Though one live a hundred years without seeing arising and ceasing, better is a single day of life for one who sees arising and ceasing.

Apassaṃ udayabbayaṃ — without seeing arising and ceasing: udayabbaya is the pair arising-ceasing, the birth and death of all phenomena. Anicca (impermanence) at its most fundamental level: everything that arises ceases.

Passato udayabbayaṃ — for one who sees arising and ceasing: this direct vision (dassana) of impermanence is the heart of vipassanā practice (clear/penetrating seeing). Seeing arising and ceasing is not seeing that things change — it is seeing change itself in real time, moment by moment.

One day of this direct vision surpasses a century of life without it. This is the difference between ordinary existence and contemplative practice: not time elapsed but quality of attention brought.

The udayabbaya-ñāṇa (knowledge of arising and ceasing) is the tenth of the sixteen insights in the vipassanā tradition. Its development produces a profound change in one’s relationship to experience.