Joseph Goldstein On How To Train Your Runaway Brain
Dan Harris and prominent meditation teacher Joseph Goldstein discuss practical "hacks" for training the unruly mind, focusing on phrases like "Just begin again" and "Mara, I see you" to cultivate relaxed alertness and navigate distractions in meditation and daily life.
Deep Dive Analysis
12 Topic Outline
Introduction to Joseph Goldstein and the Teaching Phrases Project
The Intuitive Origin and Purpose of Joseph's Teaching Phrases
Just Begin Again: Training the Wandering Mind
Sit and Know You're Sitting: Cultivating Relaxed Alertness
Distinguishing Relaxed Mindfulness from Casual Attention
Rushing: A Subtle Indicator of Being Less Mindful
What's the Attitude in the Mind?: A Prompt for Awareness
Mara, I See You: Acknowledging Delusion with Humor
The Mind Has No Pride: Embracing the Mind's 'Ridiculous' Nature
Why Our Minds Are So 'Ridiculous': Habits of Attention
The Undercurrent of Thoughts and 'Thieves of Meditation'
Mind is the Forerunner of All Things: The Mind's Central Role
6 Key Concepts
Wandering Mind
The natural tendency for the mind to get distracted from its object of attention during meditation, often leading to self-judgment. It is a normal part of the process, and gently returning to the object is the actual training.
Relaxed Alertness
The optimal balance in meditation where the mind is settled and at ease (relaxed) while also being keenly aware and present (alert). This combination prevents both over-efforting and spacing out, allowing for effortless awareness.
More or Less Mindful / Casual Mindfulness
A state where one is somewhat present but not closely connected to the moment's experience, leaving room for background thoughts and mental activity. It lacks intimate connection to what is happening, even if not completely spaced out.
Rushing (in mindfulness)
A subtle inner energetic leaning into the next moment, regardless of physical speed. It indicates being ahead of oneself and not fully grounded in the present, serving as a key signal of being 'more or less mindful'.
Ignorance (Buddhist context)
The root condition for unhelpful mental patterns, characterized by a lack of experiential understanding of impermanence and the true nature of things. This ignorance conditions clinging, craving, and aversion, leading to suffering.
Undercurrent of Thoughts / Thieves of Meditation
Subtle, quickly passing thoughts that often go unnoticed but frequently occur, stealing mindfulness and unknowingly reconditioning the mind. They are likened to a background soundtrack that subtly manipulates our emotions and reinforces a sense of self.
8 Questions Answered
These phrases often arise intuitively during his own practice as 'hacks' that help him unhook from difficult mental states. They are practice-related and have proven helpful for many students.
The act of coming back to the object of attention (like the breath) again and again, with gentleness and intention, is precisely how the mind is trained to stay steady, much like training a puppy.
It's a simple, open, and easeful instruction that provides a frame for whatever arises, naturally leading to awareness of the body, breath, and sounds, fostering a relaxed yet alert state of mind.
Signals include realizing the mind has been drifting with background thoughts, noticing emotional reactivity to internal stories, or detecting a subtle feeling of 'rushing' or leaning into the next moment, even when moving slowly.
Rushing is an inner energetic leaning into the next moment, being ahead of oneself, and not fully grounded in the present. It has nothing to do with physical speed; one can rush even while moving slowly.
Humor creates space and lightness, preventing one from taking the mind's 'ridiculous' or unwholesome activities too seriously, which aids in not getting caught by them and facilitates letting go.
Our minds are largely products of deeply conditioned habits of attention, often being 'casual' or 'more or less mindful,' which leaves ample space for deeply conditioned tendencies like desire, aversion, and restlessness to manifest. The root condition for this is ignorance.
These are subtle, quickly passing thoughts that often go unnoticed but frequently occur, stealing mindfulness and unknowingly reconditioning the mind. They are likened to a background soundtrack that subtly manipulates our emotions.
26 Actionable Insights
1. Mind Forerunner Of All Things
Understand that “mind is the forerunner of all things,” meaning your entire life is a manifestation of your mind, which provides a profound motivation to explore and understand its workings with deep interest.
2. Cultivate Interest In Mind
Approach the observation of your mind’s machinations, including its ridiculous and sublime aspects, with a quality of deep interest and fascination, as this sustains practice and makes it joyful.
3. Perceive Impermanence Clearly
Through meditation and mindfulness, refine your perception of the momentary, changing nature of sensations and thoughts, understanding that everything is arising and passing quickly, which helps decondition clinging and craving.
4. Practice Meditation Like A Skill
Approach meditation as a skill, like learning a musical instrument, requiring consistent practice of the basics to improve concentration and steady the mind over time.
5. Distraction Is Meditation
View getting lost in thought and then restarting as the actual process of meditation, rather than an obstacle, to encourage persistence and reduce self-criticism.
6. Just Begin Again
When the mind wanders during meditation, gently acknowledge being lost and then “just begin again” with the object of attention, as this repeated return is how the mind is trained.
7. Normalize Wandering Mind
Understand that a wandering mind is a natural part of meditation for almost everyone, including experienced practitioners, to avoid self-judgment and doubt.
8. Sit And Know You’re Sitting
Simply “sit and know you’re sitting” as a foundational, open, and easeful instruction to settle into awareness, allowing other experiences like breathing and sounds to naturally arise within that frame.
9. Cultivate Relaxed Alertness
Aim for a balance of relaxed and alert in meditation, using relaxation as an antidote to over-efforting and alertness as an antidote to spacing out, to find an effortless balance in awareness.
10. Continuously Adjust Balance
Recognize that the balance between relaxed and alert is impermanent and requires continuous adjustment, so intermittently check the quality of your balance (e.g., “is it getting too tight? Is it getting too loose?”) during practice.
11. Avoid Casual Mindfulness
Be aware of and avoid a “casual” or “more or less mindful” state where you’re not closely connected to the moment’s experience, as this leaves room for background mental noise and reduces attention quality.
12. Detect Subtle Rushing
Pay attention to subtle feelings of “rushing,” which is a sense of leaning into the next moment or being ahead of yourself, regardless of physical speed, as it indicates being “more or less mindful” and not grounded in the present.
13. Ask What’s The Attitude?
Intermittently ask yourself “What’s the attitude in the mind right now?” during meditation or daily life; the act of asking can help the mind settle back from subtle leaning forward or rushing, even if no explicit answer is found.
14. Observe Emotional Reactivity
Pay attention to any level of emotional reactivity as a signal that your mind has gotten lost in a story, indicating a lapse in close mindfulness.
15. Notice Background Thoughts
If you realize your mind has been drifting off with many background thoughts, take this as an indication that you are in a “more or less mindful” state and need to re-engage.
16. Notice Undercurrent Thoughts
Practice becoming aware of the “undercurrent of thoughts”—light, quickly passing thoughts that often go unnoticed—because being lost in them reconditions habit patterns and prevents deeper presence of mind.
17. Beware Thieves Of Meditation
Recognize that the “undercurrent of thoughts” acts as “thieves of meditation,” subtly stealing mindfulness and reconditioning the mind, so cultivate awareness of them during daily activities like showering or washing dishes.
18. Accept Unhelpful Thoughts
When noticing unhelpful or unskillful mind states, frame your response with acceptance (“I’m glad to see you”) rather than self-judgment, honoring the wisdom of seeing them.
19. Mara, I See You
When an unwholesome or delusive pattern of mind arises, acknowledge it by saying “Mara, I see you” to recognize it, let go of identification, and free the mind from being caught.
20. Employ Humor With Thoughts
Cultivate a sense of humor when observing the “ridiculous” things the mind does, as not taking thoughts too seriously creates space and lightness, aiding in not being caught by them.
21. Mind Has No Pride
Understand that “the mind has no pride” and will do anything, which is a liberating realization that fosters openness and a sense of humor, preventing you from being caught by its ridiculous machinations.
22. Cultivate Attentive Habits
Consciously cultivate habits of close and careful attention to reduce the mental space available for habituated patterns of desire, aversion, or restlessness to manifest.
23. Use Mental Hacks
Employ pithy phrases that arise intuitively as “hacks” to unhook your mind from being caught in unhelpful thought patterns or desires during meditation and daily life.
24. Label Desires Dead End
When experiencing unhelpful or seductive desires and fantasies, label them “dead end” as soon as they arise to prevent going down the full path and help free the mind.
25. Sign Up For Meditation Challenge
Download the 10% with Dan Harris app at danharris.com or your app store to sign up for Joseph Goldstein’s free seven-day New Year’s meditation challenge, which offers a masterclass and on-ramp to Buddhist meditation for all levels.
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6 Key Quotes
The thing that is happening in your meditation that is leading you to tell yourself that you're a bad meditator is actually proof that you're doing it correctly. Getting lost and starting again is meditation. It is not an obstacle to overcome on route to proper meditation.
Dan Harris
So how we frame our response to what we see is really important, and especially, and this took me some years of practice to let go of the self-judgment that would arise whenever I saw something that was unhelpful, or unskillful, or unwholesome. There would be an immediate self-judgment in that, until a certain point where it all switched, oh, no, I'm glad to see you, because I'd rather see you than not see you.
Joseph Goldstein
Mara, I see you.
Joseph Goldstein
The mind has no pride.
Joseph Goldstein
Mr. Duffy lives a short distance from his body.
Joseph Goldstein
Mind is the forerunner of all things.
Joseph Goldstein
3 Protocols
Training the Wandering Mind
Joseph Goldstein- Give the mind an object of attention, such as the breath.
- Notice when the mind hops on trains of association and gets lost in thought.
- In the moment of becoming aware of being lost, gently remind yourself, 'just begin again'.
- Return to the object of attention with gentleness, without self-judgment.
- Repeat this process again and again, as this repeated coming back is how the mind is trained.
Cultivating Relaxed Alertness
Joseph Goldstein- Sit and know you're sitting, allowing this simple instruction to frame whatever arises.
- Observe what happens naturally within that frame, such as the body breathing or sounds occurring, without over-efforting.
- Aim for a balance of being relaxed (as an antidote to over-efforting) and alert (as an antidote to spacing out).
- Continuously adjust this balance, like a high-wire acrobat, rather than seeking a fixed state.
- Intermittently check the quality of balance by asking, 'Is it getting too tight? Is it getting too loose?'
Detecting 'More or Less Mindful' States
Joseph Goldstein- Pay attention to signals like realizing the mind has been drifting with background thoughts.
- Notice if there's any level of emotional reactivity, which indicates the mind has gotten lost in a story.
- Especially when moving, pay attention to even subtle feelings of rushing or leaning into the next moment.
- Intermittently ask, 'What's the attitude in the mind right now?' to reveal subtle leaning forward or other mental states.