Vipassana is a technique of Buddhist meditation practiced for 2,500 years in East Asia and brought to the West in the last century. Vipassana means "correct seeing" or "seeing within [the nature of things]." The essence of the Buddha's teaching (the Dharma) is that there is a deep dissatisfaction with our existence, and that there is a way to freedom. This way, which includes the practice of Vipassana mediation, allows us to be free of patterns of thought and behavior that imprison us in a vicious cycle of response and its painful results.