Sayagyi U Ba Khin: A Shining Star of Dhamma

 

Sayagyi U Ba Khin was one of the foremost teachers of Vipassana of our time a source of inspiration to many, including myself. One of his unique contributions was that he gave much attention to foreigners and non-Buddhists in his teaching. Sayagyi’s predecessors were Saya Thetgyi and Ledi Sayadaw. The other disciples of these teachers who were teaching Vipassana in this tradition used only the Burmese language for the most part and so had only Burmese students. Sayagyi, however, spoke fluent English and was able to explain Dhamma in English in a way that Buddhists and non-Buddhists, Burmese and non-Burmese alike, could grasp and appreciate.

Sayagyi’s way was not the way of scholars. Every word that he spoke came from his own experience. Therefore his teachings have the life of experience within them, and this is why every word said by him was very powerful and encouraging to his students. He wrote little, and he spoke little, but still, many students were benefited by his teaching.

He was engaged in government responsibilities until the age of sixty-seven and had very little time to spare for the teaching of Dhamma. Therefore, he took a vow: "May only ripened people with very good pāramīs (virtues) from the past come to me to take Dhamma, and may these people later take the torch of Dhamma, and spread it around the world." He could not work with the masses; he was working to serve a few individuals for whom he could spare more time.

He used to recite a Pāli gāthā (verse):

Iminā puññā-kammena
mā me bāla samāgamo;
sataṃ samāgamo hotu
yāva nibbāna pattiyā.
-By virtue of this meritorious action
may I not come into contact with the ignorant.
May I encounter only wise, saintly people
until I attain nibbāna.

One time when he came to my home, I was chanting and at the end recited this gāthā. Sayagyi smilingly admonished me, saying, "This gāthā is not for you! You are to give seeds of Dhamma to a very large number of people. If you take this vow, how will Dhamma spread? This vow is for me because I have little time, and I am just on the border of 2,500 years after Buddha when Dhamma has to start spreading. You are getting Dhamma at the time when the new era has started. So you have to work vigorously. You have to spread the seeds of Dhamma to large numbers of people. So don’t recite this!" Of course I bowed to him and to his wishes.

Besides being an ideal government executive with outstanding ability and integrity, he was a very human teacher of the noble path. He taught with immeasurable love and compassion in spite of his insistence on strict discipline. He gave equally compassionate attention to the ex-president of Burma and a peasant, to a judge of the Supreme Court and a criminal.

Such was U Ba Khin, a jewel amongst men. Such was my noble teacher who taught me the art of a sane life.

He has chosen me to plant seeds of Dhamma around the world. Comparing my capacity with his, I feel very humble. And this makes me all the more confident that it is Dhamma that is working not simply some individual. I have been chosen by my teacher as a vehicle for the Dhamma. And by helping to carry out his mission, I receive the benefits of developing my own pāramīs. With this understanding, I continue to work. And in the same way, you of the next generation have the responsibility the wonderful opportunity of carrying on the work.

It is his mission. It is Dhamma’s work. He will keep on shining as a brilliant star in the galaxy of teachers from Buddha to the present and into the future.

Sayagyi was looking forward to the second sāsana (era of the Buddha’s teaching) when the Dhamma would help people throughout the world. May his wishes be fulfilled.

May more and more suffering people around the world come into contact with Dhamma, especially now, when throughout the world there is so much misery, so much conflict, so many tensions. May more and more people come in contact with Vipassana.

The Grand Pagoda: Lighting a Beacon to the World

To mark the centenary of the birth of Sayagyi U Ba Khin, an extraordinary project is taking shape in Mumbai. There, in the suburbs of India’s most modern city, a crossroads of East and West, the foundations have been laid for a unique monument: the Grand Vipassana Pagoda.

For ages, graceful pagodas have dotted the landscape of Myanmar. Their soaring spires have represented humanity’s aspirations to the highest spiritual goals. By their very form they have served as visible reminders of the path of liberation, the teaching of the Buddha. The most famous and revered of Myanmar’s pagodas is the world-renowned Shwedagon in the capital city of Yangon. It dominates the city skyline, beckoning to people from afar; and it has been the model for countless other pagodas, including those built atop the meditation cell complexes at Vipassana meditation centers.

Each pagoda honors the past: the matchless Teacher who showed the world the way to enlightenment. At the same time a pagoda is a beacon guiding us toward the future of freedom from misery through the practice of Vipassana meditation.

The world needs such a beacon today. Although tens of thousands of people have learned Vipassana in the last three decades, many more remain unaware of the message of the Buddha. And in India, that message is still misunderstood: there people are taught to honor the Buddha as a god but to reject his teaching as a heresy.

The Grand Vipassana Pagoda is designed to break through this shell of ignorance. Towering over 100 meters into the sky, it will attract visitors from India and abroad; and in a gallery with compelling displays, it will present the truth about India’s greatest son and the world’s greatest benefactor. Indians in large numbers will have the opportunity to learn about the life and universal teaching of the Buddha; they will rediscover the most precious part of their national heritage. As for the millions of people from other countries who pass through Mumbai each year, many will be drawn to the Grand Pagoda; and when they return to their homelands they will carry an interest in Vipassana and perhaps the wish to join a course. The Pagoda thus will inform and inspire multitudes.

But a Vipassana Pagoda must do more than that; it must provide an opportunity to take steps on the path to Enlightenment. And so the structure will contain a hall in which up to 10,000 people can sit together and practice Vipassana meditation. This is in fact its main purpose. Old students will gather in the hall on Sundays and holidays for group sittings or one-day courses; and by their meditation together, they will create a powerful Dhamma atmosphere.

Two and a half millennia ago, Myanmar received the Teaching of the Buddha from India, and through the centuries it preserved Vipassana, the gem of Dhamma, in its pristine purity. But according to an ancient prophecy, after 2,500 years the Dhamma would return from Myanmar to India and would spread from there around the world. Earlier in this century Sayagyi U Ba Khin recognized that the time had come for the prophecy to be fulfilled, for Myanmar to repay its debt of gratitude to India. Although he himself could not go to India during his lifetime to teach Dhamma, he trained our teacher, Goenkaji, to do this as his representative. Because of him, today the land of India again has the jewel of Vipassana; and we, Goenkaji’s students, have learned the technique of liberation.

As Goenkaji often says, "Without Myanmar there would have been no U Ba Khin, without U Ba Khin there would have been no Goenka, and there would have been no gift of Dhamma to students around the world." In the very first words of every course he declares his gratitude to his teacher; and before teaching Anapana and Vipassana, he chants:

Guruvara terī aurase,
deūn Dharama kā dāna.
Revered Teacher, on your behalf,
may I give the gift of Dhamma.

Guruvara terā pratinidhi,
devūn Dharama kā dāna.
Revered Teacher, as your representative,
may I give the gift of Dhamma.

He attributes all the enormous successes of the last 30 years to U Ba Khin. Each student of Vipassana will naturally feel gratitude to Sayagyi and Myanmar for the gift of Dhamma, and gratitude for the opportunity to develop our pāramīs by helping in Sayagyi’s great mission.

Now, 100 years after Sayagyi entered this world, we have an opportunity to show our gratitude to him. We do so first of all by practicing what he taught, establishing ourselves in Vipassana. And having done so, we can work to fulfil his mission by helping the teaching to spread still more widely, to millions of suffering people around the world.

In every part of the globe, dedicated meditators are patiently working to help others learn Vipassana. However humble their efforts, they will yield wonderful fruit because they are performed with pure volition. And crowning all will be the Grand Pagoda. It will be visible proof of the re-awakening of the Buddha’s teachings in India, and their spread around the world. It will be an expression of gratitude to Myanmar, the country that preserved the essence of the Teaching Vipassana. It will embody as well our gratitude to U Ba Khin, who enabled each of us today to find the path to liberation. Last, it will be a beacon to the world, drawing large numbers of people everywhere to the incomparable teaching of Vipassana.

In Myanmar, people traditionally are eager to join in supporting any meritorious deed so that they may share in the resulting fruits. All Vipassana meditators are welcome to contribute to the Grand Pagoda Project, even in a token way; and by thus expressing their gratitude to Sayagyi, to Myanmar and to the Teaching, they will share in the great merits of the project.

Vipassana students as well as non-students around the world may send donations for construction of the Grand Vipassana Pagoda Project to the following address:
Global Vipassana Foundation, C/o Khimji Kunverji and Co., Suite 52, Bombay Mutual Building, Sir P. M. Road, Fort, Mumbai-400 001.
Tel: 266 2550, 266 1270; Fax: 266 4045.
Bank of India (Mumbai branch) savings account No. 11244.
Bank of India (Mumbai branch) savings account No. 11250 (for donations from outside India).

In the U.S., dāna may be sent to the Southwest Vipassana Association, P.O. Box 190248, Dallas, Texas 75219, U.S.A.

Goenkaji Answers Questions About Sayagyi

Question: Meditation has always been considered a withdrawal from society. Why did Sayagyi U Ba Khin give so much importance to the social aspect of meditation? In particular, for householders, do you think that our involvement in society, rather than isolation, can truly help the progress of our meditation?

Goenkaji: To gain purity of mind and to gain the Dhamma energy, you withdraw from others and take your attention inside. But then, that energy has to be used in an extroverted way. It is like someone making a long jump. You have to step back a little, then run and make the jump. In the same way, you withdraw within yourself, and you get the energy you need, then you make a long jump into society to serve it. These two cannot be separated. Buddha left his householder’s life for six years to gain Buddhahood, but once this was attained, he was involved in society for the next forty-five years, the remainder of his life, day and night. In the same way, anyone who develops in Dhamma does not run away from the responsibilities of society.

Question: What was the historical role Sayagyi U Ba Khin played in the development and spreading of this method of Vipassana meditation?

Goenkaji: Sayagyi U Ba Khin found himself continuing the work of teaching Vipassana meditation almost 2500 years after the Buddha taught, in accord with certain predictions: that the Dhamma in the form of Vipassana would begin to spread at this time. It was exactly then that Sayagyi U Ba Khin arrived to teach. As was said previously, his many societal obligations didn’t leave him much time to dedicate to the spread of Vipassana meditation, but he taught a number of people who had such remarkable qualities that they became vehicles for the spread of Dhamma in the form of Vipassana.

Question: What are the main characteristics of Sayagyi U Ba Khin’s teachings?

Goenkaji: Meditators must start with sīla, that is, they must begin in their lives to respect certain basic moral principles. Then, they must begin to develop samādhi, mental concentration, cultivating the awareness of the natural breath, only pure breath without adding other objects of concentration. And then, they must begin to develop paññā, wisdom, through the observation of sensations on the body. Observing sensations with equanimity, without reacting, and understanding their characteristic of anicca, impermanence, one learns to stop generating mental impurities, which then allows those accumulated impurities finally to come to the surface and be eradicated. This is what the Buddha taught, this is what Sayagyi U Ba Khin taught, this is what I am teaching.

Question: Why did Sayagyi U Ba Khin stress so much the continuity of practice, structuring the ten-day courses with such an intensive program?

Goenkaji: Because this is what the teachings of the Buddha require that the awareness of sensations with the understanding of anicca be maintained constantly, continuously, day and night. The period of a course is only ten days, which is a very short time. Therefore, for their own benefit, Sayagyi U Ba Khin suggested to his students that they maintain continuous awareness for as long as possible.

Question: Why did Sayagyi U Ba Khin give most importance to the observation of bodily sensations? And why the predominance of observing material phenomena and thus the body with the base of sensations as more important than observing mental phenomena?

Goenkaji: Because when one speaks of observing the mind, most people understand that not as objectively experiencing the mind but as contemplating the mind, which would mean continuing to roll in it, continuing to react, and this is not the teaching of the Buddha. On the contrary, when one is working with bodily sensations, there is actually a direct, tangible, concrete experience that doesn’t at all involve the imagination and is thus without any illusions. When the Buddha requires working with bodily sensations, physical sensations, this doesn’t mean completely neglecting the mind because it isn’t the body that perceives the sensations, it is the mind. The sensations are on the body but they are felt and perceived by the mind. Mind and matter are both involved when a person observes bodily sensations.

In fact, whatever arises in the mind manifests itself as a sensation in the body. One cannot emphasize this teaching enough. To observe only mental states will improve your faculty of observation, but this is not the whole truth. You are only observing your thoughts. But what is happening in the body at that moment? Both mind and body must be observed. When a thought arises, simultaneously there is a sensation in the body. And the sensation is actually the root of the problem. We do not react to the thoughts. It could seem that when we have a pleasant thought in the mind, craving begins, and when we have an unpleasant thought, aversion begins. But in fact, in keeping with the law of nature, that which we call a pleasant thought is nothing other than a pleasant sensation in the body. If you overlook the observation of physical sensations, you are working only at a superficial level. You can still derive some benefit from this, but it will not enable you to eradicate your impurities. The roots remain.

Question: Why did Sayagyi U Ba Khin place so much emphasis on the understanding of anicca?

Goenkaji: Because this is what the Buddha taught. The Buddha explained that the teaching is about developing one’s own wisdom, one’s own bhāvanā-mayā-paññā, through observing sensations with the understanding of anicca, of their impermanence. It is only this experience, this understanding of impermanence, that can lead a person to penetrate the real truth of suffering, and this in turn leads to understanding the non-existence of the ego, understanding that there is no "I," no self.

Question: What is the unique characteristic of Vipassana meditation as taught by Sayagyi U Ba Khin?

Goenkaji: All importance is given to bhāvāna-maya-paññā, which is the wisdom that one develops through direct personal experience. With suta-maya-paññā (wisdom acquired by simply listening to someone else) or cintā-maya-paññā (wisdom obtained through reasoning and intellectual analysis), a person can purify the mind but only to a certain degree. It is only with bhāvāna-maya-paññā (wisdom acquired through direct personal experience) that one can purify the mind at the deepest levels. The Buddha called the deepest mental conditioning sankhāra anusaya kilesa, that is, the conditioning hidden in our unconscious mind. He taught that only when these become eradicated could a person become completely liberated. And this could only be done through bhāvāna-maya-paññā, that is, with the wisdom derived from direct experience. And that direct experience can be acquired only by observing equanimously the physical sensations on the body. This is the basic contribution of the Buddha to humanity and this is what Sayagyi U Ba Khin continued to teach.

First 20-Day Course at Dhamma Tihar

The first 20-day course at Dhamma-Tihar conducted from 20 May to 10 June 1999 for 15 senior meditator-inmates was completed with remarkable success.

The course was marked by disciplined adherence to the course schedule and complete noble silence by the students. The jail staff and officers were amazed and impressed by the serious meditative environment that prevailed in the centre during the course. There was no ten-day course during this period and this added to the seriousness of the course. All the meditators lived in separate chakkis and meditated in the cells allotted to them. The carefully selected Dhamma workers, most of whom also fulfilled the criteria for sitting a long course, served in an exemplary manner. The jail authorities also cooperated by making arrangements to minimise disturbance to the meditators from the noise of announcements made in the jail; by prohibiting non-meditators from entering the centre during this period; and by ensuring that repairs to the damaged chakkis and tiling of the ten new meditation cells were completed before the start of the course so that each meditator could have separate residential quarters.

On the day after the conclusion of the course, a feedback session from the participants was organised in which most of the senior jail officials, including the Addl. D.G. (Prisons), D.I.G., and many Jail Superintendents. were present. After listening to the feedback from the participants, the Addl. D.G. remarked that it seemed to him that he was sitting in a temple and listening to spiritual discourses rather than listening to prisoners in a jail! He promised to take the earliest opportunity to participate in a course himself. Some of the participants said that when they eventually leave the prison they would be able to tell their friends that their incarceration had became a blessing enabling them to fulfil the goal of their life while those outside were not even aware of any such goal.

All the participants were also administered a truncated version of WHO’s Subjective Well being Scale. The results show exceptionally high scores, indicating an extraordinary sense of subjective well being in the participants.

The participants, Dhamma-workers and some jail staff felt that more such long courses should be organised to enable serious students to meditate intensively and progress rapidly. All the participants were cheerful and thankful for the experience and hope to take part in a 30-day course in Tihar in the near future.

The basic infrastructure necessary to organise regular long and serious courses for 15 students is now ready in Dhamma Tihar. May more and more meditators take the benefit of these courses to develop in Dhamma and find real peace, real happiness, real liberation!

First Satipaṭṭhāna Course in Nashik Jail

At Dhamma Vaṭī, Nashik Jail, 38 Vipassana courses have been organised in the past three years, benefiting 2200 inmates (1200 new and 1000 old students). Those inmates who had done several courses expressed the wish that a Satipaṭṭhāna course should be organised for them. Therefore, the first Satipaṭṭhāna course was conducted from 24 April to 2 May 1999 for twenty-three meditator-inmates. All of them worked seriously and diligently and gained immense benefit from the course.

First Vipassana Course in Chennai Jail

The first course in Tamil Nadu is being conducted at Chennai Jail from 15 to 26 June, 1999. Thirty inmates and three prison staff members are taking part in the course. It is planned to conduct a course at Vellore Jail next month.

Vipassana Course for blind in Kolhapur

Twenty-two male and six female visually impaired students successfully completed a Vipassana course conducted at the Nisargopachar Kendra, Kolhapur from 2 to 13 April, 1999. Before this, five courses have been organised for the blind at Mumbai, Pune, Ahmedabad and Kathmandu. The gratitude and happiness expressed by these students at the end of the course is highly inspiring.

New Appointments 1999

Assistant Teachers
Mrs Sumedha Verma, Pune
Mr Suresh Sampat, Mumbai
Mr Madan Mutha, Kolhapur
Mr Mohanlal & Mrs Sheela Kela, Indore

Children Course Teachers
Mr Maganlal Molia, Rajko