Fifty Years on the Path of Dhamma

　　- by S. N. Goenka

　　(The following is a translation of an article by S. N. Goenka published in the September 2005 issue of the Vipasyana Patrika. It has been adapted for the Vipassana Newsletter.)

　　1 September 1955! An extremely important day of my life! The incurable and unbearable migraine headaches, which had been a terrible curse, now became a boon for me. I joined the Vipassana meditation course of my revered teacher, Sayagyi U Ba Khin, for ten days. I had serious doubts about the course. Still I went for the course and gained astonishing benefits from the course. This is well known.

　　My main reservation about Vipassana was that it was a Buddhist meditation technique. What if it made me leave my Hindu religion

　　 What if I became a Buddhist

　　 Surely I would go astray and become debased if I left my religion! Though I had devotion towards the Buddha, I had nothing but disdain for his teaching! Even then I joined the course because Sayagyi convinced me that in the Vipassana course, nothing else would be taught other than sīla (morality), samādhi (concentration of mind) and paññā (wisdom). How could a Hindu like me or any person of any religion object to morality, concentration of mind and wisdom

　　Living a life of morality, developing mastery over the mind and purifying the mind by developing wisdom-how can any reasonable person object to these three teachings

　　 I wanted to get rid of my mental defilements such as anger and egotism that resulted in a life full of tension and was the root cause of the migraine headaches. In addition, the family in which I was born and the atmosphere in which I grew up gave great importance to the ideal of abstaining from unwholesome conduct, practice of moral conduct and keeping the mind free from negativity. Therefore, I was reassured to some extent when Sayagyi stated that this is what the Buddha taught and only this will be taught in the Vipassana course, nothing else. Still, some doubt lingered. I decided that I would practice only sīla, samādhi and paññā in the course and would not accept anything else.

　　I thought that it was indeed true that there were good things in the Buddha Dhamma and that was why it had been accepted and honoured in so many countries and by so many people. But all the good elements had been taken from our Vedic texts. I decided to stay away from the rest.

　　At the end of the ten days, I saw that in accordance with Sayagyi”s statement, nothing other than sīla, samādhi and paññā was taught in the course. The claim that this technique gave results here and now proved to be true. The practice of only ten days had started to eradicate my mental defilements. My tension started to decrease and, as a result, the migraine was cured. I was also relieved forever from the misery caused by the morphine injections and the need to take sleeping tablets. Daily practice of Vipassana weakened my mental defilements. My misery started decreasing. I did not find any fault in the technique. It was totally flawless. I could not see any harm in the technique. It was truly benevolent.

　　In the first course itself, my spiritual search was fully satisfied. I found Vipassana so pure that I did not feel the necessity to go anywhere else in search of another meditation technique. To develop in Vipassana, every day I meditated one hour in the morning and evening and joined at least one ten-day course every year. Sometimes, I joined a long course of one month, which gave me a deeper understanding at the experiential level. I found Vipassana very rational and logical, practical and scientific. There was no place for blind belief in it. There was no insistence on a belief just because my teacher had said it or the Buddha had said…

《Fifty Years on the Path of Dhamma》全文未完，請進入下頁繼續閱讀…