The Buddha | Global Vipassana

Sixth century BC was an important era in history. This was the period when a great benefactor of mankind was born and became renowned as Gotama the Buddha. The Buddha rediscovered the path of Dhamma leading to the eradication of universal suffering. With great compassion he spent forty-five years showing the path and this helped millions of people to come out of their misery. Even today this path is helping humanity, and will continue to do so provided the teachings and practice are maintained in their pristine purity.

History tells us that in 624 B.C. King Suddhodana ruled the kingdom of Sakya. He had two queens: the chief queen was Mahamaya and the younger queen was Mahapajapata Gotami, the sister of Mahamaya. When Mahamaya was travelling from Kapilavatthu, the capital, to Devadaha, her parents’ home, to have her first child, she gave birth along the way to a son under a large sala tree in the Lumbini grove on the full moon day of Vesakha (month of April-May). An old sage, Asita, visited the palace, and on seeing the marks of greatness (mahapurisa lakkhana) in the child, first expressed joy and then shed tears. He was joyful at seeing that a great being had come to earth to teach suffering humanity how to eradicate its misery, yet he shed tears because he would not live long enough to be able to benefit from this.

Five days after the birth the name-giving ceremony was held to which a number of brahmans were invited. All, except Kondanna, foretold: either the child would be a great Emperor (Cakkavatti Raja) or an Enlightened One, a Buddha. Kondanna, however, said quite decisively that the boy would be a Buddha. The boy was given the name of Siddhattha, meaning one whose aim is accomplished. Just seven days after the birth, Queen Mahamaya passed away and the young Siddhattha Gotama (Gotama being his family name) was then raised by his stepmother Mahapajapati Gotami. As he grew, the young prince preferred solitude and a meditative life to the games and pranks natural for his age. This was observed by his father who, fearing the prophecy, tried his best to divert the attention of the young Siddhattha towards worldly things, while at the same time shielding him from the sight of any worldly suffering.

At the young age of sixteen, Siddhattha was married to Yasodhara, a beautiful princess. It was his father’s hope that she would bind him to the family life. Until the age of twenty-nine he lived the life of a householder amidst great luxury and ease. One day, as Siddhattha was going out in his chariot, he saw along the way a decrepit old man, then a sick man, then a dead body, and finally an ascetic radiating with a glow of peace and tranquillity on his face. These four incidents made a distinct impression on him. He began reflecting on the misery inherent in existence; at the same time he felt drawn to renounce the world and seek a way of liberation.

When Prince Siddhattha and Princess Yasodhara bore a son, Siddhattha saw the event as bondage and decided to call the child Rahula, meaning an obstacle. Ultimately, however, the child did not prove to be bondage, as Siddhattha thought it better to renounce the worldly life before his attachment grew stronger. He decided to adopt the life of a wanderer in quest of truth. One night, he left the palace along with his attendant Channa. After going some distance he discarded his royal robes and ornaments, giving them to Channa, and then cut off his hair and became an ascetic. He was twenty-nine years of age.

For six years he wandered in search of truth. First he met the spiritual teachers Alara Kalama and Uddaka Ramaputta, and learned from them deep absorption concentrations (the seventh and eighth jhanas) that were practised at that time. Despite this practice Siddhattha wasn’t satisfied. Although his mind was more calm and peaceful, and now purified to a great extent, still at the deepest level of his mind there remained latent defilements. His mind was not totally pure.

At this stage in his search he proceeded to Senanigama in Uruvela. There he practised rigorous austerities along with five other mendicants—the pancavaggiya bhikkhus. By fasting he was reduced to a mere skeleton, yet total purification still eluded him. As a result of all these experiences he realised that as the life of ease and physical luxury was one extreme and not the way to eradicate suffering, so also the life of physical torture and severe penance was another extreme. This realisation brought him to the middle path. He decided to take food again, and was offered rice gruel by Sujata, a young maid living nearby. At this point his five companions left him, as they were still convinced that the path of self-mortification led to enlightenment.

Siddhattha continued on alone. On the full moon day of Vesakha (April-May), after refreshing himself in the Neranjara River, he was drawn towards a pleasant grove of trees. There he sat down with a strong determination (adhiṭṭhana) not to leave until attaining enlightenment. He spent that night in deep meditation, exploring the truth within, and rediscovered the long-lost technique of vipassana. Vipassana means to see things as they really are, and not just as they appear to be. In the Brahmajala Sutta he states how he practised this to achieve enlightenment: Having experienced as they really are the arising of sensations, their passing away, the relishing of them, the danger in them, and the release from them, the Enlightened One, O monks, has become detached and liberated.

Practising Vipassana, he penetrated the veils of ignorance, delusion, and illusion. He discovered the law of dependent origination (paticcasamuppada), the chain of cause and effect conditioning the universe. Whatever arises, arises due to a cause; when the cause is eradicated there can be no resulting effect. Therefore, by totally eliminating the cause of suffering one can attain real happiness, real liberation from all misery. With this realisation, he penetrated the illusion of solidity in mind and matter, dissolved the tendency of his mind to cling and crave, and realised the unconditioned truth. The darkness of ignorance was dispelled and the light of wisdom shone forth in all its brilliance. The subtlest defilements of his mind were washed away. All the shackles were broken. No craving remained for the future; his mind became free from all attachments. Siddhattha Gotama attained supreme enlightenment, experiencing the ultimate truth in all its purity, and became a Sammasambuddha. The tree under which he sat became known as the Bodhi tree and the area as Bodhagaya.

With the experience of total liberation the following words of joy (udana) came forth:

Anekajatisamsaram sandhavissam anibbisam,

gahakarakam gavesanto dukkha jati punappunam.

Gahakaraka dittho’si puna geham na kahasi,

sabba te phasuka bhagga gahakutam visankhitam,

visankharagatam cittam tanhanam khayamajjhaga.

Through countless births I wandered in samsara, seeking, but not finding, the builder of the house. I have been taking birth in misery again and again. O builder of the house you are now seen! You cannot build the house again. All the rafters and the central pole are shattered. The mind is free from all the sankhara. The craving-free stage is achieved.

After his enlightenment the Buddha spent several weeks enjoying nibbanic peace. At the end of this period Tapassu and Bhallika, two merchants of Ukkala offered him rice cakes and honey. These two became the first lay disciples (upasaka) taking refuge only in the Buddha and the Dhamma, as the Sangha had not yet come into being.

The Burmese tradition maintains that both these merchants were from Okkala, an ancient city near present day Rangoon. The Burmese take pride in the fact that the first people to give respect to the Buddha and the Dhamma were from Burma, and that the first food that the Buddha took after enlightenment was Burmese rice and honey.

With infinite compassion the Buddha decided to teach the profound Dhamma. His two previous teachers Alara Kalama and Uddaka Ramaputta, who could both have understood the Dhamma, had passed away. So he decided to go to the Isipatana-migadaya at Saranath, the deer park near Varanasi, to teach his five companions who had left him just before his enlightenment. It was on the full moon day of Asalha (June-July) that the Buddha set in motion the Wheel of the Dhamma by teaching the Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta explaining the middle path to them. They became his first five bhikkhu disciples and therefore the first members of the Bhikkhu Sangha (Order of Monks). This sermon was later followed by the Anatta-lakkhana Sutta at the end of which all five became fully liberated (arahant) by the practice of Vipassana. They realised the truth of the impermanent, substanceless, and unsatisfactory nature of reality (anicca, dukkha, and anatta) at the experiential level.

Not long after this, Yasa, the depressed and mentally disturbed son of a wealthy merchant of Varanasi who could not find peace in his riches and way of life, approached the Buddha and received ordination. He was followed by his fifty-four friends who also became monks. Having tasted Dhamma, they soon gained the peace which they sought and with continued practice they all attained the stage of arahant. Yasa’s father and mother became the first lay disciples to take refuge in the Triple Gem, since now there were three qualities in which to take refuge: the Buddha, the Dhamma, and the Sangha.

The next months were the rainy season and the Buddha spent them in retreat (vassavasa) at Saranath with the Sangha, which had grown to sixty arahant bhikkhus. As the rainy season ended he instructed them as follows:

Wander forth, O monks, for the benefit of many, for the happiness of many. Shower compassion on the world for the good, benefit, and happiness of gods and men. Let no two go in the same direction. The Buddha sent these sixty bhikkhus to various places to teach the Dhamma. Because they had realised the truth of the path to liberation themselves, they became shining examples of what they taught. Their teaching did not consist of mere discourses, mere words. Their success lay in enabling the people to practise what was taught. The nature of the Dhamma is that it is beneficial in the beginning, beneficial in the middle, and beneficial in the end. The results of the practice (patipatti) started to manifest. People from different sects, castes, and classes were attracted. Leaders of various sects started practising the Dhamma. While the Buddha was on his way to Senanigama at Uruvela, the thirty Bhaddavaggiya received ordination. At Uruvela, the three Kassapa brothers with their thousand followers became monks. Also the two brahmansSariputta and Moggallana took ordination, and later became the chief disciples of the Buddha.

Many other important people of that time also became attracted to pure Dhamma: the Kings Bimbisara, Suddhodana, and Prasenajita; the wealthy merchants Anathapindika, Jotiya, Jatila, Mendaka, Punnaka, and Kakavaliya; and important women such as Visakha, Suppavasa, and Khema. They donated various monasteries to the Sangha with the wholesome volition that the Dhamma might spread throughout society. These facilities enabled people to learn and practise the Dhamma, and thereby come out of their suffering.

The Buddha spent his second, third, and fourth rainy seasons at Rajagaha in the Bamboo Grove donated by King Bimbisara. The Buddha always remained at one place for the rains and moved around northern India teaching Dhamma during the rest of the year. One of these journeys was to Kapilavatthu at the invitation of King Suddhodana. The Buddha was received with honours by the native Sakyans. During this visit thousands of them joined the Sangha, including his son Rahula and stepbrother Nanda. Others such as Anuruddha, Bhaddiya, Ananda, Bhagu, Kimbila, Devadatta, and even the royal barber Upali, also joined.

The fifth rainy season was spent in Vesali. It was in that year that King Suddhodana, the Buddha’s father, died. His widow, Mahapajapati Gotami, requested the Buddha to allow women to join the Sangha. Ananda interceded on their behalf and their request was granted. This was the beginning of the Order of Nuns (Bhikkhuni Sangha).

The Buddha spent the next rains retreat at Mankulapabbata, and the seventh at Tavatimsa preaching Abhidhamma (higher teachings) to Mahamaya and other devas.

Subsequently, the eighth to the nineteenth rains retreats were spent at the following places: Bhesakalavana, Kosambi, Parileyyaka Forest, the brahman village of Ekanala, Veranja, Calikapabbata, Jetavana in Savatthi, Kapilavatthu, Alavi, and Rajagaha.

In the twentieth year the Buddha transformed the life of the ferocious Angulimala who had earlier killed 999 people. Coming into contact with the Dhamma, Angulimala became a saintly person and later on became an arahant. The Buddha spent the twentieth retreat at Rajagaha. From the twenty-first up to the forty-sixth, his final rains retreat, the Buddha spent his time at Savatthi in the Jetavana Vihara and Pubbarama Vihara.

Throughout his life he continually faced opposition from those espousing old superstitions and beliefs based on birth, caste, class, animal sacrifice, etc. At times he faced great opposition from sectarians who tried to discredit him and his teaching by trying to create scandals. One monk, Devadatta, tried to create a schism in the Sangha, and even tried to kill the Buddha by various means. In all instances the Buddha used his infinite wisdom, love, and compassion to overcome these opposing forces, and continued to serve more and more suffering beings.

At the age of eighty the Buddha visited Vesali where the courtesan Ambapali offered him a meal and made a gift of her Ambalatthika Grove to the Sangha. Through the practice of Dhamma she came out of immorality, established herself in truth, and became an arahant. Later in the same year he visited Pava and stayed in the mango grove of Cunda. Here he took what was to be his last meal, and became ill. In this weakened condition he continued on to Kusinara. There he instructed Ananda to spread his upper robe between twin sala trees, and informed him that the end of his life had come. A large number of monks, lay followers, and devas assembled around him to pay their last respects. The Buddha gave them his last admonition, known as pacchima-vaca:

Vaya-dhamma sankhara,

appamadena sampadetha.

Decay is inherent in all compounded things

work out your own salvation with diligence.

Thus teaching the Dhamma as he himself practised it, the Buddha attained Mahaparinibbana in his eightieth year, on the full moon day of Vesakha in 544 B.C

  

S N Goenka | Global Vipassana

S.N. Goenka, or Goenkaji as he is widely and respectfully referred to, is well known in numerous countries of the world as a master teacher of meditation. He received the technique that he teaches in the 1950’s from Sayagyi U Ba Khin of Burma, who in turn received it from Saya Thet, who received it in turn from the venerable monk, Ledi Sayadaw, who in turn received it from his own teacher in a long line of teachers descended directly from the Buddha. The achievement of this line of teachers in preserving the technique through such a long period of time is extraordinary, and a cause for gratitude in those who practise it. Now, in a world hungry for inner peace, there has been an extraordinary spread of the technique in Goenkaji’s lifetime.

In spite of his magnetic personality and the enormous success of his teaching methods, Goenkaji gives all credit for his success to the efficacy of Dhamma itself. He has never sought to play the role of a guru or to found any kind of sect, cult or religious organisation. When teaching the technique he never omits to say that he received it from the Buddha through a chain of teachers down to his own teacher, and his gratitude to them for the benefits that he has personally gained in his own meditation is evident. At the same time, he continually emphasises that he does not teach Buddhism or any kind of "ism," and that the technique that he teaches is universal, for people from any religious or philosophical background or belief.

Although his family was from India, Goenkaji was brought up in Burma, where he learnt the technique from his teacher Sayagyi U Ba Khin. After being authorised as a teacher by U Ba Khin he left Burma in 1969 in response to his mother’s illness, to give a ten-day course to his parents and twelve others in Bombay. The inspiration that he imparted and the extraordinary results of his teaching led to many more such courses, first in campsites around India and then later in centres as these began to spring up. From 1979 onwards he also started giving courses outside India, notably in Sri Lanka, Thailand, Nepal, France, England, North America, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand. All of these countries today have one or more centres.

Sayagyi U Ba Khin | Global Vipassana

"Dhamma eradicates suffering and gives happiness. Who gives this happiness? It is not the Buddha but the Dhamma, the knowledge of anicca within the body, which gives the happiness. That is why you must meditate and be aware of anicca continually." - Sayagyi U Ba Khin

Sayagyi U Ba Khin was born in Rangoon, the capital of Burma, on 6th March, 1899. He was the younger of two children in a family of modest means living in a working class district. Burma was ruled by Britain at the time, as it was until after the Second World War. Learning English was therefore very important; in fact, job advancement depended on having a good speaking knowledge of English.

Fortunately, an elderly man from a nearby factory assisted U Ba Khin in entering the Methodist Middle School at the age of eight. He proved a gifted student. He had the ability to commit his lessons to memory, learning his English grammar book by heart from cover to cover. He was first in every class and earned a middle school scholarship. A Burmese teacher helped him gain entrance to St. Paul's Institution, where every year he was again at the head of his high school class.

In March of 1917, he passed the final high school examination, winning a gold medal as well as a college scholarship. But family pressures forced him to discontinue his formal education to start earning money.

His first job was with a Burmese newspaper called The Sun, but after some time he began working as an accounts clerk in the office of the Accountant General of Burma. Few other Burmese were employed in this office since most of the civil servants in Burma at the time were British or Indian. In 1926 he passed the Accounts Service examination, given by the provincial government of India. In 1937, when Burma was separated from India, he was appointed the first Special Office Superintendent. It was on 1st January, 1937, that Sayagyi tried meditation for the first time. A student of Saya Thetgyi – a wealthy farmer and meditation teacher – was visiting U Ba Khin and explained Anapana meditation to him. When Sayagyi tried it, he experienced good concentration, which impressed him so much that he resolved to complete a full course. Accordingly, he applied for a ten-day leave of absence and set out for Saya Thetgyi's teaching centre.

It is a testament to U Ba Khin's determination to learn Vipassana that he left the headquarters on short notice. His desire to meditate was so strong that only one week after trying Anapana, he was on his way to Saya Thetgyi's centre at Pyawbwegyi.

The small village of Pyawbwegyi is due south of Rangoon, across the Rangoon River and miles of rice paddies. Although it is only eight miles from the city, the muddy fields before harvest time make it seem longer; travellers must cross the equivalent of a shallow sea. When U Ba Khin crossed the Rangoon River, it was low tide, and the sampan boat he hired could only take him to Phyarsu village–about half the distance –along a tributary which connected to Pyawbwegyi. Sayagyi climbed the river bank, sinking in mud up to his knees. He covered the remaining distance on foot across the fields, arriving with his legs caked in mud.

That same night, U Ba Khin and another Burmese student, who was a disciple of Ledi Sayadaw, received Anapana instructions from Saya Thetgyi. The two students advanced rapidly, and were given Vipassana the next day. Sayagyi progressed well during this first ten-day course, and continued his work during frequent visits to his teacher's centre and meetings with Saya Thetgyi whenever he came to Rangoon.

When he returned to his office, Sayagyi found an envelope on his desk. He feared that it might be a dismissal note but found, to his surprise, that it was a promotion letter. He had been chosen for the post of Special Office Superintendent in the new office of the Auditor General of Burma.

In 1941, a seemingly happenstance incident occurred which was to be important in Sayagyi's life. While on government business in upper Burma, he met by chance Webu Sayadaw, a monk who had achieved high attainments in meditation. Webu Sayadaw was impressed with U Ba Khin's proficiency in meditation, and urged him to teach. He was the first person to exhort Sayagyi to start teaching. An account of this historic meeting, and subsequent contacts between these two important figures, is described in the article Ven. Webu Sayadaw and Sayagyi U Ba Khin.

U Ba Khin did not begin teaching in a formal way until about a decade after he first met Webu Sayadaw. Saya Thetgyi also encouraged him to teach Vipassana. On one occasion during the Japanese occupation of Burma, Saya Thetgyi came to Rangoon and stayed with one of his students who was a government official. When his host and other students expressed a wish to see Saya Thetgyi more often, he replied, "I am like the doctor who can only see you at certain times. But U Ba Khin is like the nurse who will see you any time."

Sayagyi's government service continued for another twenty-six years. He became Accountant General on 4th January, 1948, the day Burma gained independence. For the next two decades, he was employed in various capacities in the government, most of the time holding two or more posts, each equivalent to the head of a department. At one time he served as head of three separate departments simultaneously for three years and, on another occasion, head of four departments for about one year. When he was appointed as the chairman of the State Agricultural Marketing Board in 1956, the Burmese government conferred on him the title of "Thray Sithu," a high honorary title. Only the last four years of Sayagyi's life were devoted exclusively to teaching meditation. The rest of the time he combined his skill in meditation with his devotion to government service and his responsibilities to his family. Sayagyi was a married householder with five daughters and one son.

In 1950 he founded the Vipassana Association of the Accountant General's Office where lay people, mainly employees of that office, could learn Vipassana. In 1952, the International Meditation Centre (I.M.C.) was opened in Rangoon, two miles north of the famous Shwedagon Pagoda. Here many Burmese and foreign students had the good fortune to receive instruction in the Dhamma from Sayagyi.

Sayagyi was active in the planning for the Sixth Council known as Chatta Sangayana (Sixth Recitation) which was held in 1954-56 in Rangoon. Sayagyi was a founding member in 1950 of two organizations which were later merged to become the Union of Burma Buddha Sasana Council (U.B.S.C.), the main planning body for the Great Council. U Ba Khin served as an executive member of the U.B.S.C. and as chairman of the committee for patipatti (practice of meditation).

He also served as honorary auditor of the Council and was therefore responsible for maintaining the accounts for all dana(donation) receipts and expenditures. There was an extensive building programme spread over 170 acres to provide housing, dining areas and kitchen, a hospital, library, museum, four hostels and administrative buildings. The focal point of the entire enterprise was the Maha Pasanaguha (Great Cave), a massive hall where approximately five thousand monks from Burma, Sri Lanka, Thailand, India, Cambodia and Laos gathered to recite, purify, edit and publish the Tipitaka (scriptures). The monks, working in groups, prepared the Pali texts for publication, comparing the Burmese, Sri Lankan Thai, and Cambodian editions and the Roman-script edition of the Pali Text Society in London. The corrected and approved texts were recited in the Great Cave. Ten to fifteen thousand lay men and women came to listen to the recitations of the monks.

To efficiently handle the millions in donations that came for this undertaking, U Ba Khin created a system of printing receipt books on different coloured paper for different amounts of dana, ranging from the humblest donation up to very large amounts. Only selected people were allowed to handle the larger contributions, and every donation was scrupulously accounted for, avoiding any hint of misappropriation.

Sayagyi remained active with the U.B.S.C. in various capacities until 1967. In this way he combined his responsibilities and talents as a layman and government official with his strong Dhamma volition to spread the teaching of Buddha. In addition to the prominent public service he gave to that cause, he continued to teach Vipassana regularly at his centre. Some of the Westerners who came to the Sixth Council were referred to Sayagyi for instruction in meditation since at that time there was no other teacher of Vipassana who was fluent in English.

Because of his highly demanding government duties, Sayagyi was only able to teach a small number of students. Many of his Burmese students were connected with his government work. Many Indian students were introduced by S N Goenka. Sayagyi's students from abroad were small in number but diverse, including leading Western Buddhists, academicians, and members of the diplomatic community in Rangoon.

From time to time, Sayagyi was invited to address foreign audiences in Burma on the subject of Dhamma. On one occasion, for example, he was asked to deliver a series of lectures at the Methodist Church in Rangoon. These lectures were published as a booklet titled "What Buddhism is." Copies were distributed to Burmese embassies and various Buddhist organisations around the world. This booklet attracted a number of Westerners to attend courses with Sayagyi. On another occasion he delivered a lecture to a group of press representatives from Israel, who were in Burma on the occasion of the visit of Israel's prime minister, David Ben Gurion. This lecture was later published under the title "The Real Values of True Buddhist Meditation."

Sayagyi finally retired from his outstanding career in government service in 1967. From that time, until his death in 1971, he stayed at I.M.C., teaching Vipassana. Shortly before his death he thought back to all those who had helped him – the old man who had helped him start school, the Burmese teacher who helped him join St. Paul's and, among many others, one friend whom he had lost sight of over forty years earlier and now found mentioned in the local newspaper. He dictated letters addressed to this old friend and to some foreign students and disciples, including Dr. S.N. Goenka. On the 18th of January, Sayagyi suddenly became ill. When his newly rediscovered friend received Sayagyi's letter on the 20th, he was shocked to read Sayagyi's death announcement in the same post.

Shri S.N. Goenka was in India conducting a course when news of his teacher's death reached him. He sent a telegram back to I.M.C. which contained the famous Pali verse:

Anicca-vatas,ankhara,uppadavaya-dhammino.

Uppajjitva nirujjhanti, tesam vupasamo sukho.

Impermanent truly are compounded things, by nature arising and passing away.

If they arise and are extinguished, their eradication brings happiness.

One year later, in a tribute to his teacher, Mr. S.N. Goenka wrote: "Even after his passing away one year ago, observing the continued success of the courses, I get more and more convinced that it is his metta (loving-kindness) force which is giving me all the inspiration and strength to serve so many people – Obviously the force of Dhamma is immeasurable."

Sayagyi's aspirations are being accomplished. The Buddha's teachings, carefully preserved all these centuries, are still being practiced, and are still bringing results here and now. 

Refund And Cancellation Policy

Welcome to Global Vipassana Pagoda. We make public our policy on refund and cancellation of donations on payment gateway as under:-

No refund/cancellation will be entertained for the donated amount by any donor through the online payment gateway (online donation).

No refund of money paid via credit card (online or offline), cash, cheque, payorder or DD will be allowed.

Once received, the donation for a cause will not be refunded to the donor. No cancellation to be made. The donation will be used at Global Vipassana Pagoda work being initiated by the Global Vipassana Foundation.

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Important Message

To read the Hindi version of the mesage sent by Goenkaji,

please download the PDF file by: clicking here.

Dear Meditators,

Ven. Ledi Sayadaw firmly believed that at the beginning of the Second Dispensation of the Buddha, Vipassana will return to India from Myanmar and will benefit people for a long time. Sayagyi U Ba Khin was also of the opinion that Vipassana will continue in its pure form during the Second Buddha Sasana, that is, for the next 2600 years. He sent our Principal Teacher Acharya Goenkaji to India for this express purpose. Goenkaji too is confident that the teaching of the Buddha will remain in its pristine purity for the entire duration of the Second Dispensation of the Buddha.

Pariyatti (the words of the Buddha and related Pali literature): Under Goenkaji’s guidance the text of the Sixth Council containing the Tipitaka and commentarial literature was published in Devanagari script in book form. The entire literature has been transliterated in several scripts of the world and is available freely on internet. Therefore, there is no doubt that this literature will remain in its pure form for centuries to come.

Patipatti (Vipassana): Goenkaji started this noble work immediately on arrival in India in 1969. In the past forty-one years, Vipassana has spread (and continues to spread) around the world. It is accepted by people of different religious backgrounds because it is universal and non-sectarian; it involves no blind faith or blind belief; it is scientific and gives results here-and-now.

To spread Vipassana in its authentic form, Goenkaji has so far trained and appointed about 1200 assistant teachers. Many more will be appointed in future. Till now, 162 centres have been established all over the world. Many more will be established in future. This will ensure the spread of Patipatti for the next 2600years.

To protect the teachings of the Buddha from any corrupting influence, the following rules have been framed for assistant teachers, teachers and the trustees of centres & Global Vipassana Pagoda.

1.   To keep the purity of Vipassana as it has come to us from the time of the Buddha. There  should be no admixture in it.

2.    Not to condemn other forms of meditation but to stay away from them; that is, to practice Vipassana exclusively.

3.    Even if they are inclined towards a particular political party, they should never take part in active politics.

4.   All teachers and trustees should have their own means of livelihood. They should not be dependent on the centres or the Pagoda. They should never keep even a penny for themselves; but should hand over all dana to relevant trust immediately.

5.   There should be no discrimination between people coming to Vipassana centres or between those coming to Global Pagoda. Human being is human being. Vipassana doesn’t discriminate between people.

6.   There should be no entry-fee for those who wish to visit Global Pagoda. Those coming to Vipassana centres should not be charged any fee; neither for the teaching nor for the board and lodge; neither now nor in future. If a meditator donates voluntarily with a joyful mind, then the donation should be accepted.

Global Vipassana Pagoda: The third important task that Goenkaji has accomplished for the benefit of meditators from India and abroad is the building of this great Pagoda. The Pagoda is built to express gratitude towards Sayagyi U Ba Khin who sent this benevolent technique to India and towards Myanmar, the country that preserved for 2000 years the teaching of the Buddha received through the efforts of Emperor Asoka. We should never forget the debt of gratitude we owe to Myanmar. Not only in Pagoda but in the whole premises, Burmese architecture, culture and paintings are seen. There should be no admixture or change in this either now or in future. One more objective of the Pagoda is to spread information about Vipassana. Goenkaji has not allowed buying space in print media or time on television. In future too, this will not happen. Of course, all media is free to give proper information about Vipassana on their own. Given this situation, the Pagoda becomes an important source of information about Vipassana. Those who visit Pagoda will get to know about Vipassana. Some of them will certainly join our courses. The rest will, at the minimum, take home the message of Vipassana.

Financial Needs: At the existing centres and also at future centres, people will join courses of various durations including ten days and longer ones. Such devoted grateful meditators give donations. This will allow proper management of the existing and future centres.

However, in Pagoda, there is no entry fee now and there will be no entry fee in future. No residential Vipassana courses are held here and hence no donations will come from grateful students. This may lead to financial crisis at Pagoda leading to loss of purity.

The grandeur of Pagoda along with the huge pillar-less dome seating ten thousand people will surely attract people. They will want to use it for their personal, familial, social, political, sectarian and other gatherings. They will offer large sum for such usage. Present and future trustees have to be careful to avoid falling prey to this evil temptation that may lead to loss of purity of the Pagoda. Then, where will the hundreds of thousands of rupees required for repair, maintenance, electricity, water etc come from? In view of this, it has been decided to create a Corpus Fund the interest on which will take care of the present and future management of the Pagoda.

Just as thousands of meditators from India and the rest of the world contributed to the completion of the Pagoda, all will participate in the creation of this Corpus Fund.

We have a large number of teachers and trustees of our centres and of the Pagoda and even larger number of meditators all over India and the rest of the world. If any of them agree with the suggestion of Goenkaji to form a Corpus Fund, he or she can contribute as per his or her capacity with devotion and gratitude. Instead of sending the contribution directly to the Pagoda, meditator may give money to local centres requesting them to pass on the same to the Pagoda.

Generous donors will certainly ensure that the Corpus Fund target is met. One may give the donation in monthly installments. Any noble contribution to this noble cause will benefit many for a long time in future.

Just as in our tradition at Vipassana centres, only the requirement is made known and the names of the donors are never published; here too the names of the donors will not be published.

The donors should understand one more thing—the Corpus Fund will remain untouched and only the interest earned out of the fund will be used; and that too only for the management and maintenance of the Pagoda. Goenkaji is making a credible, reliable and legal arrangement for this.

The Sacred Relics donated to the Pagoda by late Ven. Vipulasara Mahathera of the Maha Bodhi Society, by the late Prime Minister of Sri Lanka Sirimao Bandarnayake and the relics given by the arahat Webu Sayadaw have been enshrined in the Pagoda. Goenkaji is confident that the Pagoda thus sanctified by the Sacred Relics will endure for 2600 years to protect the Sacred Relics continuously and, being a glorious symbol of the teaching of the Buddha, will spread its message for the benefit of many. This is the sole aim of the Corpus Fund.

Goenkaji sends metta to all.

Privacy policy

Thank you for visiting the Vipassana Meditation Website. Your privacy is important to our organizations. To better protect your privacy, we provide this notice telling you about our information practices and the things you should be aware of about how your information is collected and used both at this site and in general by our many affiliated organizations around the world. However, please note that the specific details of the privacy policies of our affiliated organizations around the world may differ from country to country. A copy of the particular privacy policy applicable to your information may be obtained from the Vipassana course registrar or at the Vipassana course site upon your arrival.

The Information We Collect

If you choose to register for a Vipassana meditation course via our on-line or conventional registration application, the types of personally identifiable information that may be collected include: name, address, e-mail address, telephone number, fax number, and all the other highly personal information that is called for on the application form and on the course registration form. Your personal information contained in your course application and registration forms are stored in a secure manner within our facilities and the only persons having access thereto are those who have a specific "need to know", such as the course registrar, the center/course manager and the assistant teacher(s) conducting the course(s) to which you seek admission.

If you choose to utilize our "Tell A Friend About Vipassana" service you necessarily submit both yours and another person's e-mail address to send an electronic greeting and the address of our website to that other person. The types of personally identifiable information that may be collected about you by that service is your email address and the types of personally identifiable information that may be collected about the other people at these pages includes the recipient's email address. We also may collect certain non-personally identifiable information when you visit our website pages such as the type of browser you are using (e.g., Firefox, Netscape, Opera or Internet Explorer), the type of operating system you are using, (e.g., Windows, Mac OS or Linux) and the domain name of your Internet service provider (e.g., America Online, Earthlink).

How We Use Your Information

We use the information you provide about yourself in your application and registration forms to evaluate your application for admission to a course and to register you for that course. In addition, we have found that people who attend a Vipassana course frequently attend subsequent courses over their lifetime. In order to facilitate subsequent attendance at courses and to maintain a record of a student’s history and experience we may maintain the course data of each student indefinitely in the absence of a legal prohibition to do so in certain jurisdictions or a request by a student to destroy his or her data. In some cases we may use your name postal address and/or email address to send you information about Vipassana related activities and facilities, if you have not opted-out of such contact. We use the information that you provide about others in our "Tell a Friend" service to enable us to send them your greeting and our website address. We sometimes use the non-personally identifiable information that we collect to improve the design and content of our site and to enable us to understand who is accessing our site from which locations and which files they are accessing within the site, i.e., to use this information in the aggregate to analyze site usage. This Vipassana Website does not ever make your personally identifiable information available to third parties, for commercial or any other reason. However, certain regional websites of our organization may accept credit card based donations and, in which case, personal information related to those donation financial transactions is processed in the usually manner. Otherwise, we do not disclose your personal information outside of the facilities of our affiliated organizations and their common infrastructure except when required to do so by law, for example, in response to a court order or subpoena. We may also disclose such information in response to a law enforcement agency's request or other legal requirement.

All teachers and assistant teachers of Vipassana as well as all meditation center staff and Dhamma workers only have access to your information submitted on the course application and registration forms on a "need to know" basis. Such information is maintained in confidence and safeguarded against disclosure to or access by third parties once it reaches the center or the non-center course registrar to which it is submitted. However, the particular manner in which your information is maintained, stored and used is governed by the particular privacy policy applicable within the country where the particular course for which you are registering is being held. The only risk of inadvertent disclosure of your information can be in the case of applications submitted by email and that is while the information is being sent over the open internet, as under some circumstances our email application facilities are not secure. Please do not use the email application facility on this website unless you are prepared to personally take this risk.

Our application forms and the personal data contained therein are handled by storage and processing on computers. In addition, our computers are located in various countries of the world. Your submission of an application form to attend one of our courses constitutes your unequivocal consent to the storage and processing of your application data on a computer and to the cross-border transfer of your personal information contained in the application form as well as the handling and storage of all information you submit to us in the registration process in accordance with the privacy regulations of the local jurisdiction. In addition, in some cases the email service of a center to which an application is submitted may be provided through Google Apps. As a result the handling of the data in your application to that center is subject to the privacy and security policies of Google, as set forth in their publications that are available on their websites. For the welfare of the students, it may be necessary for us to take and retain notes on any health concern or behavior in relation to the course that is inconsistent with the Code of Discipline or that otherwise indicates that a student should be restricted from attending future courses or will need additional support during a future course. In the rare event of this occurring, these notes will be entered on a computer and shared in confidence with assistant teachers and authorized course registrars involved in future courses. Your attendance at a course will constitute unequivocal consent to the handling and storage of such notes and the cross-border transfer thereof.

Collection of Information by Third-Party Sites

This Privacy Policy only addresses the use and dissemination of information that we collect from you. Our website may contain links to other sites whose information practices may be different than ours. Visitors should consult the other sites' privacy notices as we have no control over information that is submitted to, or collected by, these third parties. Since our Vipassana organizations do not control the privacy policies of third parties, you are subject to the privacy customs and policies, if any, of that third party, and our vipassana organizations shall not be responsible for the use or dissemination of your personal information by that third party. Therefore, we encourage you to ask questions before you disclose your personal information to others.

Cookies

A "cookie" is a text file containing a small amount of information which our server downloads to your personal computer when you visit our website. The file contains a unique number so that our server knows which PC it is talking to. We create a session cookie when you use our online application form to register for a course. We also use a session cookie to know whether you have logged in as an old student or not. Some cookies are allocated to your PC only for the duration of your visit to a website, and these are called session based cookies. These are automatically deleted when you close down your browser. Some other "regional" Vipassana websites may also use cookies.

Children's Privacy

Our Vipassana organizations do not specifically collect information about children, but we are concerned about the safety of children and their use of the Internet. Therefore, in accordance with the U.S. Children's Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998 (and comparable legislation of other countries), we will never knowingly request or solicit personally identifiable information from anyone under the age of 13 without verifiable parental consent. In the event we receive actual knowledge that we have collected such personal information without the requisite and verifiable parental consent, we will delete that information from our database as quickly as is practical.

Country Specific Privacy Requirements

Please note that individual countries may have particular privacy law requirements. Our Vipassana organizations around the world have developed specific privacy policies to comply with these requirements that may differ in specific details from the more general policies set forth above. You may obtain a hard copy of these specific requirements by contacting the course registrar of the center to which you have submitted your application and/or registration forms or at the course site upon your arrival.

Opt-Out/Opt-In

We provide you with the opportunity to "opt-out" of having our Vipassana organizations send you e-mail or postal mail about our services or other information related to Vipassana. In other cases, it may be possible for you to "opt-in" to certain local information distribution lists. If you choose to have your name, email address or other personally identifiable information removed from our database, you can do so by sending an e-mail to us at the following address: database-remove@dhamma.org. You can also contact your local Vipassana Center or organization and request removal.

How to Contact Us

If you have any questions or concerns about the privacy or any other policies of the Vipassana Website or its implementation you may contact us at: dhammasota.org@gmail.com.

Effective Date

This Privacy Policy is effective as of November 1, 2001. Our Vipassana organizations reserve the right to modify the terms of this policy at any time and in our sole discretion. Your use of this website constitutes a binding acceptance of the above-referenced policies.