Your Mind Gets Stuck In Four Ways — Here's How To Break Free | Pascal Auclair
6/10/20261 hr 6 min
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
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Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsDan Harris· Host0:00
[upbeat music] Hey, gang. Welcome to the Ten Percent 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, uh, an obsessive, uh, list maker in his quest to help us upgrade our minds. He made all sorts of lists, the Four Noble Truths, the Seven Factors of Enlightenment. I could go on. Today, we are specifically talking a- about a list, uh, called the Four Kinds of Clinging. These are ways in which our minds get caught up, so we're gonna talk about these, uh, these four ways in which, uh, we get embroiled or caught up or entangled, and then some ways, uh, to unhook. My guest is the great Dharma teacher Pascal Auclair, who's been on this show before, um, and he has been studying and practicing Buddhism since 1997, so he's been at this for a minute. He's also a, a co-founder and guiding teacher of True North Insight. Pascal Auclair coming up. [whooshing] A few things before we hear from our sponsors. If you haven't already checked out my new-ish meditation app, Ten Percent with Dan Harris, I would love for you to do so. Many people fall prey to the myth that taking care of yourself is somehow self-indulgent. One of the big aims of this app is to disprove that, to make the argument that actually taking care of yourself is a public service. As I sometimes say, there's a geopolitical case for you to get your shit together because it unlocks an upward