The word vipassana means seeing the real thing. Vipassana is to see a very ordinary truth, getting acquainted with the “true colour”. In the classic buddhist teachings, the three marks or truths of existence are aniccā, impermanence; duḥkha, unsatisfactoriness; and anattā, non-self. When we analyze, there is no truly existing entity or a substance that can be pin-pointed. Even more challenging, there is no truly existing meditation or meditator. Awareness of aniccā and duḥkha, is designed to lead you to the anattā. Longing for progress with these three is absolutely important for a student, but a sense of victory is also the biggest challenge. That sense of achievement becomes an obstacle. As long as you have a reference, as long as you are bothered by distractions, you have not reached anattā because you still have something to lose. Meditation is an art of getting used to the truth.

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Photo by Fefo Bouvier