vipassana

Translated as insight, vipassana refers to the meditative understanding of the three marks of existence: impermanence, suffering, and nonself. Together with calm abiding (shamatha), it forms one of the two complementary dimensions of Buddhist meditative cultivation leading to enlightenment. Through late-19th- and early-20th-century Buddhist modernism, vipassana has been reformulated as a stand-alone meditation technique and widely disseminated in secular and lay settings, whereas traditionally, it was integrated with ethics, concentration, and monastic training.