These days, there’s a growing interest in gaining insight. Generally, this is a positive trend. For a long time, many people in the West doubted whether awakening was a realistic goal, often thinking that modern life wasn’t conducive to it. Over time, however, more practitioners have had experiences of insight, which has encouraged others. Now, more individuals believe that not only is awakening possible, but they can achieve it themselves. This is fantastic! So, what’s the downside?
One concern is the narrow focus many people have on their goals. The ultimate aim of practice is often seen solely as gaining insight into the nature of non-self. While crucial, simply having insights doesn’t automatically turn you into the kind of person the Buddha envisioned as the ideal. According to the Buddha, the ideal person is not just insightful but also an all-round excellent human being.
In conversations about the ideal person, the Buddha mentioned qualities like calmness, freedom from craving and attachment, freedom from fear, anger, and pride, restraint in speech, honesty, transparency, lack of envy, and refraining from thinking in terms of being superior, inferior, or even equal to others. He also emphasized gentleness, kindness, and compassion. The Buddha encouraged us to avoid causing harm to others and to be good friends.
This is the direction our practice should take. The goal is not just about losing the delusion of self or gaining insight but also about cultivating ethical and skillful qualities, especially positive emotions. This is why the Buddhist path begins with training in ethics, followed by meditation (including kindness and compassion), and then culminates in the development of insight.
For some people, insight experiences can be upsetting or even devastating, leading to a loss of meaning and despair. These cases are rare, and usually, any disorientation is temporary before the positive aspects of insight reveal themselves. However, in cases where insight experiences lead to long-term issues, it seems there was a narrow focus on mindfulness and insight without enough emphasis on lovingkindness and compassion meditation. Many meditation teachers tend to overlook these potential problems, but fortunately, they are being studied more now.
Modern neuroscience shows that learning a new skill physically changes the brain; areas associated with that skill become larger, much like muscles grow with exercise. The goal of practice involves not just cognitive insight into impermanence or non-self but also strengthening the “muscles” of kindness and compassion. Developing insight removes certain barriers to the rise of skillful qualities and helps diminish unskillful ones, but it takes effort to foster growth.
I encourage you to develop qualities such as kindness and compassion in both your meditation and daily life. When insight arrives, it is more likely to be an astonishing, liberating, and joyful experience rather than a disorienting or painful shock to the system. Balancing your practice with energy and enthusiasm, without desperation, is key.