Gratitude to Sayagyi U Ba Khin

(The following is adapted from the closing talk given by S. N. Goenka at the Annual Conference at Dhamma Giri on 10 January 1999.)

My dear Dhamma meditators:

Once again we have gathered in this Annual Gathering. I was listening to the report of whatever was done last year. It is quite satisfactory, quite encouraging. I also noted what you are all going to do for the future, for this year, which is a very important year. A very important year, because it is the centenary year of the great lay saint, Sayagyi U Ba Khin. In his memory we have to work hard.

We may make many memorials, many monuments. Nothing wrong; do it. But the biggest monument is the individual. Each of you is a monument. Develop yourself to such an extent in Dhamma, so that people know

"Here is a Vipassana meditator who got Dhamma from Sayagyi U Ba Khin and his tradition. Oh, how it changes people! How this person has progressed!"

This is the biggest memorial.

Everyone should do that in one’s own interest. You are not obliging Sayagyi U Ba Khin by developing yourself in Dhamma. Of course, you are making an effort to show your gratitude towards him; at the same time you are making an effort to encourage people to come on the path and help themselves to get liberated.

These are the two important things that each meditator in this tradition has to do. First, do your best to get yourself established in pure Dhamma. Understand fully well what is pure Dhamma:

Abstaining from unwholesome activities,
Performing wholesome activities, and
Purifying the mind (the totality of the mind, not just the surface of the mind)

That is all. The entire Dhamma is contained in this. There is nothing more to add, and nothing to take out from it paripuṇṇa, parisuddha. How can I work to get myself established in Dhamma and become a good example for others?

And the second thing: how to fulfil the vision, the noble mission, of this saintly person. What a strong Dhamma volition he had!

"I have to pay back the debt of gratitude to the country of origin from where we get this invaluable jewel. Today, what is happening in this country?"

When he used to read newspapers, when he used to discuss with us about the situation in this country, we saw how much compassion he had

"Oh, this country where Buddha arises, this country where pure Dhamma arises, what is happening there? People are quarrelling, fighting in the name of Dhamma. ‘My religion, your religion.’ All sectarian conflicts. Racial conflicts and conflicts on the basis of caste high caste, low caste. What is happening to this country? It is my duty to pay back the debt of gratitude to this country. If they get this wonderful Dhamma, the whole country will come out of the misery. There is no other way. As long as these conflicts caste conflicts, racial conflicts, communal conflicts, sectarian conflicts are there, there will be misery, nothing but misery. And these can only be eradicated if they get pure Dhamma and Vipassana."

"This is the time," he used to say, "Once it goes to India, there are people now you don’t know how many people have taken birth in this land with so much pāramīs. They will all come to you. They will all take Dhamma."

I was fearing: "Who will accept it in that country? And who knows me? How can Dhamma be accepted?"

"Don’t worry. Time has ripened. There are people there with very good pāramīs. They will come automatically. As soon as as they hear "Vipassana", they can’t resist they will come. You need not worry. And once this country has started accepting Dhamma, then, like a wild fire it will spread around the world, from this country, which is the origin of Dhamma. Previously also, from this country it spread. Now again, time has ripened. From this country it will spread. Now time has ripened. The clock of Vipassana has struck."

He was so enthusiastic. "I must go. I must go and do this noble job." He could not come. And when I came, he was so happy. "Look, now my Dhamma son will represent me. He will work and he will be successful." He kept on telling me: "You will be successful, don’t worry. You will be successful."

I used to doubt myself, "How can I be successful?" But somehow, just within one month of my arrival in this country, the first course was given. And then, course after course, course after course, the Ganges of Dhamma started flowing.

So his mission, his vision is: Dhamma should get re-established in this country of its origin, and then Dhamma must spread around the world. There is misery everywhere. Everywhere, people are miserable.

The biggest memorial that we can erect in his memory, is first, I think each individual should become a memorial. And then, work so that more and more people come on the path.

They are miserable. Somebody, a very short-tempered person, full of negativity, understands at the intellectual level, "Oh, this is not good for me. I am making myself miserable. I am making others miserable. I want to come out of it." How to come out of it? No way, there is no way. An addict understands very well, "This is not good for me. I want to come out of it. How to come out of it?" Anybody involved in any kind of vice is very unhappy wants to change the life from vice to virtue, but how?

Mere sermons will not help. People listen to sermons, good sermons. They keep on listening and keep on expecting some miracle from some invisible power. It does not work. Everyone has to work out one’s own salvation. But how?

People must know that there is a way where there is no blind faith, blind belief if you work, you get the result. You get the result, then you develop faith, you believe in it. First apply, work on it. You will get results. Naturally you will develop faith. And then, take the next step, and the next step, and the next step you reach the final goal. Work yourself and see. Apply.

As Buddha used to say to people sometimes he goes to a certain community who are involved in all kinds of rites, rituals, or philosophical beliefs. Their aim is also to come out of this cycle of birth and death, misery, misery.

"This is your aim?"

"Yes."

"Then give me seven days of your life," he used to say. "Give me just seven days of your life. I am not here to make you my disciple. I am not interested in that. I am not here to snatch you from your old guru. I am not interested in that. I am not here to tell you that you must believe what I say. I am not interested in that. Give a trial and see what you get. Give a trial."

This is the Dhamma way. If people know that there is a path, even if they hear there is a path, and they give a trial the result is there. It is a result-oriented technique. Not that you work now, and the result will come after death. Then, it is not pure Dhamma. There is something, some blind belief in it, who knows? Something will happen after death, certainly. But that something should start happening now itself. "Now itself, I am progressing, progressing, progressing. After death also I will certainly progress." If there is no result now, then it is not Dhamma.

This is how it spread at the time of Buddha. And this is how my Dhamma father wanted it to spread. He said: "Why do you worry? There are people with very good pāramīs in India and the world. First you have to work in India. As soon as you go there, those people will just come. You won’t have to say to them, ‘Come, come, come.’ They will come. When they hear "Vipassana", something will start happening in them: ‘Oh, I better give a trial. I better go.’ It will happen. And then there are people round the world. This is the time now when people with good pāramīs have taken birth as human beings on this earth. They will accept Dhamma. And they will spread Dhamma." He was so confident about it.

And yes, when I came, within a month a course was held. So I also became confident about it. But this does not mean that we must wait for some miracle. We don’t do anything, but something will happen as a miracle; everybody will get changed. Oh no! People have to work. Every individual has to work for his or her salvation, liberation. They will work only if they are confident that there is something, there is a way, by which we can liberate ourselves. And the way is not one of blind faith. It is a scientific, rational, pragmatic way, where you get the result here and now. But first, they must be confident about it.

So a message has to go around the world everywhere that a path exists. Everyone who feels that he is miserable, and everyone who wants to come out of misery, well, a path exists, a technique exists. Give a trial. We don’t say you accept it just because we are saying that this is the path of liberation. Don’t accept. Give a trial. As Buddha said, "Give me seven days of your life." We say, "Give me ten days of your life. And just give a trial. See, if you get good results."

As Buddha said, we are not interested in just increasing the number of people who call themselves disciples of Goenka, or disciples of U Ba Khin. Meaningless! This counting of heads meaningless! We are not interested in snatching people from this tradition or that tradition. Meaningless! What will we get? This is a universal desire of everyone: to come out of misery. We are helping them to fulfil this desire. "Here is a way. If you find it to be good, accept it. If you don’t find it to be good, don’t accept it. Give a trial." That is all. We are not here to establish an organised religion. Dhamma is far away from organised religions. The moment Dhamma becomes an organised religion, Dhamma is lost. The organised religion becomes predominant.

So we are not interested in that. Every student of Vipassana must understand that one has to be very careful that pure Dhamma does not become an organised religion. Everyone has to work. You work, you get the benefit. It should never happen that the teacher says: "Well, you are so weak. How can you liberate yourself? Come to me. Surrender to me. Take refuge in me. I will liberate you. Liberation is in my pocket. I will give it to you." That sort of thing should never happen in Dhamma. Not now and not in future, otherwise Dhamma will be lost. Everyone has to work. Work properly and you will get the result. If you don’t work properly, no result will come.

So the most important thing is that people should get the knowledge that, "There is a way to help you to come out of your misery." Once they are agreeable to give a trial and they give a trial then the next important thing for everyone whoever has the capacity, whoever has the ability to see that this person is helped to progress on the path. For that, what facilities are needed? How can we help? How can we encourage this person? One starts helping the best that one can so that more and more people come out of their misery. Bahujana-hitāya, bahujana-sukhāya: this is the aim, no other. More and more people should get the benefit of Dhamma, should get peace and harmony, should come out of misery. That’s all.

We should not become a group of sectarians. There is a danger. In the future, quite possible, a son or a grandson of a Vipassana meditator will say: "I am vipaśyī, because I am born in a family of vipaśyīs. I am a vipaśyī." Then another race will start; another caste will start. "This is vipaśyī caste. These people are vipaśyī." This person neither practises Vipassana nor knows what Vipassana is, but, "vipaśyī, vipaśyī, vipaśyī." Big danger. You have to be careful from now itself. Unless you work, you won’t get any benefit. You have to work. "Look, we are also working. You have to work. We are also working." This is the way by which we can pay back the debt of gratitude of this saintly person.

Another very important thing is that this wonderful technique was lost, not only in India, but around the world, everywhere even in the so-called Buddhist countries. Now we go there and give courses and find there are only words about Vipassana. The actual practice, the pure practice is lost. That is why they are very happy to get it.

Time has come now. Vipassana is coming up again. We have to see that it remains for a long time, serving people. It will remain serving people only when they maintain the purity of the technique. Any mixture, and the efficacy is gone. If the efficacy of the technique is gone, people won’t care for this technique and they will lose it, as they lost it thousands of years ago. We have to be very careful of that.

Whatever we have received from this saintly person and he received from the tradition we have to maintain in its pristine purity. No addition; we won’t add anything to it. Kevalaṃ paripuṇṇaṃ it is complete. Total Dhamma is there in it. What else is to be added? Kevalaṃ parisuddhaṃ total purity. No subtraction; nothing has to be taken out of it. Only the dirt of impurity has to be taken out.

If we maintain it from generation to generation, a large number of people in this miserable world will start coming out of misery. This was the mission of this saintly person; this is what he wanted. Now the time has come. The clock of Vipassana has struck.

It will start but somebody has to do something for that. It won’t start miraculously. Somebody has to work for it. Somebody has to maintain its purity. By this Annual Conference we are having here, these few points should be very important: that to pay real respect, to show our gratitude to this saintly person, we have to establish ourselves in Dhamma.

Otherwise you cannot encourage others, you cannot help others. A blind person cannot help another blind person. A lame person cannot help another lame person. We have to first get strengthened ourselves, and then by various means, we have to see that the large number of people suffering in the world get the message, they become aware that, "Look, there is a path. There is a path which is giving results."

Now in the past thirty years such good results have come already. People should know this truth, that there is a path which is giving results, which is non-sectarian, which does not involve any kind of conversion from one religion to another religion. It is just a mental exercise. When you do physical exercise, you don’t have to convert yourself to a particular religion. Similarly, this is a mental exercise, where you need not convert yourself from one organised religion to another organised religion; you need not change your name from this to that.

"You are a sick person. You need medicine to come out of sickness. Here is the medicine. Take that medicine and you come out of it." That information has to go out.

Each one of you in this conference must think: "How best can I apply my ability, my intelligence, my strength to see that the message goes to more and more people, so that more and more people know about Vipassana?"

And second, "How can we help those who want to apply this technique? According to my ability, according to my capacity, what can I do so that more and more people take advantage of this technique? What can I do so that more and more people get established in this technique?"

And the third thing, "I myself will never spoil the purity of the technique, and as far as possible I will not allow anybody, will not encourage anybody, will not support anybody, who is spoiling the purity of this technique."

Then our conference has been successful. And it will be successful, there is no doubt about that. Dhamma is there to help you. As Dhamma has been helping you till now it will help you. But it requires a strong determination from you that, "We have to pay back the debt of gratitude to this saintly person. Because of him I got Dhamma."

As we have got a feeling of gratitude towards Buddha, "Oh, if he had not worked hard in countless lives developing his pāramīs, he would not have discovered this wonderful path. And if he had not discovered this wonderful path, how could I have got it?" So there is a feeling of deep gratitude towards Buddha; deep gratitude towards the tradition which maintained the purity and deep gratitude to Sayagyi U Ba Khin, who had this strong Dhamma volition. Now the time has ripened. It will spread. It has to spread. What can I do for that? What can you do for that? To fulfil his noble desire, we will do everything that is possible within us not only for our good but also for the good of everyone else. A large number of people round the world are suffering, suffering, suffering.

May pure Dhamma spread around the world. May more and more miserable people come in contact with Dhamma, apply Dhamma in life, and get liberated from all the miseries, all the miseries.

International News

Conference for Corrections Personnel

Dhamma Dharā, Vipassana Meditation Center (VMC), Massachusetts, USA will host an experiential conference on Vipassana in prisons called Changing from Inside from 11 to 23 May, featuring a ten-day Vipassana course followed by a two-day conference for corrections personnel. It is being held in response to requests by jail administrators to have their staff attend Vipassana courses. The ten-day course is an essential component of the conference, giving administrators and staff direct experience of Vipassana, which will be invaluable for the next step of introducing the technique into their facilities.

Guest speakers and topics will include:

Ms. Lucia Meijer:
How Vipassana Can Benefit Inmates, Correctional Facilities and Society

Dr. Raman Khosla:
The Path Through Prison: Vipassana as a Reform Measure in the Prisons of India

Dr. Paul Fleischman:
The Difference Between Vipassana and Contemporary Western Therapies

The purpose of this seminar is to provide corrections personnel with the resources needed to undertake the introduction of Vipassana courses to their institutions.

For further information or to register for the conference, please contact VMC at (413) 625-2160 or by E-mail at info@dhara.dhamma.org. You may register online for a ten-day course and conference.

Vipassana course in Muscat

The first 10 day course in Vipassana was organised in Muscat, Oman, at Hotel ASAS OMAN from 25 March to 5 April 1999. Sixty-three students 29 male and 34 female students took part in the course. Goenkaji gave mettā on the tenth day of the course. The organisers plan to hold the next course in the second half of 1999.

Vipassana in Dubai

The first one-day course is being organised in the presence of Goenkaji on Buddha Purnima, 30 April 1999. The organisers plan to conduct regular one-day courses and subsequently a ten-day course in Dubai.

First Vipassana course in Singapore

The impetus for the first ten-day course in Singapore largely came from Goenkaji's visit and public talks in Singapore in September 1998.

About three-quarters of the 80 students were Chinese, and the rest were Indian, Western and Burmese. There were only two old students. Because of the multi-racial society in Singapore, the organisers decided to avoid using the facilities of Buddhist or Hindu temples that were on offer. In spite of the cost, they hired a government site the National Community Leadership Institute for the course.

The course was an ideal example of racial harmony and international team-work, and a wonderful start for the spread of Vipassana in Singapore. For more information, contact
Mr. Jaya Chandran,
31 Leonie Hill, #09-01 River Shire,
Singapore 239229.
Tel: [65] 435 4212,
Fax: [65] 734 0602;
e-mail: jaya@pacific.net.sg

New Responsibilities 1999

Ācaryas
1. Mr Don & Mrs Sally McDonald - To serve Malaysia
2. Mr Harry & Mrs Vivian Snyder - To serve Dhamma Mahāvana

Senior Assistant Teachers
1. Ms Jittinun Jewcharernsakul, Thailand
2. Dr Jambal Hatanbaatar, Mongolia

New Appointments 1999

Assistant Teachers
1 & 2. Mr Rajesh & Mrs Falguni Purecha, Oman
3. Mr Vimal Purecha, Oman
4. Mr Parasuram Gotama, Myanmar
5. Dr (Ms) Lemay Henderson, Canada