On Vipassana

(Published in Time Out Mumbai, January 2008)

Dalit Voice deems it a Brahmanical conspiracy to brainwash innocent Dalits and kill their revolutionary zeal. It has a presence on every continent except Antarctica. People either flee it by day two, or they return for course upon course, year upon year. To those of us who've survived the grueling ten days, it would seem the world is fast splitting into two: those who have, and those who haven't been for a course in vipassana meditation "as taught by SN Goenka". This is an important disclaimer. More than 2,500 years have passed since vipassana, or insight meditation, was rediscovered by Gautama the Buddha. Since then, successive teachers have adapted the technique to suit their own era.

SN Goenka, a Marwari from Burma, offers vipassana for our digital times. At centers situated within the most idyllic natural surroundings, the technique is taught over ten days using Goenka's audio and video recordings. Wonder how the Buddha would've judged this employment of technology, given the violence inherent to the production of audio-video equipment and the electricity needed to power such equipment. Odd, too, that by relegating Assistant Teachers to mere manipulators of CD and DVD players, Goenka would chose to deny this ancient technique the immediacy it demands. But then, it wouldn't be "vipassana as taught by…"

Charges of excessive control and borderline cultishness aside, Goenka's vipassana centers are one of the few non-commercial options left in a severely compromised self-discovery market.

The courses are open to all and they are free the world over. That's ten days of free fresh vegetarian meals and comfortable shared or independent accommodation. With no access to newspapers, television, radio, magazines, or the internet, and a strict rule against the possession of cell-phones and reading books, a vipassana course is an entry into controlled wilderness.

The technique is easy to imbibe. Goenka's exhaustive recordings in English and Hindi guide students at every step of the way. A familiarity with Buddhist texts might make things less mystifying to new students, given the liberal references to metaphysical concepts such as 'sankhara' and 'anicca', as well as Goenka's frequent chanting of Suttas in a guttural Lama-like drone. This cultural baggage, thankfully, is not central to the technique.

It is to Goenka's eminent credit that in a time of Hindu resurgence, when it would have been expedient to align with the ethos of the majority, vipassana centers, especially in India, have preserved the universal non-communal appeal of the Buddha's teachings.

According to the international homepage of organizations offering vipassana under Goenka'a tutelage, the technique aims at the highest spiritual goals of total liberation and full enlightenment. Goenka calls vipassana The Art of Living. After experiencing the exquisite torture of addhittana that commences from day four, when students must remain immobile for upto an hour, old-timers prefer calling vipassana the Art of Suffering. And that, perhaps, is the most pertinent aspect of this ancient technique. As the ecological repurcussions of our consumerism become harder to dodge, vipassana might just be the skill we need to endure the discomforts of going green.

That leaves us with Dalit Voice and its grouse against Vipassana's neutralizing effects. As if the only good revolutionary is a frantic and single-minded one. Training in self-awareness and centredness is a revolution of the mind, be it Dalit, Muslim, Brahmin, Parsi... The results may not be as expected, but they are usually remembered for thousands of years.