Ask Me Anything #14

August 13, 2018

Q&A with Joseph Goldstein

Questions Answered

How should people with a history of trauma practice meditation?

00:00:52August 13, 2018

How do meditation teachers recognize progress in their students?

00:09:52August 13, 2018

How can a person’s claims to freedom and "enlightenment" be evaluated?

00:11:53August 13, 2018

What are further indicators of progress on the path of meditative insight?

00:16:24August 13, 2018

If the goal of meditation is to transcend desire, how is that different from mere apathy and purposelessness?

00:28:46August 13, 2018

How should we view the unethical behavior of certain (supposedly great) meditation masters?

00:32:36August 13, 2018

How do you reconcile concerns about racial and gender diversity with illusion of the self?

00:40:32August 13, 2018

Do psychedelics supersede the practice of meditation?

00:53:08August 13, 2018

What is a thought? And how can something so insubstantial define our subjectivity?

01:00:08August 13, 2018

Is being lost in thought analogous to a mental illness?

01:05:38August 13, 2018

What is the right amount of effort to apply in meditation?

01:09:32August 13, 2018

What is the biggest misconception about Buddhism?

01:12:13August 13, 2018

What’s the difference between mindfulness and other techniques of meditation, such as TM?

01:13:53August 13, 2018

Speaking of "consciousness and its contents" seems to suggest a duality between subject and object. In what sense can this duality be transcended?

01:15:45August 13, 2018

Does mindfulness exist on a spectrum of strength or depth, or is progress simply a matter of having more moments of it?

01:21:21August 13, 2018

Is there a range of natural talent among meditators?

01:23:25August 13, 2018

Can we think about traditional Buddhist concepts like karma and rebirth in a fully secular, rational way?

01:25:10August 13, 2018

How can we understand the concept of “emptiness” in Buddhism?

01:28:14August 13, 2018