Vipassana is the direct experiential understanding of impermanence, non-self, and suffering arising through precise observation of mental and physical processes.
Vipassana (insight meditation) is the distinctively Buddhist approach to wisdom, involving direct perception of impermanence (anicca), non-self (anatta), and suffering (dukkha) in lived experience. Patanjali's prajna (discriminative wisdom) parallels this, though vipassana goes further by making impermanence the central object of investigation. Abhidharma supports vipassana by providing detailed analysis of how mental factors arise and pass away, giving practitioners precise objects for insight practice. Rather than abstract philosophical understanding, vipassana develops through moment-to-moment observation: watching sensations arise and dissolve, noticing how each mental state is conditional and impermanent, recognizing that no stable self can be found. In Buddhist psychology in depth, vipassana transforms intellectual knowledge into transformative knowing. The practitioner moves from believing impermanence intellectually to directly experiencing it, which fundamentally reorients the entire psychological structure away from grasping toward acceptance and surrender.
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