The Anatomy of Insight

In our practice, we often talk about, experience (and are possibly humbled?) by what we call insights. Today we’re taking a moment to examine and consider insight and what it is.

You might wonder why it is important even to think about insight, because it seems pretty obvious. Well, the insights we encounter can have such radical impact on our own life and on the people around us, it might be worthwhile taking a second look.

I'm talking about the kind of insights that, in Zen, you can’t find by simply reading & thinking about things. Zen is not about intellectual understanding. You can spend your whole life reading or thinking about life, the universe and everything {thank you Douglas Adams :) } and you might still miss the point. In our practice we turn mind on mind and we sit in order to have that direct understanding

As Dogen puts it: Don’t let yourself become attached to words. Words just point the way. Learn to take the backward step that turns your light inwards.

I think a fair working definition of insight is:

"a moment where we are granted an opportunity to understand or experience our self and our world in a better or in a different way.”

When we have an insight, at first glance it might look as if we are noticing that the we way we saw things before is different, perhaps wrong. That things are not the way we thought. And the way we see now, is a new way, is the right way.

But I invite you to consider that insight might be more about seeing through something we've taken for granted for a long time. That the real discovery is not seeing something new but giving up a point of view. In other words, insight as a lot to do with letting go.

More than that – even more importantly - when we have an insight, and experience that kind of shift in understanding, you might notice that there is an amazing sense of opening up - of letting go of prejudice, bias, preconceived ideas. We experience a great sense of softening, of empathy, generosity, a connectedness to others.

And from that arises all sorts of other experiences such as gratitude, compassion, humility.

And that’s where I think the real magic is.

Because these shifts we have, these insights, they have real consequences. It's not only about learning something about ourselves, improving ourselves. Our insights, when you experience that humility, that compassion, generosity, opening or loosening up of preconceptions - they impact on our actions – and in that way are very significant to the people around us.

Metta

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