We have a deeply ingrained tendency to compare ourselves with others or with an idealized standard that is bound to create suffering in the mind. The Buddha called this tendency mana "the conceit of I am." When we through see through our identification with experience we open to a freedom beyond the comparing mind.
Insight Meditation reintroduces us to our natural peace and well being and shows us the difference between the immediate experience of ourselves and the version of ourselves that plays in our minds. That story is one of hope and desire, reinforcing the feeling that happiness cannot be found right now but must wait for the right conditions to be achieved. This misplaced faith must be seen through.
