Upsidedownness

“Upsidedownness” refers to the fundamental distortion through which unenlightened beings perceive reality. In Buddhist psychology, this is described as vipallāsa — inverted or perverted perception. We mistake what is impermanent for permanence, what is suffering for happiness, what is impersonal for self, and what is unattractive for beauty. These cognitive distortions form the very foundation of saṃsāric existence.

The mind clings to the familiar structures of identity and desire, interpreting the conditioned world as reliable, controllable, and ultimately fulfilling. Yet this very inversion sustains dissatisfaction. What we believe will bring lasting happiness fails us; what we fear often dissolves; and what we take as “I” reveals itself as nothing more than fleeting processes.

The practice of insight (vipassanā) aims to directly confront these upside-down views. Through systematic observation of experience, the practitioner witnesses the constant flux of all phenomena, the unreliability of conditioned pleasures, and the complete absence of an enduring self. As perception corrects itself, the inverted lens through which reality is habitually seen is gradually dismantled.

Recognising this upsidedownness is not an abstract philosophical exercise but the beginning of wisdom. It is the humbling acknowledgment that most of what we assume to be true is shaped by ignorance and craving. True seeing does not add new beliefs but removes distortions, allowing reality to reveal itself in its simple, ungraspable suchness.

“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.”
— Marcel Proust