Insight Meditation
Insight Meditation is the oldest known form of meditation, notably practiced by the Buddha, who taught that the two things which lead to supreme understanding are ‘Tranquillity’, and ‘Insight’; Tranquillity, to render the mind no longer a slave to impulse and egoic desire; and Insight, to bring freedom from the blindness of ignorance
It is from a place of tranquillity – reached not by forcing the mind to concentrate on a single point, but by allowing it to find its own resting point as thoughts settle – that deep insight can be experienced; and the most effective form of meditation, therefore, is one which first settles the mind, before observing itself, until the observer itself dissolves, leaving nothing to be observed… and what remains thereafter is state of pure awareness – and the gateway to infinity, divinity, and transcendence
Practiced properly then, meditation is an infinite journey of both tranquillity and insight, comprising ever deepening levels of thought, and no-thought – throughout which one reaches ever deeper levels of clarity regarding pattens of mind; as mind is transcended, and its relationship with consciousness, thought, sensation, and reaction, reveals its impermanent nature, and the disparity between illusion and reality
This is the foundation upon which Paths of One built Insight Meditation Therapy; which too is a journey of tranquillity and insight, but one inherently informed with material from Therapy and Enquiry work; which becomes more embedded through contemplation and rumination, in a layer of meditative consciousness Paths of One refers to as the ‘engine room’; in which a vast amount of processing and healing takes place – some of which may be agonising, and some blissful, but all of which is necessary if an enduring resolution to the angst of the human condition is willed
