Okay, so the last post I’m making ties into the first two. However, it’s a little more basic, and perhaps will be more helpful for those pre-SE and looking to get insight feathers on their cap. Think of it as a cheat sheet for the 3Cs, with prompts.

This post is about the 3Cs, talking about what insights are, and how they’ll work once we’ve experienced them properly.

Impermanence

Nothing lasts. Everything changes. Contemplate your life and how it has changed in the last 2 weeks, 2 months, 2 years. Reflect on these changes, were they gradual or instant?

Take a look at experience right now and notice the fluxing of sensations. The shimmering tones of your body and mind. Cascading into one another. Does it ever stop? Does it ever stay the same? Challenge yourself and see how rapidly you can notice the changes. Notice the mental shadow that occurs after a sensation happens, each in succession.

Contemplate time. When did time start or stop? What would time be like without you experiencing it? How do you truly experience time? Is there a direct way to experience time?

Turn to the experience of your body-mind moment-to-moment. Notice how even in the noticing, where is the true beginning, where is the true end? Can you catch a beginning? Can you catch an end? Do they ever overlap, or intersect? Or are these artificial boundaries? In trying to notice these things, is there any kind of tension between what is assumed and what is actually happening?

Emptiness

Nothing is made of itself. Contemplate objects in daily life. Your arm is not made of “arm” it is made of tendons, ligaments, muscles, bones, etc… And those things are not made of themselves either. Where does this end?

Notice your experience moment-to-moment. Whatever emotion you’re feeling now, notice where it occurs on the body and mind. Are those sensations, say, angry? Or do they only feel angry when looked at together? Smile on your face, is the smiling sensation smiling itself when noticed at the tiniest level that you can?

Notice the sensations of a conventional “me” in the moment. Where do they reside? Are they changing? Can you control them? How are they organised? Where is the self in this messy constellation of sensations?

Contemplate the mind and reality. Notice how the mind creates the reality that it sees, and yet, the mind is part of the very reality that supports its creation, to begin with. Is there tension in this? How can that tension resolve itself?

Contemplate emptiness itself. Is it some sort of fundamental thing? Or another empty notion? If so, how do we encounter emptiness in the world and what does that say about emptiness itself?

Suffering

Any sensation can be a bummer if we let it be. Notice how the mind clusters around certain notions of how sensations should or shouldn’t be. There may be a manifestation of defensiveness, a kind of pre-emptive anger, shock, or hatred of the thing.

Notice how when we enjoy a sensation, the mind inclines to possessiveness. This possessiveness leads to territoriality — “this sensation is so good I gotta make it mine!”. Then we spend a lot of time and effort into making sure the sensation doesn’t decay, change, or cease. Such a bummer when they do though, right!?

Notice how when we experience a negative sensation, the mind inclines to defensiveness. This defensiveness leads to hostility. “No this sensation is not one of the sensations I accept, so I’ll defend myself with anger”. Then we spend a lot of effort and time trying to escape the inescapable. Such a bummer.

Insights

Insights are the direct experience of these things in action, the lived experience. They’re not answers to questions, but more like convictions that we know what’s going on. It should resonate to the core of your being. Like being struck by sublime lightning. It’s not an “aha” or “eureka” moment, it usually leads to a smile or laughter (in my own experience, and others’ I’ve read) — you’re finally getting in on the cosmic joke.

I think there is a lot to be said for experiencing the thing directly and contemplating (i.e., analytical meditation). The former is always going to give the best results and lead to deep changes to our experience of the world. But analytical meditation is a great set-up or preparation. A getting the mind lubricated with some nice analytical investigations does help, but lubrication only gets you ready to fuck, you gotta actually do the deed. Make sure you’re not

From Victim to Hero

Pre-awakening we are victims of Samsara. Samsara is usually modelled as a wheel, and that’s a powerful symbol in itself. Ever tried spinning a wheel in the hopes of changing it? Can’t happen, wheels (circles) have the same diameter, that’s what makes them a circle, uniformity, despite seeming change. So, you’ve been doing life, spinning this wheel in the hopes of changing it, “oh I’m gonna be a better person, I’m gonna clean my room”, or “I just got a new workout program and that’ll fix my motivation this time”, or “today is the day I stop eating naughty foods for good”. It’s wheel spinning, all these things are symptoms, not problems in themselves. Each of the quoted examples is a person struggling with some aspect of themselves, and in an attempt to fix it, addresses the surface problems; this happens because this aspect of themselves is not properly realised and understood. And that’s okay, we’re fleshy automatons powered by neurotransmitters, we’re allowed to not be perfect.

I’d say that insight is a very big part of getting the good stuff that we hoped to get. But insights don’t fix a lot of other ancillary conditioning that aren’t necessarily related to the fetters. Nor will they cure psychological problems, or fundamentally alter your biology (i.e., that chest pain your feeling may not actually be a misaligned chakra, but a heart condition). But with insights and fetters gone, navigating our mind and our conditioning becomes far easier. Like being a self-taught mechanic of your mind. But being a highly qualified mechanic doesn’t mean squat unless you’ve got the tools and are ready to use them.

Also, being a victim is not a bad thing. This is not victim shaming. There’s nothing blameworthy about being a victim of Samsara. It isn’t despicable or naughty. It is just that we’re all here learning a vital skill to reduce suffering. However, even after getting pretty good at the skill and having more suffering to uproot, this doesn’t make you less than or worse than others on similar journeys. It is simply your life, and your responsibility to do the work. This is the heroes’ path — doing the tough work. And even though heroes do have tough times with their demons and circumstances out of their control, their resolve is there to make sure they make it out with the treasure. So do not think that by saying “victim” or “hero” there is something more to do with meditation — practising is enlightenment and enlightenment is practice. Lastly, heroes do not make victims of others. This is not a victim-shaming exercise, and that’s important to remember, having conditioning is normal. Working to improve it is heroic, no matter how long it takes.

The summary of this Samsara spiel is this: you can either be a victim of change, or a hero from it. It’s a choice.

Morality, Concentration, Insight

Notice how all these aspects tie into one another. They are completely inseparable. Insight trains morality, morality trains insight, concentration trains both and vice versa. But in meditation practice, we focus on insight — but notice in this post and my last ones, we take a certain moral stance towards ourselves. We train to not see ill-intentions in our flaws. We learn to be glad with what is actually happening. We learn to accept reality on its own terms. In learning concentration, we relax into our training, taking a compassionate view with ourselves, using positive intentions to work forward.

Notice how in the section about insight, a lot of these things have strict moral implications. Can true compassion exist in a world where we take things as unchangeable? How can we believe in the improvement of society if change isn’t possible? Can we forgive someone for their misdeeds if we believe they’re fundamentally irredeemable? I’m not saying we should walk around with rose-tinted glasses; sometimes the most compassionate thing for someone is to be incarcerated. Can we truly know someone if we reject their flaws? Or, can we truly accept someone if we only think they’re defined by their flaws? Samsara turns us all into victims if we let it — and your practice tips the scales towards more wholesomeness in the world. This inner project we’re doing has deep ramifications for the outer world. But, if we’re doing this inner work, can we find a way to do outer work to help our inner lives? That’s a question that can be creatively answered by each individual, via experimentation. Find a way to smile around someone you find unpleasant. Find a way to laugh at that really cringe joke. Try and enjoy small talk!? Volunteer. Smile when you see people. Et cetera…

Thanks for reading, please feel free to criticize, critique, or complain

Be happy