Ep. 224 – Satipatthana Sutta Series Pt. 21: Buddhist Teachings on Perception & Formation

Continuing his discussion of the five aggregates, Joseph Goldstein dives deeper into perception and how we can get lost in mental formations.

The Satipatthana Sutta is one of the most celebrated and widely studied discourses in the Pāli Canon of Theravada Buddhism. This episode is the fourth part of an in-depth 48-part weekly lecture series from Joseph Goldstein that delves into every aspect of the Satipatthana Sutta. If you are just now jumping into the Satipatthana Sutta series, listen to Insight Hour Ep. 203 to follow along and get the full experience!

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In another exploration of the Satipatthana Sutta, Joseph discusses:

• Balancing perception with mindfulness
• Using the frame of our perception to enter more deeply into experience
• Our tendency to solidify the world through superficial concepts
• The seduction of being lost in the future and past
• Reality and the concept of the present moment
• Created concepts of self-image
• The delineation of mental factors; universal, occasional, and unwholesome
• Considering the understanding of karma
• Having interest in our mental formations and taking time to investigate them
• How mindfulness of mental formations helps us see how impersonal everything is

Grab a copy of the book Joseph references throughout this series, Satipaṭṭhāna: The Direct Path to Realization, HERE

This talk was originally published on Dharmaseed

“We also create concepts about things that may seem even more fundamental like age, gender or race. But when we look more deeply, we see that these are concepts too. How old is your breath? It doesn’t make sense. Is the pain in your back male or female? What color is your mind? It’s not to say that the concepts don’t point to some differences of experience, but we often become so identified with and attached to the concept." – Joseph Goldstein

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