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.
(Perfect Teacher) Vipassana (Buddhist "insight meditation") is not what you think, explains Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche.
Who is this teacher?
What makes you not a Buddhist?
Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse Rinpoche (Tibetan ą½¢ྫོą½་ą½ą½¦ą½¢་ą½ ą½ą½་ą½ą½ྱą½ą½¦་ą½ą½ྱེą½་ą½ą½¢ྩེ་ą½¢ིą½་ą½ོ་ą½ེ།, born June 18, 1961) [1] is also known as Khyentse Norbu. He is a Tibetan Vajrayana lama, filmmaker, and writer who was born in Bhutan, high in the Himalayas.
His five major films are The Cup(1999), Travellers and Magicians (2003), Vara: A Blessing (2013), Hema Hema: Sing Me a Song While I Wait (2017), and Looking for a Lady with Fangs and a Moustache (2019).
He is the author of several published books such as What Makes You Not a Buddhist (2007), Not For Happiness: A Guide to the So-Called Preliminary Practices (2012), The Guru Drinks Bourbon? (2016), Living is Dying (2020), and several non-fiction works on Tibetan Buddhism for free distribution such as
Introduction to the Middle Way: Chandrakirti’s Madhyamaka with Commentary (2003) [2] and
Buddha Nature: Mahayana-Uttaratantra-Shastra with Commentary (2007) [3].
He has also written an autobiography in process entitled Mugwort Born. Many of his teachings are available on the Siddhartha's Intent YouTube channel [4].
He is the eldest son of Thinley Norbu and therefore the grandson of Dudjom Jigdral Yeshe Dorje.
May 4, 2026: Hello, friends! Springtime is in full bloom here in Austin, Texas, as we find ourselves halfway through our third Buddhist meditation retreat.
It is an incredible pleasure to spend the month with an American group this strong — a testament to the dedication we have all put in over the past years, both in meditation and in service to the Sangha, the spiritual community.
For those who are keen to join a retreat with me before the end of the year (and before I take a year off), the last opportunity will be a short retreat that I will be leading in Uruguay in October 2026.
Registration is open through May, and places will be distributed on a lottery basis with half of the places reserved for students from Uruguay.
REGISTER.
For those patiently waiting for appointments with our wonderful team of teaching assistants, four out of five of them remain on retreat with me for the next two weeks. Please be patient as they enjoy some precious time to deepen their own practice. They will be back online towards the end of the month.
Good news! Eva will be back leading online Dhamma Circles with me through the first two weeks of May and the whole of June, 2026. We look forward to seeing everyone there to deepen our skills in this powerful work.
Book Dhamma Circles along with all of my online groups here.
I will be spending the second half of May mostly offline as I travel from this beautiful mini-Burma here in Austin to Spain, London, and then to Hungary for the start of our June retreat. So be sure to get all of the instruction you need from me in the first half of the month.
Where will wildflowers wander?
Last month, you may remember, I did a session with the team at Sangha Live. The session was on deepening our relationships in practice. It was a joy to meet the group. If unable to join the session at the time, a recording is now available.
WATCH.
On Thursday May 14th I will be hosting the next Ask Me Anythinggroup call. This call is open to everyone. It is a chance to ask all the questions you’ve always wanted to ask. Come along in the spirit of the Dhamma. Ask me anything, and I will answer almost anything. Book a place on the callHERE.
Sacred stupa (reliquary mound) in Burma
Our next Service Team Call will be on Wednesday, May 20th, 2026 — a chance for our Service Team to catch up and regroup after this season of service at Sitagu to learn and grow more deeply in our service to the Dhamma [the historical Buddha's Doctrine as preserved in the Pali canon]. If interested in joining the Service Team, find out more HERE.
On Sunday, May 31st, 2026, Beth Upton will be hosting our next Full Moon Gathering. This month’s topic will be on the much requested subject of food — something we all need to deal with every day. Come share struggles and wisdom as we support one another through this tasty topic. Book a spot at the gatheringHERE.
As always, our Sangha Support groups are open to everyone and are here to keep everyone resourced and motivated in the Dhamma.
Join Josipa, Ricardo, Iva, Jonathan, Laura, Ayya Ahimsa, Joe, and Isabelle for online group sittings, Dhamma study, accountability, and parts work. If interested in leading a Sangha Support group, APPLY HERE.
E. V. Rogina on setting fire to her work
Last but not least, my one-on-one availability has now been updated through May 2026. These appointments are made available ONLY through the newsletter and tend to book up very quickly, so if interested, get on it without delay.
Because my one-on-one time is very limited, out of consideration for the community as a whole, please use this time only for things that cannot be easily addressed in a group setting.
Book an appointment.
All of my work is given on a donation (dana) basis, which means that all of this is only possible because of generous voluntary support.
Support this work.
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ABOUT: Sharon Salzberg is a pioneer in the field of Buddhist meditation, a world-renowned teacher, and New York Times bestselling author. She has played a pivotal role in bringing Buddhist insight meditation (vipassana) and mindfulness (sati) into mainstream American culture since 1974. She is cofounder of The Insight Meditation Society in Barre, MA, and has authored 10 books, including the New York Times bestseller Real Happiness. Acclaimed for her down-to-earth and relatable teaching style, she offers a secular, modern approach to Buddhist teachings, making them instantly accessible. Her writing can be found on Medium, On Being, the Maria Shriver blog, and Huffington Post. She is also the host of her own podcast The Metta Hour, with 100+ episodes, featuring interviews with the top leaders and voices in the meditation and mindfulness movement. Learn more at sharonsalzberg.com.
Interestingly, there is a Path to Nirvana. It can be drawn as a flowchart. It often is at Pa Auk Forest Monastery where we trained. The only problem is that this schematic irks some people, Wisdom Quarterly included, for the massive jump at the beginning.
But it works for others who do not find those initial steps to be stumbling blocks at all due to the natural ability to sit, settle, and reach samadhi. Variations of the chart run something like:
Meditations (Pa Auk Sayadaw)
(Bring store of paramis), sit, take up Breath Meditation (anapana-sati) OR Four Elements Meditation until nimitta (learning sign) appears, take it to attainment of jhana (first meditative absorption with the appearance of the Five Factors of Absorption that displace the Five Hindrances), perfect it;
Move through second, third, and fourth jhanas, hold fourth for a minimum of three-hour sits, pursue fifth through eighth jhanas OR go straight to the Four Foundations of Mindfulness to practice insight (vipassana), discern cittas (mind-moments) and kalapas (particles), which together are called "ultimate mentality and materiality," practiceDependent Origination, reach insight;
See anicca-dukkha-anatta (the Three Universal Marks of Existence, the impermanent, unsatisfactory, and impersonal nature of ALL conditioned existence) and let go so that the Eye of Wisdom (stream entry, the first stage of enlightenment that glimpses/touches Nirvana, which is the Deathless State, the Unconditioned Element, Ultimate Bliss, the summum bonum, the cessation of all suffering...) arises;
Pursue further by eliminating the samyojanas (fetters), kilesas (defilements), and asavas (taints/cankers) until breaking through the various kinds of stream entry (explained in the Path to Freedom) to once-returning (sakadagami), non-returning (anagami), and ordain to become an arahant (fully enlightened being) and live a good, long life, frequently seeing, touching, experiencing Nirvana until, with the passing of this body comes the end of all further suffering and rebirth (pari-nirvana).
Scholar-practitioner Master Pa Auk Sayadaw
Notice a big, possibly insurmountable, bump in the chart? How does one get to the first jhana? Persistence, slow and steady practice, contentment (santuthi) more than a sense of urgency (samvega), which can lead to too much "efforting," or muscling, when it's better to use saddha (faith, confidence, conviction) to rest the mind/heart and carry on even when it seems hopeless or pointless, too hard or too lofty, doubtful or impossible. It is possible!
This path, strangely, in this day and age, will be a little easier for women. Why should that be? It is because the way we have been conditioned. What arises in "meditation" (the nimitta,jhanas, absorptions, states of piti/bliss) are allowed not strived for, accepted not grasped at, experienced not done. And this receptivity to experience, rather than the "go getter" attitude we disproportionately train males to have, works better in the spiritual realm IF one can establish persistence, discipline, and steadiness of effort over what males are famous for, which is a tremendous amount of effort in bursts and then slacking off for a long time. What works in the world will not work very well here, and perhaps "spirituality" should be treated as "play"(lila) rather than "work" (kammatthana).
The Buddha's life is told as an allegory?
It bears saying that everyone misunderstands the allegory of the Buddha's life, because if we ask someone, "What was the key turning point for Siddhartha that finally enabled him to breakthrough and attain his goal of supreme enlightenment?" Simple question. Where's the volta? Almost universally people will pick the wrong event. Most people will say it was when the wandering ascetic said, "I will not get up from this tree even if my blood turns to dust and I wither away" or something like that. That is the sure way to failure and frustration. It might be better to point at an incident the Buddha credited as the turning point. Remember how he strived so hard that he collapsed? He accepted food from a woman's hand (Sujata), he stopped blaming the body for lust and "sin" and the troubles of the mind/heart.
How did Siddhartha become the Buddha?
He realized the futility of penances, tapas, extreme austerities and wondered what might be the path to awakening. Intuition suggested to him that it was jhana, "absorption," which for so long he feared because it was associated with pleasure. But he reasoned that this is not ordinarily worldly pleasure like the hedonistic pursuits of his youth in the palace in Saka Land/Scythia. In a sense, he surrendered, he let go, he stopped pushing. He recalled that at age 7 he had spontaneously entered absorption under the tree at the Planting Festival and wondered if that might be a better path to pursue. A knowing came over him that it was. He let go and let Nature take its course. "Meditation" is not something we do. What we "do" is perhaps prepare the soil and the circumstances for the plant to arise and send out a flower that blossoms. We didn't do it. It did it. We allowed it, tended it, gardened it, protected it, persisted in protecting it, pursued it, and in that sense "brought it into being," which is what bhavana means. It is about cultivation and development rather than doing and accomplishing.
If anyone needs more proof of this, consider the musician who did his darndest in striving -- even giving up music and becoming a Buddhist monk -- and failed. He slacked off and failed. He redoubled his efforts and tried even harder. And failed harder, so hard he gave up and went to the Buddha to tell him he was leaving. He was shocked when the Buddha did not protest and instead wished him well. "Really, I can just go?"
"Have a good life," the Buddha said, "and, oh, by the way, what are you going to do now?" "Go back to music, of course," he said. "Oh, you play music?" the Buddha asked. The man was a little indignant as he was the most famous musician in the realm, enchanting audiences with his lyre (vina, veena, harp, guitar). Didn't the Buddha know that?
"Yes, I play it very well." "So, tell me," the Buddha went on. Do you overtighten your strings?" "Of course not! That would produce a harsh and discordant and sound." "Oh, so you leave them very slack?" the Buddha went on. "Of course not! That would produce a dull and discordant sound." "Well, then, how is it?" the Buddha asked. "I tune it -- not too tight, not too loose -- balanced and just so, making sure it doesn't go out of tune..." and as he explained, insight dawned on him and he excused him, not having disrobed, still a monk. He withdrew into solitude and took up his meditation object but this time not too harshly, not with so much effort as before, and feeling himself slacking, he would straighten up a little and pursued his ends in a balanced way. And in no long time, he was successful. And he came back to thank the Buddha, who maybe smiled and winked at him, if the Buddha winked at anybody. It isn't hard, but we make it harder than it needs to be. It isn't easy, but if we apply no effort at all, we will never see it. Not this, not that, then what? Balance. (See the story of Ven. Sona).
Teachings of Pa Auk Sayadaw and accomplished students interpreted and reported by Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson (ed.), Wisdom Quarterly
Practitioners arrived early for a 7:00 am start by taking the Eight or Ten Precepts (a chanting ceremony led by monks). There were more than 50 practicing, with a large support crew of food donors and onlookers, serving us breakfast and preparing lunch delicacies.
Before the first walking meditation session could begin, Mara reminded us that life is samsara: A devotee passed away, and the abbot and assistant abbot had to race off to provide the ceremonial blessings (the transfer of merit ritual), leaving the responsibility of providing an hour-long Dharma talk to Wisdom Quarterly.
That talk covered this basic question. Play along at home. "What is better, what is hard or what is easy?"
Someone yelled, "Hard!" Wrong. Another person yelled, "Easy!" Wrong. It was a trick question. It can neither be said that the hard way is the better way, nor that it's the easy way. It depends. Sometimes what is "the hard way" is actually the easy way in the long run. The Buddha did not hand us a needlessly difficult path. He made it as easy as a normal person could expect.
There's a difference between easy and lazy. We all would like a shortcut, but a lazy person seems to prefer no cut, no effort, nothing to do. That's what sells. Hard work starts looking pretty good by comparison. The Buddha was criticized severely for stealing rich kids from their riches because he would give a talk, and rich, handsome, and prominent young adults would ask to ordain and live a life of wandering asceticism. Parents would berate the Buddha that he was cheating those kids out of their right inheritances because they could have been rich and prominent and lived a life full of pleasure but were now instead doomed to the drudgery of austerities and poverty and deprivations (no children, families, houses, kingdoms).
The Buddha countered that he would never give someone the lesser thing for a greater thing. What he was saving those disciples from were exactly the painful vicissitudes of a household life in exchange for liberation, wisdom, and freedom -- that far more valuable than kids, a spouse, and a household to look after like everyone else. They were, of course, free to disrobe and return to the "lower" life if the "high" life did not suit them. But their karmic merit for having been monastics almost ensured a superior rebirth hereafter. So far from losing, they were gaining even in a worldly sense.
What would you rather, brown rice or mangoes?
Farmers were working in a field in ancient Magadha (proto-India) when the Buddha was set to speak. Brahmins were eager to defeat him in debate. One farmer asked the other what was going on. Why were people taking dana (generous donations) in that direction. The other farmer explained that those people were going to see the great Samana (Wayfarer), whereas they as farmers were poor and had to work planting rice.
The Compassionate Teacher
Just then the Buddha and his retinue came walking in direction of the talk. The farmers were thrilled to see him and donated rice. The Buddha asked what they were doing. They explained they were planting rice, too busy to attend his talk. Strangely, the Buddha asked if they wouldn't prefer mangoes. "Well, of course, we'd prefer mangoes. But we're rice farmers. We plant rice. We get rice. "Still," the Buddha said, "wouldn't you prefer mangoes." "Of course we would," they said, "but we plant rice, we get rice."
"What if after planting the rice, you prayed for mangoes?" the Buddha asked. The farmers thought him daft and no sadhu ("holy man") they needed to worry about missing hearing give a sutra. He obviously knew nothing about farming. "Praying won't change anything if one has planted rice, venerable sir." The Buddha shocked them by saying:
"In exactly the same way, the karma you do gives you the vipaka/phala (karmic resultants and fruit) you get. It won't matter if, sowing bad deeds, you pray for good results. You will get bad results all the same." Suddenly, the farmers thought he was very wise and did know farming after all.
They asked him, "What will you be talking about today, venerable sir?" "The Brahmins will ask me about karma and try to trick me and best me in debate. Not engaging them, I will try to teach them about the efficacy of actions. I only hope they understand me as well as you have." The farmers bowed and made offerings, overjoyed that they had had the chance to hear and see (drishti) the Great Teacher in the flesh.
A drunk man was desperately searching for something under a lamp. A sober man passed and asked what was going on. The drunk man said he lost something very valuable. The sober one started looking and asked, "You lost it around here?" pointing to the area. The drunk said, "No, I lost it over there," pointing to the dark. "Then WHY are you searching here?" exclaimed the sober fellow. "The light is better," the drunk explained. In other words, "it's easier." It isn't about what easy, is it? It is about what is fruitful, profitable, easier in the long run. What's easier -- going to college, doing homework, getting good grades, and sticking to it until there's a degree in hand or blowing smoke, living on the couch, and watching lots of TV, then getting a menial job when it's time to eat and consume more blowable smoke?
The answer seems obvious but isn't. The first way is easier. That's why we do it. The second way is going to lead to an impossible life of hardships, privations, and eventual starvation and trouble when, with preparation (keeping one's nose to the grindstone in the early years when it would have been more fun to do otherwise) it could have been avoided. What seems "easy" will become very hard. This is why the Buddha always encouraged strenuous effort to practice the path, but when on the mat, one has to calm down. The Dharma talk made the distinction between samvega (a "sense of urgency" to practice, such as when we experience a great deal of pain or loss, as by the death of a relative or a failure of a relationship), santosha (contentment, a sense of effortless ease), and laziness.
Too much effort and too little effort are faults, whereas contentment in practice is the Middle Way the Buddha advised. Of course, we have to get our behinds to the mat in the first place. That's when a sense of urgency comes in handy. And, of course, we have to be well rested. That's when a little laziness goes a long way. Over-efforting, straining, striving is no way to gain calm, such as that of meditative absorption (jhana), but laziness will surely never get it either. The easy way, in this case, is balance, the middle way that avoids extremes of effort and indolence, just as hedonism and severe asceticism are avoided. It's tempting to think that contentment is easy, but it isn't. Try it. Try to be content. It's quite hard. Throwing everything away, taking vows of poverty and austerity, is even harder -- and it won't help BECAUSE real letting go is not external.
But I want it all!
It's an inside job. It is internal letting go that the Buddha called nekkhamma, the basis of dana ("letting go," generosity, giving, sharing, relinquishing, or what is generally termed "renunciation"). What is the use of being rich if one clings to those riches, worries, is sleepless, is unable to share, comes to events and gives but leaves early to go check on one's stuff? That is no "giving," no "letting go," no ease of mind that enjoys the riches. Now imagine another rich person, who attends events, gives, and doesn't even lock the door when leaving home. "Did you lock your door when you left?" a caring friend asks. "I don't know. I think so, maybe not." "What are you crazy? You'll be robbed!" "Eh, then I'll get some more." Now, that's a rich person, enjoying those riches, doing what should be done to ensure future wealth (sharing), and not losing sleep over it. We can learn from this by practicing letting go even as we have things and our comfortable Western lives.
The Buddha did not say (as Jesus was reputed to have said), "Give up everything and follow me." The Buddha gave advice to householders on how to grow rich and hang on to their riches. This is the Householder's Dhamma found in the Sigala Sutta. Sigala was a young man, and the Buddha advised him that as for money, the best Buddhist practice was to divide into four equal parts and
Pay bills (to cancel out past debts)
Secure new inventory (for future profits)
Save for a rainy day (anticipating unexpected costs)
Spend now for enjoyment.
This is the way to grow rich AND enjoy one's riches here and now. That sutra is FULL of valuable advice on friendship and many other things particularly suited for ordinary householders wishing to live in the world rather than externally renouncing it. Buddhism is not an ascetic tradition for the vast majority of Buddhists. It is so for sincere monastic practitioners, but as most of them seem to have gone the way of temple priests, they more resemble the ancient Brahmins (priestly caste) of the Buddha's day than the samanas (wandering ascetics) the Buddha laid down as the direct path to enlightenment and liberation in this very life. It seems everyone prefers immediate riches.
How long is samsara (the continued wandering on called the Wheel of Death and Rebirth)? It is endlessly long, coming to no natural end. We can get off the carousel, but that takes some hard effort that pays off in endless ease and peace. We foolishly think it's easier to just keep doing what we've been doing and praying for a different result. But our ease is going to cost us. It won't feel easy or wise to have been lazy when effort was called for, and greed is no match for contentment. Contentment is the way to meditative success because balance (the middle way) is the key, avoiding extremes of effort and laziness.
"There is no way to happiness..." What, why? "...because happiness is the way." Ease is the way to success in meditation, not gritting one's teeth and straining. It leads to calm, absorption to purification, purification to success in insightful realization (vipassana). Jhanabegets wisdom.
Then the chief monks returned, lunch was served, with devotional offerings to the Buddha preceding the rich and varied meal and gift bags for all, chanting blessings. We rested, socialized, did another round of meditation, then Juan, a bright student of Ven. Punnaji (RIP), detailed the Four Noble Truths from Ven. Punnaji's idiosyncratic perspective, altering nearly all the traditional terms. More blessings followed, with a trip outside to pay homage to the Bodhi Tree next to the stupa on the grounds of the vihara. We were all offered blessed wrist threads for protection and "holy" (blessed) water.
Event details
VESAK is Buddhism's "Christmas" as it celebrates the Buddha's birthday, but it much more than that.
But it's much more than that, as it commemorates when the wandering ascetic Siddhartha became the Buddha (supremely enlightened) and passed into final nirvana, events that all occurred on the full moon day in May (technically on the ancient lunar calendar's month of Vesakha).
It is a massive celebration around the world nowadays. And the party comes to North Hollywood on Sunday, with the tradition lunar observance, free island cuisine, chanting, blessings, devotional activities, and insight/mindfulness meditation known as vipassana.
This is so cool, just wish you were here to be.
This year is special because the Center has asked Wisdom Quarterly to answer questions, lead meditation, and give a Dharma (Dhamma) talk on the attainment of enlightenment in this very life (what Siddhartha did under the Bodhi tree that caused his spiritual awakening) and/or the development of merit for riches, sensual pleasures, and incredible rebirth possibilities as taught by the Buddha.
O, Buddha, what is the true nature of existence?
Theravada Buddhist countries like Sri Lanka off the tip of India celebrate these three amazing events on a single day, sometimes carrying on the holiday season for a week or more.
It is the year's most important all-day lunar observance called the Uposatha("Sabbath" day). If one were only going to do one, this would be it.
Wisdom Quarterly's own teacher, Dharma editor, and meditation guide invites ANY QUESTION on life, the universe, and everything (sex, drugs, rock 'n roll, Zen, existence, koan riddles, even imponderables), addressed from the perspective of the historical Buddha. Wear white as was the ancient custom of the Buddha's day.
EVENT IS FREE (PLEASE RSVP):
Lunch is served at about noon, so feel free to come-and-go for any part of the celebration.
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