I don’t think I have ever experienced something that I would call an insight. I have not been blown away by a rush of understanding and enduring absorption in some absolute truth or reality. However, I do occasionally get glimpses into the reality that I think lies just beyond the horizon of my ordinary experience.
While those glimpses sometimes come in unexpected ways, they almost always happen when I am paying attention. There isn’t much else I have to do except relax and pay attention. Sometimes the glimpse occurs when a friend says something that opens a whole new way of seeing things. But even that is just a passing event, a glimpse into a reality I had not had before.
I often get glimpses when walking through my garden, especially early in the day. When I am relaxed and paying attention, plants suddenly reveal themselves in ways I hadn’t noticed before. They don’t linger and often quickly depart, especially because my attention has moved on to something else. But the experience of the glimpse stays with me.
I frequently get glimpses into a vast space that has no description or dimension. The glimpse lasts only for a moment. However, this brush with emptiness comes more easily as I repeatedly glimpse it. I also am noticing that those glimpses are getting a little bit longer. I am finding it a little more easy to settle into the dimensionless nature of glimpses. I find that my glimpses of plants in my garden are becoming deeper and have more of an impact.
I am beginning to linger more in my glimpses. Perhaps I am simply allowing them to linger in me. This is a pattern of events I want to follow and enjoy.