Joseph Goldstein

Joseph Goldstein is one of the first Americans to teach vipassana, or insight meditation. A philosophy graduate from New York, he met Buddhism while serving with the Peace Corps in Thailand in the mid-1960s and then spent the best part of seven years in India, practising under Anagarika Munindra in Bodh Gaya and later with S.N. Goenka, Dipa Ma and the Burmese master Sayadaw U Pandita. Tibetan teachers, among them Tulku Urgyen and Nyoshul Khen Rinpoche, shaped his practice too. He began leading retreats in 1974, and a year later he set up the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts, together with Sharon Salzberg and Jack Kornfield; he went on to help start the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies and the Forest Refuge for long personal retreats.

His teaching is clear, patient and practical, built on mindfulness of body and mind as laid out in the Satipatthana Sutta, with lovingkindness alongside. He still guides residential and online retreats at IMS and hosts the Insight Hour podcast. His books include The Experience of Insight, Insight Meditation, One Dharma, A Heart Full of Peace and Mindfulness: A Practical Guide to Awakening, and he co-wrote Seeking the Heart of Wisdom with Jack Kornfield.