Ten Percent Happier with Dan Harris - Joseph Goldstein On The Difference Between “Relaxed” And “Casual” | Bonus Meditation

Episode Date: March 15, 2024

Watching things come and go helps weaken obsessive cravings both in meditation and in our lives.About Joseph Goldstein:Joseph is one of the most respected meditation teachers in the world -- a key architect of the rise of mindfulness in our modern society -- with a sense of humor to boot. In the 1970's, he co-founded the Insight Meditation Society (IMS) alongside Sharon Salzberg and Jack Kornfield. Since its founding, thousands of people from around the world have come to IMS to learn mindfulness from leaders in the field. Joseph has been a teacher there since its founding and continues as the resident guiding teacher.To find this meditation in the Ten Percent Happier app, you can search for “Going Deeper: Seeing Change.” See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

When you visit Audible, there are endless ways to ignite your imagination. With over 750,000 titles, including bestsellers, there's a listen for every type of listener. Discover all the best in audiobooks, podcasts, and originals, featuring authentic Canadian voices and celebrity talent. Check out Audible Canadian originals, including The Downloaded, a sci-fi adventure featuring Brendan Fraser and Luke Kirby. A first listen is waiting for you when you start your free trial at audible.ca. Hey, Dan here.

Before we start the show, I want to tell you about a live recording of this podcast that we're doing in New York City on March 28th. I will be interviewing two frequent flyers from this show, the legendary meditation teacher Joseph Goldstein, who will be just coming off a three-month solo silent meditation retreat, and Dr. Mark Epstein, a Buddhist therapist and bestselling author. The event will actually be a celebration of the 10th anniversary of my first book, 10% happier, and a percentage of the proceeds will go to the New York Insight Meditation Center. Come early if you want for a VIP guided meditation and Q&A with me.

Thanks to our friends over at Audible for sponsoring this show and the event. Tickets on sale right now at symphonyspace.org. This is the 10% Happier Podcast. I'm Dan Harris. Happy Friday, everybody. Time for a bonus meditation. This week on the podcast, we've been celebrating the 10th anniversary of the book that started it all, 10% Happier, written by me under a strange set of circumstances. And we've been celebrating by going back and talking to some of the folks who initially helped me to learn about meditation, Dr. Mark Epstein, Spring Washam, and of course, today's meditation teacher du jour, the OG, Joseph Goldstein. If you've been around here for a minute,

you'll know that Joseph was not only a key figure in my meditation career, but he also is to this day my primary teacher and a great friend and mentor. And so, in this bonus meditation from Joseph, you're going to hear him talk about a key distinction in meditation, the difference between relaxed and casual. A little bit more about Joseph, he's the co-founder of the Insight Meditation Society, IMS, which is an incredible place to do your meditation retreats. Since it was founded in the 1970s by Joseph and Sharon Salzberg and Jack Kornfield, thousands of people from around the world have come to do retreats there. All right, here we go now with Joseph Goldstein.

Hello, this is Joseph. An important understanding of wise effort in meditation practice is recognizing the difference between being relaxed and being casual. Relaxation is an essential component of meditation practice, and we learn to be more accepting and easeful with what is arising. When we have a relaxed but caring attitude, then we're better able to notice the changing nature of whatever arises, and in particular the endings or passings away of each moment's experience.

We'll begin the meditation by settling into the awareness of the body and the body posture, becoming aware of your body breathing. Maybe feeling the breath at the nostrils or in other experiences in the mind or body that may be arising. Maybe different kinds of sensations in the body, either pleasant or unpleasant. Maybe it's awareness of sounds, or thoughts or images. Sometimes different emotions are predominant and they become the object of meditation. In highlighting the changing nature of what's arising, you might keep in mind the question,

what happens to this experience as I'm becoming aware of it? For example, with a sensation, what happens to it in moments of mindfulness? Does the sensation increase in intensity, become stronger? Does it weaken? Does it disappear, either quickly or slowly? When we hold the question in mind what happens to this moment's experience, we're highlighting or focusing on its changing nature. And we're explicitly noticing how each experience changes into something else. At times in our meditation, we begin to experience very rapid change, things arising and passing away very quickly. And at these times it may be that the noting falls away, that the noting is too slow to

capture the rapidity of change. We can then simply be in the flow of phenomena arising and passing.... Seeing impermanence and knowing more deeply how all experience arises and passes away helps to weaken the various obsessive cravings that play out both in our meditation and in our lives. When you're ready, you can open your eyes, connecting again with the world around you. I look forward to being with you next time. Thank you, Joseph. You can find more meditations like this one over on the 10% Happier app. Just download the app wherever you get your apps to get started. And we'll be right back here on Monday with a brand new episode. AirPods Pro with adaptive audio automatically keeps out the sounds you don't want to hear

so you can listen to your music and lowers your music to let in the sounds you do need to hear. Hi there. Hi, what can I get you? I'll have a strawberry mango coconut probiotic smoothie with wheatgrass. Anything else? Extra wheatgrass. Here you go. AirPods Pro with adaptive audio.

Available on AirPods Pro 2nd generation when enabled.