The Powerful Simplicity of Joseph Goldstein’s Teaching About the Mind
It's essential for liberation.
Today’s piece is going to be another in a long line devoted to illuminating something critically important, this time understanding our minds.
The whole point of articles like this is to clarify and heighten your understanding of something that is absolutely essential.
Featured today is Joseph Goldstein, someone I’ve been a huge fan of since the beginning of my spiritual journey.
Mindfulness pioneers
Goldstein is known as one of the main forces in bringing meditation, mindfulness and Buddhist teachings to America in the early 1970s, along with Sharon Salzberg, Jack Kornfield and Jon Kabat-Zinn.
If you get a chance, search him up on YouTube and listen to any number of his talks. You won’t be disappointed.
Last week I listened to an interview he did with Dan Harris, the former ABC News correspondent turned meditation and mindfulness teacher. He’s the 10% Happier guy and has a fantastic Substack newsletter and app that I subscribe to.
The interview was a goldmine for a few Notes and also this article, which is centered on something Goldstein said to Harris:
“If you want to understand your mind, sit down and observe it.”
That’s what I call powerful simplicity. And if we dig in and don’t gloss right over it, there’s invaluable spiritual wisdom to be gleaned.
Let’s start with a question: Is there even one person reading this who could say with any certitude that they understand why their mind acts the way it does?
I can’t believe there’s one.
Our stallion minds
Why? Because our minds are incredibly complex and as wild as an untamed stallion. How so?
See if any of these sound familiar:
-You’re driving home from work after a tough day in which your boss embarrassed you in front of your colleagues. Your mind runs through endless scenarios of what you would say to him and do to him in a sort of fantasy world. As you pull into your driveway, you realize you can’t remember one moment of your thirty-minute drive home because you were so lost in mind chatter.
-You’re on a first date with an attractive, well-mannered guy. Throughout dinner your mind pinballs all over the place, thinking about what your kids would look like, whether he’s a good kisser, whether he’s the faithful or cheating type…all while holding a regular conversation.
-You’re listening to your four-year-old read a book at bedtime, but you’re not there. You’re in your mind thinking about what you have to get done tomorrow. Finally… “Dad? Did you hear me?” “No. What did you say?” “Do gorillas like dogs?” “Uhh…Yeah, sure.”
What these examples have in common is that we, our conscious selves, did not direct our minds to start thinking about our jerk boss, prospective children with a guy we just met or our schedule for the next day. Our minds just took over and snatched away our consciousness.
Our minds can run and ruin us
We all do this. All the time. And it’s not good. Out of control minds run, and often, ruin our lives.
I know most of you know this, but it’s worth repeating over and over and over again. Why? Because if you’re not keenly aware of the damage an easily distracted mind can inflict on your life, you are highly unlikely to do anything to ameliorate the situation.
And this isn’t some modern concept humankind has been grappling with just recently. The centrality of working with and calming the mind features prominently in the Bible, the Tao te Ching and The Bhagavad Gita, to name just three of the most influential spiritual texts ever produced.
We must work with our minds
So the central purpose of this piece is to figuratively throw cold water in your face to get you to pay attention to the importance of working with your mind. It is the core work of the spiritual path.
Fine. So we need to work with our minds.
How do we do that?
There are myriad ways, of course. Everything from talk therapy to mindfulness practices to praying and on and on.
But the foundation for all of it is found in Goldstein’s quote:
“If you want to understand your mind, sit down and observe it.”
Key to this is realizing that there are two entities involved here, the mind and the conscious, real you observing it.
You are not your mind
Most people on planet Earth identify as their mind, much to their detriment. In fact, one could make a cogent case that people believing they are their mind is the central malady afflicting all of humankind.
That understanding that we are not our mind is the basis of most Eastern spiritual traditions and is the core point of Eckhart Tolle’s seminal work The Power of Now.
Once we realize we are consciousness and not the mind, what do we do?
As Goldstein teaches, “…we sit down and observe it.”
We don’t try to dive in and shut it up. That doesn’t work.
Observing quiets the mind
We simply sit and observe the mind. The more we do that, the quieter the mind becomes and the better our lives get.
Getting down to the brass tacks of it all, how do we sit and observe our minds?
I’m sure you know where this is heading because sitting and observing our minds is one way of describing…
Meditation.
You still with me? Come on, it’s not that big of a deal to meditate.
All it is is sitting quietly and placing our attention on something occurring in the present moment, like our breathing. When we do that, we can’t be stuck in our minds.
Your mind will wander and that’s okay
Of course, our attention will wander from our breathing into mind thought. So we simply notice that we’ve wandered, then slowly place our attention back on our breathing.
How often will that happen in a five or ten minute meditation? Often. But, as the world-renowned meditation and mindfulness teacher Jon Kabat-Zinn says,
“If your mind wanders into thinking a thousand times, simply return your attention to your breathing a thousand times…”
I can’t recommend meditation highly enough. I’ve been doing it regularly for fifteen years and it has been a game-changer in my life.
Getting started on meditation
How to get started? This link will get you to my five-minute body scan meditation I used for the meditation classes I taught a few years ago. I find it to be the easiest, best meditation for those just starting out.
Give it a try. And see if you can develop a regular practice, which I define as meditating five times per week.
Nothing will help you better understand, and ultimately quiet, your mind.