The Waterfall Experience: What Really Happens When You Start Meditating with Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche

Why It Matters

Understanding meditation’s staged nature helps executives tolerate initial discomfort, unlocking lasting focus and emotional stability that boost performance and leadership.

Key Takeaways

• Meditation reveals an inner treasure beyond external achievements
• Early practice feels like worsening, called the waterfall experience
• Progress shifts to river stage, mind becomes pliable and focused
• Lake stage yields effortless awareness infused with compassion, wisdom
• Sustainable happiness arises from inner contentment, not fleeting external stimuli

Summary

In a recent talk, Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche explains what actually happens when beginners start meditating, using vivid analogies such as a “waterfall experience” to describe the early turbulence of mind.

He argues that the mind is an “unlimited treasure” that most people seek outside themselves. At first, practitioners often feel worse—thoughts and emotions surge like a rushing waterfall—before the mind gradually settles into a “river” phase where attention becomes pliable and distractions fade.

Rinpoche illustrates the progression with everyday images: a cup that appears dirtier when water is added, a muddy river that clears to reveal fish, and the fleeting happiness of coffee versus the deep contentment that arises from inner awareness. He emphasizes that awareness, compassion and wisdom become the default background once the “lake” stage is reached.

For business leaders and professionals, the framework suggests that early discomfort in mindfulness practice is a sign of growth, not failure, and that sustained inner clarity can improve decision‑making, emotional regulation, and long‑term resilience.

Original Description

Join the live webinar “The Distraction Epidemic: Unlocking the Power of Awareness” with Mingyur Rinpoche on July 9. 👉 Learn more and join here: https://hubs.la/Q04gpzD50

When we begin meditating, we may expect to feel calm right away. But often, the opposite happens: the mind feels busier, emotions seem stronger, and practice can feel boring or frustrating.

In this teaching, Mingyur Rinpoche explains why this is actually a natural part of the path. Using traditional examples like the “waterfall experience,” the dirty cup, and the muddy river, he shows how meditation does not create more thoughts and emotions. It simply helps us see what was already there.

Over time, this restless “waterfall” begins to settle. The mind becomes more workable, and we begin to recognize a deeper quality of awareness beneath the movement of thoughts and emotions.

This teaching is a helpful reminder for anyone who has ever wondered, “Am I doing meditation wrong?”