3.1.5. The Path of Insight

“Like the occurrence of lightning in the sky, all things—mind or matter—occur in flashes, as conditions arise for such occurrence; and quick as lightning, they are gone.”
— Visuddhimagga, Buddhaghosa

There is something both thrilling and unsettling in the way insight takes hold. It is not like learning facts or assembling an argument—it is more like being seized by a quiet fever, a subtle agitation of the mind that refuses to rest until it knows truth firsthand. In this chapter, I wish to offer a humble exploration of the path of vipassanā—insight meditation—which for me has become less a practice than a way of inhabiting each moment, alive to the fragile lightning-flashes of mind and world.

It is widely accepted that while some degree of tranquility (samatha) is necessary—enough, perhaps, to taste the first jhāna—it is insight that ultimately carries one to the final stages of liberation. Even if one could, through sheer calm, ascend to celestial states, tranquility alone cannot fully unravel the knots of conditioned existence. Sooner or later, one must turn to the sharp, unflinching work of insight.

Vipassanā is quite unlike more familiar contemplations. Once established, it does not confine itself to a session on a cushion. It becomes an undercurrent infusing all of life, an ongoing analysis of experience that sometimes feels more like an obsession. It keeps me awake at night, as though the mind had been handed a puzzle it must solve for its very survival.

Over time, this develops a kind of rhythm. There are periods of study, where I hungrily gather teachings—feeding the mind’s fire, so to speak. Then come quieter spells of contemplation, where all that gathered Dhamma is turned inward, tested against the intimate evidence of my own mind and body.

Unlike ordinary learning, this thirst never truly fades. I may grow weary of a topic or need to pause and let things settle, but soon enough, the mind circles back, reconsidering old insights with fresh urgency. There is truly no escape from this gentle overthinking.

Stages of Vipassanā Insight

It is helpful to lay out, however briefly, some of the classical stages of insight as described by Ledi Sayadaw and other masters. These are not rigid steps but more like natural unfoldings that deepen over time.

The Lightning of Mind

I find it fascinating—and frankly a bit awe-inspiring—how insight, once mature, becomes almost anatomical. The vipassanā meditator starts by noting ordinary shifts: how standing up is not so much a self in motion, but a dance of fleeting processes. Then subtler intentions are seen to arise before any act—even before thoughts themselves.

Eventually, attention lands on these mere hints of intention, cutting them at the root. Without the usual spark of thought, the duality of subject and object fails to form. What remains is direct knowing, beyond the veil of conceptual separation—something traditions call non-dual primordial wisdom or even Dharmakāya.

Ledi Sayadaw offers a vivid portrayal of how consciousness operates at the six sense bases. Seeing, for instance, is nothing but transient flashes of awareness—like lightning in a storm. Each moment of contact between eye and object sparks a brief illumination at the eye-base, mirrored by a flash in the heart-base (the subtle seat of mind-consciousness). The uninformed person imagines a stable seer observing a stable moon, but the wise see instead a rapid succession of arising and vanishing, without any enduring observer.

Dissolving All Clinging

At higher stages of vipassanā, the meditator becomes deeply intimate with impermanence. They see not only the arising and presence of phenomena but come to rest in their continual dissolution—the bhaṅga-ñāṇa. This fosters a natural disenchantment: what is endlessly vanishing holds little promise of satisfaction.

From here unfolds a series of insights that see phenomena as fearful, dangerous, empty of joy, and ultimately not worth clinging to at all. This gives rise to a profound equanimity—a serene abiding that is not mere calm but a radical acceptance of the way things truly are.

Tranquility may allow marvellous feats, but it is insight that unravels the very fabric of grasping. The mind, once caught in seeing things as solid and separate, becomes fluid, present, timeless. This is where ordinary notions of duration and substance begin to slip away, revealing a far stranger and more immediate reality.

Thus the curious paradox: insight begins as a kind of irritation, a mental itch that refuses to be ignored, yet matures into the deepest ease—a resting in a field of dissolving appearances, content in the lightning-quick dance of mind and matter. For those drawn to these subtleties, Ledi Sayadaw’s writings are a treasure worth exploring slowly and with great care.

This text is excerpted from the upcoming book Citrinitas: A Course in Modern Alchemy. The complete volume will include additional study guides, glossaries, and extended teachings. Learn more about the book here.