Your Mind Gets Stuck In Four Ways — Here's How To Break Free | Pascal Auclair
10% Happier with Dan Harris
10% Media, LLC
4.6 • 12.9K Ratings
🗓️ 10 June 2026
⏱️ 72 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Why seeing yourself cling is the beginning of freedom — and other Buddhist insights that will stick with you.
Pascal Auclair has been immersed in Buddhist practice and study since 1997, sitting retreats in Asia and America. He has been mentored by Joseph Goldstein and Jack Kornfield, who have both been previous guests on this show. Pascal is now a core teacher at the Insight Meditation Society (IMS) in Massachusetts. He is also a co-founder of True North Insight and one of its guiding teachers.
In this episode we talk about:
- What the Four Kinds of Clinging are — and why the Buddha thought this list mattered
- How clinging to pleasure actually makes pleasure harder to enjoy
- The "wrong views" that cause the most suffering — and how to hold your opinions less tightly
- Why clinging to rules and routines shows up in the most ordinary places (including who puts the onions in the pan first)
- What self-identification is, and why loosening it leads to less guilt, shame, and anxiety
- A simple bedside inquiry for getting underneath the concept of self
- Why catching yourself cling is a reason for joy, not self-criticism
Related Episodes:
- 5 Ways To Get Over Yourself | Pascal Auclair
- Seven Buddhist Ingredients for a Happy Mind | Pascal Auclair
Get the 10% with Dan Harris app here
Sign up for Dan's free newsletter here
Follow Dan on social: Instagram, TikTok
Subscribe to our YouTube Channel
To advertise on the show, contact sales@advertisecast.com or visit https://advertising.libsyn.com/10HappierwithDanHarris
Thanks to our sponsors:
BetterHelp — Online therapy, matched to your needs. Get 10% off your first month at https://www.betterhelp.com/happier
Quo – Try Quo for free, plus get 20% off your first six months when you go to quo.com/happier.
Rosetta Stone – Get 20% off your Rosetta Stone Sapphire subscription when you sign up today. Visit rosettastone.com/happier
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Hey, gang. Welcome to the 10% Happier Podcast. I'm your host, Dan Harris. Today, we're talking about one of the Buddha's lists. As you may know, the Buddha was an obsessive listmaker in his quest to help us upgrade our minds. He made all sorts of lists, the four noble truths, the seven |
| 0:21.5 | factors of enlightenment. I could go on. Today, we are specifically talking about a list |
| 0:26.7 | called the four kinds of clinging. These are ways in which our minds get caught up. So we're |
| 0:32.0 | going to talk about these four ways in which we get embroiled or caught up or entangled and then some ways to unhook. |
| 0:39.9 | My guest is the great Dorma teacher Pascal O'Clair, who's been on this show before, |
| 0:45.3 | and he has been studying and practicing Buddhism since 1997, so he's been at this for a minute. |
| 0:50.9 | He's also a co-founder and guiding teacher of True North Insight. |
| 0:56.0 | Pascal O'Clair, coming up. A few things before we hear from our sponsors. If you haven't already |
| 1:01.9 | checked out my new-ish meditation app, 10% with Dan Harris, I would love for you to do so. |
| 1:07.5 | Many people fall prey to the myth that taking care of yourself is somehow self-indulgent. |
| 1:15.5 | One of the big aims of this app is to disprove that, to make the argument that actually |
| 1:22.4 | taking care of yourself is a public service. As I sometimes say, there's a geopolitical case for you to get your |
| 1:28.3 | shit together because it unlocks an upward spiral. The more you work with your own mind, the more |
| 1:32.3 | you train your mind, the better you will be in your relationships with anybody who crosses |
| 1:38.8 | your path. And that, in turn, will make you even happier. And then your relationships will |
| 1:43.2 | improve even further and up you |
| 1:45.1 | go. The whole point of this app is to walk you through the unlocking of this upward spiral. |
| 1:52.1 | If you sign up, you'll get ad-free versions of this podcast. You'll get a growing library of |
| 1:57.3 | meditations from many of the world's greatest teachers, a growing library of courses |
| 2:02.1 | from many of those same teachers, and we do weekly live video sessions where we meditate |
| 2:08.2 | together. It's a chance for you to be able to ask your questions of me and many of our teachers |
| 2:12.5 | as well. The idea there being that habit change science, the research into what it takes to form and |
... |
Transcript will be available on the free plan in 23 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from 10% Media, LLC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of 10% Media, LLC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.