Insightful Thinking – What is an insight?

[Sebastian]

Here's a question I'd like to ask, it's really a follow-up question as well as something I've been pondering these past days.

Following on from your post, Brett, – and thanks for the reply! – I'm still wondering about my reconciliation between 'insight' and 'a helpful thought in the form of wisdom.'

I'd like to explain.

I've heard the description of insight being: the moment one sees that experience is coming from Thought.

To anyone reading and willing to reply, what does this mean to you?

Does it mean to you, that in that moment of insight, you have a full, conscious, understanding of the fact that your experience is coming from Thought?
Or said in this way, if I were to ask in that moment, 'For this (specific) experience, is it a realisation of that experience coming from your thought?'

Or is that 'seeing' is moreso a 'living-in-an-insight-type-of-seeing,' rather than a cognitive realisation.

The reason, I think, that this is important to me, is because I've been thinking about what a 'helpful thought' may look like to us, and what the qualities of such 'helpful thoughts' may be – when is something not an insightful thought? is there such a thing as a 'helpful thought' on a scale of insightfulness, i.e. closer to truth, further away from truth?

 

[Brett Chitty]

Does it mean to you, that in that moment of insight, you have a full, conscious, understanding of the fact that your experience is coming from Thought?

Yes, I completely agree, but that's not the complete picture. There's also the "transfer" of you leaving one dimension and into another one. I'd say that it took a transfer of dimensions in the first place to have such an insight!
This opens up the very awesome possibility that one insight could account for a lot more than just one particular experience.

Syd, in the Enlightened Gardener, page 46-47.
"Never underestimate the power of an insight, young man. Sometimes one genuine insight is worth all your experiences put together."

The reason, I think, that this is important to me, is because I've been thinking about what a 'helpful thought' may look like to us, and what the qualities of such 'helpful thoughts' may be – when is something not an insightful thought? is there such a thing as a 'helpful thought' on a scale of insightfulness, i.e. closer to truth, further away from truth?

These "thoughts" you describe above do not refer to the Power of Thought. I call such thoughts "thinking," but whatever you call it, it won't be a principle. A principle will always be "content-less" or "what-less" i.e., formless.
To really make sense of "thoughts" or "thinking", an insight from another dimension will let us know the thoughts are seen for what they truly are, and therefore we will no longer need to categorize such thoughts, including that of "helpful thoughts." This is why I point in the direction of the Power, the principle, and not the "what." Indeed, I believe an insight will let you know what is helpful!

 

[Gerber 2985]

I can not help as I still do not understand what insight is as Brett described it.
I have experienced again and again the difference in the way it feels when i am not feeling the qualities of the inside out.
And how circumstances don't change but I am gifted with feeling amazing with all the qualities of the inside out.

I have also experienced being what I believe is outside in, in emotional pain, upset, experiencing feelings of down or fear and that I am able to see it as experiences of thinking going by that don't have to hurt me, and that aren't true.

I am very grateful to see that and understand that to some degree but I don't think it is insight as Brett has taught us that in insight one changes from one dimension to another and I am not experiencing the qualities of the inside out during that time.

Though i am much more peaceful than i would be if I wouldn't be seeing that understanding.
That's all i know now.

I also don't understand what it means to have negative emotions and be inside out. Again, i have experienced the above but it doesn't have qualities of the inside out so I don't know what this means.

(I just posted this while we are on the topic of insight)

 

[Brett Chitty]

A quote that helped me a lot, from an Austrian economist:
"The Mind cannot foresee its own advance."

I heard it as, "The Mind cannot foresee its own insight."
That was when I quit thinking about insights, as if I were to know what "insights" are would give me insights. It doesn't. I propose, nothing does.

In any case, any imagination of what insight would do for you (or anyone else!) or what it would be like "post-insight" occurred at your current level of understanding - that's "pre-insight."
There is no way you can know what it (or the experience) would be like at a higher level of understanding until you are there. And the only thing that can take you there is insight (or any similar conveying of the meaning.)

For example, imagining that it would be more peaceful after insight is one thing, but that's made of imagination created by thinking. It's a projection of the future. Time is an illusion. Take away time, and you will have the insight.
Any imagination cannot convey the actual experience of being more peaceful, as that part - the experience - can never be imaginable pre-insight.

A metaphor that comes to mind is a ladder. Here's a ladder, with many steps, a tall one to cover two stories. We use our thinking to imagine what we would see if we stepped on and went up the ladder. I'm pretty certain that if you were to take the actual steps on the ladder, not only you get to experience what you see, but you'd also realize the energy you put into the imagination before stepping on the ladder was quite fruitless!

In the end, just knowing that insight is always possible, no matter what is going on in our lives, is enough.

 

[Sebastian]

Yes, I completely agree, but that's not the complete picture. There's also the "transfer" of you leaving one dimension and into another one. I'd say that it took a transfer of dimensions in the first place to have such an insight!
This opens up the very awesome possibility that one insight could account for a lot more than just one particular experience.

Syd, in the Enlightened Gardener, page 46-47.
"Never underestimate the power of an insight, young man. Sometimes one genuine insight is worth all your experiences put together."


These "thoughts" you describe above do not refer to the Power of Thought. I call such thoughts "thinking," but whatever you call it, it won't be a principle. A principle will always be "content-less" or "what-less" i.e., formless.
To really make sense of "thoughts" or "thinking", an insight from another dimension will let us know the thoughts are seen for what they truly are, and therefore we will no longer need to categorize such thoughts, including that of "helpful thoughts." This is why I point in the direction of the Power, the principle, and not the "what." Indeed, I believe an insight will let you know what is helpful!

I think I am getting to understand how you define an insight.

I'll come back to the post a few more times.

 

[Sebastian]

In any case, any imagination of what insight would do for you (or anyone else!) or what it would be like "post-insight" occurred at your current level of understanding - that's "pre-insight."
There is no way you can know what it (or the experience) would be like at a higher level of understanding until you are there. And the only thing that can take you there is insight (or any similar conveying of the meaning.

Re-read your post again!
I think I was trying hone my understand of what I understood insight to be, so as to fend of false-positives (i.e. false insights).
I am questions whether what I think are insights really are that or not, because I do not want to be deceiving myself.

But I am getting comfortable now, I think, with not categorising thoughts at all -- at least not trying to categorise them deliberately.

 

[Sebastian]

In my previous post, I meant to say:
I am questioning what 'insights' I am having, and whether these truly are insights or not...

 

[Brett Chitty]

I am questioning what 'insights' I am having, and whether these truly are insights or not...

The way I describe an insight is that an insight is NOT a thought, but a description of what happens in a person's mind. I can only explain these using trajectories, which I'll explain one day.

However, you are on the right track - discovering what isn't an insight goes some way to stopping you from looking in that direction. For example, I used to believe that insight means a new thought. But that wasn't it for me, because I can have a new thought from the inside out, and I can have a new thought from the outside in. You can imagine the implications there. For example, I can have a "new thought" of, say, robbing a bank, and I'd call it an insight!

So "Insight = New Thought" wasn't specific enough for me. Note, I'm not saying it's "wrong," but there had to be a deeper answer. That alone stopped me from looking for a "new thought" and instead discovered something deeper.

 

[Sebastian]

The way I describe an insight is that an insight is NOT a thought, but a description of what happens in a person's mind. I can only explain these using trajectories, which I'll explain one day.

However, you are on the right track - discovering what isn't an insight goes some way to stopping you from looking in that direction. For example, I used to believe that insight means a new thought. But that wasn't it for me, because I can have a new thought from the inside out, and I can have a new thought from the outside in. You can imagine the implications there. For example, I can have a "new thought" of, say, robbing a bank, and I'd call it an insight!

So "Insight = New Thought" wasn't specific enough for me. Note, I'm not saying it's "wrong," but there had to be a deeper answer. That alone stopped me from looking for a "new thought" and instead discovered something deeper.

Interesting. I'll wait for your explanation of that insight (or the occurence of an insight?) being something that happens in a person's mind.