Lhaktong · insight
Insight or clear seeing: discerning the nature of experience, cultivated alongside calm abiding in Tibetan Buddhist traditions.
Seeing clearly
Lhaktong (Tibetan lhag mthong; Sanskrit vipaśyanā) concerns discerning how phenomena are. It is commonly discussed alongside shamatha, or calm abiding, and often in relation to emptiness. Precise definitions and methods differ among Buddhist traditions.
More than thinking about a teaching
Study Buddhism’s glossary distinguishes the developed state of insight from ordinary intellectual examination: a settled mind gains a special capacity for discerning its object. Jamyang Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö’s Opening the Door of Dharma explains calm abiding and insight within a Tibetan path of practice. Chegom can support insight, but the two terms are not interchangeable.