BRN August Academy with Ven. Dayananda

This talk investigates the true nature of existence through the Buddha’s teaching on the four inversions of perception, mind, and view, found in the Vipallasa Sutta. Rather than viewing our lives through personal narratives, we will examine how these inversions cause us to instinctively mistake the impermanent for permanent, and the non-self for a solid, unchanging “I.”

We will explore how these distortions manifest as a persistent sensation of incompleteness, the precise meaning of dukkha, which arises whenever existence is “not entirely to our way.” By recognizing that existence is a series of conditional arisings rather than a state governed by a fixed “master,” we begin to loosen the unquenchable thirst of the unawakened mind. The talk focuses on how untrapping ourselves from these views allows for a steady, balanced mind, no longer driven by the eight vicissitudes of worldly gain and loss.