What Is Insight?

Meditation gives you the superpower of being able to see your own mind

The Nature Of Suffering

The mind is, by nature, active and creative. Because it’s alive. Just as the Earth sprouts trees and mountains, and the ocean sprouts waves — the mind sprouts thoughts and experiences.

In an undisciplined mind, cravings grow like weeds in a garden. Cravings are natural, but they are not the purpose of the garden.

In Buddhism, cravings are pointed out as the source of all suffering. A craving is wanting something that you don’t have, or even worse, wanting something that’s not even real.

With a normal, healthy desire, the desire is either acted upon, or discarded.

If you find yourself thirsty, you will get a glass of water, and it’s over. If the desire to punch someone arises, moral certainty steps in to throttle that thought with a stronger, more effective one.

But sometimes, the mind gets its wires crossed, and a desire festers without being fulfilled or destroyed. Like cancer, such a desire grows into suffering.

Insight is the ability to see into your own mind. And what you see, you can come to understand; and what you understand, you have power over.