These words of wisdom came Joseph Goldstein in the Tricycle Daily Dharma for August 11, 2013.
Joseph Goldstein and Jack Kornfield are the founding fathers of vipassana in the West. He has taught Buddhist meditation worldwide since 1974. A co-founder and guiding teacher of the International Meditation Society (IMS), he also helped envision and establish Barre Center for Buddhist Studies and IMS’s Forest Refuge center. The author of One Dharma, his latest title is Mindfulness: A Practical Guide to Awakening – due out around November, 2013.
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Not Clinging to Pleasant StatesWe like pleasant meditative states. There’s no problem with the pleasantness of them; it’s part of our life experience. The problem is that we often devote our life energy to the getting, sustaining, accumulation, and repeating of these pleasant experiences. But, as we all know, these pleasant experiences don’t last, so they don’t really have the capacity to bring us happiness, to bring us completion, to bring us fulfillment. We’re always seeking more—that’s samsara, the endless wheel of becoming, fueled by wanting. – Joseph Goldstein, “One Dharma” |
I have always been impressed with his writings and teachings. His contribution to Western Buddhism is immeasurable.
What are your thoughts about pleasant meditative states? What do you experience? Please share.
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