Is vipassana really Buddhist? The truth about the world's most popular meditation
(Buddha's Wisdom) š IS VIPASSANA REALLY BUDDHIST? THE HIDDEN STORY BEHIND THE WORLD'S MOST PRACTICED KIND OF INSIGHT MEDITATION
Millions of people have practiced Buddhist vipassana meditation, but very few know what the word vipassanÄ originally meant, or how the modern movement transformed one of Buddhism's oldest insights into a global meditation phenomenon.
What is insight (vipassana) meditation actually for? This word doesn't mean "meditation" at all. And the practice millions know from Goenka's free 10-day silent retreats was born not in the Buddha's proto-India, but in [George Orwell's] colonial Burma, the day an empire stopped protecting the Theravada Dhamma.
This is the true story of insight meditation: what vipassanÄ really means, how it nearly vanished, and how a monk, a farmer, an accountant, and a businessman carried it to the modern world.
šæ DISCOVER:
The original meaning of vipassanÄ and why it never simply meant "meditation"
How the fall of the Burmese kingdom sparked the modern Vipassana Movement
Why meditation was rare even among Buddhist monastics for nearly 1,000 years
Why many Buddhist teachers say today's vipassana is both ancient and surprisingly modern
The unlikely relay that saved insight practice: from Buddhist monk Ledi Sayadaw to a rice farmer to S.N. Goenka's flight home in 1969
What today's vipassana retreats, the mindfulness movement, and scientific research gained... and what may have been left behind.
š If this changed what viewers thought meditation was, subscribe. The next episode uncovers the other half the world forgot: the deep stillness of jhana ("meditative absorption" as samma-samadhior "right stillness," "coherent unification of mind") the Buddha paired with insight.
Prana-yama(Sanskrit ą¤Ŗ्ą¤°ाą¤£ाą¤Æाą¤®, prÄį¹ÄyÄma) is the yogic practice of controlling, retaining, balancing, and working the breath in yoga. It is described in Hindu texts such as the Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita. In the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, it is described as one of the eight limbs of yoga ("union" with spirit, breath, the universe's energy). In classical yoga, what we call "the breath" is actually the life energy called prana(chi, qi, holy spirit, wind, pneuma, esoteric energy, Vayu-Vata).
In later Hatha Yoga texts, it means the complete suspension of breathing [which is something that happens in Buddhism's meditative absorptions (jhanas) four through eight]. Prana-yama practices in modern yoga done just as exercise, such as in Ashtanga (Vinyasa) Yoga, differ radically from those of the Hatha Yoga tradition, often using the breath in synchrony with movements. Pranayama
At just three years old, she was called “the most beautiful girl in the world.” Here’s what she looks like now at 17.
At just 10-years-old, she was given the title “the most beautiful girl in the world.” Many years later, many believe that description still fits her.
While many young girls dream of entering beauty competitions and taking home crowns, she gained worldwide attention without competing in any beauty pageants.
Her captivating look drew modeling agencies to her from an early age. With piercing blue eyes, long hair, a confident gaze, and full lips, she was labeled “the most beautiful girl in the world” before she even turned 10.
In 2010, she appeared in a controversial spread for Vogue that sparked debate about makeup use and the early sexualization of young girls.
It's all about their beauty and our money, right?
She also appeared on the covers of Teen Vogue and Jalouse [which emphasized her math skills, test scores, nerdy habits, and thoughtful opinions on contemporary societal issues...uh, no, they just cared about her looks, too].
Dear Venerables: š (*anjali mudra*). Thank you in advance š for your time and guidance. š In the sutras (Pali canon discourses), it is said that karma (our store of deeds) affects how we are reborn, that is to say, beautiful/ugly, wise/dull, wealthy/poor.
I have developed confidence in the Buddha’s Teaching from my own personal observations. Now, as far as my practice has taken me, from the observation of my own mind/heart, I’ve seen how this could be: EMOTIONS affect my physical appearance, particularly my facial features.
Bright feelings brighten the complexion.
I’ve observed just how the heart/mind feels when it is feeding on joy (piti) derived from kindness, compassion, and generosity. That to me is what the Buddha meant by wealth and beauty: The mind being bright, our next rebirth, our new physical form and character will tend to be pleasing.
Emotions project outward through our facial, speech, and bodily expressions so that everyone experiences them.
The real danger I find is the mind getting overcome by negative emotions. Negative emotions can become deeply ingrained when one hasn’t developed enough mindful awareness of them.
Don't tell me to "smile," Russell!!!
For example, I have a friend whose life outlook isn’t that great; negativity is so ingrained in her mind that she doesn’t notice it at all anymore. I’ve tried my best to uplift her world view but with no luck at all.
Now to me, this is what the Buddha meant by ugliness and being poor, the mind clouded, on the next birth, the new physical form and characteristics tends to be just mediocre and at worst unpleasant (not pleasing).
Don't tell me what to do, Russell. Do you, Boo.
Would it be right view, right understanding, to say that the mind, with its accumulated characteristics from previous deeds (karma), is the forming and conditioning force behind the physical body at rebirth?
This brings to memory a sutra in which the Buddha refers to the physical body as past karma. Have I approached this teaching and contemplated it correctly?
Dear Russell: That’s an interesting point you are making, and there may well be much truth to it. Our mind is certainly powerful, and its influence is enormous. However, I think there is a tendency for people to think of the results of karma [vipaka, phala, karmic results and fruits] too much in physical terms, such as one’s physical appearance or one’s wealth.
But the really important issue is one’s mental life, and it is this that karma is really all about. We do good things and we feel good. The result is a rebirth where we feel good. Part of this can be physical factors, since there is obviously some degree of happiness to be derived from good material circumstances.
But we all know of cases of people who are wealthy have miserable lives, including depression and all sorts of personal problems. If we are truly depressed, how much use is our wealth to us? With metta. Source
The Three Marks or Characteristics of All Existence: anicca (all things are radically impermanent); dukkha (all things are unsatisfactory, incapable of fulfilling us); anatta (all things are impersonal in an ultimate sense).
What is (Pali) papaƱca or (Sanskrit) prapaƱca? In Buddhist doctrinal usage, [puh-pon-chuh] signifies the proliferation, expansion, differentiation, "diffuseness," and "manifoldness" of the world. It may refer to the "phenomenal world" in general or to the mental attitude of "worldliness."
In A. IV, 173, it is said: "As far as the field of sixfold sense-impression extends, so far reaches the world of diffuseness (the phenomenal world, papaƱcassa gati). As far as the world of diffuseness extends, so far extends the field of sixfold sense-impression. Through the complete fading away and cessation of the field of sixfold sense-impression, there comes about the cessation and the coming-to-rest of the world of diffuseness (papaƱca-nirodho papaƱca-vupasamo)."
The opposite term nippapaƱca is another name for nirvana (Pali nibbÄna) (S. LIII) in the sense of "freedom from samsaric diffuseness."
Dhammapada 254: "Humankind delights in the diffuseness of the world, whereas the Perfect Ones are free from such diffuseness" (papaƱcÄbhiratÄ pajÄ, nippapaƱca tathÄgatÄ).
The eighth of the "thoughts of a great person" (mahÄ-purisa-vitakka, A. VIII, 30) is: "This Dhamma [Teaching, Truth, Doctrine] is for one who delights in non-diffuseness (nirvana, the unworldly); it is not for one who delights in worldliness (papaƱca)."
For the psychological sense of "differentiation," see MN 18 (Madhupindika Sutta): "Whatever a person conceives (vitakketi) that one differentiates (papaƱceti). And what one differentiates, by reason thereof ideas and considerations of differentiation (papaƱca-saƱƱÄ-sankhÄ) arise in one."
On this text and the term papaƱca, see Dr. Kurt Schmidt in German Buddhist Writers (BPS.lk, Wheel 74/75) p. 61ff. See DN 21 (Sakka's Quest, Wheel 10).
In the Commentaries, one often finds a threefold classification (tanhÄ-, ditthi-, mÄna-papaƱca), which probably means the world's diffuseness created hy craving, wrong views, and conceit. See MN 123; A. IV, 173; A. VI, 14, Sn. 530, 874, 916.
Ven. ĆÄnananda Bhikkhu, in Concept and Reality: An Essay on PapaƱca and PapaƱca-saƱƱÄ-sankhÄ (Kandy 1971, Buddhist Publication Society), suggests that the term refers to the human "tendency towards proliferation in the realm of concepts" and proposes translating the term as "conceptual proliferation," which appears convincing in a psychological context, for example, in two of the texts quoted above (A. IV, 173 and MN 18).
The threefold classification of papaƱca, by way of craving, wrong views, and conceit is explained by the author as three aspects, or instances, of the foremost of deluded conceptualizations, namely, the ego-concept, the belief in a permanent, unchanging "self" or "soul." See anatta.
Buddhist Podcast (video); Ven. Nyanaponika (Buddhist Dictionary) edited by Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly
How do I know if I'm becoming a better meditator? Signs of progress with Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche
(Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche) Premiered Aug. 20, 2024: Although meditation instructions are often simple and easy to understand, knowing whether we are practicing correctly can be difficult. [There's nothing easy about applying the easy instructions, nothing simple about actually doing the practice that sounded to terribly simple that there should have been nothing to it.] How do we know if it is being effective and helping us progress along the path of awakening (enlightenment)? In this monthly teaching, Mingyur Rinpoche gives helpful advice to assess how our "calm abiding practice" (samatha) or "insight meditation practice" (vipassana) is progressing.
š Joy of Living Meditation Program: Learn meditation under the skillful guidance of Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche at own pace.
https://joy.tergar.org/
š Vajrayana Online: Study and practice of the Tibetan Buddhism with Mingyur Rinpoche.
https://learning.tergar.org/
šOnline events, retreats with Mingyur Rinpoche https://events.tergar.org/
š About Tergar Path: https://tergar.org/programs/
When Everything Falls Apart – Seeing clearly through Buddhist wisdom on suffering
Drone filming off the pier
(Buddhism Podcast)
Sept. 23, 2025: Buddhism Explained.
What do we do when everything falls apart? This Buddhist podcast explores suffering (unsatisfactoriness, not being able to derive fulfillment from anything), radical impermanence, and healing through simple, clear insights from the Buddha's teachings. No fluff, no escape — just honest reflection, grounded wisdom, and gentle English for all listeners.
00:00 - When life breaks in our hands
03:25 - The First Truth: Suffering that arises from within
06:50 - Impermanence: the nature of everything
10:03 - Clear Seeing: a mind that no longer clings
The historical Buddha's goal was clearly seeing nirvana in this very life. Theravada follows this.
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Buddhism goes beyond mind to mysticism.
VipassanÄ (Sanskrit vipaÅyanÄ ą¤µिą¤Ŗą¤¶्ą¤Æą¤Øा, Sinhalese ą·ිą¶Æą¶»්ą·ą¶±ා) literally means "special, super (vi-), seeing (-passanÄ)" [3] and is generally referred to as "insight."
Samatha means "calm" [1], "serenity" [2], "tranquility of awareness" [Web 1]. They are two qualities of mind cultivated in tandem in Buddhist practice, with profound calm coupled with mindfulness (dispassionate awareness) serving as the basis for insight knowledges.
In the PÄli language canon and the Ägama, these qualities are not specific practices but elements of "a single path." They are "fulfilled" with the development (bhÄvanÄ, "cultivation") of mindfulness (sati) and meditation (jhÄnas, lit. the meditative "absorptions") and other path-factors [4][5].
While absorption (jhÄna) has a central role in the Buddhist path, vipassanÄ is rarely mentioned separately. It is usually described along with samatha [4][5] because they are steps towards one goal: liberating wisdom (panna, Sanskrit prajna). More: samatha-vipassanÄ
Why we try to control everything – and why it never works – The Buddha's answer
(Buddhism Podcast) April 9, 2025: Buddhism Explained.
This podcast explores a quiet habit that many of us carry — the habit of trying to CONTROL everything in life.
Through simple language and gentle reflection, we look at why the mind/heart holds on, how this creates tension and stress, and what begins to change when we stop forcing things.
With stories from the Buddha’s life and clear examples, this talk offers a calm and thoughtful way to understand clinging, change, and the freedom that comes from letting go.
Imagined debate between ordinary person and one who sees what the Buddha meant by "no-self"
Imagine a Mini Me driving this body to act.
Okay, if the Buddha himself said "there is no self," he himself must be cr*zy! How could there be no self? Anyone (any self) who thinks there's no self ought to have his (or her) head examined. The SOUL (Pali atta, Sanskritatman, Spanish alma) is right here, in the chest, standing next to the heart with his arms crossed, a little homunculus who sometimes takes the backstairs of the spinal column into the cranium and looks out through the eyes of the head while manipulating levers and switches, which is how we live.
Driver's seat, where he steers the body
Who's inside of that guy?
Beg your pardon?
Who is driving the homunculus?
Well, um, there's an even smaller "mini me" homunculus driving that one.
And that one?
And that one what?
Who or what is driving that one?
And so on, ad infinitum! There's always a smaller one until we get down to the level of the cell, which has a mitochondria seat where the mini-mini-mini me homunculus sits to drive the cell.
And what's smaller than a cell?
An atom, of course.
Each with its own homunculus, I suppose.
Now you're catching on!
I'll knock the homunculus out of you, mofo
Well, it sure feels that way, that a homunculus is driving the human body, but have you ever known a guy to get punched in the head so hard, like a Pantera album cover (Vulgar Display of Power), that his homunculus gets knocked out of his seat and flies out of his ear and now doesn't have a big homme (Hummer) to drive?
Well, no, of course not. He would die.
And his body would disappear?
No, of course, not. Why would it disappear?
Because we don't find homunculi during autopsies.
Well, that's because they disappear, yes, disappear right out of existence once the car is undrivable, dead as it were, stuck with the levers and switches not working...
In a coma or vegatative state?
Vegatative state, yes, no longer functional and then, vamoose, homunculus goes to Heaven or the great beyond where all the homunculi gather and have parties by drinking and singing and dancing in circles until they're reborn into another body.
No hell?
Well, of course there's a hell, but, I mean, the homunculus has had to have gotten up to some pretty high hijinks to go there. Class dismissed!
Just one more question: You KNOW this to be true?
Just one more answer: I FEEL this to be true...
But that...
No more questions! Class dismissed! Get out, get out!
The Buddha never said, "There is no self"?
O, poor little homunculus self
It seems to us the Buddha did say such a thing, not to everyone. Nearly no one can understand this liberating truth. Even fewer can accept it. The entire practice is to bring about insight (clear seeing) so that we can see what is and is not true in order that the Truth set us free.
Liberation from all suffering takes insight, and long before insight arises, one needs calm, stillness, silence, serenity, samadhi (superconsciousness deriving from mental purification by "concentration" in the form of meditative absorptions called jhanas (dhyanas, zens, chans) -- overcoming the Five Hindrances and attaining equipoise, composure, equanimity, balance, brightened faculties now that everything has become coherent and gone online without hindrance and obstruction, a temporary state that serves as the foundation for the arising of insight (vipassana).
Insight cuts off the mental defilements at their roots and results in awakening, the experience of enlightenment (bodhi), which results in ultimate liberation known as a glimpse of nirvana (complete peace or ultimate bliss, the highest happiness), a thing so different it cannot rightly be called a "thing" at all because it is unlike all we have ever known in this world of things called samsara (the Cycle, the Wheel of Life and Death) or this simulation we have been endlessly cycling through due to karma (deeds) and delusion, i.e., ignorance of Dependent Origination).
Does the Buddha say there's a self? Yes but only because he is speaking conventionally. How does he define this "self"? He does so by the Five Aggregates clung to as "self." This is when he is speaking in conventional terms. However, when he is speaking in ULTIMATE terms (in terms of what is ultimately true), he points at what insight will reveal to anyone who develops it: There is, ultimately speaking, no self.
(The question "Is there a self?" is wrong because it is full of assumptions. We assume we have a self -- that is to say and speaking more correctly, the impersonal aggregates cling to the misunderstanding that a self is present -- even from the standpoint of asking the question. Form forms (the body bodies), feelings feel, perception perceives, mental formations will and intend, consciousness is conscious so that it seems as if Self is the Asker, the Thinker, the Doer, the Worrier, the Watcher (the Atman or Immortal Soul), the One who practices and will or will not be enlightened/awakened).
There is an "Immortal Soul" in a way. That is to say, there is something mistaken for a soul, ego, essence, heart, personality, individuality, a "self," who persists through time unchanged as its perfect self, the Doer, the Knower, the Experiencer, but it is not what it seems. This is what the Buddha is pointing out. We are certainly more than we know, but all those things we cling to will ultimate frustrate, disappoint, and prove mistaken. Even if we (or these aggregates) cling to the exalted notion, "I am the ALL," "I am Brahman," or "I am that I am," Tattva, Tat Tvam Asi, all of these exalted Vedic, Brahmanical, Hindu, and later Judeo-Christian ideas,
There is a better way to ask and find an answer: "What is there?" There is Dependent Origination (the 12-link chain of causality, its elements each giving rise to the other in a causal chain), which is how all "things" come to be, how "self," that is, the illusion/delusion of self, arises and originates and seems to exist.
Some wrongly say, "There is no separate self." This is true, but some are wrong because they misunderstand "separate," imagining as Hinduism does, that there is unity (of Atman and Brahman), Union with Brahma or Brahman, a raindrop returning to the sea, plunging into its home again after a roundabout journey, now merged and losing itself into the ALL, the Whole, the Ultimate Reality)
The Five Aggregates clung to as self
IN BRIEF: All of reality, in this dimension and universe or any other, is marked by three universal characteristics: All "things" are (1) impermanent, (2) unsatisfactory, and (3) impersonal. These are the Three Marks of Existence. Nirvana is the only non-thing (non-composite), for it is not dependently originated, whereas everything else is. Therefore, the Path to Freedom the Buddha taught leads to nirvana, complete freedom.
Thus have I heard. On one occasion the Blessed One (the Buddha) was living at Benares (Varanasi), in the Deer Park at Isipatana (the Resort of Seers). There he addressed the wandering ascetics known as the group of five:
"Meditators, form [this body] is not-self. Were form self, then this form would not lead to affliction, and one could will: 'Let my form be thus, and let my form be not thus' [Let my form (body) be this way and not that way]. Since form is not-self, it leads to affliction (pain, distress, disappointment), and no one can will: 'Let my form be thus, and let my form be not thus.'
[The body (form), though treated as one thing as if it were singular, is actually four things -- the Four Great Elements or four characteristics of materiality. They are condensed for simplicity into one because they are regarded as less worthy of note than the mind, which is treated in detail as the remaining four aggregates. "Mind" is not one thing but about 50 distinct processes -- feeling, perceiving, determining, and consciousness, all of which are mental formations; the remainder of the 50 are packed into the category of "mental formations" (sankhÄra), of which the most important in the category is determination (cetana = intention, volition, impulse, will, motive). The Buddha considered these five the most important to single out for the sake of liberation by wisdom, that is, to gain insight (vipassana = clear seeing) that all we are, all "self" is, are heaps of these impersonal processes, not an actual "self" (soul, atta, atman, essence) that goes on unchanged and immutable through time and experience as philosophers and other religions hold the view. All that we are, all that we cling to as ourselves, is radically impermanent, ultimately disappointing (never able to fulfill us), and most unbelievably impersonal or not-self.]
"Meditators, feeling is not-self...
"Meditators, perception is not-self...
"Meditators, mental formations (determinations) are not-self...
"Meditators, consciousness is not-self. Were consciousness self, then this consciousness would not lead to affliction, and one could will: 'Let my consciousness be thus, and let my consciousness be not thus.' Since consciousness is not-self, it leads to affliction, and no one can will: 'Let my consciousness be thus, and let my consciousness be not thus.'
"Meditators, how do you conceive of it: Is form permanent or impermanent?"
"Impermanent, venerable sir."
"Is what is impermanent painful or pleasant?"
"It is painful, venerable sir."
"Is what is impermanent and painful (since it is subject to change) fit to be regarded this way: 'This is mine, this is me, this is my self'"?
"No, venerable sir."
Did the Buddha teach that there's no self?
"Is feeling permanent or impermanent?...
"Is perception permanent or impermanent?...
"Are mental formations (determinations) permanent or impermanent?...
"Is consciousness permanent or impermanent?"
"It is impermanent, venerable sir."
"Is what is impermanent pleasant or painful?"
"It is painful, venerable sir."
"Is what is impermanent and painful (since it is subject to change) fit to be regarded this way: 'This is mine, this is I, this is my self'"? — "No, venerable sir."
"So, bhikkhus any kind of form whatever, whether past, future or presently arisen, whether gross or subtle, whether in oneself or external, whether inferior or superior, whether far or near, must with right understanding how it is, be regarded this way: 'This is not mine, this is not I, this is not myself.'
"Any kind of feeling whatever...
"Any kind of perception whatever...
"Any kind of determination whatever...
The Middle Path leads to complete freedom
"Any kind of consciousness whatever, whether past, future or presently arisen, whether gross or subtle, whether in oneself or external, whether inferior or superior, whether far or near must, with right understanding how it is, be regarded this way: 'This is not mine, this is not I, this is not my self.'
"Meditators, when a noble [enlightened] follower who has heard (the Truth) sees thus, that person finds estrangement in form, finds estrangement in feeling, finds estrangement in perception, finds estrangement in determinations, finds estrangement in consciousness.
"When one finds estrangement, passion fades away. With the fading of passion, one is liberated. When liberated, knowledge arises that one is liberated. One [intuits] understands: 'Rebirth is exhausted, the supreme life has been lived out, what can be done is done, of this there is no more beyond [to come].'"
That is what the Blessed One said. The meditators were glad, and they approved of his words.
During this utterance, the hearts of the meditators of the group of five were liberated from the taints by letting go and renouncing clinging. Source
Buddha Face - Etsy; Bhikkhu Jayasara, Student of the Path, Dhamma Short (anatta); Dr. Doug Smith (Doug's Dharma); Ven. Ćanamoli (trans), Anatta-Lakkhana Sutta (SN 22.59); Dhr. Seven and Ananda (Dharma Buddhist Meditation), Wisdom Quarterly
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