Insight

Insight In Depth

Insight is to Know what one does not yet know, and to know more about what one already knows.

Insight can be called by many names: Inner Sight, Inner Knowing, Self-Knowing, Self-Realization, and so forth. 

This type of knowing is developed through Observation rather than thinking and analysis. Although the latter can help one to piece the puzzles together, thinking too much can block one from seeing the Truth.

To know is to Observe and Know from Experience, rather than intellectualizing and guessing what one thinks the Truth is.

It's much like asking ourselves the question: "How do I feel at this moment?"

The answer to that question will be found in one's feelings rather than in one's thinkings. Thus instead of intellectualizing the experience, the answer can be discovered through simply observing how one is feeling. However, the thinking mind can interfere with the Knowing when one is struggling with the answer, which can be caused by one's lack of awareness of their feelings.  

Thus, when one is trying to develop insight, the thinking mind can step in when one encounters darkness and confusion. Such is the tendency of the mind to fill in the blanks with thoughts. That is why the journey of developing Self-Knowing can be challenging because when one tries to know themselves, for instance, the cause of their fears, instead of simply observing inwards for answers, the intellectual mind can kick in and start to make guesses when no answers are found. So, to develop Insight can require one to place a lot of trust in oneself, to trust that by simply observing the darkness within, one will come to know about the world inside in the same way as one can learn about the Universe from simply observing the benighted sky. 

So, do we just close our eyes to observe the world inside to develop insight?

That's right. But there are techniques these days to formalize the practice such as meditation. 

That is why if one wishes to learn how to properly observe the world within, one can pick up the practice of meditation. But as there are many forms of meditation these days, one can become confused as to which one to approach. So, if you are not sure, you can simply browse the course page of this website and try the meditation practices there as they have all been designed with the purpose for developing Insight and transforming the mind. 

Letting the mind observe is enough to develop insight?

To develop insight, all one needs to do is to observe oneself through meditation? 

But that task will be thoroughly challenging to the thinking mind. A complicated mind will always feel uncomfortable doing too simple things. So, as one tries to simply observe the world within, many questions may arise from the mind—

"Am I meditating correctly?"

"Nothing is happening?"

"Am I doing enough?"

"Why is my mind so chaotic?"

"This is uncomfortable!"

"My jacket is too hot!"

"What will I have for dinner tonight?"

Thus on paper, meditation can seem simple but in practice extremely challenging. 

To Still the mind is like asking a loud person to be quiet, an angry person to forgive, or persuading a hungry person to stop eating. As you can see, telling the thinking mind to stop thinking certainly won't be easy because that's what we've been using the mind for every day!

Doing nothing thus can be quite challenging. And that is essentially what meditation is: the practice of putting one's mind aside so that it can do nothing but observe one's internal experiences. Thus, the busier you like to be, the more difficult it would be to meditate, to do nothing. 

That is why meditation is often avoided by those who need it the most!

Although doing nothing may seem like one is achieving nothing, but through Stilling the Mind, one can know themselves more, and this can be a truly transformative experience!

Who knew that one can achieve so many great things from doing nothing!