The first time I learned about SN Goenka and Vipassana meditation, I was a clueless backpacker staying in a hippie retreat on the Thai-Myanmar border. A woman arrived at the retreat a few days after I did. During a conversation with her I noticed her eyes looked so peaceful, so happy, that I could not stop staring. Partly it was admiration, but I was also more than slightly jealous.
Why didn’t I have that? I did yoga. I was nice to people (most of the time). I wanted that calm, that joy. What was it? Where could I get it?
So, I asked: “Why are you so happy?”
She explained that she had just finished a 10-day course of silent meditation. At that time I had no idea about meditation. I also doubted that I could be silent, even for an hour. But still, she tore off a small section from a nearby piece of paper and wrote down a website – www.dhamma.org. “When you are interested,” she said, “check it out.”
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Which is probably why when I first heard the news of his death this week I was not at all sad, just curious as to what he experienced before passing on, and what all that meditation and merit will mean for those of us left behind. His passing made me reflect on my own journey through Vipassana, on how much further I have to go and how little it is that I know. Some of my happiest and most hopeful moments have occurred while sitting silently in some of the many meditation centers Goenka has left behind, listening to his deep, kind voice encourage me, and all the other meditators, to “just remain aware, just remain aware” – to never get discouraged or depressed if the meditation is not going well, and most of all to never give up.
Rather, as Goenkagyi would say, simply “start again”.
Complete article: https://www.mmtimes.com/national-news/8470-an-accidental-journey-into-insight-meditation.html
More Info: http://www.dhamma.org/
