Vipassana Meditation
Finding Pleasure in Stillness: The Afterglow Meditation
I spent a week at a silent meditation retreat in a Thai monastery a few years back. Recently, I was scrolling through the handful of photos I took there, and suddenly all these memories of the meditation techniques came flooding back. On a whim after Lesson 6, I decided to try one of them on my afterglow – and it worked beautifully. A simple but effective method that shows how easy it can be to combine Mindgasm practice with other types of meditation.
Jump directly to Afterflow meditation
What is Vipassana?
Vipassana means “to see things as they really are.” It’s one of Buddhism’s oldest meditation techniques – over 2,500 years old. In the early 1900s, it experienced a huge revival in Burma, where teachers developed the “New Burmese Method” using the rising-falling breath technique I learned.
Today, there are over 390 Vipassana centers in more than 94 countries. The traditional format is a 10-day silent retreat. What used to be mainly for monks is now accessible to anyone looking for deeper awareness and inner peace.
A Week of Silence in Thailand
No internet. No phones. Nothing to read. Just me and Vipassana meditation.
Mornings started at 5am with a one-hour wisdom teaching from the head monk. Two simple meals – one at 7am, another at noon. An hour of chanting at 6pm. Everything else? Meditation.
We practiced two types:
Walking meditation
On a 5-meter mat, you move as slowly as humanly possible, breaking each step into microscopic movements. Lifting. Moving. Placing. You try to give 100% attention to every micro-moment. Between rounds, there are quick pauses where you practice standing meditation – just being still, fully present.
Between meditation sessions, I’d explore the massive garden area. I challenged myself to cover just 50-100 meters in an hour, applying the same slow, focused attention. When you move that slowly, you notice things you’d completely miss at normal speed. It’s the best exercise to slow down and pay attention to what is – entering the macro cosmos. Those walks taught me to focus on subjects in complete stillness. No thoughts, just observation. That eventually led me to discover Macro Photography.
Sitting Meditation
This one had a beautifully simple structure. You focus on “raising” as you breathe in, “falling” as you breathe out. Then in the pause between breaths, you say “sitting.” You actually say these words silently in your head. It helps you lock into a rhythm.
After you say “sitting” in that pause before your next inhale, you systematically scan through different body points. It’s similar to what we do in the Equilibrium lesson.
Feet. Knees. The points just above your sit bones. Shoulders.
Each point becomes an anchor. A way to stay with what’s actually happening, instead of whatever story your mind wants to tell.
Here’s what surprised me most: the more you practice, these points start to glow as you focus on them. It’s a really pleasant sensation. You feel energy moving from one point to the next. Your awareness becomes this flowing thing in your body. And because it actually works and feels good, you want to keep going.
The Hidden Connection
At the time, I had no idea this would connect with something completely different: Mindgasm practise.
Vipassana teaches you to observe sensations without reacting. You notice tingles, warmth, pressure, pulsing – and you just watch them come and go. No grasping. No pushing away. Pure observation.
Mindgasm flips this in the best way possible. Instead of just observing pleasure, you amplify it through focused awareness. Same skill – sharp attention on subtle body sensations – but different goal: instead of staying neutral, you’re actively enhancing what you feel.
The Afterglow Meditation
This is where both worlds merge.
After Lesson 6, I remembered the Vipassana technique and thought: what if I try this on my Source afterglow?
After many Mindgasm sessions, you get that afterglow – that warm, glowing, tingling presence in your pelvic floor that can last for hours. Your Source is alive, humming quietly, waiting to be noticed.
The Afterglow Meditation takes 5-10 minutes and brings Vipassana-style attention to that post-session state.
The Practice
After your Mindgasm practice (for me it worked best after Eternal Flame)
Find stillness
Sit or lie down comfortably. In silence. No music needed, though if you prefer something, the instrumental version of Lesson 8 (Equilibrium) works well. For me, complete stillness worked best.
Anchor in breath
Start with the Vipassana framework:
- Breathe in: “Raising” (say it silently – eventually you won’t need to)
- Breathe out: “Falling” (say it silently)
- Pause: “Source” (say it silently)
Follow the glow
During the pause, shift your attention to your Source. You can say “Source” silently, or name the specific muscle: “Base,” “Center,” “Top.” This helps guide your awareness there.
This also works with other body parts and points – your hands, feet, and so on. Look at the picture for inspiration on where to focus.
Gentle awareness
Don’t flex anything. This is pure mental attention. You’re just observing and gently fanning those embers of sensation through awareness alone.
You could also imagine a bellows fanning a fire into life, which fits perfectly since Lesson 6 describes the Source as a fireball.
Why This Works
Traditional Vipassana teaches that attention itself is powerful. Wherever you place awareness, sensations intensify.
The Afterglow Meditation uses the exact same principle, just applied to pleasure.
It’s meditation. It’s mindfulness. It’s pleasure practice. It’s all three at once.
This Works Anywhere
You’re in the car. At work. Waiting somewhere.
Anytime you have a spare minute, you can do this:
- Raising
- Falling
- Source (pause)
- Repeat
The Afterglow Meditation shows you something important: there’s no hard line between meditation and pleasure practice. It’s a spectrum. You can move fluidly along it.
Sometimes you meditate with intense pleasure. Sometimes with calm awareness. And sometimes, like here, you do both at once.
