..续本文上一页nd time, you will pass through a practice of ten days.

　　May all of you pass through a practice of ten days.

　　May all of you get the best benefit of Buddha”s teaching, the best fruits of Buddha”s teaching.

　　May all of you enjoy real peace, real harmony, real happiness.

　　The Ten-day Course

　　To learn Vipassana it is necessary to take a residential ten-day course under the guidance of a qualified teacher. For the entire ten days students live within the course site and meditate, with breaks for eating, washing sleeping, etc. Each day”s progress is explained during an hour-long discourse in the evening.

　　During the course, all must abstain from any action, physical or vocal, which disturbs the peace and harmony of others. Therefore, a code of moral conduct, sila, is an essential first step of the practice. One undertakes not to kill, not to steal, not to commit sexual misconduct, not to speak lies, and not to use intoxicants. By abstaining from such actions, one allows the mind to quiet down. Students maintain noble silence for the first nine days of the course. This means abstaining from any communication amongst themselves, vocally or by ge, stures or writing. This noble silence is simply to give everyone the best opportunity to meditate, and thereby gain the maximum benefit from their course. If one has a question pertaining to the technique, one is free to ask the teacher whenever any need for clarification arises.

　　The course is a practical one in every respect. The work of controlling and purifying the mind is given top priority and the results speak for themselves. The costs for board and lodging are completely financed by donations from those who have taken a course, experienced benefits themselves, and wish others also to have the opportunity to benefit. Neither the Teacher, the assistant teachers, nor those serving at the centres profit in any material way from the courses.

　　The Teacher

　　Shri S.N. Goenka learned this technique in 1955 from the late Sayagyi U Ba Khin of Burma, a reknowned teacher of Vipassana. For nearly fourteen years Goenkaji received training under his teacher. Sayagyi wished that the technique of Vipassana should return to India, the place of its origin and from there spread throughout the world to help liberate mankind from its suffering.

　　Goenkaji has taken this as his life”s work; he has been teaching Vipassana in India since 1969 and in other countries since 1979. In that time he has conducted over 350 ten-day courses attended by tens of thousands of students from many countries and from all walks of life. Since 1982 he has trained and appointed over 100 assistant teachers who conduct courses of Vipassana using Goenkaji”s taped instructions and discourses. The main centre for the training and practice of Vipassana is the Vipassana International Academy at Igatpuri, India, about 135 kilometers from Bombay. In addition, students have founded several other centres in India, Australasia, Europe. North America, and Asia.

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