This is the 10% Happier Podcast. I'm Dan Harris.

Hello, everybody.

Loyal listeners have heard Joseph Goldstein on this show before, or they've heard me

shamelessly drop his name or quote him or tell stories about him on many, many episodes.

Despite or maybe because of the fact that I am an incurable, wise ass, Joseph has for years

advised me, taught me,

and dropped all sorts of transformative wisdom bombs into my life.

And today, he's going to do that for you.

As you'll hear, we more or less decided on the fly

to focus in this episode on a classic Buddhist list

called the Four Foundations of Mindfulness, where the Buddha lays out

many different techniques for developing mindfulness. The four foundations are just that, the foundations

upon which you can build your meditation practice, whether you're a newbie or a seasoned practitioner.

Basically, it's four ways to wake up. Joseph is one of the premier Western proponents of mindfulness.

He co-founded the legendary retreat center, the Insight Meditation Society, alongside Sharon

Salisberg and Jack Cornfield back in the 1970s.

Joseph also wrote a whole book, which I heartily recommend, called Mindfulness.

He's written many books, but that's an especially good one.

I will say that while mindfulness has become something of a buzz phrase these days, I fear that very often

people don't actually know what the word really means, much less how to practice it. One simple,

serviceable definition of mindfulness is the ability to see what's happening in your mind right now

without getting carried

...