joseph Goldstein leads listeners into the heart of liberation.

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This time on Insight Hour, Joseph Goldstein illuminates:

Why the Buddha paid so much attention to the concept of self
How a felt sense of self traps us in desire and attachment
Seeing the term ‘self’ as a designation rather than something that exists in and of itself
Slight adjustments to our language during practice: ‘the body breathes’ rather than ‘my breath’
Using the template of The Five Aggregates to describe experience
Genuine experiences of momentary peace as a peak into Nirvana
Taking an interest into the landscapes of our own minds
Transience and the way that things are always becoming otherwise
The ungovernability of the mind, the body, and all aspects of reality
How selflessness can lead to both Dukkha and freedom

This episode was recorded at the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies and originally published on Dharmaseed

"As long as we are caught up, identified, and entangled in the view of self, then we spend our lives defending it, gratifying it, grandiosing it, judging it; we have all these responses that come out of this felt sense of the self." –Joseph Goldstein

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