Well, Welcome to the Joseph Goldstein Insight Hour.

This podcast is an expression of our shared interest in self-discovery.

Join Joseph as he shares his deep knowledge of the path of mindfulness.

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please go to be here now network.com slash Joseph. So as many of you know over the past few years I have been giving a series of talks on the Satipatana Suta.

This is the discourse the Buddha gave,

outlining or discussing the four foundations of mindfulness.

And it's this essential, a very important discourse in the teachings

because the Buddha declared it in a very unequivocal way as being the direct path to awakening. So I'll just read from the very first paragraph of the Suta where he says Bicus.

And Bicus in the context of the teachings means anyone who is practicing for awakening. So he's really addressing us

because this is the direct path for the purification of beings, for the overcoming of sorrow and lamentation, for the

disappearance of suffering and discontent.

For the attainment of the true way,

for the realization of Nibana,

namely the four Satipitanas,

or the four foundations of mindfulness.

This suta is so rich because in it,

and in really just a few pages the Buddha points out many different doors to

awakening many different doors to freedom.

And as if he's saying, well, if you miss it over here, look over here.

If you miss it here, there's another door and another door and another door and another door.

So it's tremendously rich in terms of our own practice.

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