Joseph Goldstein is one of the pioneering figures in bringing Buddhist meditation and insight practice to the West. A cofounder of the Insight Meditation Society and the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies in Barre, Massachusetts, Joseph has studied and practiced meditation since 1967 under the guidance of teachers from India, Burma, and Tibet. He has led insight meditation retreats around the world and is the author of numerous books, including Mindfulness: A Practical Guide to Awakening, A Heart Full of Peace, One Dharma, Insight Meditation, and The Experience of Insight. He has also coauthored books with Sharon Salzberg and Jack Kornfield.

In this conversation, Joseph reflects on the unexpected beginnings of his own path - from his first encounters with Buddhism as a young Peace Corps volunteer in Thailand to years of intensive study and practice in Asia - and on what insight meditation can reveal about the nature of mind, suffering, and impermanence. He shares the Buddhist teaching that “things are always becoming otherwise,” and offers a striking way of understanding dukkha, or suffering, as “the inevitability of unwanted experience.”

We also explore the life of the Buddha through Joseph Campbell’s understanding of the Hero’s Journey. Joseph reflects on the power of myth to “universalize the particular,” allowing the Buddha’s ancient story to become a map for our own lives. Together, we discuss renunciation, conditioning, the figure of Mara, and Campbell’s memorable description of the Buddha beneath the Bodhi tree: “And the mind of the Great Being was not moved.”
The conversation ultimately turns toward the fruits of practice in everyday life: the difference between craving and wholesome aspiration, the importance of generosity, and the relationship between wisdom and compassion. Joseph shares one simple question that has become a guiding principle in his own life:

“How can I help?”

It is a conversation about awakening, myth, the stories and habits that shape us, and the possibility of meeting life with greater clarity, steadiness, compassion, and freedom.

For more information about Joseph visit: https://www.dharma.org/teacher/joseph-goldstein/

His podcast Insight Hour: https://beherenownetwork.com/category/insight-hour-with-joseph-goldstein/

For more information on the MythMaker Podcast Network and Joseph Campbell, visit JCF.org.

To subscribe to our weekly MythBlasts go to jcf.org/subscribe

The Podcast With A Thousand Faces is a production of the Joseph Campbell Foundation. It is hosted and produced by Tyler Lapkin. Executive producer, Joanna Gardner. Editing and Audio services by Dia Griffiths. All music exclusively provided by APM Music. (apmmusic.com)

In this episode of The Podcast With A Thousand Faces, we speak with Rupert Spira about the meeting place between the Direct Path and the mythic imagination.

Rupert Spira is a teacher, author, speaker, and former ceramic artist whose work explores consciousness, non-duality, meditation, and the nature of lasting peace and happiness. His books include The Nature of Consciousness, Being Aware of Being Aware, You Are the Happiness You Seek, and The Shining of Being. Drawing from Advaita Vedanta, Kashmir Shaivism, Sufism, Buddhism, Zen, and mystical Christianity, Rupert’s teaching invites us to look directly into the nature of experience and recognize the awareness that is prior to thought, belief, identity, and the story of the separate self.

Before becoming widely known as a teacher of non-duality, Rupert spent decades as a ceramic artist, a background that gives his work a rare sensitivity to form, beauty, silence, and attention. Today, through his books, retreats, conversations, meditations, YouTube channel, Substack, and the Luminous meditation app, he continues to guide people toward what he often calls our true nature: the simple awareness of being.

Together, Tyler and Rupert explore Joseph Campbell’s understanding of myth as a symbolic journey beyond the limited ego and into a deeper ground of being. They discuss the relationship between myth and direct recognition, the difference between progressive paths and the pathless path, the separate self as a story, poetry, pottery, beauty, the hero’s journey, spiritual integration, and love as the felt recognition of our shared being.

This is a conversation about the stories that help us, the stories that limit us, and the possibility of recognizing what is prior to all stories: the quiet, radiant awareness in which life appears.

For more information about Rupert visit: https://rupertspira.com/

For more information on the MythMaker Podcast Network and Joseph Campbell, visit JCF.org.

To subscribe to our weekly MythBlasts go to jcf.org/subscribe

The Podcast With A Thousand Faces is hosted by Tyler Lapkin and is a production of the Joseph Campbell Foundation. It is produced by Tyler Lapkin. Executive producer, Joanna Gardner.

All music exclusively provided by APM Music (apmmusic.com)

What if the greatest adventure of your life began with someone else's unfinished dream?

Laura Carney is a writer, memoirist, and longtime copy editor whose work has appeared in publications including Good Housekeeping, People, Washington Post, Maria Shriver's The Sunday Paper and Runner's World. But it was a deeply personal story that would become her bestselling memoir, My Father's List: How Living My Dad's Dreams Set Me Free.

When Laura was twenty-five, her father was killed by a distracted driver, leaving behind more than memories. Hidden away was a handwritten list of sixty dreams he had written as a young man -dreams he would never have the chance to fulfill. Years later, Laura made the extraordinary decision to complete the list herself, transforming an unimaginable loss into a journey of courage, healing, and self-discovery.

In this heartfelt conversation, we explore Laura's remarkable journey, the enduring influence of Joseph Campbell, the Hero's Journey, synchronicity, forgiveness, and the surprising ways our relationships with those we've lost continue to evolve. Together, we reflect on what it truly means to embrace life fully, and how sometimes the path to becoming ourselves begins with answering a call we never expected.

Find out more about Laura and her book at https://www.bylauracarney.com/

For more information on the MythMaker Podcast Network and Joseph Campbell, visit JCF.org.

To subscribe to our weekly MythBlasts go to jcf.org/subscribe

The Podcast With A Thousand Faces is hosted by Tyler Lapkin and is a production of the Joseph Campbell Foundation. It is produced by Tyler Lapkin. Executive producer, Joanna Gardner.

All music exclusively provided by APM Music (apmmusic.com)