Yeah, I do sometimes make an inside/outside distinction as a metaphor for talking about the subject/object distinction because things that are object can in a certain sense be said to be outside the self and thus available for manipulation and considering by the self and those things that are subject as inside and cannot as easily be manipulated and seen, just as it’s easier for me to see and manipulate the cup on my desk than to see and manipulate the stomach inside my body. Most progress with insight meditation consists of gradually (or suddenly!) moving what was subject/inside to object/outside, and a way to do that is by engaging with it in this way through a deliberative introspective process as part of meditation.
Do you mean here that as you progress, you will introspect on the nature of your previous introspections, rather than more ‘object-level’ thoughts and feelings?
Yes, and also more broadly that what was once skillful inspection of, say, observable behavior, can later become unskillful excess attention on behavior when you should now be paying more attention to the precursors of behavior because those are more readily accessible to you.
Yeah, I do sometimes make an inside/outside distinction as a metaphor for talking about the subject/object distinction because things that are object can in a certain sense be said to be outside the self and thus available for manipulation and considering by the self and those things that are subject as inside and cannot as easily be manipulated and seen, just as it’s easier for me to see and manipulate the cup on my desk than to see and manipulate the stomach inside my body. Most progress with insight meditation consists of gradually (or suddenly!) moving what was subject/inside to object/outside, and a way to do that is by engaging with it in this way through a deliberative introspective process as part of meditation.
Yes, and also more broadly that what was once skillful inspection of, say, observable behavior, can later become unskillful excess attention on behavior when you should now be paying more attention to the precursors of behavior because those are more readily accessible to you.