Ultra-Condensed Vipassanā
The Liberating Truth in four simple words.
Hi friend,
"Vipassanā", in the language of the Buddha, means "discernment", and refers to meditation practices that can untie the deepest knot in our psyche. I have written an article and a book on vipassanā; published an interactive translation of the four noble truths; described the sixteen steps of breath-based mindfulness (ānāpānasati), out of which I have created a condensed and an ultra-condensed version; and mentioned vipassanā exercises in my article on mindfulness.
If you don't have the time to read them all, or if you've read them but are still curious as to how one could describe the essence of vipassanā clearly and concisely, I have good news: I've condensed all the vipassanā instructions into a simple, four-word sentence. Here it is:
Fulfillment lets everything flow.1
Please try practicing it now, reading slowly and pausing between sentences.
Instructions
Sit in a quiet place with your back straight, your mouth closed, and a gentle smile on your lips. Spend the first 1-3 minutes doing nothing. Allow your body and mind to be however messy or not messy they want to be.
Then mentally say to yourself, "Fulfillment lets everything flow". Through trial and error, intuitively connect with the space of fulfillment within you that is happy to let everything flow.
Sounds, sights, sensations and thoughts are all flowing. Let them come the way they want to come, stay however long they want to stay, and go whenever they want to go.
Fulfillment lets everything flow.
When your attention gets sucked back into thoughts and control mode, calmly remind yourself, “Fulfillment lets everything flow”, and allow your mind to become spacious, present, and light again.
There is no need for a concept of "you" that is fulfilled, no need for a concept of "you" that is allowing, no need for a concept of "you" that is flowing. There is only fulfillment, only allowing, only flowing.
Fulfillment lets everything flow, including itself. Do not hold onto fulfillment. As you let fulfillment change the way it wants to change, notice how it gets bigger. Allow the temptation to hold onto this greater fulfillment to dissolve into an even greater fulfillment, and observe fulfillment from a space of sacred indifference.
Ultra-Condensed Vipassanā and the Buddha's teaching
The first noble truth is the truth of inconstancy — not the truth of suffering, as most people believe and as I used to believe. This misunderstanding stems from the fact that the Pāli word "dukkha" has the double meaning of "pain”2 and "inconstancy"3 4. Everything is inconstant, flowing, changing. The second noble truth is that the root of suffering is attachment5, the automatic and mostly unconscious act of labeling things as important and trying to control them. Every attempt to hold onto, resist, or change the way things naturally flow brings about an unnecessary world of struggle between mind and reality. The third noble truth says that by letting go of attachment, we find healing and liberation6. The fourth noble truth describes the way7 we can live our life and train our attention to wake up to the first three noble truths, but it is really the realization of these first three noble truths that disentangles our nervous system and lets us experience the highest happiness. We want to see, in this very moment, that everything is changing (1), that attachment causes suffering (2), and that the more we release attachment, the more happiness manifests (3). In other words, fulfillment (3) lets (2) everything flow (1).
When people asked the Buddha, "Can you briefly describe how someone attains liberation?" He replied, "It is when a person hears that 'Nothing is worth holding onto'8. After hearing that nothing is worth holding onto, he or she becomes aware of everything [in the present moment], understands everything [is not worth holding onto], and lets all of his or her feelings flow. Meditating in this way, he or she releases all attachment and agitation and becomes liberated."9
"Nothing is worth holding onto" does not mean that things have no value 🤦♂️ It means that when our mind tries to hold onto and control things, it loses more than it gains. What does it lose? Fulfillment, freedom, and flow. And what does it gain? Nothing, naught, and nada. Because our mind’s wishes, unlike our physical actions, have no effect on the way things are, and the only healthy psychological attitude is one of presence and acceptance10. To be happy, yes, we want our body to move in the right direction, but we also want our mind to be spacious and light. We want to integrate the fact that all things flow naturally according to conditions, and holding onto them only disturbs the natural fulfillment of our mind.
Fulfillment lets everything flow.
In meditation, when we cultivate fulfillment and letting flow, suffering decreases and bliss increases. What happens next is that our brain labels this bliss as “important”, tries to control it, and loses it. The remedy for this, as you may have guessed, is to apply the same attitude of letting flow toward the bliss itself. The next time bliss manifests, instead of seeing it as superb and special, see it as normal and natural. Observe meditative ecstasy from a space of sacred indifference. This is how the Buddha practiced before his enlightenment.
For instance, after the Buddha described every single stage of his meditation prior to awakening, he added, “But I was neither excited by nor attached to even such pleasant feeling that arose in me.”11
When the Buddha taught his disciples what leads a practitioner to awakening12, the last step he always mentioned was sacred indifference13, including toward meditative bliss. This is how the Buddha described a monk on the brink of awakening: “He observes with indifference his mind thus completely stabilized.”14 This is something I invite you to try, next time you experience meditative happiness. Look at your bliss with indifference, as if you couldn’t care less about it, and see what happens.
Another option proposed by the Buddha is to reject the bliss. This rejection is not a mundane rejection15 that rejects one part of reality in order to gain another16, but a holy rejection17 that rejects all attachment in order to sink into ever deeper levels of meditative ecstasy. When bliss manifests, instead of trying to hold onto it, mentally say something like, “Go away, fulfillment!”, “You stink, freedom!”, or “Leave me alone, flow!” and maintain a light, open, playfully dismissive attitude toward bliss. You will be amazed at how fun this practice is and how badass your true nature is — it can afford to reject even bliss itself, because true fulfillment is too fulfilled to need fulfillment, true freedom is free from freedom, and true flow allows flow to flow.
Next time you experience meditative bliss, instead of relishing the bliss, try indifference or rejection, and watch the bliss intensify.
When guiding meditations, the last instruction the Buddha often gave his students was to see their consciousness18 as sovereignless1920 . Seeing that this consciousness we call ours cannot be fully controlled is another possible way to release our counterproductive attempts to cling to the bliss we are experiencing. We want to realize that there is an inversely proportional relationship between clinging and bliss: the more we cling to bliss, the more it decreases, and the more we let go of bliss, the more it increases. Once in deep meditation, the Buddha teaches us to let consciousness flow the way it wants to flow and to observe the sovereignless nature of consciousness.
You may ask, “Observing consciousness? Who is observing consciousness?” and this is where words lose their footing and our self-story falls into a black hole of pure bliss. This is the gateway to full unbinding21 because in a moment where there is no identification even with consciousness itself, there are also no concepts of birth and death, no fear and no worry. During an experience of full unbinding, one is still awake, conscious, and functional — in fact more awake, conscious, and functional than ever — but the sense of “I” has evaporated, leaving room for eternal flow, bliss, pure love, and the vibrant immediacy of life. In this state, all of our brain regions work synergistically, and electrical impulses flow freely in the center of the brain, 360°. This is the highest happiness.
Please note that having an experience of total unbinding does not necessarily imply a profound and permanent change in one’s nervous system and brain activity. The experience may be short-lived, the nervous system may wake its survival mode back up, and, according to the Buddha, one will need to meditate more to deepen one’s awakening and effect a more permanent shift in one’s neurological baseline.22
Most importantly, please remember that the purpose of Ultra-Condensed Vipassanā, just like the purpose of all vipassanā techniques, is not to help you make any decision in your life. Please do not make any decision based on what you've read here, and do not use vipassanā logic to justify any real-life decision. This is hard for most people to understand because we are only used to using thoughts to make better decisions. But with vipassanā, we use thoughts for a diametrically different purpose, which is to redirect our attention back to where it came from — an open state of fulfillment, freedom, and flow, in the present moment.
You can do it 💪
“Fulfillment” is a sense of deep contentment, completeness, and wholeness. If this word doesn’t resonate with you, please feel free to replace it with “plenitude”, “bliss”, “contentment”, or “peace”.
From du + √kha = hard to endure.
From du + √stha = hard to persist.
I’ll write a full article on how to translate the word “dukkha” in the future, as this is a crucial topic, but to make my case briefly here, in SN36.11, a monk asked the Buddha, “You taught that there are three types of feelings: sukhā, dukkhā, and adukkhamasukhā. Yet you also taught that all feelings are by nature dukkhā. What did you mean by that?” The Buddha replied, “Very good, very good! Yes, I did teach that there are three types of feelings: sukhā, dukkhā, and adukkhamasukhā. And I also did teach that all feelings are by nature dukkhā, but I have said so in reference to the fact that emotions are inconstant (aniccataṁ), temporary (khayadhammataṁ), momentary (vayadhammataṁ), ephemeral (virāgadhammataṁ), transient (nirodhadhammataṁ), and changing (vipariṇāmadhammataṁ).” This conversation shows that the word “dukkha” can mean both “painful” and “inconstant” and should be translated differently according to context.
Taṇhā.
Nirodha.
Magga.
Sabbe dhammā nālaṁ abhinivesāyā.
For a more modern approach to this topic, see my article on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT).
Bojjhaṅga.
Upekkhā.
Dosa.
Lobha.
Paṭinissagga.
Viññāṇa.
Anatta, the absence of a sovereign, a “ruler who has supreme power, independent of external influence“.
There are too many examples of such guided meditations but the most famous of them is probably SN22.59. The suttas also tell of countless disciples who achieve awakening by realizing that their body, feelings, perceptions, thoughts, and consciousness are inconstant, unreliable, and sovereignless.
Nibbanā.
To learn about the Buddha’s teaching on the four stages of awakening, see sotāpanna, sakadāgāmi, anāgāmi, and arahant, and the saṃyojana (fetters) that are released with each progressive stage.
Gracias por la explicación y sobre todo por la práctica. A veces me apego o aferro a un método o forma meditativa, porque sé que me ofrece concentración y silencio mental. Qué interesante, permitir que todo fluya, soltar los apegos, los deseos, las ideas...