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Joseph Goldstein

Joseph Goldstein has been leading insight and lovingkindness meditation retreats worldwide since 1974. He is a co-founder of the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts, where he is on the guiding teachers’ Founders Council. In 1989, together with several other teachers and students of insight meditation, he helped establish the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies.

Joseph first became interested in Buddhism as a Peace Corps volunteer in Thailand in 1965. Since 1967 he has studied and practiced different forms of Buddhist meditation under eminent teachers from India, Burma and Tibet. He is the author of Mindfulness: A Practical Guide to Awakening, A Heart Full of Peace, One Dharma: The Emerging Western Buddhism, Insight Meditation: The Practice of Freedom, The Experience of Insight, and co-author of Seeking the Heart of Wisdom and Insight Meditation: A Correspondence Course.

Selected Writings and Interviews

“Finding the Words: In his seventy-fifth year, a surprising thing happened to meditation teacher Joseph Goldstein: He began writing poetry—Tricycle magazine—Winter 2023

Joseph Goldstein: It’s Not Either-Or—Buddhadharma—Winter 2023

“It’s OK Not to Know”—Meditative Story Podcast—October 2023

Honoring Diversity in the Dharma—Tricycle magazine February 1, 2018

Deep Dimensions of Mindfulness, Part 1—Tami Simon, Sounds True—February 4, 2014

Deeper Dimensions of Mindfulness, Part 2—Tami Simon, Sounds True—February 11, 2014

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