Deep Insight is more than just another meditation app, course or technique. It’s a complete system designed to upgrade the operating software of your mind for less stress, more joy and a deep understanding of who and what you are at the most fundamental level
Hi, I'm Jimmy...
...a meditation teacher based in the UK (although most of my classes are on Zoom these days). Around 5 years ago I started an Instagram account called That Meditation Guy and it’s allowed me to interact with thousands of people who are walking the path of meditation and self-discovery.
This has given me a unique insight into the struggles that stop people from gaining the truly transformational benefits that meditation has to offer.
Most people don’t make progress in meditation, not because they don’t have access to knowledge and resources (they do, YouTube is filled with instructions and guided meditation) but they lack clear direction and a proven systematic framework to follow.
Lots of people believe in meditation as the path to inner freedom and yet they never enjoy the fruits of practice because they lack direction, motivation, and the proper understanding of what the path is about and what the goal is. They usually don’t understand how to track progress, nor do they understand esoteric ideas like enlightenment and awakening. Ultimately, this means they’re not empowered to practice in a way that addresses their personal goals, needs and interests.
At this point you might think the idea of “progress” sounds a bit too rigid. After all, isn’t meditation about just BEING and letting go of the DOING? Doesn’t the idea of a goal suggest striving, working and suffering to gain something?
Well, yes and no. The truth is a bit more nuanced than I can convey in a few words here but it certainly is possible to make progress. It is possible to cultivate a deep practice that upgrades the operating software of your mind. And as that happens, the way you experience life, yourself and others will naturally change in a way that is beyond anything you can imagine.
Is Presence really a trainable skill?
Have you ever experienced a flow state? What some people call “being in the zone?” It tends to arise during an intense moment, such as playing sport, enjoying a hobby or making love. It can also be triggered by the demands of a high pressure situation or when you feel under threat in dangerous circumstances. It can happen spontaneously during a moment of spiritual insight where reality shifts beyond what is normally known. These moments are characterised by an extraordinary level of presence.
Most people have experienced something like this at least once. It’s a moment when effortless concentration combines with fluid action. Self-consciousness falls away and a deep sense of enjoyment and fulfilment bubbles up. Time passes quickly.
But here’s the big secret. This state is a trainable skill. It’s not something that only happens in random lucky moments. You can cultivate this mental state in order to experience a high level of effortless presence in all aspects of daily life. For example, while cooking, walking around a supermarket, driving or even chatting to a friend.
“In the beginning, meditation is something that happens within your day. Eventually, the day becomes something that happens within your meditation.”
- Shinzen Young
Meet Your Teacher - Jimmy Wightman
Before we go any further, I’d like introduce myself. I’m Jimmy and I discovered meditation many years ago while looking for a way to calm my mind and soothe my nervous system. Back then I was in a dark place, struggling with depression and insomnia. Luckily I discovered meditation and turned my life around. Although my meditation journey started out with practical goals in mind, like reducing stress and enhancing sleep, it soon burgeoned into a full blown passion.
Not only did I solve my mental health woes but I discovered bliss, joy and self-understanding far beyond anything I could've dreamed of in the early days. I'll be honest with you! I didn't invent the techniques I'll be teaching in this course. They were handed to me by my teacher, an 80 year old former monk called Shinzen. He’s a world renown meditation teacher who is known for writing a book called The Science of Enlightenment.
This is him.
These days he spends most of his time as a meditation research consultant and his brain is studied in an attempt to understand the enlightened state.
I was already a full time meditation teacher when I discovered Shinzen, however his teachings made such an impact on me that I went back into training to learn his secrets. What followed was beyond anything I could’ve expected. Shinzen combined traditional methods with a modern scientific approach. I applied his techniques and began to experience a level of inner freedom beyond anything I could have previously imagined. Nowadays, I spend my time passing those techniques and teachings to busy people who wish to upgrade their mind and life using proven methods (people like you).
The techniques I’m teaching have been rigorously tested by researchers at Harvard Medical School, Carnegie Mellon University, University of Vermont, and The University of Arizona.
Let’s look closely at how it works . . .
How to cultivate mindful awareness
At this point, you might be thinking: “How do I do this? I don’t have time for a long retreat and I can’t spend hours each day sitting in silence.”
Don’t worry, upgrading the operating software of your mind isn’t nearly as difficult as you might expect. You just need to work smart. But before we get into the “how” let’s look at what mindful awareness actually is. Mindful awareness arises when 3 core skills are present and working in unison. These are:
- Concentration
- Sensory clarity
- Equanimity
On the Deep Insight course you will learn how to cultivate these 3 skills during meditation in as little as 10 minutes per day. Let’s take a look at them one by one and examine how and why developing these skills delivers such a dramatic increase in happiness and a decrease in suffering.
Concentration – The fundamental skill
Concentration is paramount to every aspect of human experience. Every thought, task, physical movement and human interaction becomes easier, fuller and more enjoyable with improved focus. Just as a computer’s CPU power is its capacity to process information, your ability to focus is your capacity to experience life.
If you want to feel less overwhelmed, improving your ability to focus will help. Your productivity will go up, mistakes and stress levels will go down. In fact, with heightened focus skills, even ordinary tasks (like chores) become smooth, enjoyable and interesting.
Think of it this way; physical exercise improves the base level of strength and fitness you have available throughout the day. Moving a sofa or running for a bus is easier if you’re strong and fit. In the same way, meditation improves your base level of focus. That makes every activity (physical or mental) easier and more enjoyable
"Five decades ago, some very kind people in Japan slipped me the secret: you can dramatically extend life - not by multiplying the number of your years, but by expanding the fullness of your moments.”
- Shinzen Young
Sensory Clarity - Untangle and unblock the senses
Sensory clarity is the ability to notice details about your moment-to-moment experience with heightened acuity and precision. Improved sensory clarity leads to a clear and unblocked experience of sight, sound, touch, taste, and smell, as well as internal bodily sensations like emotions and physical feelings.
Sensory clarity helps you understand and manage your emotional state. For example, you can see anger arise in a situation before it has engulfed you, which stops reactivity before it takes hold. Understanding your emotions and physical sensations also gives you distance from them which lowers suffering.
Sensory clarity also leads to more fulfilment from positive experiences. Looking at a sunset with heightened sensory clarity reveals its beauty in new ways.
Meditation itself becomes endlessly fascinating when you explore the senses with curiosity and clarity.
Equanimity – Feel but don’t suffer
There are a lot of misconceptions about equanimity. It is not about feeling zero emotion. It is not being passive and weak. Equanimity is the ability to feel and care while not being pushed or pulled by inner forces. Think of it as inner balance. It keeps you calm and clear when emotional storms well up. It helps you separate objective problems from sensory challenges and that provides immediate relief from emotional suffering.
For example, imagine you’re stuck in traffic and late for a meeting (objective problem). The worst case scenarios flood your mind. You feel embarrassment, frustration, anxiety and stress (sensory challenges). But you can’t control how quickly the traffic moves. No amount of worry will improve your objective situation.
The skill of equanimity (cultivated through meditation) enables you to step back from difficult emotions like fear, anger and frustration. You calmly accept the reality of the situation. You feel emotions fully without becoming entangled in the stories the mind spins.
You feel but don’t suffer.
Equanimity enhances emotional resilience, allowing you to navigate challenges with grace and poise. It fosters healthier relationships by reducing reactivity and promoting empathetic understanding. Additionally, it enables greater mental clarity and decision-making, as you are less swayed by fluctuating emotions and external pressures.
The Gordian knot
Bringing mindful awareness into your life is a game-changer but what happens when you turn your highly attuned new skills inward in order to understand yourself at a deeper level?
To explain this, I like to use the analogy of the Gordian knot. According to legend, back in Ancient Greece, there was a giant knot tied up in a big ball with lots of different ropes. People said it was impossible to untie this knot. They also said that whoever could do it would become the ruler of Asia.
Alexander the Great came along and famously solved the problem by cutting the knot with his sword in one smooth but powerful action. He then went on to fulfil the prophecy and become a legendary ruler.
In this analogy, the Gordian knot is made up of your thoughts, feelings, emotions, beliefs and assumptions about yourself and the world. Mindful awareness is your tool, but instead of simply cutting through your tangled inner experience like a sword would, mindfulness awareness enables you to untangle and unblock the distorting influences that cause you to suffer.
As your mindfulness skills increase, self awareness grows. Innate happiness is free to shine through when thoughts, feelings and emotions are seen and felt clearly, before they get a chance to trigger unwanted storylines in the mind that perpetuate the cycle of suffering.
“If you meditate regularly, even when you don't feel like it, you will make great gains, for it will allow you to see how your thoughts impose limits on you.”
- Ram Dass
Two types of stress
As you go through life you will encounter difficult and stressful situations. There’s no way to avoid them. Stressful situations trigger heavy and unpleasant emotions. If these emotions aren’t fully felt and integrated they become trapped in the nervous system and the psyche. This is what is meant by ”carrying emotional baggage.”
Over time “emotional baggage” tends to weigh a person down. It distorts thoughts and can be damaging to physical health. According to The American Psychological Association (APA):
“Ongoing stress can accumulate, causing inflammation, wearing on the immune system, and overexposing the body to stress hormones like cortisol. As a result, people with chronic stress are at increased risk of a host of ailments including digestive issues, heart disease, weight gain, and stroke.”
Meditation and mindful awareness give you the inner resources to tackle stress in two ways.
Firstly, with mindful awareness you can handle stressful situations and the emotional reactions that are triggered in the moment. You can metabolise emotions rather than suppressing them. That means difficult and heavy feelings won’t get stuck in the mind-body system in the first place. You won’t take on the emotional baggage.
Secondly, deeper meditative states uproot old stress and trauma. Inside of us, deep down, we all have a well of poison and pain. This is the residue of painful experiences from the past that were never fully felt, released and integrated. This storehouse of pain goes right back to childhood. In meditation we allow these old pains to come to the surface to be purified. This is why many people experience old memories and unpleasant emotions during meditation. Nothing is wrong, it’s a side effect of emotional processing and purification. Even though this process can be uncomfortable at times it’s actually a good thing. It helps us let go of the past both physically and mentally. And as that happens we begin to feel lighter and more free.
Tranquility vs Insight
When most people think about meditation they tend to emphasise the relaxation aspect. In the West, meditation is often sold as an aid to calming down and chilling out. This is an important part of practice. Learning how to access tranquility and balance in mind and body is where you start but it’s important not to get stuck there.
Once inner calm and balance is achieved it’s time to look deeply within in order to understand yourself on a deeper level. This is known as gaining insight. The good news is that you don’t have to pick one option over another. You can learn to practice in a way that optimises for maximum tranquillity and maximum insight at the same time. On the Deep Insight course you’ll look at how to do this on the first session in order to ensure your path to inner freedom is clear from the outset.
What is Enlightenment and is it achievable?
“Enlightenment” is a vague term that has no universally accepted definition. It is used in many different ways by various spiritual teachers, traditions and groups. What constitutes enlightenment for one person might not be considered enlightenment for another, so it’s important to get this straight before we continue.
When I talk about enlightenment I’m not talking about becoming superhuman. I don’t think romanticised versions of enlightenment, where a person becomes extra special, are helpful. In fact, I find “enlightenment” to be a clumsy word.
However, I can tell you that with practice you can enter into a process that will (if you allow it) dramatically transform how you experience life. This process will enable you to permanently see through the misperceptions that distort the nature of self and world and hence eliminate a lot of your suffering at the root of experience.
Enlightenment is the umbrella term that covers the entire process but within that process there are many factors. For example, some people might experience a glimpse of their True Nature (the truth of consciousness that is normally hidden from ordinary perception) and this is known as Awakening or kensho. Others might have a more complete and profound shift in identity known as satori or stream entry. Things are never the same once you’ve passed this stage.
The important thing to know about enlightenment is that it isn’t a distant goal, reserved only for a chosen few. Anyone can taste this kind of freedom. OK, full enlightenment and becoming a Buddha probably isn’t likely but who cares? Even the smallest taste of enlightenment is more liberating than most people can imagine.
THE DEEP INSIGHT COURSE
It’s OK if you already have a practise, belong to a spiritual tradition, are an atheist or a complete beginner. In this approach you will develop skills that crossover into every aspect of life.
If your meditation practice is already hardcore (you do long retreats) this course will improve your understanding and experience of that.
Alternatively, if you’re new to meditation and simply want to be more present and more in control of your emotions, that’s fine too.
In this approach you’re not locked into an ideology. You’re learning skills to help you understand and mange your mind, body, relationships and life.Detailed outline of the course:
Week 1:
Understanding yourself as a sensory system
Week one sets the foundation for the rest of the course. You will get clarity on your personal goals and motivation before starting this journey.
You will learn the 3 skills that come together to create mindful awareness.
You will also learn how to use mindful awareness to turn any sensory experience (seeing, hearing or feeling) into an object of meditation.
By the end of this session you'll understand yourself in a completely new way.
Week 2:
Tranquillity, relax and recharge
In week two you will discover how to move your attention in a way that accentuates inner peace, tranquility and calm.
This is perfect for managing stress and anxiety.
Week 3:
Let the monastery come to you
During week three you will discover how to apply mindfulness and meditation in daily life in order to see immediate benefits and interrupt unconscious patterned behaviour.
You will also learn how to boost reward states such as joy, peace, calm happiness and bliss.
This is perfect if you struggle to make time for meditation because you will learn micro hits (short hits of meditation that can be applied in any situation with eyes open) and background practice (using mindfulness in the background while working, socialising or doing any task).
This is a great way to “work smart” for people who can’t take endless hours each day to sit quietly.
Week 4:
Going with the flow (of impermanence)
Working with flowing sensations in the body can be hugely enjoyable.
Vibration, warmth, bubbles, tingles and bliss are common when working with flow.
As well as being enjoyable, this has practical benefits. It can help you move beyond physical and emotional pain. It can lead to deep states of absorption (known as jhana).
Working with flow can also lead to deep insights about impermanence and the wonder that fils every precious moment of life.
Working with flow can also trigger the release of unprocessed emotions and traumas that get stuck in the psyche and nervous system. Releasing old trapped emotions in this way leaves you feeling lighter, happier and less weighed down by the difficult experiences that life tends to serve up.
Week 5:
It’s fun to be spontaneous
During week 5 you will get a taste of what happens in a Zen monastery. You will learn how to tune into the “just happening” quality of physical movement.
This is a fascinating and unique way to explore the nature of who and what you are “underneath” thoughts, feelings and emotions.
This is also a great way to bring expressive spontaneity in your life.
Week 6:
Feeling good and nurturing positivity
In week 6 you will discover 5 easy strategies to spark joy, happiness and positivity in your mind and body.
You will also learn how to nurture, control, expand and inflate this positive qualities.
This has been scientifically proven to enhance the way your brain functions, leading to increased positivity and happiness in your life.
Week 7:
Working with inner windows and walls
This week you will discover how to navigate obstacles and challenges (walls) and how to spot and make use of opportunities (windows) during your meditation practice.
This will take your practice to the next level. You will be able to bring together the elements from the previous weeks in order to become the author of your own experience. This week is also useful for working with stress, pain, anxiety and uncomfortable emotions.
Week 8:
Awakening
In the final week you will bring everything together. You will see how the previous weeks have sensitised you to different aspects of experience and now you can “choose your own adventure” when you meditate. However, you don’t have to stop there.
For centuries yogis, saints, sages, Buddhas and mystics have spoken of profound experiences that go beyond the rational thinking mind. In this final session you will learn what Awakening and Enlightenment really means. You will discover what makes these things more likely and how to bring that into your meditation practise.
On this session you will also get clear on your practice path for the future.
What does the course include?
Eight 90-minute live, interactive, group Zoom training sessions, which include instruction, guided meditation, questions, and discussion
- Limited class size to ensure a personalised experience
- Systematic training in five core meditation techniques, variations, and options, and the confidence to adapt these techniques to specific circumstances in your life
- A plan for establishing and maintaining your regular meditation practice
- Ways to meditate throughout the day using the micro hits and background practice techniques
- Weekly homework recommendations to help you maximise your meditation time
- Handouts and worksheets
- Access to the instructor after the course for follow up (drop-in group zoom every other Wednesday)
- Resources for additional exploration and training
- Discussion on the esoteric aspects of practice such as awaking and enlightenment for those interested
Where, When, How?
Dates: Starts Monday 9th September, ends 28th October.
Time: 7.30pm UK time (Sessions will be recorded in case you aren't available for every class)
Frequency: Every Monday for 8 weeks between those dates
Length of session: 90 minute
Classes take place on Zoom