Goenka

“I was born and raised in Burma in a very staunch, conservative Hindu family. We were told from a very young age that the Buddha was wonderful because he was an incarnation of Vishnu. But his teaching was not considered good for us. However at the age of 31, I started experiencing severe migraines and couldn’t get any help or relief. At that time, a very good friend said, “Go and take this ten-day meditation course.” I hesitated. If I became a Buddhist, what would happen to me? I wouldn’t believe in a soul, I wouldn’t believe in God. Then I would go to hell. No, this was not for me… my friend pushed me again: “Why don’t you go and see U Ba Khin?” When I went to see him, the first thing I said was, “I have come for my migraine headaches.” He said, “No, Goenka, I can’t help you. Go to a doctor.”

Because of that response, I was very much drawn to him… He explained very lovingly, “Look, what I teach is a path of high spirituality from India, but our country has lost it. Don’t devalue it. Don’t make use of this technique to treat some physical disease. This technique is to take you out of all misery, not just the misery of a migraine.” He asked me a question: “You are a leader of the Hindu community here in Burma… I will teach you only morality, samadhi (concentration) and wisdom. Nothing else. Just accept that. If you accept that, then come.” So I took the ten-day course and I found it good. The teachings of the Buddha were so complete, so pure.”

Everyone who comes to the basic ten-day vipassana course must take five precepts, because morality is very important as a basis. New students, at least for those ten days, must observe these precepts very scrupulously. If one keeps on breaking sila, one cannot practice at all. After the ten days are completed, students are their own masters. If they find it is good for them to continue with the precepts, then they can do so. Older students take eight precepts. For the samadhi aspect of the program, we work with the respiration, the breath. We use the natural breath as it comes in and as it goes out, keeping attention to a limited area-the entrance of the nostrils. Then from the fourth day onward one is trained to observe the sensations throughout the body-pleasant, unpleasant or neutral-and understand their basic nature. Every sensation has the same nature: arising, passing away, arising, and passing away.

Understanding this impermanence, one maintains equanimity as much as possible. One doesn’t react, and not reacting starts changing the habit pattern at the deep level of the mind. Over time, one has built up and strengthened the blind habit pattern of reaction. Any pleasant experience-craving. Any unpleasant experience-aversion. This habit pattern has to be broken. It can be broken at the surface level, but the Buddha wanted to purify the totality of the mind, so we work at the deepest level.
I haven’t found a single person who has been unable to do it. The most illiterate people from the villages in India, people who had never heard what Buddha taught, and people who are long-time devotees of Buddha-all get equal results. It’s so simple. When I ask them to observe the breath, they observe the breath. An illiterate person can also observe the breath. And they can take their attention to a particular part of the body. Why should there be any difficulty?..

What I am teaching is universal. Anybody can practice it, from any religion or tradition, and they will get the same result. We have people coming to vipassana courses from every religion in the world, and they all get the same result. I don’t tell them, “Convert yourself from this religion to that religion.” My teacher never asked me to convert to a religion. The only conversion is from misery to happiness. More than two thousand Christian priests and nuns have taken the meditation course. One nun, a mother superior who was over 75 years old, told me, “You are teaching Christianity in the name of Buddhism. I should have learned this technique fifty years ago.” Because there was no technique in her background. She had sermons on love and compassion for others, but they still left her asking how to actually practice love and compassion. With the vipassana technique you purify the mind at the root. Love comes naturally. You don’t have to make an effort to practice metta, loving-kindness. It just comes.

In the first year when I moved to India from Burma, there was a big public function put on by Buddhists… We were invited as chief guests, and each of us gave a speech. Mine was translated into Tibetan and His Holiness liked it so much that he said that he wanted to meet me and discuss things. We started at nine o’clock the next morning and at two-thirty or three we were still talking-all about technique. He was very happy with my teaching. But when I said, “Quite a few people on the second day or third day see light,” he responded, “No, no. That must be illusion. How can somebody see light in three days? It takes years to see light.” I replied, “Venerable sir, I saw light in my eyes. And so have many other people. I would not say it is an illusion. You better send a few of your lamas and let them experience it. If I am wrong, I will rectify it. I don’t teach them that they must see light. It is merely a sign, a milestone on a long path, not the final goal.”

So he sent three lamas to my next course in Sarnath. All three of them saw light, and they were so happy. When they went back and explained that to His Holiness, he was also happy. He said, “Goenka, come here and give a course to my people.” “When I give a course these are the rules. I don’t want to hurt anybody’s feelings, but if your high lamas don’t agree to my rules, I cannot teach.” “Goenka, they will follow whatever you say for the full ten days. So don’t worry; they will follow your rules.” The course took place in the Tibetan library in Dharamsala, not far from where His Holiness was living… They all did it, and they got the same result… the technique gives results.

Normally I don’t go out during a course, but the Dalai Lama wanted to discuss how it was going, so I visited him two times. We had long discussions in detail about the technique I teach and about his technique also-without judging, just exploring with inquisitiveness. We each enjoyed our discussions tremendously. Since then we have been friends… We are not political friends, but rather dharma friends.

He did keep asking me about sunnata, (emptiness). “You’ve got no sunnata?” he would ask. But after I explained my understanding of it, he accepted what I said: that when all solidity is dissolved in the technique, and there’s nothing but vibration remaining, that is sunnata. Then you experience something beyond mind and matter-sunna-nothing to hold there. You have sunna of the mind and matter sphere and sunna of the beyond mind and matter sphere. His Holiness seemed to be quite happy with that explanation…”

~ S. N. Goenka (1924 –2013), was a Burmese-Indian teacher of Vipassanā meditation in the tradition of the late Sayagyi U Ba Khin of Burma. Born to a rich Indian family, he moved from Burma to India in 1969 and started teaching meditation. His teaching was notable for emphasizing that the Buddha's path to liberation was non-sectarian, universal, and scientific in character. He became an influential teacher and established meditation centers worldwide.