Insight Through Learning, Reflecting, and Meditating

Explanations Based on The Commentary on the Discourse of Defining the Topics (Arthaviniscaya sutratika) These teachings by Shamar Rinpoche are based on The Dharma Discourse on Defining the Topics (Arthaviniscaya Dharmaparyaya), a text considered to be a discourse or sutra taught by Buddha Sakyamuni. Shamar Rinpoche guides practitioners along a trajectory toward increasingly profound levels of insight, leading them through the steps of learning, reflecting, and meditating within the context of the fourfold application of mindfulness. This comprises training in mindfulness with regard to the body, the feelings, the mind, and the mental phenomena. Where the process of studying, reflecting, and meditating is concerned, Shamar Rinpoche tells us that the insight gained from listening serves as the riverbed; the insight gained from reflection corresponds to the river emanating from the spring and coursing along the riverbed, and the insight gained from meditation is comparable to the river reaching and merging with the sea. He stresses that practitioners who undergo this process thus reach a point at which they experience insight that is direct, deep, and expansive. This insight possesses the power to dispel ignorance, making the journey truly rewarding!