Insight View in explorer

12 discourses
Insight is the deep, intuitive realization, a penetrative seeing into the true nature of things that transforms understanding
Also known as: having insight, with understanding, right knowledge
Pāli: ñāṇa, sammāñāṇa
Supported by
Wisdom

Wisdom

Lived understanding and sound judgment that steers the mind away from suffering, distinct from mere accumulation of facts.

Also known as: (of a person) wise, astute, intelligent, learned, skilled, firm, stable, steadfast, an experiential understanding of the four noble truths
Pāli: paññā, vijjā, medhā, dhīra, paṇḍita
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Leads to
Direct knowledge

Direct knowledge

A deep, firsthand realization or knowing that arises from personal experience, not from study or conceptual understanding; it is an immediate, unmediated apprehension of truth.

Also known as: experiential understanding, direct experience
Pāli: abhiñña
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Recognition of impermanence

Recognition of impermanence

Also known as: perception of impermanence, perception of instability, realization of transience
Pāli: aniccasaññā
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Recognition of unsatisfactoriness

Recognition of unsatisfactoriness

Also known as: perception of unsatisfactoriness, recognition of discontentment
Pāli: dukkhasaññā
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Recognition of not Self

Recognition of not-self

Also known as: perception of not being suitable to identify with, realization of being subject to change, recognition of alteration and changing nature
Pāli: anattasaññā
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Recognition of unattractiveness

Recognition of unattractiveness

Also known as: perception of unattractiveness, recognition of the drawbacks
Pāli: asubhasaññā
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Related
Learned

Learned

Refers to a person who is well educated and knowledgeable. Learning is the process of acquiring knowledge.

Also known as: having knowledge, well studied
Pāli: bahussuta, suta
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The Buddha expounds the noble right collectedness complete with its supporting conditions, clarifying how the factors of the noble eightfold path give rise to either mundane or supramundane fruits. He shows how right view leads to the sequential development of the path, culminating in right knowledge and right liberation.

The Buddha teaches about the person who has had “a single auspicious night”. One who neither revives the past nor places hope in the future, but diligently discerns present phenomena with insight—without taking them as self, and practices with urgency today without being carried away by presently arisen phenomena, that wise one is one who has had a single auspicious night.

When venerable Sāriputta meets venerable Puṇṇa Mantāṇiputta, he asks whether the spiritual life is lived for the sake of various purifications—of conduct, mind, view, overcoming doubt, knowing the path, knowing the practice, and knowledge and vision. Venerable Mantāṇiputta explains, with the simile of seven relay chariots, that each stage of purification serves only as a step toward the next, culminating in final Nibbāna without clinging—the true goal of the spiritual life.

In the Gosiṅga Sal wood park, Sāriputta asks several elder disciples what kind of monk illuminates the place. Each answers based on their personal strength — learning, seclusion, divine eye, asceticism, Dhamma dialogue and mastery over mind. They present their answers to the Buddha, who affirms that all have spoken well and then shares his own answer.

A series of questions and answers between Venerable Sāriputta and Venerable Mahākoṭṭhika that clarify subtle yet important aspects of the teachings. Topics covered include wisdom, consciousness, felt experience, perception, purified mind-consciousness, right view, existence, first jhāna, the five faculties, vital formations, and the release of the mind.

The Buddha teaches in detail how to develop mindfulness while breathing in and out through sixteen naturally unfolding steps, showing how their cultivation fulfills the four establishments of mindfulness, which in turn fulfill the seven factors of awakening, culminating in true knowledge and liberation.

The Buddha advises to 1) dwell contemplating the unattractive nature of the body, 2) establish mindfulness as the first priority while breathing in and out, and 3) observe impermanence in all conditioned phenomena.

When one knows and sees the four noble truths, there is the wearing away of the taints.

Only after fully understanding the gratification, drawback, and escape in the case of form, felt experience, perception, intentional constructs, and consciousness, the Buddha declared that he had attained the unsurpassed perfect awakening.

Before his awakening, the Bodhisatta reflected on the gratification in the world, the drawback in the world, and the escape from it.

The Buddha describes his quest for gratification in the world, drawback in the world, and the escape from it. He subsequently experientially realized gratification, drawback, and escape as they truly are, leading to his unshakable liberation.

The Buddha explains the proximate causes of non-regret, joy, tranquility, and other qualities leading to liberation, contrasting how they are fulfilled in a virtuous person versus an unprincipled person.