Can I Really Gain Insights By Pausing Thoughts?

[With English interpretation] Ven. Pomnyun Sunim's (법륜스님) Answer to “Can I really gain insights by pausing thoughts?”
A question chosen from the weekly Sunday meditation with Ven. Pomnyun Sunim(법륜스님).

Peace of mind is only one step away.

Transcript

The Sunim has said that by pausing thoughts during meditation,

We can gain insights about our lives.

Is this a contradiction?

Don't we gain insights through our thoughts,

Not by pausing our thoughts?

Your thoughts arise based on what you have experienced.

It's very difficult to step outside of your envelope of bias based on your thoughts alone.

It's easy for you to be biased and have certain ingrained prejudices in your thoughts.

Because you're looking at the world through the rose-colored lenses of your own making,

It's difficult to see the world as it is.

So when I say pause your thoughts,

I mean you're stepping out of your envelope of comfort.

You're no longer drowning in midst of all these streams of thoughts and information.

This is what Buddha said once.

The truth cannot be validated by traditions or sutras or words or sayings from the past.

We always judge something as right or wrong based on kind of a traditional framework of values that we have inherited.

And that makes it difficult for us to understand and empathize with others with a different set of cultures,

Values,

Traditions or frameworks.

And in this case,

It's very difficult to gain the totality of an insight.

So therefore you need to kind of let go of all your biases and re-examine the situation or the event from the point of view of what is it really.

That's why meditation that helps you practice letting go of your thoughts does help in you gaining that level of insight.