cultivating insight

four insight practices

all the spiritual traditions have two forms. the first is the outward facing path, consisting of dogma, religion, and institution. the second is the inward facing, or contemplative path, where we allow ourselves to come to knowledge of the mind through reflection and contemplation. all the traditions have developed insight practices that guide us in this reflection and contemplation. underneath, we will discuss four insight practices from the Tibetan Buddhist tradition. these practices help us to see reality as it is, and not as we project.

the still revolutionary insight of Buddhism is that life and death are in the mind, and nowhere else. mind is revealed as the universal basis of experience — the creator of happiness and the creator of suffering, the creator of what we call life and what we call death. 

Ken McCleod

if we really listen to what McCleod is saying, we may recognize the enormity of the message. he is saying that life and death are not things that happen to us, that they are ideas that only exist in the mind. life and death are the two things we believe in most deeply. we cannot distinguish belief from knowledge except through direct experience. insight is direct clear seeing. it is so vivid that we know-feel its reality. if we keep studying and deepening our self-awareness, meditation becomes the portal into insight. if the mind can hold knowledge and become still and clear, insight— a direct experience of the nature of mind, or Being— is likely to result.

insight practice is about dying, dying to the world defined by the operation of habituated patterns, so that you see. it requires faith, the willingness to open to the mystery of being as it is revealed in direct experience.

Ken McCleod

insight practice has two essential components: dying to the world of belief, and pointing-out instructions. each of the four insight practices is a pointing-out instruction. McCleod tells a beautiful story to clarify how insight comes about as part of the experience of dying, and how a pointing-out instruction is key to the process:

a man looks for the hat he is wearing. he knows he has a hat, but he can’t remember where he put it. a friend says, “it’s on your head.” “no,” he says, “i put it down somewhere.” his friend comes up to him, but he pushes his friend away, saying, “just let me look for it.” this is the first stage of dying: denial.
he searches the room, opening closets and drawers, overturning furniture, even looking under the rug. frustrated by his inability to find his hat, he grows more and more irritated. this is the second stage of dying: anger.
he looks everywhere, but he still cannot find it. he starts talking to himself. “from now on, i’ll always put it in the closet. i’ll keep everything tidy and neat.” this is the third stage of dying: bargaining.
eventually he collapses in despair. he does not know what to do. he gives up, sits down, and stares into space. this is the fourth stage: depression.
his friend asks, “do you want my help?” ‘‘yes,” he says, “i don’t know where it is.” this is the fifth stage: acceptance.
then his friend taps him on the head and says, “what’s this?” this is the pointing-out instruction. “my hat! my hat! i found my hat!” he cries. “why didn’t you tell me before?”

ego doesn’t die easily or willingly. the more invested we are in our worldview, the stronger the resistance and the more intense the dying process, consisting of denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. for most of us this growing up happens through humiliation. we set ourselves up for being exposed as not being as mature as we give off. when we’ve walked the journey for a while, we are used to this exposure and the sense of groundlessness that it brings about. we recognize the space as a profound call to let go. we correct what needs to be corrected, and let go. we’ve just lost another layer of skin of ego, and good riddance. we’re becoming human.

it is impossible to gain insight unless the mind is stable and has strong attention. to grow in insight practice, we have to begin by getting the mind to a place of stillness. forty-five minutes is a typical suggestion for session-length. this allows for about twenty minutes of stabilizing the mind, and another twenty-five for insight practice.

you can’t do insight if your mind is either full of thoughts or thick and dull. you might as well try to see your reflection in a pond ruffled by a strong wind or in a pond filled with mud. re-establish stable, clear attention by letting go of looking and returning attention to the breath. then go back to looking.

Ken McCleod

what is “looking?” in insight practice, looking involves:

1. exhausting experience,
2. cutting the root, and
3. resting in seeing.

insight practice uses questions about the nature of mind, the nature of knowing. our reasoning may come up with philosophical or conceptual answers to these questions, but this leaves us worse off, because it reinforces our reliance on reasoning. awareness, or mind, cannot be grasped or understood by reason. we cannot think our way to it, or into it. yet, we can step into it immediately, through direct perception. our initial task is to distinguish our thought-self from our experienced-self (see into stillness). the insight practices are one way of doing this.

exhausting the experience means using the question or instruction to direct attention to the experience while holding the question. as you do this, notice how attention forms and permeates habitual thought structures and experience. return to the question or instruction. reactive patterns may now be triggered, giving rise to thoughts, feelings, and confusion. hold to the question despite these. if you lose the question, simply start over. insight often arises as the habitual patterns are penetrated with awareness.

cutting the root means turning our attention to that which is holding the question: the awareness behind it all. what is asking the question, or holding the attention? in holding the question, we are holding our attention to the question, which dissolves the influence of our habitual patterns, as well as our reactions. yet, the subject-object fixation remains, and prevents us from seeing, or insight. so, we now turn the attention back on what is looking, what is holding the question. we repeat these steps, returning to holding the question, and then cutting the root. if you become confused by dullness or busyness, stop focusing on holding the question and return to establishing a base of attention. insight practice is best done for short periods and with great intensity. during the last five or ten minutes, just rest in what is present. at a certain point the question and the looking dissolve, as if the looking is falling apart. now we see, and we can rest right there, in the seeing. initially this seeing may only last a few seconds. the more frequently we engage the practice, the more we can extend the period of seeing.

before we get to the main practices for cultivating insight, let’s introduce a practice that has great benefit on its own, and can be used as a way to stabilize the mind before entering into insight practice.

raising the level of attentional energy

we can raise the level of attention in our meditation practice by turning our emotional energy into attention. the more clear and stable attention is, the greater its level of energy. most of us are well acquainted with the dullness that can come about when we’re practicing. this dullness indicates a lack of energy, and when it happens, it is helpful to have a practice through which we can raise the energy level, in our formal practice and our daily experience.

when you are present in this moment, you break the continuity of your story, of past and future. then true intelligence arises, and also love.  

Eckhart Tolle 

1. frame

sit in front of a window or open door, using the frame of the window or the door as your visual frame. let your gaze rest on the opening until you can see the whole frame at once.

2. field

the field is everything that is in your view, inside the frame, close by, or far away. notice how the eye picks out particular objects and the attention collapses into these objects. expand again and again from the object to the whole field. collapsing into an object is the same as being distracted by a thought during breath meditation. we simply return to the whole field.

3. expansion

allow yourself the time to focus on the field as a whole, despite there being individual objects in it. begin with a smaller frame if you find the practice difficult. once we connect with the whole, there is a palpable shift in energy. we are suddenly aware of the vividness of the whole field of vision.

4. rest

now simply rest in this shift, and feel the relaxation and pleasurable feeling pervading the bodymind. this practice helps to lessen the differentiation between subject and object.

we can also practice this raising of energy during the day, in our normal daily experiences. when you go for a walk, use your whole visual field as a frame, and relax into seeing it all at once, expanding the gaze, again and again. once you are familiar with the visual field, you can try the same in the auditory field. when listening to music or voices, focus on experiencing the whole of the sound rather than just strands or a single voice. later, we can include thought and feeling, and become aware of the whole mind, experiencing everything simultaneously. with repeated practice you will become aware of the shift of energy, and the energizing quality of the practice.

living in the moment expands the moment, gives it more space for the completeness of life to manifest. the moment became gradually richer and richer, not with events, but with a sense of being. 

Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee 

in the formal insight practices that follow (all from Ken McCleod: Waking Up To Your Life) you can start with ten minutes of energizing the attention, and then focus on the main insight practice. all four practices have the same practice structure: exhausting the experience, cutting the root, and resting, as discussed above.

1. appearances are mind

exhaust the experience

take any simple object, like a book, flower, or stone, and look at it. what is your experience? you may say “a yellow flower” but now you’ve just added two concepts: “yellow,” and “flower.” what is the experience of seeing? even if you just say “seeing,” this is still a concept. what is the actual experience of seeing? keep listening to the labels mind will come up with, and keep looking into what seeing itself is. where does the experience of seeing take place? if you say “my eyes” or “my brain,” you’re back at the conceptual level. what is the actual experience of seeing? keep asking questions that direct you back to the being or source of sight itself.

nothing is like it seems, but everything is exactly like it is.

Yogi Berra

cutting the root

now bring in the question: what is experiencing this? keep the experience in attention and ask yourself “what is experiencing this?” at some point — after maybe many repetitions — we experience a shift, the subject-object construct falls apart, and we see that experience is mind.

you are clear, awake, and present, and perhaps a little awed and puzzled. the shift is to a different seeing, in which appearances, that is, what arises in experience, and mind, that is, experiencing itself, are not separate.

Ken McCleod

rest in the seeing

initially you may not see anything, or only catch a glimpse. don’t try to recover it, simply repeat the whole process. gradually our view changes as we slowly shatter the illusion of subject and object. in the experience of seeing itself there is neither an object or a subject, there is simply perception and sensation. whatever your experience, rest in this.

appearances arise in experience. what arises in experience is not separate from what experiences, which we call “your mind,” just as in a dream, what arises in the dream is not separate from the mind that is dreaming.

Ken McCleod

2. mind is empty

exhaust the experience

rest with the mind open and clear. let the mind rest, and then look at the resting mind. what is the resting mind? answers like “it’s what i am,” or “it’s the source of experience,” take us again into the conceptual realm. what is resting mind? the more we look for what the resting mind is, the more we become confused. perception is brilliantly clear, but we do not find anything, not a shape, a color, a form, or even a location. keep looking.

now look at any object and see how the sensory experience arises. does anything change? what changes? how is mind resting different from mind experiencing the flower? again, we find nothing, literally “no-thing.” let a thought or a feeling arise. is there any movement? the same confusion and bewilderment may arise. that is another perception, but where and what is it?

cutting the root

awareness functions in both the moving and resting mind. we know when mind is moving and when it is resting. we know when we experience a tree, but what is it that knows? look into that. if you fall into thinking, just come back. look directly into what it is that knows. don’t see your thoughts as an answer, we are looking for the subject of what is aware. if you fall into thought and lose the base of attention, repeat the practice to the last point and lean into looking for what it is that knows. at some point you may feel a shift, and yet you see nothing.

rest in this seeing

these practices can be extremely frustrating, because we keep ending up empty handed. we may even believe that we’ve got the point and that we understand emptiness. yet, the real insight is in knowing this emptiness directly; knowing it for what it is and not what we think it is. insight is a brilliant lighting up of the object, and a knowing that is certain, because it is based on the whole field of experience.

can we be with the ache of emptiness, not calling it by any name? let all labels fly into thin air and stay with what is here – discomfort without calling it discomfort, staying here with what is indefinable. not resisting, not fighting, not looking for anything else. just letting what is here be here in its entirety. physically, mentally, totally. letting it be without knowing. not becoming the doer, for or against it. just this quiet presence in the midst of the silence of chaos.  

Toni Packer

3. emptiness is natural presence

exhaust the experience

the nature of mind has three qualities. it is empty, clear, and unceasing. look into these three qualities and their relationship with one another. the emptiness of mind is experienced as finding nothing there, yet having clear perception. look into this experience. the clarity of mind is its ability to be aware. what is this awareness? notice how experience arises unceasingly. it is always arising as your very experience, be this dullness, insight, confusion, the richness of emotional and sensory experience, the brilliance of the intellect, or the quiet and peace of Being. what experiences everything? is clarity different from emptiness? look into this. and what about clarity and the unceasing quality? or emptiness and the unceasing quality?

cutting the root

many ideas will arise, based on what you’ve read or heard before. notice the inner talk and conceptualising that arise, and cut them with attention. cut through all concepts or intellectual understanding with attention. what is it that beholds the empty, clear, and unceasing nature of mind?

rest

when there is a sense of presence, simply rest in it. relax, and open, allowing this presence to unfold through you.

only when the mind is tranquil — through self-knowledge and not through imposed self-discipline — only then, in that tranquility, in that silence, can reality come into being. it is only then that there can be bliss, that there can be creative action.

Krishnamurti

4. natural presence is natural freedom

this is the practice of presence or resting in the nature of things.

exhaust the experience

let everything go. don’t try to meditate, and don’t fall into distraction. don’t try to make anything happen, develop or grow anything, or cultivate anything. simply relax and rest, be open and awake.

cutting the root

whenever you notice distraction, or the clarity of attention fades, look directly into what is experiencing the disturbance. whatever arises, again look into what it is that experiences the disturbance. even if you experience strong emotion, or bliss, or visions, just recognize it and look into what is experiencing this disturbance.

rest

rest in the clear state of just recognizing what is arising.

when left to itself, ordinary mind is utterly empty, vividly clear, and totally open. when left to itself, experience just arises and subsides on its own.

Ken McCleod

insight means experience, not philosophy. intellectual understanding is not embodied, whereas insight is; we know directly and with our whole being. this difference is encapsulated in the saying: “you can bring a horse to water, but you cannot make it drink.” we may understand something intellectually, and may even be able to create a model out of this understanding, but the experience itself is the essence, and where all the theorizing leads. use the instructions to examine your own experience, your own thoughts, feelings, and sensations. practice this until you experience things as they are, not as how you think them.

raising the level of attentional energy

if you practice with this method of raising the level of attention, you’ll find yourself generally more present in your life, and less reactive. there is, however, a caveat to these practices: more awareness means also looking deeper into yourself, and opening any trauma that may be hidden there. you may even become more reactive for a period. at these points it is important to have a teacher who can recognize the pattern that is playing out and give helpful instruction.

appearances are mind

i am life. i have no name, i am as the breeze of the mountains. 

Krishnamurti

to know anything, it must first appear in mind, so one of the first things we may notice about mind is that every object we can know, including our body, must appear first in the mind. all our feelings, perceptions, sensations, and thoughts appear in mind. it follows that all things must be made of the same mind, the same properties within which they appear.

mind’s knowledge of itself precedes knowing the nature of anything, and for this reason there is no greater endeavor than for mind to question its own nature. who am i? what am i? what is the nature of knowing? what is experience? what is it that is aware of my experience?

all that you have ever come into contact with is yourself (awareness). all perceptions, sensations, thought, and feeling, arise within you, and your only knowledge of an “exterior” world is actually interior. everything we externalize is only the projection of our mind. the reality of mind is that it is everything. when you sit, walk, stand, or sleep, it is all sensation. in reality you never go anywhere, you merely have a new sensation. everything we perceive is perceived by mindbody. when we see a tree, and say “ah, there’s a tree,” we are perceiving, and this perception forms from mind, and as mind. “appearances are mind” does not mean that we are dreaming or hallucinating. it also does not mean that nothing exists. it means everything we can say about such existence is the formation of mind. in Buddhism mind does not mean “intellect,” but rather “what experiences.” from the perspective of Buddhism, reality is not what we think —although thinking is included in reality — reality is what we experience. but we cannot experience an object, book, flower, or the wind. actual experience is made of all the thoughts, perceptions, and sensations that we condense into labels like “book”. what are the thoughts, feelings, and sensations that are part of your awareness at the moment? the content of those thoughts and feelings are our imputation, but the fact of thinking or feeling is real.

touch or lift a small object. where is the experience of the lifting, and what is it? if you say “in my fingertips”, you are back to referencing the thought-self. the actual experience does not have fingertips, and it is always directly here (nowhere). close your eyes and lift the same object again. feel into the experience. lifting is one sensation, directly here, and putting down is another sensation, directly here. thought is not necessary for the process to occur, and if you look for the “i” having the experience, you find nothing there. and when you look into the sensation, you find that the sensation and that which is aware of it are one. reality does not exist independently of experience.

you can see that these practices do not rely on intellect or reasoning. indeed, their aim is to get prior to— and beyond—reasoning, to expose the reality that intellectual concepts, including language, are constructs that we project onto our experience, and then mistake the projected construct for reality. reasoning is just another experience that arises within mind. the world of shared experience, likewise, is only a construct of mind, based on the fear of being alone.

are we alone? the question itself seeks to avoid the mystery of being and to relegate experience to another category. things are not what we think they are. equally, they are not what we think they are not. things just are.

Ken McCleod

mind is empty

where is your mind right now? you may find it in the reading, or in the past, the future, or daydreaming. mind is not a thing that is located somewhere, it is experience itself. remember a time when things felt just right for you and you experienced deep happiness. notice how you can access those feelings again by focusing on the memory. where did those feelings come from? and where did they go? what do you see in the place where thought and feeling take place?

the great mystery of being is that all experiences, thoughts, feelings, and sensations arise from nothing and dissolve into nothing. such as we are in the habituation of subject-object perception, we think that experience consists of an “i” that exists on its own perceiving objects that exist on their own.

Ken McCleod

in “appearances are mind,” we saw that what is experienced cannot be separated from the experience itself. now look into experience itself. to know the nature of mind, McCleod suggests meditating (looking into the experience of) on the following questions:

• what is mind?
• how is mind?
• what is sensory experience?
• what is movement?
• what is the difference between mind and sensation?
• what is the difference between the moving mind and the resting mind?
• what is the nature of experience?

when we look into “what is mind,” four things tend to happen in very quick succession. first is simply the state of looking, followed by a sense of a shift, and then seeing that we are looking at nothing. this is soon followed by the second state: confusion or disorientation, where attention has decayed and habitual patterns are flowing. we may even feel fear in finding nothing (the third state). and then the chain of events ends with the fourth state, that of thinking or dullness.

we can work with this process intelligently, learning to sustain the looking for longer periods. as this puts mind in a state of higher energy, the distractions and dullness can be even more pronounced than in the practices for cultivating attention. every time our meditation practice deepens, we experience more intense disruption. as with cultivating attention, we relax when attention is distracted, and energize when attention becomes dull. to relax, we can rest with the mind that is open like the sky, undisturbed by winds and clouds (thoughts and feelings). to energize, we can relax into the quality of mind that is like the sun: brilliant, radiant, and luminous. we can also use meditating on death as a way of dealing with a dull or overthinking mind (we will discuss the death practices in the three marks of existence program). to work with busyness, we reflect on the certainty of death. this tends to loosen the attraction to distractions and reactions. and to work with dullness, we recall that death can come at any time, even in the next breath.

many people miss the shift of energy, or dismiss it as insignificant because they haven’t found an answer to the question “what is mind?” the point of insight practice is to bring you to the experience of clear, open awareness, not to find an answer. when clarity arises, simply rest in it.

the question of “what is mind?” will, after some practice, simply dissolve, and in its place we find clear, open, still awareness. and although it may be right in front of us, we may not recognize it. this is where it becomes necessary to work with a teacher who is experienced in pointing-out instructions.

sooner or later, the three qualities of the nature of awareness become clearer in our experience. we know its emptiness, or finding nothing there, we experience its clarity because it is what makes awareness possible, and we know its unceasing arising, or experience coming and going by itself. the nature of mind is finally revealed as transparent, empty, ever-present consciousness. it does not appear, was never born, and never moves, changes, or ages. it cannot die, and it has no limitations. there is only one unlimited Consciousness. each of our minds is precipitated in, or made of, consciousness. we are literally one. this experience is what we call love. we are the Knowing of Being, in us, and as us.

emptiness is natural presence

returning to source is stillness, which is the way of nature. each separate being in the universe returns to the common source for serenity — to replenish the soul — which enable them to grow and flourish. 

Rhonda Redbird

at this point in our practice, we cut the tendency to take understanding and even realization as real. we notice that by wanting to own our experience we bring ourselves straight back into the habit of subject-object differentiation. we cut this tendency by focusing our attention on the understanding itself. when a concept like “mind is empty” arises, we can look straight into it. at this point, any notion of empty disappears, and we return to direct presence. what is this unceasing presence? whatever it is, it is not made of thought, feeling, or perception, because all of those change continually. only presence remains, aware of the next thought or perception. we can do the same with clarity. as soon as we want to turn the clarity into something that has independent existence, we’re right back in old habitual patterns. we cut this habit by directing attention at the experience of clarity. for McCleod, experience is energy moving from emptiness into form (appearance) and from form into emptiness (disappearance). we can clearly see and follow this process in mind.

does this empty aware field gain or lose anything by the appearance or disappearance of any object in it? is the field ever stained or hurt or modified when an object appears or disappears? notice how this field touches intimately each object that appears in it, and yet each object leaves the field completely untouched. it is always in the same pristine condition: empty, silent, expanded, pure in the sense of not being limited by any object. the nature of this field is inherently empty, inherently peaceful. no activity of the mind could increase or decrease its inherent peace or emptiness.

all that you need is just to be silent and listen to existence. there is no need of any religion, there is no need of any god, there is no need of any priesthood, there is no need of any organization. i trust in the individual categorically. nobody up to now has trusted in the individual in such a way. so all those things can be removed. now all that is left to you is a state of meditation which simply means a state of utter silence. even the word meditation makes it look heavier. it is better to just call it simple, innocent silence. 

Osho

natural presence is natural freedom

these four insight practices correspond to the four noble truths. suffering originates when we experience what appears as other than the nature of mind. the origin of this suffering is not knowing that mind and all experiences are empty. suffering can cease when we return to presence. and the path is resting in presence.

we discover that the person we believe ourselves to be has never existed, and will never exist. the thought-self that we’re so invested in is only an idea. naming is not knowing. the word or label covers up the mystery. when we hold something in our mind without naming it, the mind senses the beingness (suchness) of it and awe arises. love is the one looking at itself, it is a magnification of what is. love is recognizing ourselves in experience. really happy people do not pursue happiness, they realize the pursuit itself is unhappiness, and that freedom and happiness are deeper things in us, without condition or cause. we call it acceptance and feel it as contentment. it is a causeless peace, happiness, fullness, or contentedness.

what we are looking for, is looking.

St Francis of Assissi

McCleod distinguishes four levels of knowing that can arise when working with insight practices. the first level— intellectual understanding — is developed through study and reflection. this level of understanding has insufficient energy to change behavior or perception in a meaningful way. you can live by principles, but will constantly have to remind yourself. intellectual understanding can easily be taken over by emotional reaction or habitual patterns.

energy surges are the second kind of understanding. energy surges are openings into new ways of seeing and experiencing, and may be produced by emotionally charged reactions. surges of bliss, clarity, or nonthought can be a powerful boost to our practice. in most traditions energy surges are not indications of real understanding, but merely side-effects of practice.

direct experience is the third level of knowing, and arises when we have an insight, or experience of seeing. we are able to hold onto the experience regardless of what thinking mind throws at it, even when it makes no logical sense. the mind cannot fall into defensiveness or confusion, because the experience is too direct and too real. as a result, we may feel either joy in the freedom, or grief at the loss of the delusion.

your practice becomes clearer and stronger, not because you want to gain something, but from knowing directly that life is the arising and subsiding of experience. your intention is to be present in the arising and subsiding, whatever comes.

Ken McCleod

at the fourth level of knowing, we reach the level of Being, meaning the knowing is present most of the time. we live from this knowing, and it has become embodied, so that there is no need for memory or principle. we simply respond to what arises within experience. even a sense of understanding is gone; we simply are.

Being

life is the dancer and you are the dance. 

Eckhart Tolle

our true nature is not something out of reach that we need to strive for. we are it already, despite our not knowing this. in fact, it is by discovering it again and again in our experience that we slowly break down the beliefs of the egoic self. when we live with only the egoic view, we live in ignorance, ignoring what is real. the human condition expresses through ignorance, doubt, fear, emotional armoring, the felt need for love, and constant performances aimed at gaining this love. this is a normal life, but not our natural life. the identification with ego and a separate self leads to the body expressing as sensation, mind expressing as thought, and the emotional body expressing as feelings.

with the thought of “i,” the universe and others also arise. who i am is believed to be inside, and others and the world are believed to be outside. all our suffering arises from this interpreted separate self, because it experiences itself as being alone and pitted against the whole of life. the “i” sees itself as the “doer,” “thinker,” and “feeler.” it does not reflect deeply enough to discover that what it holds itself to be is ever-changing. reflecting on the ever-changing nature of experience leads to discovering the real truth: that who i am is the empty field of sensitivity in which body, feeling, and thought arise.

the diminishing of our grasping is a sign that we are becoming freer of ourselves. the more we experience this freedom, the clearer the sign that the ego and the hopes and fears that keep it alive are dissolving, and the closer we are to the infinitely generous wisdom of egolessness. when we live in that home of wisdom, we no longer find a barrier between “i” and “you,” “this” and “that,” “inside” and “outside”; we’ll have come, finally, to our true home, the real Self. 

until you’ve kept your eyes
and your wanting still for fifty years,
you don’t begin to cross over from confusion.
Rumi