Vipassana - Looking within...

In Vipassana, one simply sits in a comfortable position (lotus or half-lotus if possible, cross-legged if not), and one gives “bare attention” to whatever is arising, externally, and internally, without judging it, condemning it, following after it, avoiding it, or desiring it. One simply witnesses it, impartially, and then lets it go. The aim of this practice is to see that the separate ego is not a real and substantial entity, but just a series of fleeting and impermanent sensations like anything else. When one realizes just how “empty” the ego is, one ceases identifying with it, defending it, worrying about it, and this in turn releases one from the chronic suffering and unhappiness that comes from defending something that isn’t there. As Wei Wu Wei put it:

'Why are you unhappy?
Because 99.9% of everything you think,
And everything you do,
Is for yourself,
And there isn’t one.'

~ Ken Wilber, Grace and Grit