Clarity gets practical when you treat attention like a craft. We open the pages of Joseph Goldstein’s The Experience of Insight and translate retreat-honed wisdom into tools you can actually use: breath you don’t control, movement you feel from the inside, and the quiet power of seeing intention before action. No mystique, no shortcuts—just a clean method for meeting each moment without the usual tug of wanting and resisting.
We start with the mental frame that steadies practice: the three refuges as psychological anchors and ethical precepts as the simplest way to clear noise from the mind. From there we build the engine of bare attention—observation without judgment, comparison, or prediction—using two precise breath anchors (abdomen or nostrils), then carry mindfulness into walking and eating. Catching the urge before the move creates a tiny but decisive gap, where choice appears and the story of “me” loosens. Along the way we lean on the Noble Eightfold Path, balancing right effort like a guitar string, and unpack how impermanence reframes identity from a solid self into a flowing process.
We also face the classic obstacles head on. The five hindrances—sense desire, aversion, sloth and torpor, restlessness and worry, doubt—arrive for everyone. The antidote is immediate mindfulness: notice the visitor, feel its texture, and refrain from feeding it. We explore ultimate realities—material qualities, consciousness, mental factors, and the unconditioned—and examine how concepts like time and ownership can be useful yet blinding. Finally, we talk integration: daily sitting that actually happens, a silent meal to restore sensitivity, returning to the breath in stress, and remembering death as an advisor that sharpens meaning. The monkey trap offers a closing image: the fist that won’t let go keeps us stuck; the open hand walks free.
If this lands, subscribe, share with a friend who loves clear practice, and leave a short review telling us where you first notice intention—breath, step, or spoon?

Support the show

Coupon code and the link are down below, but that will expire shortly
Feel free to text me at 415-939-1126

Certify To Teach Mindfulness & Meditation

Since 2015, we've trained over 2,000 people to teach mindfulness in healthcare, business, education, yoga, sports teams, and the U.S. Government.

⁠⁠⁠⁠MindfulnessExercises.com/certify⁠⁠⁠⁠

Certify At Your Own Pace: Just complete 40 hours of self-paced meditation + online workbook completion with lifetime access to personalized support.

Deepen Your Own Mindful Presence: Whatever your starting place is, we will help you deepen your own embodied, experiential understanding.

Teach With Integrity & Authenticity: We help you find your unique voice to make mindfulness relevant and practical for your own students or clients.

Receive International Accreditation: Trusted by Fortune 500 companies, international healthcare centers, coaching schools, and the U.S. Government.

Boost Your Career: Use our templates to quickly form your own paid mindfulness courses, workshops, keynotes or coaching packages.

20% BLACK FRIDAY COUPON CODE: PODCAST