What is insight practice? To answer that, let’s first understand what the Buddha’s teaching, or Dharma, is about. Dharma is essentially about finding freedom from suffering, which is the core aim of all Buddhist practices.
There are different kinds of Dharma practice, generally divided into three categories: ethical practice, meditative practice, and wisdom practice. Each of these helps to reduce suffering in its own way.
Ethical practice involves examining our actions and speech to ensure that we aren’t causing harm to ourselves or others in the long term. We train ourselves to avoid physical harm, stealing, sexual misconduct, lying, and intoxicants that cloud our judgment. These are known as the five precepts of Buddhism.
Meditative practice involves developing mindfulness to observe how our thought patterns can lead to suffering. This doesn’t just affect us but also others, as our thoughts influence our words and actions. Meditation helps us cultivate qualities such as kindness and compassion, which can eliminate harmful emotions like anger and cruelty, and promote positive states of well-being and happiness.
In the early stages, much of our focus might be on becoming more ethical and developing mindfulness and kindness. This generally makes us happier. However, there’s a limit to how much happiness we can achieve through these means alone. Our deeper emotional and behavioral habits still persist because our perception of experiences is flawed. Without addressing these deeper issues, they keep resurfacing.
Buddhism teaches that our perceptions are often distorted. This doesn’t mean we’re seeing illusions; rather, it’s about how we interpret our experiences. For instance, we might assume that things, including ourselves, are more lasting and stable than they actually are. We might unconsciously believe that we or our loved ones will live forever, or that a painful feeling we have is permanent. These misconceptions lead to suffering.
We also tend to think that constant happiness can be achieved by only having pleasant experiences and avoiding unpleasant ones. However, since we can’t control everything, this is an impossible goal. We often believe that we are more separate from the world and other people than we actually are, and this misperception can lead us to focus solely on our well-being, forgetting that it’s interconnected with the well-being of others.
Insight practice helps challenge these illusions—such as the belief in permanence, the pursuit of happiness through pleasure, and the sense of a separate self. It guides us to let go into freedom and reality as they truly are.
When hearing “insight practice,” you might think of “insight meditation.” But practice is more than just meditating; we can develop insights and challenge our misperceptions in daily life as well. It’s essential to periodically shift our focus to non-insight meditations to remind ourselves that Buddhism also aims to cultivate kindness, compassion, and moral integrity.
Let’s take a moment now to start with a simple mindfulness breathing exercise. This practice will help us calm, focus, and steady the mind, preparing us to see beyond our delusions.