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CONCLUSION
CONCLUSION
―I say to you: All conditioned things are subject to decay. Practice diligently.‖
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-DN16
Insight meditation practice aims to cultivate meditative awareness in all aspects of one‟s life. Mindfulness is systematically practiced using the Buddha‟s teachings on the 4 foundations of mindfulness: the body, feeling tones, the mind, and dhammas. Although mindfulness is essential to awakening, it is not sufficient. In order to reach the goal of the Buddha‟s teachings (e.g., the cessation of suffering), one has to gain wisdom through insight. This is accomplished by the development of the 3 trainings: ethical conduct, concentration, and wisdom. We practice the 3 trainings by developing the noble eightfold path: skillful view, skillful intention, skillful speech, skillful action, skillful livelihood, skillful effort, skillful mindfulness, and skillful concentration. As practice matures, each of these skills becomes progressively refined and our way of being in the world becomes more and more skillful, more and more wholesome. When we stop harming ourselves and others, suffering diminishes. The insights we gain through practice allow us to see deeply into our existence and the nature of life. We come to understand on a visceral, intuitive level that all we experience is constantly in flux, is inherently unsatisfactory, and cannot be considered a self or what belongs to self. Our ignorance of and resistance to these 3 characteristics of experience is the cause of our suffering. By letting go of clinging, freedom comes. Awakening is the complete abandoning of all clinging. It is possible in this life.
This concludes our overview of the practices and teachings at SIM. I hope these pages have been helpful. I encourage you to put down this book now and pick up the practices. See if meditation and the supports discussed are beneficial in your life. The Buddha recommended that rather than blindly following his or anyone else‟s teachings, you validate your experience with your own inner wisdom. Try out the Dhamma. If you feel up to the challenge of the effort required to become free, take your place among the countless meditators over the last 2500 years who have followed the Buddha‟s teachings all the way to awakening. What do you have to lose?
