Mr. Goenka was born in Myanmar in a business family of Indian origin. Before the age of 30 he became one of Myanmar's ranking business figures, with offices in many countries. He was elected president of the Yangon Chamber of Commerce and head of many social, educational and cultural organisations. By any worldly measure he had achieved outstanding success.

But he had not achieved the elusive goal of inner happiness and peace of mind. Instead, business-related stress brought on crippling migraine headaches, which the world's best doctors were helpless to treat-except with addictive and debilitating drugs.

It was at this point that Mr. Goenka met a unique personality in post-war Myanmar: Sayagyi U Ba Khin. This senior civil servant held the post of Accountant-General and other top-level positions in the administration. At the same time he taught the traditional meditation technique of Vipassana, and he worked to spread its practice in public life.

A Results-Oriented Technique
In the ancient Pali language of India, the word "Vipassana" means to see things as they really are. It is a method of self-introspection, of objectively observing the phenomenon of mind and matter, leading to self-transformation and real peace. While Vipassana is firmly rooted in the teaching of the Buddha, it is not a religion and involves no dogma, rites or rituals. Instead of a system of faith, it is a system of experience-a way to discover the reality of the world and oneself, in order to live a happy and productive life. In the words of U Ba Khin, Vipassana offers results that are good, concrete, vivid, personal and immediate.

The practical, results-oriented nature of Vipassana is what appealed to Mr. Goenka. In 1955 he undertook a course and found that it was indeed a life-transforming experience. In the following years he deepened his understanding of Vipassana and learned to apply it successfully in business and family life.

In 1969, Mr. Goenka was authorised to teach Vipassana as the representative of U Ba Khin. Since then he has devoted himself to fulfilling the responsibility entrusted to him.

He began his work in India. In that country still sharply divided by caste and religion, Vipassana was widely and easily accepted because of its non-sectarian nature. Next, from 1979, Mr. Goenka began travelling abroad to introduce Vipassana in countries of the East and West. In response to ever-growing demand, he has trained and appointed hundreds of assistant teachers to conduct 10-day residential retreats. These have been attended by hundreds of thousands of people of all backgrounds in more than 80 countries.

How Vipassana is taught
Self-introspection is a serious task, and a Vipassana course is a major undertaking. For 10 days the participants remain within the course site, cutting all contact with the outside world. They refrain from reading and writing, and suspend all rites and rituals. Among themselves they maintain complete silence, but are free to discuss difficulties or questions with the teacher or management.

They begin by committing themselves to a code of moral conduct: for the period of the course, they abstain from killing, stealing, sexual activity, wrong speech and use of intoxicants. These are all actions that agitate the mind and interfere with the work of introspection. Having agreed to avoid them, participants can proceed with the task at hand. First is a concentration exercise: they learn to focus on natural, normal breath within the area of the nostrils. For three days they practise doing this. As they fail and try again and again, they gradually develop their ability to keep the attention fixed on the object of natural breath. By doing so, they turn the mind into a tool for penetrating self-analysis.

On the fourth day they begin the practice of Vipassana proper. Instead of focusing on one spot, they move the attention systematically from head to feet and feet to head, observing whatever sensations occur in each part of the body in turn. Pleasant or unpleasant, every sensation is to be observed and accepted dispassionately, with the understanding that this will also change.

With repeated practice, the exercise gradually brings into consciousness deeply suppressed complexes that are the source of mental agitation. They may arise as emotions, memories, dreams or anything else, but at the same time they are accompanied by physical sensations. The meditators are instructed to give importance only to the aspect of bodily sensation, remembering its impermanent nature. Through trial and error they learn to observe even the most unpleasant or agreeable experience with equanimity, a mind at balance. As they do so, they find that agitation gives way to inner peace.

As the course approaches its end, most participants feel a sense of accomplishment, of well-being, of having set aside a burden, and naturally the wish arises to share with others the peace they have found. They do so through the formal practice of cultivating goodwill towards all creatures. They seek to diminish the sum of unhappiness in the world, to add to its peace and harmony, by learning to develop peace and harmony within themselves.

When they leave the course they have the opportunity of applying this practice in active life. For all it is a major challenge. But whether or not they succeed at once, they understand that they have a goal worth striving towards patiently and persistently: to become master of oneself by learning not to be overwhelmed by any experience, and to use this mastery in order to live a good life that brings happiness to oneself and others.

A teaching for all
Men and women of all walks of life have practised Vipassana. They include the highly educated and the illiterate, the wealthy and the impoverished, aristocrats and slum-dwellers, devout followers of every religion and followers of none, the powerful and the powerless, the aged and the young. All have discovered its benefits.

Vipassana has been taught to prison inmates and staff in many parts of India as well as the United States, Britain, New Zealand, Taiwan and Nepal. The Indian state of Maharashtra encourages civil servants to attend courses as part of their ongoing job training. Courses have been set up for the disabled, including the blind and leprosy patients. Other programs have focused on schoolchildren, drug addicts, street children, college students and business executives.

Ultimately, however, Vipassana is far more than a remedy or therapy for someone in a special category. Every person stands to benefit from learning to live consciously and equanimously, in a way that is good for oneself and others.

One of the most extraordinary features of Vipassana is that it is taught entirely on a non-commercial basis. All courses and all centres are financed solely by the donations of grateful students who have attended a retreat. There is no fee charged for the teaching or for food and lodging. Neither S.N. Goenka nor his assistants benefit in any material way from their work. All are required to have their own means of support. They impart the teaching as a public service without any discrimination of caste or creed, and without any taint of self-interest.

"If a forest is parched by drought," says Mr. Goenka, "you can revive it only by watering each tree in the forest. Similarly, if world peace is to become a reality, peace must be established within each human being." Vipassana is a way of doing that. It is a path open to all.