The Family of Dhamma
- by S. N. Goenka
The following is the closing address by Goenkaji at the Annual Meeting at Dhamma Thalī on 5 January 1993. It was first published in the VRI publication For the Benefit of Many, which is a compilation of Goenkaji”s talks and answers to questions from Vipassana students. It has been adapted for the Newsletter.)
My dear Dhamma sons and Dhamma daughters:
The report that I just heard was quite positive. The Dhamma family is growing and this is a good sign. But at the same time it must grow in a proper way. The whole Vipassana family should be united without any disharmony.
Great responsibility rests on those who serve Dhamma. Serving starts at the stage when someone joins a camp as a Dhamma server in order to develop one”s own pāramīs, one”s own meditation, by serving people. Having learned the technique, now one learns how to apply it in life in a very congenial atmosphere. When you are in the world, you may find that the atmosphere is not very good and you are not very successful in applying Dhamma. Here, the atmosphere is wonderful; all around there are Dhamma vibrations. While you are serving the students, quite possibly one of them might generate negativity and speak harshly to you, or may not accept the discipline. If you become irritated and generate negativity, you are not working properly. You should immediately realize, “Well look, I am here to serve people, to eradicate my negativity, not to work like a policeman or a policewoman.”
When you meditate, you are not supposed to react to sensations, yet at times you find that when an unpleasant sensation arises, the part of the mind which has the habit of reacting starts doing so. But how quickly do you realize, “Oh no, I have started reacting with aversion.”
When you do, you come back to equanimity. A pleasant sensation arises, and you react with craving. You reacted because you are not perfect. But then how quickly do you realize, “Well look, I have reacted. Now, I must come back to observing with equanimity; I must come out of this craving”
Similarly, when you are serving people and you have reacted wrongly, how quickly do you realize, “Oh, no, I am here to serve people, and I have made a mistake”
Come back. Always serve with love and compassion. Every action that you take, every suggestion that you give to a meditator must be with a very calm, quiet, harmonious mind, full of love and compassion.
Serving on a course is a training ground for you. You are successful here and then you can apply what you have learned in the outside world.
Along with Dhamma servers, there are some who manage the courses or the centres. This is a big responsibility for managers. A manager must have very congenial relations with the Dhamma servers and the meditators. Management should be full of love and compassion.
Then you have children”s course teachers. Their work is very important. Unfortunately, the present generation has a big burden of sectarianism, of communalism. All these struggles, strife and killing are going on because people have forgotten Dhamma and regard only their own sect as important. Everyone tries to build up one”s own sect without wanting to build up Dhamma in oneself.
We should not pass this inheritance to the coming generation; they should be saved from the madness of sectarianism. If Dhamma is given to them at a young age, pure Dhamma, free from sectarianism, universal Dhamma, they will understand, “I am a human being and whether I call myself a Hindu or a Muslim or a Christian or a Jain, it doesn”t matter.” One is a human being only when one lives the life of Dhamma. Otherwise a person has lost his or her humanity. So from a young age, children must understand how to live in Dhamma as good human beings.
The technique…
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