The literal meaning is "super-seeing," but is often translated as "insight" or "clear-seeing." Henepola Gunaratana defines vipassanā as "[l]ooking into something with clarity and precision, seeing each component as distinct and separate, and piercing all the way through so as to perceive the most fundamental reality of that thing." According to Mitchell Ginsberg, vipassana is "[i]nsight into how things are, not how we thought them to be."
