Date: 01/18/2025 01/19/2025
Location: Star River Meditation Center
Teacher: Yunquan Huang
Sitting Meditation
What Is “Insight”: Seeing Things as They Truly Are
“Insight” (Vipassanā) is the heart of Buddhist meditation. It arises after the mind becomes calm, allowing us to see the true nature of thoughts, emotions, sensations, and all phenomena. Insight is not thinking or analyzing—it is direct, clear seeing. Through insight, wisdom arises naturally.
1.What Insight Really Points To
1.Seeing experience exactly as it is
Without judgment, stories, or interpretation.
2.Observing the arising and fading of all phenomena
Breath, sensations, thoughts, feelings—all constantly change.
3.Recognizing there is no controller
No fixed “self” directing the process.
4.Allowing natural wisdom to emerge
Insight reveals; it does not create.
2.What Insight Is NOT
1.Not thinking
Thinking adds stories; insight removes them.
2.Not analyzing
Analysis complicates; insight simplifies.
3.Not controlling
Insight relaxes the mind; effort tightens it.
Insight is clear awareness, not mental labor.
3.How to Train Insight
1.Observe the breath
Notice the beginning, middle, and end of each inhale and exhale.
2.Observe bodily sensations
Heat, cold, tension, vibration—see how they shift moment by moment.
3.Observe thoughts
Thoughts arise on their own and vanish on their own.
4.Observe emotions as energy
Not “I am sad,” but “Sadness is happening.”
5.Observe the observer
Seeing “the one who watches” reveals deeper layers of non-self.
4.What Insight Changes in You
1.Thoughts lose their grip
You see them without following.
2.Emotions dissolve more easily
Without resistance, they soften naturally.
3.The body feels lighter
Tension releases through awareness.
4.The sense of “self” loosens
You stop identifying with thoughts and moods.
5.Life becomes clearer
You respond to reality, not stories.
5.The Truth Insight Reveals
1.All things are impermanent
2.Nothing is “self”
3.Everything arises and fades
4.Clinging brings suffering
5.Awareness is naturally open and clear
Insight is the path from calmness to awakening.
Conclusion
Insight is the direct seeing of change and non-self.By observing thoughts, emotions, and sensations as they arise and fade,the mind releases attachment and becomes free.Insight is the doorway to wisdom and awakening.
