Masaryk University

Philosophical Faculty

Department for the Study of Religions

Mgr. Nora Melnikova

The modern school of Vipassana – a Buddhist tradition?

Dissertation

Supervisor: Mgr. Daniel Berounský, Ph.D.

2014 Declaration of Authorship

Last name: Melnikova First name: Nora

I declare that the work presented here is, to the best of my knowledge and belief, original and the result of my own investigations, except as acknowledged, and has not been submitted, either in part or whole, for a degree at this or any other University.

Formulations and ideas taken from other sources are cited as such. This work has not been published.

Location, Date Signature

Prague, 11.9.2014

i Acknowledgements

In the first place, I would like to express my gratitude to my guide, Mgr. Daniel Berounský, Ph.D. for all his help. Furthermore, I would like to thank PhDr. Jaroslav Strnad, PhD. and Mgr. Milan Fujda, Ph.D. for their helpful critique. I am grateful to my family, colleagues and friends for their precious and unwavering support. Special thanks go to Keerthi.

This work is dedicated to S. N. Goenka.

ii Abstract

The aim of this study is to provide an insight into the way in which the South Asian Theravada traditions have been modernised on the example of the Vipassana meditation school of S. N. Goenka. For this purpose, the organisational structure of the school and the content of its teachings have been analysed. Modern features of the school have been shown. Special emphasis was laid on its focal point, the meditation practice, which has been compared to the meditation practices as they have been described in the texts of Tipitaka. Apart from that, the question of the classification of the school has been raised. In relation to this question, the concepts of religions, secularism, Buddhism and Hinduism have been examined. It has been concluded that the Vipassana school of S. N. Goenka defies classification in these categories, the reason for which was found in the problematic nature of the above-mentioned concepts themselves.

Key words

Vipassana, S. N. Goenka, meditation, religion, Buddhism, Modern Buddhism, Neo-Hinduism, modernity, intercultural mimesis, sants, secularism

iii Table of contents

Introduction...... 8 1. Theoretical framework, existing research and methodology...... 9 2. Modern Buddhism...... 14 2.1. Characteristic features of Modern Buddhism...... 16 2.2. The role of meditation in Modern Buddhism...... 19 3. Meditation practices according to Tipitaka and the commentaries...... 27 3.1. Meditation instructions in Suttapitaka and Vinayapitaka...... 28 3.2. Meditation instructions according to Visuddhimagga and Vimuttimagga...... 37 4. Goenka's school of Vipassana...... 40 4.1. The history of the Vipassana school and its characteristics...... 41 4.2. Meditation instructions and teachings...... 47 5. Modernisation of the form...... 51 6. Modernisation of the content...... 55 6.1. Classification of Goenka's Vipassana...... 55 6.2. Modern features of Vipassana...... 67 7. Indigenous roots and the Hindu fold...... 81 7.1. The sants...... 81 7.2. Hindu fold and secularism in India...... 88 Conclusion...... 97 Bibliography...... 103 Appendix...... 112

iv Illustration Index Figure 1: Vipassana Research Institute...... 113 Figure 2: Timetable of the 10-day course...... 114 Figure 3: Meditation hall (Igatpuri)...... 115 Figure 4: Dining hall (Igatpuri)...... 116 Figure 5: Pagoda with meditation cells (Igatpuri)...... 117 Figure 6: Accommodation (Igatpuri)...... 118 Figure 7: Global Vipassana Pagoda...... 119 Figure 8: Course Application Form, page 1...... 120 Figure 9: Course Application Form, page 2...... 121 Figure 10: Code of Discipline (1)...... 122 Figure 11: Code of Discipline (2)...... 123 Figure 12: Holi restrictions in DU campus...... 124

v List of symbols and abbreviations

P. Pali S. Sanskrit MSH Modern Standard Hindi PTS Pali Text Society DN Dīgha Nikāya MN Majjhima Nikāya SN Samyutta Nikāya AN Aṅguttara Nikāya Vin Vinaya

References to Tipitaka

Regarding references to discourses, in case of the Dīgha Nikāya and Majjhima Nikāya, the sutta number and the group in Roman numbers have been given, along with the volume and page number in the PTS edition of Tipitaka (according to the webpage www.accesstoinsight.org). For the Aṅguttara Nikāya, the book, chapter and the paragraph number have been mentioned, along with the volume and page number in the PTS edition of Tipitaka. For the Samyutta Nikāya, the chapter and the paragraph number of the sutta have been given, along with the volume and page number in the PTS edition of Tipitaka.

vi Notes on transcription and translation

In case of Hindi audio materials, orthographic transcription according to ISO 15919 standard has been used, with the exception of the phonetic transcription of the silent a vowel, that means its omission, and the phonetic transcription of the original jñ (as in Sanskrit jñāna) as “gy” (as in Hindi gyān). The reason is that the transcription according to ISO 15919 standard is very accurate from the phonetic point of view, except for these two cases. The “true” anusvāra before a sibilant, h, or r is transcribed as ṃ, as in saṃsāra. The “substitute” anusvāra before a stop or before the three semivowels y, l and v is transcribed as m before a labial stop and before a semivowel (sampradāy, samyojana) and as ñ/ṅ/ṇ/n before other corresponding stops (sant, saṅkīrtan). Transliterated words are in italics (the meditation method vipassanā) except for names (Siddhārtha Gautama). In case of contemporary names used generally in their anglicised form, and indigenised terms of Indian origin, the usual English transcription has been used instead of transliteration (the Vipassana school, Sanskrit). While translating Hindi quotations, the intention was to stick to the vocabulary used by S. N. Goenka in his English discourses. For philosophical terms, Goenka uses Pali in the English discourses (saṅkhāra) and sanskritised Hindi in the Hindi discourses (saṃskār); regarding this, his example has been followed, unless the context demands otherwise (as in the case of dharma versus dhamma). Because of the unavailability of better solution, the English plural in regular style has been used for words in Indian languages when it was necessary for better understanding of the text (saṅkhāras).

vii Introduction

The aim of this study is to provide an insight into the way in which the South Asian Theravada traditions have been modernised, on the example of the Vipassana meditation school of S. N. Goenka. For this purpose, the organisational structure of the school and the content of its teachings will be analysed. It will be shown how the organisational structure has been rationalised and how this rationalisation affected its meditation instructions. Furthermore, it will be illustrated how different modern influences reflect in the intellectual content of the school, especially regarding the emphases it lays on different subjects and practices.

For a Western observer, Goenka's school of Vipassana at first glance seems to be an entirely modern enterprise – a perfectly organised secular school promoting a very efficient meditation technique, that attracts participant from all over the world, adorned with a certain amount of Buddhist coating, which can be more or less easily brushed aside. It spreads all over the world relatively successfully, though its courses are not as massively attained as, e.g., the courses of the Diamond Way of Ole Nydahl, which promise more gains with less effort and therefore attract many more sympathisers, at least in the West. It functions as one of the leisure time activities one can choose from in the modern world, the benefits of which are supposed to be higher productivity and a more harmonious personal life.

This study intends to show other ways of looking at the Vipassana school, or at modernised Theravada traditions in general. It will introduce Vipassana as a part of the so-called Modern Buddhism on one hand and as a tradition that belongs to the fold of Hindu traditions on the other, touching on the heated debate concerning the concepts of religion, Buddhism and Hinduism. Apart from that, it will show that features of modernised traditions that at first sight seem to be a manifestation of intercultual mimesis, might have their long indigenous history.

Concerning the outline of the work, in the first chapter, the theories that form the basis of the arguments used in this study will be introduced. Speaking about modernisation, it will be necessary to indicate the theory of modernity that will be applied, along with its particular aspects that will be of importance for this study. Another topic that is significant for this work and needs theoretical grounding is the concept of religion in general and Buddhism in particular. Therefore, the theories of these concepts that are relevant for this study will be given. Thereafter, the existing research on the subject of the so-called Modern Buddhism which was taken into consideration in this study will

8 be mentioned.

The second part of the first chapter is devoted to the description of methods that were used to collect data for analysis of the case study. The second chapter will discuss the main features of Modern Buddhism and introduce the so-called Vipassana movement. It will pay special attention to the prominent role of meditation in Modern Buddhism. The third chapter will follow up with a discussion of the recent change in the role of meditation practices in modernised Theravada traditions and an analysis of meditation practices in the texts of Tipitaka and Visuddhimagga. The fourth chapter will introduce the case study. It will describe the history, organisational structure, meditation instructions and teachings of Goenka's school of Vipassana.

The fifth chapter will be devoted to an analysis of the modernised outer form of the Vipassana school. The sixth chapter will deal with the role of modern concepts, such as Buddhism and religion, in the teaching of the school, and with modern emphases, such as the stress on rational in contrast to “irrational”, accentuation of texts and rejection of “icons” and rituals, many of which have their roots in Protestant thinking. The seventh chapter will shed light on indigenous concepts that might have been at the root of some of the above-mentioned concepts. Its second part about secularism will elaborate on one of the examples of modern concepts of foreign origin that have not succeeded to function well in India. The conclusion will try to sum up the way in which the Vipassana school has been modernised and make a conclusion about the functionality of modern Western concepts in India in general.

1. Theoretical framework, existing research and methodology

While writing about “Modern Buddhism”, the “influence of modernity”, etc., it is inevitable to deal with the term modernity itself. Among the great amount of theories of modernity, the ideas of one of the classical theorists of modernity, Max Weber, have been found to be the most suitable for the purpose of this study. The chapter about the organisational structure of the Vipassana school is based on Weber's theory of rationalisation and bureaucratisation,1 slighty adjusted to the specific conditions of modern chain enterprises by George Ritzer.2 Weber's theory of bureaucratisation, defined as abandoning of all traditional and “irrational” aspects of person and place and the triumph of scientific method in social life,3 perfectly fits the description of the organisational structure of

1 Max Weber, Bureaucracy, in Essays In Sociology, London, Routledge, 1922. 2 George Ritzer, Mcdonaldizace společnosti, Praha, Academia, translation 1996, 1st edition 1993. 3 Krishan Kumar in Malcolm Waters (ed.), Modernity: Critical Concepts, London and New York, Routledge, 1999,

9 Goenka's meditation school.

The chapter on Modern Buddhism has drawn major inspiration from McMahan's work on this topic.4 Many aspects that McMahan considers characteristic for Modern Buddhism can be interpreted with Weber's theory of the “disentchantment” of the world in the modern era, which is the heir of Enlightenment. In particular, it can be applied to McMahan's description of the features of Modern Buddhism which reflect the shift towards rational and departure from all “irrational”, e.g., the demythologisation, accepting only laws discovered by scientific methods as valid explanations of phenomena5 and denial of non-human agents, such as devatās. The connection Weber makes between modernity and Protestant thinking6 elucidates the stress that modernised Buddhist traditions lay on individual's own effort and diligency, in particular regarding one's meditation practice.

There is yet another theory that makes it possible to explain other features of Modern Buddhism which are out scope of Weber's analyses, e.g., the changed emphases of modernised Buddhist traditions – Charles Hallisay's theory of intercultural mimesis.7 Nevertheless, understanding these changes as one-way influences and modernity as inseparably connected to European industrialisation and Protestant thinking is certainly limiting and inadequate.

Not without a reason, Gerard Delanty states that “modernity8 is not Westernisation, and its key processes and dynamics can be found in all societies.”9 As will be shown, intercultural mimesis has probably in some cases only reinforced certain processes that were already in motion and strengthened emphases on already present ideas. On other occasions, two differing concepts or processes have been combined together or erroneously identified as one.

Another problem this study tries to deal with is the existence of terms that are widely used in social sciences and firmly embedded in English and other languages of European origin, but do not have their equivalents in other languages, as the respective cultures lack the corresponding concepts. One of these essentially contested concepts is the concept of religion. A lot has been written on this topic and by many scholars it is considered an outdated hype or a triviality. Vol. I, p. 91. 4 David L. McMahan, The Making of Buddhist Modernism, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2008. 5 See Krishan Kumar in Malcolm Waters (ed.), Modernity: Critical Concepts, Vol. I, p. 90. 6 Max Weber, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, New York, Dover Publications, 2003, 1st edition 1958. 7 Charles Hallisay in Donald S. Lopez, Curators of the Buddha, The Study of Buddhism under Colonialism, Chicago and London, The University of Chicago Press, 1995. 8 Delanty defines modernity as the modern self-assertion of the individual on one hand and the destruction of its cultural foundations on the other hand (Gerard Delanty, Social Theory in a Changing World, Conceptions of Modernity, Cambridge, Polity Press, 1999, p. 2). 9 Gerard Delanty, Modernity, in George Ritzer (ed.), Blackwell Encyclopedia of Sociology, Blackwell Publishing, 2007.

10 Their counter argument is that the term religion (of which no one has so far been able to give a precise definition) is just an umbrella term which is useful when talking about a bigger picture and can be abandoned when it comes to details in cultures where there is no concept of religion. The question is – does the usage of this umbrella term while talking about cultures where the concept of religion is not emic, for example the different cultures of Asia, not necessarily create a distortion?

Regarding this subject, the author of this thesis was inspired by the thoughts of many authors who have critically examined the concept of religion and related ideas. Already Jonathan Z. Smith10 contested the idea of rvarious eligious phenomena being present across cultures and societies, which was one of the fundamentals of the phenomenology of religion and has not fallen into oblivion to this day. S. N. Balagangadhara11 has shown how the cultural realities of non-Christian cultures have been seen through the prism of “religion”, a concept which was modelled on Christianity. The concepts that have arisen due to this perspective (like Hinduism, Shintoism etc.) were supposed to possess the attributes of a religion, such as the sacred scriptures, doctrines, commandments, priests, etc., even though these did not exist in the respective cultures.12

As far as the concept of religion is concerned, the theoretical framework of one of the authors, Timothy Fitzgerald, has been particularly valuable for this study. According to Fitzgerald, in today's globalised world, the idea that there is a specific field of human life called “religion” is relatively widespread. This notion is consecrated by the existence of specialised departments in academia called “The Study of religion(s)”, “Religious studies”, etc., that specialise in exploration of different forms, contemporary and historical, of their subject and its various aspects.13 Nevertheless, the definition of what religion actually is has always been disputed.

Timothy Fitzgerald14 tries to look into the matter from a different point of view – instead of making

10 Jonathan Z. Smith, Imagining Religion, From Babylon to Jonestown, Chicago and London, The University of Chicago Press, 1982. 11 S. N. Balagangadhara, The Heathen in his Blindness, Asia, the West, and the Dynamic of Religion, New Delhi, Manohar, 2005, c1994, Brill. 12 For other authors who critically dealt with the concept of religion see Asad (Talal Asad, Genealogies of Religion, Discipline and Reasons of Power in Christianity and Islam, Baltimore and London, The John Hopkins University Press, 1993), Masuzawa (Tomoko Masuzawa, The Invention of World Religions, Or, How European Universalism Was Preserved in the Language of Pluralism, Chicago and London, The University of Chicago Press, 2005), Oddie (Geoffrey A. Oddie, Imagined Hinduism: British Protestant Missionary Constructions of Hinduism, 1793 – 1900, New Delhi, Sage, 2006), King (Richard King, Orientalism and Religion, Postcolonial Theory, India and “The Mystic East”, London and New York, Routledge, 1999), and others. 13 Another author whose work has been significant for this study, Robert H. Sharf, has observed a specific characteristics of the so-called religion, which enables the departments of religion to legitimise their existence in publicly funded universities and colleges and shields religion from secular critique – it is the “irreducible experiential foundation of religious phenomena” (Robert H. Sharf. Buddhist Modernism and the Rhetoric of Meditative Experience, Numen, Vol. 42, Fasc. 3, 1995). 14 Timothy Fitzgerald, Discourse on Civility and Barbarity, A Critical History of Religion and Related Categories, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2007.

11 effort to define a conception that is being taken for granted, he explores the history of its genesis. According to him, the process of separation and reification of the categories religion, state, politics and economics started in the seventeenth century's Europe.15 This is the time when religious institutions, beliefs and practices began to be perceived as disparate from those of reason and science.16 Therefore, the usage of these categories including religion out of their context is necessarily an anachronism or imposition. In Fitzgerald's opinion, “religion is a modern invention which authorises and naturalises a form of Euro-American secular rationality.”17 It is a myth, unknown to many if not most non-European cultures, where it has spread through the colonial power, a reaction to which was moulded in the same paradigm.18

Fitzgerald's analysis offers an exquisite elucidation of the unsolvable problems of distinguishing the “secular” from the “religious” in (not only) non-European cultures, the “religions” of which are often denoted as “more a philosophy than a religion” (Buddhism) or “more a way of life than a religion” (Hinduism).19 It is also immensely useful for understanding particular problematic cases, such as the relationship between “religion” and “politics” in the case of Indian secularism that will be examined later in this study.

Concerning the concept of Buddhism, the work that has proved decisive for this study was Philip C. Almond's illuminating analysis of the origin of the concept of Buddhism, The British Discovery of Buddhism.20 His ideas that were used in this study will be described in a detailed way in the chapter about Modern Buddhism, along with the likewise inspiring ideas of Richard King.21 Even though the concept of Buddhism has been recognised as a modern concept and henceforth a subject of research, the designation “Modern Buddhism” will continue to be used, being a term with a specific and precisely defined meaning. Wherever the term “Buddhist” is used, either in quotes or without them, it will be done while keeping on mind its limits that will be explained below.

Regarding research concerned primarily with Goenka's Vipassana school, there are many studies by Goenka's followers that would be considered primary sources in this study, but could not be taken into account because of space restrictions. In terms of academic research, not much has been published on the subject as yet, except for an article by Frank Neubert, who concentrates on

15 Ibid., p. 4. 16 Krishan Kumar in Malcolm Waters (ed.), Modernity: Critical Concepts, Vol. I, p. 90. 17 Timothy Fitzgerald, Discourse on Civility and Barbarity, p. 6. 18 Ibid., p. 10. 19 Interestingly, Fitzgerald (Discourse on Civility and Barbarity, p. 38) uses the concept of sacred, the usage of which many critics of the concept religion refuse (e.g., S. N. Balagangadhara, The Heathen in his Blindness). 20 Philip C. Almond, The British Discovery of Buddhism, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1988. 21 Richard King, Orientalism and Religion.

12 Goenka 's approach to religion and rituals, but does not use sources in Hindi.22 However, there is quite an amount of research going on at the moment by PhD students, some of whose dissertations are already available (e.g., the PhD thesis of François Thibeault). Nevertheless, their topics are not directly related to the subject of this study, as they concentrate more on Vipassana practice outside India and are concerned with different problems.

Concerning the modern concept of Buddhism and the so-called Modern Buddhism, David L. McMahan's comprehensive work on Modern Buddhism23 has proven to be most useful for this study, along with older works of significant scholars in this field, such as Gombrich,24 Carrithers25 and Tambiah.26 Regarding the chapters on meditation in Tipitaka and the commentaries, the works of Gethin27 and Sharf28 provided valuable insights. As far as the suttas pertaining to meditation practices are concerned, the recent work of Oosterwijk29 was an important source of information.

These were the theories and works that played a significant role in the genesis of this study. The following paragraphs will provide a brief description of the methods the author used to collect and analyse data on the case study. For the introductory chapter about functioning of Goenka's school of Vipassana, for the description of his meditation instructions and for the chapter about the organisational structure of the school, author's findings from her field research were used. They were particularly useful while depicting the organisation of meditation courses, behaviour of students, dhamma servers and teachers, social background of participants and meditation instructions, which are not contained in publicly available materials. The method of participant observation was used – the author took part in approximately fifteen different meditation courses of the Vipassana school within a period of more than three years.

For two reasons, the field research was carried out mostly in the Indian branches of the Vipassana school. Firstly, India is the starting point and main centre of the school as well as the country of residence of Goenka's primary target group. Secondly, the Indian Vipassana school, especially its Hindi discourses, provides material for addressing the particular issues this study tries to shed light

22 Frank Neubert, Ritualdiskurs, Ritualkritik and Meditationspraxis: Das Beispiel von Vipassanā nach S. N. Goenka im “Westen”, Numen, Vol. 55, 2008. 23 David L. McMahan, The Making of Buddhist Modernism. 24 Richard F. Gombrich, How Buddhism Began, The Conditioned Genesis of the Early Teachings, London, Athlone, 1996, and other works, see below. 25 Michael Carrithers, The Forest Monks of Sri Lanka, An Anthropological and Historical Study, Delhi, Oxford University Press, 1983. 26 Stanley Jayaraja Tambiah, The Buddhist saints of the forests and the cult of amulets, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1984. 27 Especially Rupert Gethin, On the Practice of Buddhist Meditation According to the Pali Nikāyas and Exegetical Sources, Buddhismus in Geschichte und Gegenwart, Vol. 10, 2004. 28 Robert H. Sharf, Buddhist Modernism and the Rhetoric of Meditative Experience, Numen, Vol. 42, Fasc. 3, 1995. 29 R. C. van Oosterwijk, Doctrinal Backgrounds of Vipassanā-meditation, Insight in current methods and according to canonical sources, Groningen, Barkhuis, 2012.

13 on. The field research was performed mainly in 10-day courses in the following Vipassana meditation centres: Dhamma Bodhi in Bodhgaya (December 2009), Dhamma Salila in Dehradun (March 2010), Dhamma Sota in Delhi (September 2010), Dhamma Giri in Igatpuri (July 2012) and Dhamma Sarita in Khadavali (December 2012), and in shorter courses in Dhamma Thali, Jaipur (April 2011, Satipatthana course), Logicstat Farms in Chattarpur, Delhi (September 2010, 3-day Dhamma server course) and Dhamma Dvara in Triebel, Germany (February 2013, dhamma service in a 10-day course). It was also performed during regular visits of the Chattarpur centre in Delhi in the years 2010 – 2011.

Another method which was used in this study is discourse analysis. A major part of this work consists in analysis of S. N. Goenka's discourses. It was necessary to restrict the scope to a certain volume of texts, therefore the most well-known and current Goenka's texts were chosen – his discourses from the 10-day course in Hindi and English, in both oral and written form. The study pays more attention to the Hindi version of the discourses compared to the English one.

The reason is that the Hindi and English discourses differ significantly regarding their contents – the English discourses, apart from being substantially shorter, are directed at foreign audience and omit most of the topics related to Indian realities. This fact, together with the usage of English terms for Indian concepts (e.g., religion for sampradāy, paramparā) reduces their usefulness for the purpose of this work. Due to Goenka's limited ability to express himself in English, they are also much simpler. The VCD version that is usually available for sale at the end of the courses30 or on the internet has been used,31 as well as the discourse summaries in written form.32

2. Modern Buddhism

The Vipassana school of S. N. Goenka is considered to be a part of the so-called Modern Buddhism (sometimes also called Buddhist Modernism). What exactly does this term denote and what do the traditions that are considered to belong to Modern Buddhism have in common? Before this question is answered, it will be necessary to examine the concept of Buddhism itself. The various traditions that are called Buddhist undoubtedly have many common traits, though some of them have

30 According to the field research, there are two different versions which are played during the 10-day courses that are slightly different, but only one of them is for sale. 31 10-day Vipassana Discourse Hindi, Vipassana Research Institute, Dhammagiri, Igatpuri [VCD], 10-day Vipassana Discourse English, Vipassana Research Institute, Dhammagiri, Igatpuri [VCD]. 32 S. N. Goenka, The Discourse Summaries, Igatpuri, Vipassana Research Institute, 2008; S. N. Goenka, Pravacan – sārāṃś, Igatpuri, Vipassana Research Institute, 2006.

14 embarked very different routes in the course of time. However, the concept of Buddhism as such is relatively recent.

As Philip C. Almond elaborately described in his work,33 Buddhism (as an Asian religion) was “discovered” in the West in the first half of the nineteenth century. The discovery commenced in Orient, and by 1860 continued in the Oriental libraries and institutes of the West, based on an apparent relationship between various cultural phenomena that had been observed in different lands, such as Ceylon, Siam, China, Tartary, Japan, etc. from the end of the seventeenth century. Around the 1820's these phenomena were classified as the religion of Buddha or “Buddhism”, and by the mid-1830, Buddhism had come to define the beliefs and practices of most of Asia.34

Based on textual work of scholars such as Rhys-Davids, the idea of a “pure”, uncorrupted Buddhism of the early literary sources as distinct from the corrupted contemporary versions became widespread. The early Buddhism was seen as based on reason and opposed to ritual, superstition and sacerdotalism.35 Early conceptions of “pure” Buddhism often reflect Protestant polemics against the Catholic church or critique of religion by modern atheist thinkers. E.g., Thomas Rhys Davids juxtaposes the “rationality” and “purity” of original Buddhism, which he compares to Protestantism, to the “superstitiousness” and “corruption” of Mahayana Buddhism, which is compared to Catholicism.36 Gethin comments on this idea in the following way:

...in fact, given what is known of Indian thought from, say, the early Upanishads, there is no a priori reason why the earliest Buddhist thought should not have contained mythical, magical or “unscientific” elements, or – if we need to go back one stage further – why the Buddha himself should not have employed such elements in his own teaching. In fact there seems every reason to suppose that he would have.37

This constellation created yet another antipode – the idea of Buddhism as the “high philosophy” of educated elites versus its lowly form as “religion” of common people. Another projection screen suitable for the critique of the Catholic Church was the character of Buddha – that is where the idea of Buddha as the (social) reformer of Brahminism with its caste system and hollow rituals originated.38

The internal discussions that dominated contemporary European discourse and the reaction on the part of Asian intellectuals gave rise to “Modern Buddhism”, a phenomenon strikingly similar to

33 Philip C. Almond, The British Discovery of Buddhism, p. 7-17. 34 Ibid., p. 10-11. 35 Donald S. Lopez, Curators of the Buddha, p. 6. 36 Thomas Rhys-Davids, Buddhism, London, Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1877, pp. 208 – 209. 37 Rupert Gethin, The Buddhist Path to Awakening, Oxford, R. M. L. Gethin, 2007, previously published by E. J. Brill, p. 11. 38 Philip C. Almond, The British Discovery of Buddhism, pp. 72-77.

15 “Neo-Hinduism”. The reaction to imposition of Western discourse and values was the return to indigenous traditions and their reconstitution that would enable to present them as equal or even superior to Christianity/modern science. The newly emerged “reform” movements adopted the iconoclastic, antiinstitutional, anticlerical, and antiritual critique of the European Enlightenment.39 While using the concept of Buddhism, its classification as religion (with all the attributes of religion that were at that time perceived as negative, such as irrationality, etc.) was denied. Sharf aptly expresses the idea of the above-mentioned thinkers:

Buddhism properly understood is not a religion at all, but rather a spiritual technology providing the means to liberating insight and personal transformation. By rendering the essence of Buddhism a non-discursive spiritual experience, Buddhist apologists effectively positioned their tradition beyond the compass of secular critique.40

These were the main factors that played role in the constitution of Modern Buddhism. Now the attention will move to its typical traits.

2.1. Characteristic features of Modern Buddhism

The aim of this chapter is to examine the influence of modernity on Buddhist traditions. The influence of Enlightenment legacy41 on Modern Buddhism, as well as on the “reformers of Hinduism”, has been already mentioned. Its emphasis on rationality resulted in the above- mentioned demythologisation and detraditionalisation, i.e., the effort to separate certain aspects (in Goenka's case, the meditation technique) from the tradition in which they are embedded. The manifestations of the process of demythologisation will be shown later in the chapter on modern features of Goenka's school of Vipassana.

The emphasis on reason further brings the claim of compatibility with modern science. Beginning with the nineteenth century, Buddhist philosophy has repeatedly been found compatible with contemporary science, from Newtonian science to quantum mechanics; their counterparts were found in philosophical thought from Abhidhamma theory of dharmas to Mahayana concept of śūnyatā.42 The highly developed “science of the mind”, e.g., in the Abhidhamma, won recognition during the twentieth century's psychology boom. Underlining the compatibility between Buddhism

39 Robert H. Sharf, Buddhist Modernism and the Rhetoric of Meditative Experience, p. 259. 40 Ibid. 41 Nevertheless, it is necessary to keep in mind that Enlightenment owes much of its philosophical views to Protestant thinking. 42 Richard King, Orientalism and Religion, pp. 151 – 152.

16 and science served as a proof that Buddhism is perfectly suited to modern environment (in the beginning, especially in competition with Christianity). Along with the stress on reason comes the above-mentioned emphasis on experience which covers all areas that cannot be scientifically explained.

As has been stated above, some aspects of the Asian traditions gained significance in the modern period due to intercultural mimesis; one of them was the laicisation of the meditation practice in Modern Buddhism. The turn to laicisation is closely related to what Gombrich and Obeyesekere termed the “Protestantisation” of Buddhism.43 After meditation in modern sense of the word ceased being a practice designated only for a small number of monastics with introspective inclinations, textual sources have become sought for, be it the old texts of Tipitaka or meditation manuals written by modern authors, both monastics and lay teachers. However, the shift towards reliance on textual sources is of an older date. It developed in the context of the Orientalist Romanticism with its nostalgic search for origins. As Philip C. Almond states,

“at the beginning of the nineteenth century the Buddhist tradition did not exist as an object of discourse in the West [...] Buddhism was reified as a textual object. By the middle of the Victorian period, Buddhism was seen as essentially constituted by its textuality [...] a crucial product of this process of the textualisation of Buddhism was the emergence of the historical Buddha”44

As Almond adds, the historical projection created in this way was derived from texts devoted largely to “philosophy” produced and circulated among monastic elites.45

There is yet another reason for the “text hunt” – the nineteenth century idea of Buddhism as a world religion evoked the connotations of the concept of religion. The search for the founder of the religion, its doctrines and its sacred scriptures had begun. Nevertheless, it is necessary to bear in mind the reminder of Lopez:

...this trait is not merely a Western post-Reformation interest. Throughout the history of Buddhism, movements have appealed to the example of the Buddha and his teachings as a source of authority for their own particular formulations of the dharma.46 43 Gombrich and Obeyesekere coined the term „Protestantization“ to describe the modern Buddhist movement following Anagarika Dharmapala in the second half of the nineteenth century in Ceylon. They understood the essence of Protestantism as the individual's seeking his or her ultimate goal without intermediaries. The effect of this rejection are spiritual egalitarianism and an emphasis on individual responsibility. Religion is privatized and internalized: the truly significant is not what takes place at a public celebration or in a ritual, but what happens inside one's own mind. At the same time religion is universalized: its injunctions apply to everyone at all times and in all contexts (E. Barker, J. A. Beckford and K. Dobbelaere (eds.), Secularization, rationalism and sectarianism, Essays in honour of Bryan R. Wilson, Oxford, 1993, quoted in Yukio Matsudo, Protestant Character of Modern Buddhist Movements, Buddhist-Christian Studies, Vol. 20, 2000, p. 62 f.) 44 Philip C. Almond, The British Discovery of Buddhism, p. 139. 45 Ibid., p. 7. 46 Donald S. Lopez, Curators of the Buddha, p. 7.

17 McMahan likewise rightfully draws the attention of his readers to the fact that though modernity has caused several elements of the vast corpus of the “Buddhist” traditions to come to the forefront, these aspects were not invented anew. However, they probably have not been the most typical aspect of these traditions throughout their history.47

The conception of Buddhism as a (world) religion demands a more detailed commentary. From the end of the nineteenth century, there has been an ongoing debate if Buddhism should be categorised as religion or philosophy. One of the reasons was the fact that as a result of the textual foundation of the concept of Buddhism, it was considered atheist for decades after its “discovery”. This was just another indication of the problematic nature of the concept of religion, the definitions of which presupposed the existence of God/gods/“supernatural” beings.

Later, the arrival of the concept of “sacred” in the field of study of religion deflected the needle again in the direction of Buddhism as a “religion”.48 The consequence of this classification was the establishment of Buddhist studies separately from the study of the history and culture of the “Buddhist” countries and their “religions”, which often led to separation of certain traditions from their context and establishing of concepts that occlude the reality rather than help explaining it.

The concept of religion includes the idea of a founder. The Victorian period of approximately the second half of the nineteenth century left its imprint also on the character of the Buddha, the first mythical, later historical figure of prime importance to the newly emerged (world) religion. In early Victorian times, Buddha became a subject of comparative mythology; in mid and late Victorian times he was considered a historical personality like Jesus, Mohammad or Luther.49

It has already been pointed out that Buddha was considered a social reformer by many European thinkers, looking through the prism of their own discussions of that time, especially the critique of corrupted Catholic priesthood. He obtained the role of a bearer of the idea of equality of human beings and the revolutionary fighter against the „caste system“ and the brahmanical „priests“. Speaking about social activism, it is yet another feature which is typical for Modern Buddhism. Social conscience had been always seen as a deficiency when compared to Christianity by the early users of the concept of Buddhism.

Some of the new features are specific for Buddhist traditions of the former British colonies. They reflect historical debates and interests of the Victorian society, as was shown by Philip C. Almond. 50

47 David L. McMahan, The Making of Buddhist Modernism, p. 44. 48 Philip C. Almond, The British Discovery of Buddhism, p. 94. 49 Ibid., p. 56, Richard King, Orientalism and Religion, p. 145. 50 Philip C. Almond, The British Discovery of Buddhism, e.g., pp. 33 – 36.

18 According to him,51 Victorian stress on the interconnectedness of religion and morality and critique of mores in “Buddhist” Asia since the first half of nineteenth century could have enhanced the emphasis on sīla in modernised Theravada traditions. Nevertheless, sīla has always been considered a fundamental prerequisite for any meditation practice, as will be shown in the chapter about ancient texts pertaining to meditation practices (a good example is the Sāmaññaphala Sutta). All the above-mentioned features of modernised Buddhist traditions will be demonstrated on the teachings of S. N. Goenka.

2.2. The role of meditation in Modern Buddhism

There is yet another typical feature of Modern Buddhism that due to its enormous importance deserves a detailed analysis. The above-mentioned modern emphasis on experience has ensured a privileged position to meditation practices.52 Another reason for this development is the modern stress on personal growth. In this chapter, the concept of meditation itself will be discussed. Thereafter, the Vipassana movement will be described. The second part of the chapter is devoted to the changes in the approach to meditation practices, particularly their laicisation, and the methods that are used in contemporary Theravada.

Before examining the changed role of meditation in nowadays modernised Theravada traditions, it is essential to point out that even the basic concepts have changed substantially. In the context of teachings of modern Theravada meditation masters, the term meditation is being used without further explanations. Nevertheless, the term “meditation” as it is generally understood in modern literature on Buddhist practice, is not to be found in the oldest Buddhist texts. 53 Modern Asian languages nowadays use other words, such as the Sinhalese (and Pali) bhāvanā or Hindi dhyān or

51 Ibid., pp. 111 – 188. 52 Due to restricted space, it is out of scope of this study to include the discussion on meditation states and prosesses happening during meditation. For information on this subject, see for example Miloš Hubina, Vedomie ako oceán, Filozofia a meditácia v indickom buddhizme, Bratislava, Chronos Publishing, 2004, 201 p. 53 The English expression is sometimes claimed to be just an umbrella term for a host of expressions that reflect some aspect or another of meditation, such as anupassati, "to contemplate", anussarati, "to recollect", jhāyati, "to meditate", paccavekkhati, "to review", paṭisañcikkhati, "to reflect meditatively", pharitvā viharati, "to dwell having meditatively pervaded", samādhiyati, "to concentrate", samāpajjati, "to attain meditatively", sammasati, "to comprehend meditatively",upasampajja viharati, "to dwell having attained", vipassati, "to see with insight", paccavekkhati, "to review", paṭisañcikkhati, "to reflect meditatively", pharitvā viharati, "to dwell having meditatively pervaded", samādhiyati, "to concentrate", samāpajjati, "to attain meditatively", sammasati, "to comprehend meditatively", upasampajja viharati, "to dwell having attained", vipassati, "to see with insight", etc. Nevertheless, though in this study it is being used in this sense, according to author's humble opinion, this does not render the argument invalid. The credit for this remark goes to an anonymous Buddhist monk, a reviewer of an unpublished article by the author.

19 samādhi as the corresponding terms.

However, in Tipitaka the word bhāvanā, “representing causative forms from the root bhū, more strictly means „bringing into being“, „cultivation“, or „development“, and certainly there are many contexts in the early texts where the translation „meditation“ [...] would not work. Alternatively one might suggest jhāna/jhāyati deriving from the Sanskrit root dhyā, and indicating “deep thought”, but in Buddhist literature jhāna comes to have a specific technical meaning: someone who practises jhāna is not simply a person who engages in meditation practices, but rather someone who has accomplished a certain level of proficiency in meditation and attained a relatively stable state of deep concentration or absorption...”54 Nyanaponika uses (vipassanā) bhāvanā or the “development (of insight)” instead of “(insight) meditation”.55

Another word used in connection with “meditation” is yogī, which in Sinhala denotes a meditation practitioner. The description of “yoga” in Yogasūtra and Bhagavadgīta seems to fit the modern idea of meditation;56 however, as Gethin remarks, though “terms such as yogin and yogāvacara are used in Buddhist texts in the sense of practitioner of yoga or “meditator”... in the earliest Buddhist texts these terms are not found.”57 Gethin further mentions the term kammaṭṭhāna, which is used in the sense of occupation or business in the Tipitaka, but in Pali commentaries it acquires the specific meaning of meditation practice method and and its object (e.g. samatha or vipassanā).58 S. N. Goenka uses this word when asking the students to make an official request to him to teach them the ānāpāna/vipassanā practice method (“... ānāpāna/vipassanā kammaṭṭhānaṃ dehi”), as mentioned above. Nevertheless, as none of these terms gained currency in English academic discourse, we will tentatively continue using the term meditation in this study, even in the context of ancient texts, mostly in the phrase “meditation practices”, in the sense of any kind of practice leading to cultivation of mind with nibbāna as its ultimate goal, while being aware of the unsatisfactoriness of this inconsistent solution and the complications this entails. Unfortunately, the limited scope of this study does not allow to pay due attention to this problem.

After having discussed the concept of meditation, the focus will now shift to modernized Theravada

54 Rupert Gethin, On the Practice of Buddhist Meditation According to the Pali Nikāyas and Exegetical Sources, p. 201. Nevertheless, there are places which contradict this remark, e.g. MN iii 14, where it is used in relation to a form of practice which is supposed to counter the 5 hindrances, which obviously cannot be absorption. The credit for this remark goes to an anonymous Buddhist monk, a reviewer of an unpublished article by the author. 55 Nyanaponika Thera, The Heart of Buddhist Meditation, A Handbook of Mental Training based on the Buddha's way of mindfulness, Kandy, Buddhist Publication Society, 1998, 1st edition 1962, p. 66. 56 Nevertheless, David Gordon White (Sinister Yogis, Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 2009) offers a completely different picture of a yogī in South Asian history, who is characterised mainly by attained siddhis and this-worldly goals. 57 Ibid, p. 201. 58 Ibid, p. 202.

20 traditions where meditation enjoys the announced privileged position. Recent emphasis on the centrality of meditation has found its expression especially in Theravada Vipassana movement and in Japanese Zen. The so-called Vipassana movement, which denotes a number of modern schools that originated in Theravada traditions of Sri Lanka, Burma, Thailand and Laos, is considered to be a part of Modern Buddhism along with other schools which developed in Asia and spread all around the world. These traditions include for example modern Zen in the rendition of Japanese teachers D. T. Suzuki and Taisen Deshimaru or the Vietnamese monk Thich Nhat Hanh; Tibetan traditions of Chögyam Trungpa-rinpoche, Ole Nydahl, etc.

The beginnings of the Vipassana movement go back to early twentieth-century teachers, such as Phra Achaan Mun (1870-1949) in Thailand,59 Dharmapala (1846-1933) in Sri Lanka, and U Narada (1868-1955) and Ledi Sayadaw (1846-1923) in Burma.60 Though some followers of Achaan Mun are very influential (e.g. Achaan Chah), most of the Vipassana practitioners in Thailand nowadays practice Burmese style meditation.61

In Burma, Ledi Sayadaw is often considered the founder figure of meditation practice as well as the promoter of lay meditation, having established many meditation centres for monks as well as for lay people. As has been shown, S. N. Goenka is a part of Ledi Sayadaw's lineage. Nevertheless, according to Sharf,62 the method that has become most successful was developed by U Narada from his study of the Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta and thanks to his important disciple, Mahasi Sayadaw (1904- 1982), it has spread throughout South and Southeast Asia, Europe, and America (with Western teachers such as British Achaan Sumedho or American Joseph Goldstein, Jack Kornfield and Sharon Salzberg).

The common features shared by the schools which are counted to the Vipassana (or Insight Meditation) Movement are emphasis on meditation and its introduction to laity, and insistence on the development of mindfulness (sati). They consider the Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta to be atext of central importance and offer meditation mostly without the ritual, “liturgical” and merit-making elements integral to Theravada Buddhism.63 In these modernised Theravada traditions, vipassanā, mostly translated as insight meditation, is generally concerned with the insight into the three signs if impermanence (anicca), unsatisfactoriness (dukkha) and non-self (anattā). It deals with the area of mind associated with perception (saññā).64

59 Stanley Jayaraja Tambiah, The Buddhist saints of the forests and the cult of amulets, p. 81. 60 Robert H. Sharf, Buddhist Modernism and the Rhetoric of Meditative Experience, p. 254. 61 Ibid., p. 254. 62 Ibid., p. 255. 63 David L. McMahan, The Making of Buddhist Modernism, p. 186. 64 Sarah Shaw, Buddhist Meditation, An Anthology of texts from the Pali Canon, London and New York, Routledge,

21 A good illustration of the recent history of meditation practice in Theravada traditions is Sri Lanka. According to Bechert,65 the sangha in Sri Lanka maintained a limited tradition of meditation before the colonial period. However, by the end of the nineteenth century it was in decline. Carrithers states that a great majority of the approximately 150 forest cum meditative monk hermitages in Sri Lanka have appeared since 1950 and of the remaining centres, none was older that 100 years.66

Even Gombrich,67 who sees a continuity between the contemporary Sri Lankan forest-monk tradition and the traditions of the eighteenth-century revival stimulated by the arrival of Siamese monks in Sri Lanka, states that the techniques differ significantly. According to Sharf,68 at the time of the revival “bhāvanā (meditation, or mental development) consisted largely of the recitation of Pali texts pertaining to meditation (such as the Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta and the Mettā Sutta), chanting verses enumerating the qualities of the Buddha, reciting formulaic lists of the thirty-two parts of the body, and so on.” That would mean that what is called meditation/vipassanā in modern Vipassana movement is a relatively new phenomenon. Has the role of the meditation practices changed as well?

What is nowadays called meditation practice had traditionally been an occupation of a specific subset of the monastic community. In case of modernised Theravada traditions, an enormous shift towards lay meditation can be observed. Moreover, in Western branches of Theravada traditions (or communities inspired by them), the word sangha has been used as a term denoting the lay community itself.69 S. N. Goenka's Vipassana school considers lay people as its target group, though monastics are not excluded from taking part in the meditation courses.

According to many exegetes and scholars of Buddhism, “meditational practices constitute the very core of the Buddhist approach to life... As prayer in Christianity, so meditation is here the very heartbeat of the religion.”70 Nevertheless, most of the monks who take their vocation seriously do not spend much time meditating, especially in the urban dwellings.71 In the opinion of some

2006, p. 20. 65 Heinz Bechert, Buddhism, Staat und Gesellschaft in den Ländern des Theravada Buddhismus, Schriften des Instituts für Asienkunde in Hamburg, Vol. 1, 1966, quoted in Robert H. Sharf, Buddhist Modernism and the Rhetoric of Meditative Experience, p. 253. 66 Michael Carrithers, The Forest Monks of Sri Lanka, p. 11, quoted in Stanley Jayaraja Tambiah, The Buddhist saints of the forests and the cult of amulets, p. 58. 67 Richard F. Gombrich, Precept and Practice: Traditional Buddhism in the Rural Highlands of Ceylon, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1971, p. 281-282, quoted in Robert H. Sharf, Buddhist Modernism and the Rhetoric of Meditative Experience, p. 254. 68 Robert H. Sharf, Buddhist Modernism and the Rhetoric of Meditative Experience, p. 254. 69 In the Czech Republic, for example, it is common to hear the expression „the Czech sangha“, „the Prague sangha“ etc. 70 Edward Conze, Buddhist Meditation, London, George Allen and Unwin, 1956, p. 11, quoted in Robert H. Sharf, Buddhist Modernism and the Rhetoric of Meditative Experience, p. 230. 71 Even today meditation plays only a minor role in the life of Theravada monks in general, being confined mainly to

22 researchers, meditation had rarely enjoyed greater importance in Buddhist monastic life, though some modern exegetes would like us to believe otherwise, and as has been mentioned, contemporary Buddhist movements that do emphasise meditative experience were often influenced by confrontation with Occident.72

The movements we are most likely to encounter in the West (the Vipassana movement and Zen) are the ones that have been affected the most by this encounter and the resulting shift in emphases. Their impact on Buddhist scholarship is far out of proportion to their importance in their place of origin. Both of these movements can be held particularly responsible for stressing the rationality and spiritual experience in the image of Buddhism contrary to empty ritual and faith, that made it so attractive for Western and westernised audiences.73

How did this shift happen and what were the reasons for it? As has been shown in the chapter on Modern Buddhism, the thinking of intellectuals cum teachers such as Anagarika Dharmapala or D. T. Suzuki, but also Ledi Sawadaw or U Ba Khin, started reflecting the Protestant critique of Catholicism, certain aspects of which have been later adopted to serve the critique of religion by secular science, e.g., iconoclasm, antiritualism, anticlericalism, textual orientation and the emphasis on uncontestable personal experience, which has brought the methods of gaining this experience to the forefront. This reflection was naturally particularly strong in the former British colonies.

This new role of meditation practice led not only to the above-mentioned multiplication of forest monasteries, but also to establishment of lay meditation centres or at least precincts devoted to lay people in monasteries – before the modern period it was apparently not very common for lay people to engage with meditation at a deeper level. According to Gombrich,74 the term used in Sri Lanka for “meditation centre”, bhāvanā madhyasthāna, is a literal Sanskrit translation of the English expression which was introduced after the Second World War. According to Sharf, Mahasi Sayadaw (1904 – 1982) was the one who introduced the concept of an urban meditation center along with his easy-to-learn meditation technique. The establishment of these centers worked as a catalyst in spreading of meditation practice among the laity.75

The critical view of religion that has gained currency in the West as well as in westernised (mainly

forest hermitages, away from the incessant hustle and bustle of the monastic and lay community and its needs which involve study, teaching, performing of rituals, but most importantly lots of everyday organisational activity; except for the modernised “Protestant Buddhist” traditions, nibbāna seems to be a remote goal. 72 Robert H. Sharf, Buddhist Modernism and the Rhetoric of Meditative Experience, p. 232, 241. 73 Ibid, p. 232 f. 74 Richard F. Gombrich, From Monastery to Meditation Centre: Lay Meditation in Modern Sri Lanka, in Buddhist Studies: Ancient and Modern (Collected Papers on South Asia, No. 4), ed. Philip Denwood and Alexander Piatigorsky, 1983, p. 20, quoted in Robert H. Sharf, Buddhist Modernism and the Rhetoric of Meditative Experience, p. 257. 75 Robert H. Sharf, Buddhist Modernism and the Rhetoric of Meditative Experience, p. 256.

23 urbanised and to a certain extent secularised) layers of Asian societies has further enhanced the spreading of modernised traditions centered on meditation. The reason for this is not only their ideological complicity with the “scientific” view of the world, but also the practical benefits desirable in the modernised world that meditation offers. It has become a means to solve the existentiell as well as existential problems of life in the modernised world and cure mental problems, many of which result from the hectic and stressful life style of especially urban upper middle and middle class professionals and the modern precariat, through training of the mind.

Some of these problems are related to the relativisation of life values which accompanies the immense global exchange of ideas and to pressure on the individual due to the perceived personal responsibility for one's success and failures inherent in modern individualism, possibly echoing the Protestant quest for individual salvation. Training of the mind through meditation practice is supposed to enhance one's ability to concentrate, which is often used to improve one's professional career. The cultivation of equanimity can bring ease to one's relationships with other people and help reduce the level of stress. Moreover, the distant goal of final liberation from this unsatisfactory way of scraping along does sound like an attractive option.

However, the claim that lay meditation is a matter of modernity has not been accepted by everyone. Gethin76 suggests that the laity in the Theravada traditions commonly performs the chanting of Buddha's qualities, that means the practice of recollection of the Buddha (buddhānussati), one of the thirty-eight or forty meditation practices mentioned in the Visuddhimagga,77 and a preliminary exercise in the practice of calmness meditation (samatha bhāvanā). Gethin rightly observes that the claim is in reality circular – the lay community does not participate in meditation as it has been predominantly understood in the last century or so, that is to say as consisting in certain types of insight practice (vipassanā bhāvanā) based on establishing mindfulness (satipaṭṭhāna).

Let us now take a look at the specifics of the insight practice of modern Vipassana teachers. Which ancient texts do they usually refer to? Oosterwijk78 has done research into meditation practices used by twenty-one teachers and several scholar-monks who are considered to be a part of the Vipassana movement. He summarised the results of his research in the following way: 79 fifteen of the teachers

76 Rupert Gethin, On the Practice of Buddhist Meditation According to the Pali Nikāyas and Exegetical Sources, pp. 214 f. 77 Visuddhimagga VII 2-67. 78 R. C. van Oosterwijk, Doctrinal Backgrounds of Vipassanā-meditation. 79 R. C. van Oosterwijk, Doctrinal Backgrounds of Vipassanā-meditation, p. 143.

24 based their methods on Satipaṭṭhāna Suttas80, Ānāpāna Sutta81 and Kāyagatāsati Sutta,82 a few of them also on Mahāhatthipadopama Sutta83 or Mahārāhulovāda Sutta.84

Concerning sati (mindfulness), the scholar monks he interviewed often mentioned Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta and a few Aṅguttara Nikāya suttas. Furthermore, modern teachers very often go back to the two commentarial compendia, Visuddhimagga and Vimuttimagga. The majority of the teachers disapproved of the idea that jhāna concentration is needed to attain insight, while the scholar-monks insisted that at least the first jhāna is necessary.

Nevertheless, Nyanaponika85 deems access concentration sufficient for attaining insight. In his opinion, discursive thought is absent in higher stages of jhāna, and therefore the insight necessary for liberation cannot be reached in that way. Many of the teachers along with scholar-monks consider the insight that body and mind are impermanent, suffering and non-self to be the goal of vipassanā practice.86

At this point, important aspects of the meditation practices taught by the two modern Theravada teachers of S. N. Goenka's lineage (paramparā), Ledi Sayadaw and U Ba Khin, which correspond to Goenka's teachings, will be briefly mentioned. In Ledi Sayadaw's teaching, insight into vipassanā knowledge (vipassanā ñāna dassana) consists in insight into anicca, dukkha and anattā.87 Ledi Sayadaw states: “If the nature of anicca (Impermanence) can be clearly realised, the realisation of anatta (Impersonality) follows as a matter of course,”88 quoting Meghīya. Practitioners who practise only insight (sukkhavipassaka) do not have to master the four jhānas.89

U Ba Khin90 taught specific vipassanā practice91 which consisted in sweeping attention systematically through one's body while being aware of the sensations (vedanā),92 after developing

80 DN 22, i 55 and MN 10, ii 290. 81 MN 118, iii 78. 82 MN 119, iii 88. 83 MN 28, i 184. 84 MN 62, i 420. 85 Nyanaponika Thera, The Heart of Buddhist Meditation, p. 115. 86 R. C. van Oosterwijk, Doctrinal Backgrounds of Vipassanā-meditation, p. 143. 87 Ledi Sayadaw, The Manuals of Dhamma, Igatpuri, Vipassana Research Institute, 2006, 1st edition 1999, p. 87. 88 Ibid, p. 186. 89 Ibid, p. 160. 90 The following information about the teachings of U Ba Khin has been acquired in Jack Kornfield, Modern Buddhist Masters, Kandy, Buddhist Publication Society, 2007, c1977 by Unity Press, 325 p., pp. 241 – 262, especially in U Ba Khin's article The Essentials of Buddha-Dhamma in Practice that Kornfield introduces. For more information on the origins of U Ba Khin's tradition and its relationship to insight in the Pali canon see Anālayo, The Ancient Roots of the U Ba Khin Vipassanā Meditation, Journal of the Centre for Buddhist Studies, Vol. 4., 2006, and Anālayo, The Development of Insight – A Study of the U Ba Khin Vipassanā Meditation Tradition as Taught by S.N. Goenka in Comparison with Insight Teachings in the Early Discourses, Fuyan Buddhist Studies, Vol. 6, 2011. 91 Unlike Goenka, he did not identify his specific technique with vipassanā as such. 92 Anālayo (in The Ancient Roots of the U Ba Khin Vipassanā Meditation) finds striking similarities between U Ba Khin's technique and the instructions given in the Dhyānasamādhi Sūtra, the translation of which into Chinese by

25 “preferably” access concentration. Through this practice the meditator develops insight into anicca. The insight into impermanence then facilitates the understanding of suffering (unsatisfactoriness, stress) and non-self. With the awareness of impermanence and/or suffering and/or non-self, the student develops in himself the nibbāna dhātu, literally the element of nibbāna, “a power that dispels all impurities or poisons, the products of bad actions, which are the sources of his physical and mental ills.”93

Nevertheless, there is no awareness of impermanence without concentration and no concentration without virtue (sīla).94 Concentration ought to be practised through ānāpāna sati, the mindfulness of the incoming and outgoing breath and sensations perceived on a spot on the upper lip at the base of the nose. The progress in this meditation practice manifests through appearance of visual symbols such as “flashes or points of light”.95 After concentration reaches a satisfactory level, the student gets introduced to the above-mentioned kind of vipassanā practice which consists in observation of bodily sensations. Sensation by touch is, according to U Ba Khin, more noticable than other types of feelings and it is the easiest way to understand impermanence. Therefore he recommends it to beginners in meditation and has chosen it as the main practice for his (lay) students. Nevertheless, that does not mean that this is the only technique that should be practised. As U Ba Khin says, “at times the attention will be on impermanence of matter only. At times the attention may be on impermanence of thought-elements,” but “impermanence can be understood through other types of feeling as well.”96

The practitioner begins to realise that the human body is composed of kalāpas97 (sub-atomic units), the life span of which is a moment, and there are a trillion such moments in the blinking of an eye. “Perception of the whole world, matter and mind, becomes reduced to various levels of vibration in a constant state of change.”98 If one practises continuously, s/he can move from the mundane to the supramundane state and enter nibbāna. In comparison to the supramundane “nibbānic peace within”, the mundane “jhānic peace within” is negligible. Regarding the practice, it is important to notice that according to U Ba Khin, it is not necessary to practice the awareness of impermanence Kumarajīva is probably slightly earlier than Buddhaghosa's Visuddhimagga. 93 Jack Kornfield, Modern Buddhist Masters, p. 243. Goenka mentions the nibbāna dhātu in Pali recitations during his meditation instructions. 94 The Essentials of Buddha-Dhamma in Practice, quoted in Jack Kornfield, Modern Buddhist Masters, p. 261. 95 Ibid, p. 251. 96 Ibid, p. 257. 97 The specific concept of kalāpa can also be found in the teaching of other teachers, e.g., Pa Auk Sayadaw (R. C. van Oosterwijk, Doctrinal Backgrounds of Vipassanā-meditation, p. 59. According to the Pali Text Society's Pali- English Dictionary, p. 198, it means “a bundle, bunch”; in philosophy: a group of qualities, pertaining to the material body. According to U Ba Khin (ibid, p. 245), “each kalāpa is a mass formed of the following nature- elements: (1) extension (earth), (2) cohesion (water), (3) radiation (heat and cold), (4) motion (air), (5) color, (6) smell, (7) taste, (8) nutritive essence.” 98 Ibid, p. 258.

26 all the time. As he says, “work while you work – play while you play.”99

This chapter has dealt with the concept of meditation and showed the laicization of meditation practices and the meditation practices of Vipassana teachers with special attention to the teachers of Goenka's lineage. At this point, the different practices leading to awakening in the texts of Tipitaka and the commentaries will be described.

3. Meditation practices according to Tipitaka and the commentaries

The aim of this chapter is to design a brief sketch of the practices leading to nibbāna in the oldest “Buddhist” texts (Suttapitaka and Vinayapitaka), which the modern Theravada meditation masters often refer to, and draw a conclusion about their relationship to the meditation practices of modern Theravada meditation teachers.

In the first place, it will be necessary to consider the character of literal sources of the practice and their “meditation instructions”. Though the Tipitaka was committed to script for the first time in the 1st century BC at Sri Lanka, from the point of view of contemporary Theravada traditions, at least the first two pitakas of the Tipitaka, the Vinayapitaka and the Suttapitaka, contain authentic teachings of the Buddha, and the information they comprise is considered authoritative. Apart from the suttas, the texts that enjoy the highest esteem today are the two comparatively later “meditation manuals”, the Visuddhimagga and the Vimuttimagga.

However, Sharf100 is very skeptical regarding the modern teachers treating the old texts as a description of meditation experiences of their authors. The problem he sees here is the modern identification of the authors of scholarly works on meditation practice and the actual meditators. The paradigmatic example of this he sees in the Visuddhimagga, which is in modern Theravada considered the main authority on meditation, while it seems to be composed by Buddhaghosa solely on the basis of his study of scriptural and commentarial material.101

Though this is undoubtedly an important point, it is necessary to not lose sight of the fact that the Visuddhimagga and other preserved commentaries are just systematic recordings of a centuries long oral commentarial tradition and it would be very hard to imagine that this tradition sustained itself without any contact with the monks who actually engaged in the practices it summarises (whose

99 Ibid, p. 261. 100 Robert H. Sharf, Buddhist Modernism and the Rhetoric of Meditative Experience. 101 Nevertheless, there are modern examples of meditators who were very active in the scholarly field as well, e.g., Ledi Sayadaw.

27 existence has not been denied even by Sharf).

Another problematic issue is the usage of the texts, sūtras as well as manuals for meditation practice, which have according to Sharf102 “functioned more as sacred talismans that as practical guides.” Furthermore, the interpretation of the suttas, e.g., the Satipaṭṭhāna Suttas, differs substantially from teacher to teacher. For example, S. N. Goenka has devoted a whole course to the Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta and claims strict adherence to its instructions. Nevertheless, he actually concentrates on a rather small subchapter dealing with the mindfulness regarding the vedanās (sensations), which is an often occurrence in Burmese traditions.

It seems that the oldest collection of texts that claim their provenance from the Buddha, the Tipitaka, does not really contain much information about how exactly to proceed with “meditation practice”, i.e., how to cultivate samādhi and paññā. It has been already observed by Gethin103 that in the suttas, between the description of the sitting position and the different levels that can be reached through the practice, i.e., jhānas etc., there is a blank space.104 That would mean that the earliest meditation techniques of Buddhist meditation are lost and imply the obvious – that meditation practice has always required personal instructions of a teacher, which is quite clearly stated in the later commentarial texts.

For example, Visuddhimagga105 teaches that after the practitioner dedicates himself to his teacher, he can teach him even “secret books”. According to Gethin, this is a clear evidence that “whatever the nature of these secrete books, the fact that they are mentioned here suggests that the teachings on the practice of meditation presented in texts like the Vimutimagga and the Visuddhimagga are not intended to be comprehensive.”106

3.1. Meditation instructions in Suttapitaka and Vinayapitaka

After the limitations that reduce the informational value of the ancient texts for the purpose of this study have been exposed, the following paragraph will aim at expounding their content. Not

102 Ibid, p. 241. 103 Rupert Gethin, On the Practice of Buddhist Meditation According to the Pali Nikāyas and Exegetical Sources, p. 202 f. 104 Nevertheless, this blank space can be filled with other suttas. One can for example could turn to MN 19 and MN 20. The credit for this remark goes to a Buddhist monk, an anonymous reviwer of an unpublished article by the author. 105 Visuddhimagga III, 123 – 127. 106 Rupert Gethin, On the Practice of Buddhist Meditation According to the Pali Nikāyas and Exegetical Sources, p. 212.

28 surprisingly, none of the suttas of the Suttapitaka and the Vinayapitaka contain all the aspects that are inseparably connected with what is generally perceived as “meditation practice” in modernised Theravada traditions. Bits and pieces about the types of practices and their goals can be found scattered in different suttas, rather than detailed instructions for practice and concrete information about steps on the way leading to liberation.

The most detailed (though not very elaborate) description of a practice leading to liberation can be found in the Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta (The Discourse on the Establishing/Foundations of Mindfulness) and the Mahāsatipaṭṭhāna Sutta (The Great Discourse on the Establishing/Foundations of Mindfulness). The main aim of the Satipaṭṭhāna Suttas is the cultivation of mindfulness (sati) regarding body (including breathing), sensations (vedanā), states of mind and dhammas (including the seven factors of awakening and the Four Noble Truths), which results in final liberation.

To mention some of the suttas that contain important information regarding these practices: Ānāpāna Sutta107 teaches awareness of breathing, after which the seven factors of awakening are brought to their culmination and final liberation is attained. Insight into impermanence (anicca) is taught in Nandakovāda Sutta108 and Saññā Sutta,109 where it leads to insight into suffering, stress or unsatisfactoriness (dukkha), which again leads to insight into non-self (anattā). According to the Sāmaññaphala Sutta,110 after having developed moral behaviour (sīla), mindfulness (sati), clear awareness (sampajañña) and having abandoned the five hindrances, the person who has gone forth, enters the four jhānas; with a concentrated mind, s/he gains siddhis, her/his mind is purified from taints and s/he attains liberation. The Dīghankha Sutta111 describes the process of attaining liberation after gaining insight into the three characteristics of existence concerning the body made of four elements and into the impermanence of feelings.

Furthermore, a question arises regarding the necessary conditions for attaining nibbāna. In Suttapitaka and Vinayapitaka, the prerequisites for awakening are depicted in several below- mentioned suttas in several different ways. The liberating insight is usually described as the insight into (at least some of) the three characteristics of existence (anicca, dukkha and anattā) and/or the result of being freed from the āsavas (taints or cankers). According to Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta,112 the prerequisite for liberation is insight into the Four Noble Truths about dukkha, its cause,

107 MN 118, iii 78. 108 MN 146, iii 270. 109 AN 7.46, iv 46. 110 DN 2, i 60. 111 MN 74, i 499. 112 SN 56.11; v, 420; Vinaya Mahāvagga 6.37 ff.; i, 10 ff.: “Yato ca kho me, bhikkhave, imesu catūsu ariyasaccesu evaṃ tiparivaṭṭaṃ dvādasākāraṃ yathābhūtaṃ ñāṇadassanaṃ suvisuddhaṃ ahosi, athāhaṃ, bhikkhave, sadevake

29 its cessation and the way to its cessation. This idea appears in many other suttas, e.g.: Mahāsatipaṭṭhāna Sutta, Saccavibhaṅga Sutta113 or Sikkha Sutta.114 Other suttas mention the other two characteristics of the triad common in the modern Theravada as well, e.g., Uppādā Sutta115 mentions all three of them.

The very common notion that liberation follows after the destruction of taints can be observed, e.g., in the Sāmaññaphala Sutta,116 Bhaya-bherava Sutta,117 Sikkha Sutta 2,118 Nibbedhika Sutta,119 Jhāna Sutta120 or Ākaṅkheyya Sutta.121 Sometimes only ignorance is mentioned, e.g., in the Vijjabhagīya Sutta.122 Sometimes the suttas speak about the uprooting of the triad lust (kāma), anger (krodha), and delusion (moha), e.g., the Ariyavasa Sutta.123 Therefore, some authors conclude that the prerequisites of the final insight show great variability and the final step to awakening remains uncertain.124

According to Gethin,125 the basic framework for meditation practice in the early texts is bringing the mind to a state of calmness with the help of a meditation object. This state of mind is characterised by a special clarity of mind which enables one to see “through the ordinary appearance of things to how they actually are, in other words to enlightenment.” Gethin126 disagrees at this point with the opinion of other scholars who consider this framework a later synthesis of divergent conceptions of

loke samārake sabrahmakesassamaṇabrāhmaṇiyā pajāya sadevamanussāya ‘anuttaraṃ sammāsambodhiṃ abhisambuddho’ti paccaññāsiṃ. Ñā añca pana me dassanaṃ udapādi: ‘akuppā me vimutti, ayamantimā jāti, natthi dāni punabbhavo’”ti.” 113 MN 141, iii 248. 114 AN 3.88, i 235. 115 AN 3.134, i 286; Vinaya, Mahāvagga I, 6.37-46; i, 13-4: “Sabbe saṅkhārā aniccā... Sabbe saṅkhārā dukkhā... Sabbe dhammā anattā.” 116 “Ime āsavāti yathābhūtaṃ pajānāti, ayaṃ āsavasamudayoti yathābhūtaṃ pajānāti, ayaṃ āsavanirodhoti yathābhūtaṃ pajānāti, ayaṃ āsavanirodhagāminī paṭipadāti yathābhūtaṃ pajānāti. Tassa evaṃ jānato evaṃ passato kāmāsavāpi cittaṃ vimuccati, bhavāsavāpi cittaṃ vimuccati, avijjāsavāpi cittaṃ vimuccati, vimuttasmiṃ ‘vimuttam’iti ñāṇaṃ hoti, ‘khīṇā jāti, vusitaṃ brahmacariyaṃ, kataṃ karaṇīyaṃ, nāparaṃ itthattāyā’ti pajānāti.” 117 MN 4, i 16. 118 AN 3.89, i 235. 119 AN 6.63, iii 410. 120 AN 9.36, iv 422. 121 MN 6, i 35. 122 AN 2.30, i 61. 123 AN 10.20, v 29. 124 E.g., R. C. van Oosterwijk, Doctrinal Backgrounds of Vipassanā-meditation, p. 145. 125 Rupert Gethin, On the Practice of Buddhist Meditation According to the Pali Nikāyas and Exegetical Sources, p. 209. 126 Unlike Griffiths (Paul Griffiths, Concentration or Insight: The Problematic of Theravāda Buddhist Meditation- Theory, Journal of the American Academy of Religion, Vol. 49, No. 4, 1981), who sees in the Suttapitaka texts two completely disparate goal of practice and way of reaching them and from whose view (among others) Gethin distances himself, Gethin is a scholar who is well versed in the academic study of Buddhist texts pertaining to meditation as well as in the meditation practice itself, and therefore has been considered an authority on this subject in this study.

30 the path and goal of liberation.127

Gethin's interpretation also diverges from some of the modern teachers who see the meditation of calmness (samatha) and the meditation of insight (vipassanā) as two disparate ways and sometimes even do not consider concentration on the jhāna level to be a necessary prerequisite of awakening, as will be shown later in the chapter about the views of modern teachers. The aim of the following paragraph will be to introduce some of the practices leading to calming of the mind and the gaining of liberating insight. The practices focused on dealing with specific defilements (such as repulsiveness of the body used against lust) will be omitted at this point.

First of all, it is necessary to reiterate the repeatedly mentioned point (e.g., in the Sāmaññaphala Sutta or in the Mahācattārisaka Sutta128) that the precondition of attaining liberation is “ethical conduct” (sīla). Conducting oneself in a blameless way, one can practise mindfulness (sati), leading to the desired calming of the mind. The training of sati in the fundamental texts devoted solely to different ways of developing sati, the Satipaṭṭhāna Suttas, describe training of sati on different objects: breath, positions of the body, body parts, four elements, transience of the body, feelings (vedanā), states of mind and the dhammas: the five hindrances, the five aggregates of clinging, the six sense bases, the seven factors of awakening and the Four Noble Truths concerning dukkha, including the detailed description of the Noble Eightfold Path leading to its cessation. Profound understanding of the Four Noble Truths enables insight into dukkha. The practice of these four establishments/foundations of mindfulness leads according to the Satipaṭṭhāna Suttas to either full awakening or at least to non-return.

Several things can be observed in the Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta: The monk is repeatedly depicted as

127 Lambert Schmithausen, On Some Aspects of Descriptions of Theories of “Liberating Insight” and “Enlightenment” in Early Buddhism, in Studies zum Jainismus und Buddhismus, Klaus Bruhn and Albrecht Wenzel (eds.), Gedenkenschrift für Ludwig Alsdorf, Wiesbaden, Franz Steiner Verlag, 1981; Paul Griffiths, Concentration or Insight: The Problematic of Theravāda Buddhist Meditation-Theory, Tilmann Vetter, The Ideas and Meditative Practices of Early Buddhism, Leiden, E. J. Brill, 1988; Gombrich, Richard F. How Buddhism Began, The Conditioned Genesis of the Early Teachings, London, Athlone, 1996; quoted in Rupert Gethin, On the Practice of Buddhist Meditation According to the Pali Nikāyas and Exegetical Sources, p. 209. Gethin further on p. 217 states that what he tries to suggest is that “there is in at least significant portions of the Nikāyas a broadly consistent and definite theory of meditation practice: the mind should by the use of various meditation practices be brought to a certain kind of deeply peaceful state where certain mental qualities, certain emotions and feelings, such as joy, tranquility, happiness, mindfulness and equanimity, are accentuated. These qualities, these emotions and feelings, are the means to and constituents of awakening. This same theory od meditation is articulated and further elaborated in the exegetical literature with more precision and detail. Whether or not such a theory of meditation precisely reflects what the Buddha taught, whether or not it is the only theory evidenced in the early texts, it remains, I suggest, a clear and definite theory, a proper acknowledgement and appreciation of which is lacking in much of the scholarly discussion of early Buddhist meditation. While there is no doubt evidence of inconsistency where incompatible or rival views and theories have been unthinkingly or deliberately put together in the corpus of early Buddhist texts that have come down to us, there is also evidence of a broadly consistent vision. A proper appreciation of early Buddhist literature requires consideration of both kinds of evidence.” 128 MN 117; iii, 71.

31 abiding being aware of arising and vanishing of the phenomena, be it the phenomena of the body, feelings or khandhas. That implies insight into impermanence (anicca). The first of the seven factors of awakening is mindfulness; the final ones are concentration and equanimity, which corroborates Gethin's interpretation. Only when the mind is concentrated and equanimous, that means devoid of desire and aversion, it reaches the clarity essential for insight. It is worth noting that the taints of craving for becoming and ignorance have not been mentioned here.

The mindfulness directed to breathing is taught, as has been mentioned, in the Ānāpāna Sutta, and the mindfulness directed to the body (along with the four jhānas) is taught also in the Kāyagatāsati Sutta. Right concentration (samādhi), which is a prerequisite of awakening as the last part of the Noble Eightfold Path and the penultimate factor of awakening, is defined in the Mahāsatipaṭṭhāna Sutta (and elsewhere, e.g., in the Saccavibhaṅga Sutta) in the following way:

And what, monks, is right concentration? Here, a monk, detached from sense-desires, detached from unwholesome mental states, enters and remains in the first jhāna, which is with thinking and pondering, born of detachment, filled with delight and joy. And with the subsiding of thinking and pondering, by gaining inner tranquility and oneness of mind, he enters and remains in the second jhāna, which is without thinking and pondering, born of concentration, filled with delight and joy. And with the fading away of delight, remaining imperturbable, mindful and clearly aware, he experiences in himself the joy of which the Noble Ones say: “Happy is he who dwells with equanimity and mindfulness,” he enters the third jhāna. And, having given up pleasure and pain, and with the disappearance of former gladness and sadness, he enters and remains in the fourth jhāna, which is beyond pleasure and pain, and purified by equanimity and mindfulness. This is called Right Concentration. And that, monks, is called the way of practice leading to the cessation of suffering.129

There are some suttas which put a lot of emphasis on right concentration. The four levels of right concentration (jhāna) are sometimes described as leading to the final insight, e.g., in the Mahāsatipaṭṭhāna Sutta, Saccavibhaṅga Sutta, Mahācattārisaka Sutta or Pasādika Sutta.130 Nevertheless, there are suttas according to which it suffices to reach the first jhāna, which leads to the cessation of the taints, to attain awakening (Aṭṭhakanāgara Sutta,131 Dasama Sutta132 and Jhāna Sutta). Also in the Māluṅkhyaputta Sutta,133 the attainment of the first jhāna is followed by insight into anicca, dukkha and anattā and by final liberation. According to Paññāvimutti Sutta,134 a person

129 Maurice Walshe, The Long Discourses of the Buddha, A Translation of the Dīgha Nikāya, Kandy, Buddhist Publication Society, 1996, c1995 by Wisdom Publications, p. 349. 130 DN 29, iii 132. 131 MN 52, i 350. 132 AN 11.17, v 343. 133 MN 64, i 435. 134 AN 9.44, iv 452.

32 can be called freed by wisdom (paňňāvimutto), if s/he enters and remains in the first (or second to fourth) jhāna and understands it through wisdom.

However, some of the modern teachers teach the so called “dry insight”, with only an “access concentration” (upacāra samādhi), without reaching even the first jhāna. This approach can be found in the commentaries,135 but cannot be traced in the early discourses in this form. Yet, in some suttas, the succession of concentration and insight is not all that unambiguous; e.g., according to Yuganaddha Sutta,136 a monk can develop insight preceded by concentration, concentration preceded by insight, or concentration in tandem with insight, and after following the path, his fetters (samyojana) no longer bind him and craving is destroyed. That means that there is no unequivocal consensus about the level of concentration needed to attain clear insight in the suttas, though most of the suttas require at least the attainment of the first jhāna.

According to the Jhāna Sutta and Māluṅkhyaputta Sutta, having attained jhāna, one can gain insight into the three universal characteristics of existence (see Dhammaniyama Sutta137). They are inseparably interconnected and insight into one of them leads to insight into the other two (see the Saññā Sutta). According to some texts,138 a deep understanding of these characteristics conduces to final liberation through realisation that the five aspects that constitute the sentient being (khandha) are impermanent and/or stressful and/or non-self. Several other suttas support this teaching: Pañcavaggī Sutta139 explains why the constituents are anattā, Alagaddūpama Sutta,140 Mahāpuṇṇama Sutta141 and Susīma Sutta142 teach that the five khandhas, discerned as impermanent, are therefore suffering/unsatisfactory and hence cannot be considered to be one's self.143

Only the longer suttas on practice (Mahāsatipaṭṭhāna Sutta, Sāmaññaphala Sutta) combine training in most of the above-mentioned aspects of the way leading to awakening, concentration as well as the characteristics of existence and the destruction of the taints. An altogether different approach to

135 R. C. van Oosterwijk, Doctrinal Backgrounds of Vipassanā-meditation, p. 144. 136 AN 4.170, ii 157. 137 AN 3.134, i 286. 138 Mahāpadāna Sutta (DN 14, ii 35), mentioning impermanence and liberation through the destruction of taints, Sangīti Sutta (DN 33, iii 223), Apagata Sutta (SN 18.22, ii 253), mentioning non-self, Samādhi Sutta (AN 4.41, ii 44), mentioning destruction of taints, and Paññā Sutta (AN 8.2; iv 153), mentioning impermanence:“Pañcasu kho panāyamāyasmā upādānakkhandhesu udayabbayānupassī viharati– iti rūpaṃ, iti rūpassa samudayo, iti rūpassa atthaṅgamo; iti vedanā … pe … iti saññā … iti saṅkhārā … iti viññāṇaṃ, iti viññāṇassa samudayo, iti viññāṇassa atthaṅgamoti. Addhā ayamāyasmā jānaṃ jānāti passaṃ passatī’ti.” 139 SN 22.59, iii 66. 140 MN 22; i, 130. 141 MN 109; iii, 15. 142 SN 12.70; ii, 119. 143 R. C. van Oosterwijk, Doctrinal Backgrounds of Vipassanā-meditation, p. 90.

33 the attainment of liberation can be found in the Karaṇīyamettā Sutta;144 if one practises loving kindness to all beings, “never in a womb is one born again”.

Many teachers of the Vipassana movement claim to practice vipassanā bhāvanā, the development of insight. They often liken samatha bhāvanā, the development of concentration, to calming of the waves on surface of a muddy pond in contrast to cleaning the bottom of the pond which can be done only by practicing vipassanā. According to Bhikkhu Bodhi, the method of vipassanā bhāvanā, the development of insight as a systematic training may have been developed on the basis of two Aṅguttara Nikāya suttas:145 Vijjabhagīya Sutta and Tatiyasamādhi Sutta.146 Both of them stress the calming of the mind as well.147

According to Sharf,148 there is evidence that the contemporary use of the term vipassanā differs from its use in the suttas of Tipitaka, as there was an analytic, discursive compoment to vipassanā practice. This aspect is lacking in techniques of contemporary schools that are considered to belong to the Vipassana fold, which would traditionally classify them rather as samatha techniques. The nowadays vipassanā – samatha division applies also to meditation object, some of which are considered to be more suitable for concentration, some for insight. However, for example breath can be used for both types of meditation.149

What do Sutta- and Vinayapitaka suttas say about the two aspects of practice which are in current Vipassana often perceived as two distinct ways?150 According to Mahāsaḷāyatanika Sutta151 and Vijjābhagīya Sutta,152 samatha must be in balance with vipassanā. Nevertheless, the level of concentration and the order of developing these two aspects are undetermined (Yuganaddha Sutta).153

Vijjābhagīya Sutta states:

144 SN 1.8, 143 – 152: “Diṭṭhiñca anupaggamma, sīlavā dassanena sampanno; kāmesu vinaya gedhaṃ, na hi jātuggabbhaseyya punaretī”ti.” 145 Bhikkhu Bodhi, Introduction in Numerical Discourses of the Buddha: an anthology of the suttas from the Aṅguttara-Nikāya, transl. Nyanaponika and Bhikkhu Bodhi, Kandy, Buddhist Publication Society, 1999, quoted in R. C. van Oosterwijk, Doctrinal Backgrounds of Vipassanā-meditation, p. 99. 146 AN 4.94; ii, 93. 147 R. C. van Oosterwijk, Doctrinal Backgrounds of Vipassanā-meditation, p. 99. 148 Robert H. Sharf, Buddhist Modernism and the Rhetoric of Meditative Experience, p. 261. 149 Nyanaponika Thera, The Heart of Buddhist Meditation, p. 70 f. 150 This specific perception again influences the interpretation of the ancient texts; looking through this prism, some authors find in the suttas two disparate ways to two incompatible goals of practice, see Paul Griffiths, Concentration or Insight: The Problematic of Theravāda Buddhist Meditation-Theory. 151 MN 149, iii 287. 152 AN 2.30, i 61. 153 R. C. van Oosterwijk, Doctrinal Backgrounds of Vipassanā-meditation, p. 103.

34 These two qualities have a share in knowing (vijjā). Which two? Tranquillity (samatha) and insight (vipassanā). When tranquillity is developed, what purpose does it serve? The mind is developed. And when the mind is developed, what purpose does it serve? Passion is abandoned. When insight is developed, what purpose does it serve? Wisdom is developed. And when wisdom is developed, what purpose does it serve? Ignorance is abandoned. Defiled by passion, the mind is not released. Defiled by ignorance, wisdom does not develop. Thus from the fading of passion is there liberation by awareness. From the fading of ignorance is there liberation by wisdom.154

According to Kiṃsukopama Sutta,155 vipassanā and samatha are described as a couple of swift messengers.156 They came “by the Noble Eightfold Path, to wit, right view and the rest … and right concentration.”157 Liberation is the result of following the eightfold Path. Mahāsaḷāyatanika Sutta corroborates this.158

In modern traditions, vipassanā is usually defined as “direct and penetrative realisation of the Three Characteristics of Existence, i.e. Impermanence, Suffering and Impersonality.”159 The same definition can be found in Alagaddūpama Sutta, Dīghanakha Sutta, Saññā Sutta and Cetovimuttiphala Sutta.160 In Dīghanakha Sutta, the insight is based on observation that body consists of four elements.161 Insight into suffering is contained in the description of the Four Noble Truths. An often mentioned method to gain insight into impermanence is the above-mentioned directing of one's mindfulness to the passing nature of phenomena, e.g., feelings (Satipaṭṭhāna

154 Dve me, bhikkhave, dhammā vijjābhāgiyā. Katame dve? Samatho ca vipassanā ca. Samatho, bhikkhave, bhāvito kamatthamanubhoti? Cittaṃ bhāvīyati. Cittaṃ bhāvitaṃ kamatthamanubhoti? Yo rāgo so pahīyati. Vipassanā, bhikkhave, bhāvitā kamatthamanubhoti? Paññā bhāvīyati. Paññā bhāvitā kamatthamanubhoti? Yā avijjā sā pahīyati. Rāgupakkiliṭṭhaṃ vā, bhikkhave, cittaṃ na vimuccati, avijjupakkiliṭṭhā vā paññā na bhāvīyati. Iti kho, bhikkhave, rāgavirāgā cetovimutti, avijjāvirāgā paññāvimuttī'ti. 155 SN 35.204, iv 191. 156 Sīghaṃ dūtayugaṃ. 157 Yathāgatamaggo’ti kho, bhikkhu, ariyassetaṃ aṭṭhaṅgikassa maggassa adhivacanaṃ, seyyathidaṃ– sammādiṭṭhiyā … pe … sammāsamādhissā”ti. 158 R. C. van Oosterwijk, Doctrinal Backgrounds of Vipassanā-meditation, p. 115. 159 Nyanaponika Thera, The Heart of Buddhist Meditation, p. 47 f. 160 AN 5.72, iii 85. 161 R. C. van Oosterwijk, Doctrinal Backgrounds of Vipassanā-meditation, p. 145.

35 Suttas, Dhātuvibhaṅga Sutta,162 or Mahānidāna Sutta163). According to both some of the modern teachers (e.g., S. N. Goenka) and suttas (Meghīya Sutta), insight into non-self is preceded by insight into impermanence.164

The term vipassanā has become one of the keywords in the field of modern Theravada. What is the situation in the suttas? Do the Nikāyas speak about vipassanā itself, or is there another concept which is close to the current concept of “insight”? According to research done by Oosterwijk, the word vipassanā in relation to a method has been used only once in the Dīgha Nikāya and twice in the Majjhima Nikāya. In Mahāpadāna Sutta of Dīgha Nikāya, Buddha is designated as vipassī. Apart from that, in Mahāvacchagotta Sutta,165 Buddha's disciple Vaccha is instructed to develop samatha and vipassanā.166 In Anupada Sutta,167 Sāriputta enjoyed continuous insight (vipassanā) for half a month.168 This shows that vipassanā (as well as samatha) does not only denote a technique or method, but also the resulting state.169 The Vijjabhagīya Sutta of Aṅguttara Nikāya has already been mentioned; in Rāgapeyyāla Sutta,170 both calmness and insight are needed to abandon lust, anger, delusion, etc.171

A much more common expression that appears in the Nikāyas in contexts pertaining to mental development and insight is paññā, wisdom, or paññāvimutti, liberation by wisdom. According to

162 MN 140, iii 237: Athāparaṃ viññāṇaṃyeva avasissati parisuddhaṃ pariyodātaṃ. Tena ca viññāṇena kiṃ vijānāti? ‘Sukhan’tipi vijānāti, ‘dukkhan’tipi vijānāti, ‘adukkhamasukhan’tipi vijānāti. Sukhavedaniyaṃ, bhikkhu, phassaṃ paṭicca uppajjati sukhā vedanā. So sukhaṃ vedanaṃ vedayamāno ‘sukhaṃ vedanaṃ vedayāmī’ti pajānāti. ‘Tasseva sukhavedaniyassa phassassa nirodhā yaṃ tajjaṃ vedayitaṃ sukhavedaniyaṃ phassaṃ paṭicca uppannā sukhā vedanā sā nirujjhati, sā vūpasammatī’ti pajānāti. Dukkhavedaniyaṃ, bhikkhu, phassaṃ paṭicca uppajjati dukkhā vedanā. So dukkhaṃ vedanaṃ vedayamāno ‘dukkhaṃ vedanaṃ vedayāmī’ti pajānāti. ‘Tasseva dukkhavedaniyassa phassassa nirodhā yaṃ tajjaṃ vedayitaṃ dukkhavedaniyaṃ phassaṃ paṭicca uppannā dukkhā vedanā sā. nirujjhati, sā vūpasammatī’ti pajānāti. Adukkhamasukhavedaniyaṃ, bhikkhu, phassaṃ paṭicca uppajjati adukkhamasukhā vedanā. So adukkhamasukhaṃ vedanaṃ vedayamāno ‘adukkhamasukhaṃ vedanaṃ vedayāmī’ti pajānāti. ‘Tasseva adukkhamasukhavedaniyassa phassassa nirodhā yaṃ tajjaṃ vedayitaṃ adukkhamasukhavedaniyaṃ phassaṃ paṭicca uppannā adukkhamasukhā vedanā sā nirujjhati, sā vūpasammatī’ti pajānāti. 163 DN 15, ii 55. 164 Aniccasaññino, meghiya, anattasaññā saṇṭhāti. Anattasaññī asmimānasamugghātaṃ pāpuṇāti diṭṭheva dhamme nibbānan”ti. 165 MN 73, i 489. 166 Tena hi tvaṃ, vaccha, dve dhamme uttari bhāvehi– samathañca vipassanañca. 167 MN 111, ii 25. 168 Paṇḍito, bhikkhave, sāriputto; mahāpañño, bhikkhave, sāriputto; puthupañño, bhikkhave, sāriputto; hāsapañño, bhikkhave, sāriputto; javanapañño, bhikkhave, sāriputto; tikkhapañño, bhikkhave, sāriputto; nibbedhikapañño, bhikkhave, sāriputto; sāriputto, bhikkhave, aḍḍhamāsaṃ anupadadhammavipassanaṃ vipassati. 169 Or a state that should be cultivated: Samatho ca vipassanā ca– ime, bhikkhave, dhammā abhiññā bhāvetabbā (Āgantuka Sutta, SN 45.159; v 51). 170 AN 2.310, i 100: Rāgassa, bhikkhave, abhiññāya dve dhammā bhāvetabbā. Katame dve? Samatho ca vipassanā ca. Rāgassa, bhikkhave, abhiññāya ime dve dhammā bhāvetabbā”ti. (1) “Rāgassa, bhikkhave, pariññāya … parikkhayāya … pahānāya … khayāya … vayāya … virāgāya … nirodhāya … cāgāya … paṭinissaggāya dve dhammā bhāvetabbā … pe … (2–10). 171 R. C. van Oosterwijk, Doctrinal Backgrounds of Vipassanā-meditation, pp. 105 – 111.

36 Bhikkhu Bodhi, developing insight (vipassanā bhāvanā) involves strengthening the faculty of wisdom (paňňā); according to S. N. Goenka, it even directly leads to it.172 Vijja-bhagīya Sutta and Mahāvedalla Sutta173 are more modest in this respect, considering vipassanā one of the factors that contribute to attaining paññā. Regarding vipassanā, Oosterwijk174 has made an interesting remark about a phenomenon which is perhaps significant of the modern Vipassana approach to meditation – vipassanā is sometimes being identified with sati. That is an example par excellence for Sharf's statement that the designation of particular practices and identification of the resulting meditative states is unclear and a disputed subject among the vipassanā teachers themselves.175

3.2. Meditation instructions according to Visuddhimagga

The next task is to briefly summarise important aspect of practice that have been mentioned in the Visuddhimagga, with focus on those that have influenced modern methods of meditation practice. It is necessary to keep in mind the fact that the commentarial work most significant for today's modern Theravada meditation practice, the manual from the fourth or fifth century which has been preserved along with the name with of its author, Buddhaghosa, is a summing up and fixing of a commentarial literature that had grown over several previous centuries.176 Gethin suggests that

“the exegetical literature is essentially true to the vision of meditation presented in the Nikāyas, though the situation has slightly changed; the later manuals were formed in an environment of monastery life as compared to the life of the ascetic (samaṇa), which was assigned a specific role along with its practices (dhutaṅga).”177

Regarding the assignment of particular practices to the student, two aspect are of particular

172 Bhikkhu Bodhi (ed.), Abhidhammattha Sangaha: a comprehensive manual of Abhidhamma, Kandy, Buddhist Publication Society, 2010, p. 67, quoted in R. C. van Oosterwijk, Doctrinal Backgrounds of Vipassanā-meditation, p. 105. 173 MN 43, i 292: Idhāvuso, sammādiṭṭhi sīlānuggahitā ca hoti, sutānuggahitā ca hoti, sākacchānuggahitā ca hoti, samathānuggahitā ca hoti, vipassanānuggahitā ca hoti. Imehi kho, āvuso, pañcahaṅgehi anuggahitā sammādiṭṭhi cetovimuttiphalā ca hoti cetovimuttiphalānisaṃsā ca, paññāvimuttiphalā ca hoti paññāvimuttiphalānisaṃsā cā”ti. 174 R. C. van Oosterwijk, Doctrinal Backgrounds of Vipassanā-meditation, p. 119: “In Dhp 347 sammā-sati has been translated with “insight”, instead of by right mindfulness [accesstoinsight.org]. Sutta S XLVII, III, I, vi (V, 148) only concerns sati, but “vipassanā” was added in the translator's comments, without explaining the connection” 175 As Sharf (Robert H. Sharf, Buddhist Modernism and the Rhetoric of Meditative Experience, p. 261), aptly notes: “as a result, the techniques and experiences promoted by one's competitors are often deemed to be samatha, while one's own style of practice is invariably claimed to be vipassanā. This is particularly striking, as the tradition would lead us to believe that there is a wide gulf separating samatha from vipassanā.” 176 Rupert Gethin, On the Practice of Buddhist Meditation According to the Pali Nikāyas and Exegetical Sources, p. 203. 177 Ibid, pp. 211, 216.

37 importance. As mentioned above, in Visuddhimagga,178 the theory of temperaments was recorded, according to which the inborn inclination of practitioners towards greed, hatred or delusion co- determines the kind of practices that will suit them. The second aspect is the role of a good friend (kalyāṇa mitta)179 to whom the practitioner should dedicate himself (attānaṃ niyyāteti)180 and who gives the practitioner meditation practice (kammaṭṭhāna).181 We will encounter this second aspect in Goenka's meditation instructions.

Regarding calmness of the mind which is connected with concentration and jhāna, Visuddhimagga (as well as Vimuttimagga182) classifies meditation practices according to the level of concentration that can be achieved through them – e.g., Buddha, Dhamma and sangha recollections (anussati) as contextually complex meditation objects can lead only to “access concentration” (upacāra samādhi) because the mind requires conceptual and discursive thinking (vitakka and vicāra) in a degree incongruous with jhāna level of concentration, unlike in case of other meditation objects, such as the breath.183

The samatha – vipassanā dichotomy, so common with modern Theravada meditation teachers, seems not to be present in these exegetical texts; there seems to be a wide scale of jhāna states of mind according to the objects of concentration, at the upper end of which the object of concentration is the reality itself and the corresponding jhāna state has the quality of awakening.184

To develop insight (vipassanā) means to direct the mindfulness developed in jhānas towards the “reality”, the way things really work. It involves seeing dhammas, the constituents of our world, as impermanent (anicca), suffering (dukkha) and non-self (anattā).185 In this process, wisdom (paññā) arises – the attachment and identification with experiences diminishes, the factors of awakening (bojjhaṅga) grow to the highest level and bodhi, nibbāna occurs,186 which is from the early Abhidharma texts onwards termed lokuttara (surpassing the world/extraordinary) jhāna.187

178 Visuddhimagga III, 74 – 103. 179 Visuddhimagga III, 57 – 73. 180 Visuddhimagga III, 124. 181 Visuddhimagga III, 123. 182 Vimuttimagga is traditionally attributed to Upatisa (first to second century AD) and has been preserved in Chinese in which it was translated in sixth century. It is much shorter than Visuddhimagga, which differers from it only in minor points. Therefore Visuddhimagga was consulted for the purpose of this study. 183 Rupert Gethin, On the Practice of Buddhist Meditation According to the Pali Nikāyas and Exegetical Sources, p. 213 f. 184 Ibid, p. 217. 185 The meditator's experience while watching the rise and fall of dhammas is described in Buddhaghosa with the help of pictures from daily life, e.g., a bubble on water or like lightning flash (Visuddhimagga XX, 104). Both U Ba Khin and Goenka mention the lightning flash as a symptom of progress in meditation practice. 186 Sometimes also called asaṅkhata dhātu (the unconditioned element) or bodhi dhātu (element of awakening). 187 Rupert Gethin, On the Practice of Buddhist Meditation According to the Pali Nikāyas and Exegetical Sources), p. 215.

38 To sum up the reflections of this chapter, it has been made clear that the modern concept of meditation as such is nowhere to be found in the ancient texts, be it the suttas of the Tipitaka or the Maggas. Furthermore, it has become clear that the role of “meditation practices” has undergone a huge shift. On the top of that, it has been shown that the information concerning practices leading to nibbāna in the suttas of Suttapitaka and Vinayapitaka does all but provide clear-cut directions for attaining liberation. With the exception of a few suttas, detailed descriptions of the practices are missing and even the information on the prerequisites necessary for attaining nibbāna varies greatly. It is obvious that detailed meditation instructions have always been added by the teacher.

The strong modern dichotomy between samatha and vipassanā is not present in the ancient texts. Most modern Vipassana teachers consider vipassanā to be superior to samatha, whereas in the suttas these practices (more often termed paññā and samādhi) complement each other, with liberation often being described as following the attainment of the fourth (sometimes even first) jhāna. The suttas are not equivocal regarding the degree of concentration necessary for reaching a deep insight into the real nature of things. However, according to most of them at least the first jhāna is necessary for the attainment of liberation.

As far as modern Theravada meditation teachers are concerned, the particular sets of meditation practices they teach show great variability as well and their ideas about the way to attain liberation differ from one to another, as do their opinions on the importance of concentration for liberating insight etc. It will be shown on the example of S.N. Goenka that the techniques adopted by the meditation teachers are more or less related to the descriptions of the practices in the ancient texts they refer to (and draw authority from). For example, the Satipatthāna Sutta mentions the observation of vedanās, sensations. However, its classification of sensations is broader than Goenka's. Apart from that, in the Satipatthāna Sutta the observation of vedanās is just one of the four foundations of the practice of sati, mindfulness, whereas Goenka identifies this one technique with the practice of vipassanā as such.188

The historical continuity of the practices is questionable; between the meditation instructions of modern Theravada meditation teachers and the texts they refer to, such as the Satipatthāna Suttas and Visuddhimagga, there is a gaping chasm of many centuries of scarce information. Moreover, as has been shown, even the practices of the eighteenth-century “revival” and the later period differ from one another substantially. Apart from that, the interpretations of even the basic terms and

188 Nevertheless, it has to be kept in mind that all the information given here are based on the 10-day courses; according to Anālayo. (The Development of Insight – A Study of the U Ba Khin Vipassanā Meditation Tradition as Taught by S.N. Goenka in Comparison with Insight Teachings in the Early Discourses, Fuyan Buddhist Studies, Vol. 6, 2011), the longer courses extend the instructions make us of other parts of the Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta as well.

39 concepts regarding meditation differ from one teacher to another (e.g., in the case of differentiating between samatha and vipassanā.189

It seems plausible to say that the techniques of modern meditation teachers can be to a certain extent traced back to the practices of their lineage, as we have seen in the case of S. N. Goenka. However, most probably they also draw inspiration from the ancient texts such as Suttapitaka, Vinayapitaka and the two Maggas, which were published between the 1870’s and the 1930’s, while claiming that their techniques originate from the Buddha himself and exactly copy Buddha’s instructions recorded in the suttas.

Their teachings often use elements of ancient philosophies. In Goenka’s case, for example, this is seen in the concept of kalāpas (possibly going back to the aṇus, „atoms“ of vaiśeṣika). The concept of saṅkhāras (S. saṃskāra) is present already in the oldest Indian philosophical schools, and the three characteristics of existence (tilakkhaṇa) can be found in the earliest Buddhist texts. The ancient elements are combined with modern concepts from the natural sciences (such as quantum physics in Goenka's discourses), psychology (such as the conscious and unconscious mind ibidem), etc. The way these old and new concepts work together would require a specialised study.

All in all, it can be concluded that historical continuity between the old practices leading to nibbāna, as they have been recorded in the suttas, and the modern meditation techniques of the Vipassana movement teachers seems to be rather difficult to trace. However, the relationship between the practices and ideas mentioned in the ancient texts and the techniques and opinions of the modern teachers seems to be very strong in spite of the variability of both, most probably as a result of the above-mentioned textual orientation of many of the teachers of modernised Theravada traditions and the availability of ancient texts.

4. Goenka's school of Vipassana

So far, Modern Buddhism has been introduced ad one of its main concerns, meditation, has been discussed. At this point, we will turn to the case study and examine the above-mentioned characteristics of the movement on particular examples.

One of the reasons why S. N. Goenka's school of Vipassana has been chosen as the case study is its emphasis on meditation. Organizing meditation courses is considered the main purpose of the

189 See Robert H. Sharf, Buddhist Modernism and the Rhetoric of Meditative Experience.

40 school and its whole structure revolves around them. The main meditation technique of the school consists in systematic observing of vedanās, i.e., bodily sensations, which Goenka identifies with vipassanā. It is practised along with ānāpāna, breath observation aimed at concentration of the mind. The Vipassana school has been designated primarily for a lay audience with no special role attributed to monks and nuns. S. N. Goenka’s appropriation of the term vipassanā as the school’s name and trademark is a part of his marketing strategy.

4.1. The history of the Vipassana school and its characteristics

S. N. Goenka claims that the meditation practice of the Vipassana school has come directly from Gotama the Buddha190 through an unbroken chain of teachers who have preserved the technique in its pristine purity. The lineage of the school supposedly includes the monks Sona and Uttara who were allegedly sent in 250 BC by the Venerable Moggaliputta Tissa to spread the teaching of the Buddha to Suvarnabhumi, and the Arahant Dhammadassi (Shin Arahan, 11th century) of the Pagan kindgdom (nowadays Myanmar).191 In the modern period, the teaching was passed on through Ven. Ledi Sayadaw (1846 – 1923) and the laymen Saya Thetgyi (1873 – 1945), Sayagyi U Ba Khin (1899 – 1971) and S. N. Goenka (1924 - 2013).192

Ven. Ledi Sayadaw, a famous Burmese monk, was born in Upper Burma and received higher ordination at the age of twenty. He travelled throughout Burma teaching meditation and scriptural courses and compiled at least 26 treatises in Pali and translated Pali works for the lay community. He authorised the lay meditator Saya Thetgyi to teach vipassanā.

Since the time of Saya Thet Gyi, the lineage has been taken over by lay people. Saya Thetgyi lived as a householder and paddy merchant in Burma. After a cholera epidemic in which both of his children and other relatives died, he left home and studied meditation with different teachers. He finally spent 7 years practicing with Ven. Ledi Sayadaw. He started teaching ānāpāna meditation (ānāpāna sati bhāvanā – the meditation of breath awareness) in his village in 1914 and was appointed by Ledi Sayadaw his successor in 1915. He was the first lay vipassanā teacher in this lineage. 190 According to the newest promotional material of the school which was used in this chapter (Vipassana Meditation & its Relevance to the World, Igatpuri, Vipassana Research Institute, 2011, pp. 14 −33), “two thousand five hundred years ago, in his quest for a way out of human suffering, Gotama the Buddha rediscovered the art of vipassanā meditation” (p. 12). 191 In this study, the name Burma is being used instead of Myanmar, because Goenka's Burmese history dates before the name change. 192 Satyanarayan Goenka, in Hindi Satyanārāyaṇ Goyankā.

41 The tradition of organizing 10-day meditation courses for householders was initiated by Sayagyi U Ba Khin. Sayagyi U Ba Khin lived as a householder and worked in the office of the Accountant General of Burma. Later in his life he held the post himself. In 1937, he did his first course with Saya Thetgyi. He continued meditating and started teaching meditation after 1950 along with fulfilling the duties of his office. He made the employees of his office attend 10-day courses which he taught himself. Only the last four years of his life were devoted solely to teaching meditation at the Yangon's International Meditation Centre.193

S. N. Goenka194 was born in 1924 in Burma and joined the family business in 1940. His grandfather was a Marwari businessman who had moved to Burma from Rajasthan. S. N. Goenka soon established several manufacturing corporations and became the leader of Burma's Hindu community. He started suffering from severe migraine for which he found no medicine neither in Burma nor abroad. Finally he decided to join a 10-day Vipassana course under the guidance of Sayagyi U Ba Khin with the hope of getting cured, which was eventually fulfilled.

In 1962 the new military government nationalised Goenka's businesses and his meditation practise flourished. In 1969 Sayagyi appointed him a teacher of vipassanā and later sent him to India to bring the practice to the land of its alleged origin. Goenka established the main centre of the school and the Vipassana International Academy in Igatpuri near Mumbai in 1974.

The main centre of the school is located in Maharashtra, the “land of low caste political leaders Jyotirao Phule and B. R. Ambedkar – as well as RSS founding fathers D. V Savarkar, K. B. Hedgewar, and M. S. Gowalkar.” At the same time, it is the state with the highest percentage of converts to Buddhism, mainly from B. R. Ambedkar's community.195 Goenka started introducing the Vipassana school abroad in 1979. In 1986 he established the Vipassana Research Institute in Igatpuri.196 In response to growing demand, he started training assistant teachers to conduct courses on his behalf. He had trained more than 1200 assistant teachers during his lifetime.

More than 1500 courses are held annually around the world in more than 90 countries and every year more than 100 000 people attend Vipassana meditation courses. The main product of the school is 10-day meditation courses; there are also 8-day courses centred around the Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta (Sutta on the Foundation of Mindfulness), special 10-day courses for managers, special 10- day courses for villagers, 20-day courses, 30-day courses, 45-day courses and 60-day courses for

193 Vipassana Meditation & its Relevance to the World, p. 14 – 33. 194 Vipassana Meditation & its Relevance to the World, p. 26. 195 Sumit Sarkar, Indian Nationalism and the Politics of Hindutva, p. 288, in David Ludden (ed.), Making India Hindu, Religion, Community, and the Politics of Democracy in India, New Delhi, Oxford University Press, 2008. It will be shown that Vipassana has found access to both Ambedkar's Buddhists and the Hindutva movement. 196 See Fig. 1.

42 experienced students. Regular centres offer short 1-day and 3-day courses for “old” students197 and short-term courses for dhamma workers' training. All courses are designed primarily for lay people, though they are also occasionally attended by monastics.198

While applying for a course, there are two options – either to participate in the course as a student or as a dhamma worker (dharam sevak/sevikā in Hindi). Meditation students who decide to take up the role of a dhamma worker assist the teachers during the course. Regular dhamma workers, i.e., old students involved in the organisational structure of the meditation school, help on voluntary basis with organizing the courses and take care of the centres. They are expected to offer one year of their life to the Vipassana school, doing mainly administrative and organisational work.

The courses are ordered in a hierarchical system with each of them having its prerequisits. E.g., 20- day courses are open only to old students committed to Goenka's meditation technique who have completed a minimum of five 10-day courses, one Satipatthana course, given dhamma service at least in one 10-day course, have not been practising any other meditation techniques since the last course and have been maintaining sīla and practising regularly (2 hours a day) for at least two years.199

All courses are standardised and the schedule from the beginning to the end of the course is precisely determined.200 The meditation instructions and evening lectures have all been pre-recorded by Goenka himself and the main task of the assistant teachers is to play them. Approximately every two days there is an interview with the assistant teacher during which the meditation progress of the students is discussed. The meditation hall is strictly divided in a male and female part; there is usually one teacher for every 50 participants. Sometimes there is only a male teacher as there are not enough female teachers in the Vipassana school to provide female teachers for all women courses. Assistant teachers do not stay in one place, they move from one course to another. The number of participants varies according to the capacity of the centre, from several dozens to several hundreds of meditators.

There are some paid workers in the centres who take care of gardening, cooking and cleaning, but the rest of the activities of the Vipassana school is being taken care of by volunteers. All expenses are covered by donations from the course participants; there are no fees for the courses whatsoever, food and lodging are free for everyone. The food in the centres has its own precise system – there is

197 So-called “old students” are students who have done at least one course with Goenka or his assistant teachers. 198 There are no special arrangements for monastics, except for separate seats in the meditation hall and in the dining hall attributed to monks and nuns. 199 See http://www.dhamma.org. 200 For timetable, see Fig. 2.

43 an all-India menu which only slightly varies with region and season.201 It is simple (by Indian standards, which means at the very least one sabjī and dāl with roṭī and rice and buttermilk for lunch) and strictly vegetarian.

The centres themselves are being built according to a common pattern which is especially noticeable in India where building is relatively cheap as compared to the West, which means that there is no need to use older structures. Meditation centres usually consist of a meditation hall,202 a dining hall203, an administration block, residential quarters (separate areas for both genders), and a pagoda with meditation cells.204 The unification tendencies concern even the colour of mats, meditation pillows and curtains in meditation halls. The colour of equipment, curtains, etc. in the meditation hall is predominantly white with usually blue meditation mats and pillows for men and brown for women, again with minor regional variations. The students stay in single rooms, double rooms or dormitories,205 depending on the decision of the dhamma workers, eventually on their own preference.206

All procedures before the official beginning and after the end of the course are systematised. The application for the courses can be done by post, or online on the website of the Vipassana school (http://www.dhamma.org) for almost all the centres in the world. The Vipassana chain keeps expanding; apart from new centres being opened all over the world, in 2008 a huge stupa named the Global Vipassana Pagoda was built near Mumbai with the world's largest stone dome without any supporting pillars, which can host up to 8000 meditators.207

Regarding the participants of the Indian Vipassana chain, their composition is rather heterogeneous. They can be roughly divided into several main types. The first type is the local villager, mostly a poor manual worker. It is often the case that married couples participate in the course together or that a young pregnant daughter in law comes accompanied by her mother in law, as participation in the course is considered auspicious. Sometimes, elderly local people are sent to the course by their relatives. It rarely happens that participants of this type start coming to the courses regularly and actively participate in the their organisation. They get attracted by the reputation of the local centre and their attendance is facilitated by the absence of financial demands for food and lodging. In the

201 According to the findings from the field research, European centres have their fixed menus as well. 202 See Fig. 3. 203 See Fig. 4. 204 See Fig. 5. 205 See Fig. 6. 206 The dhamma workers usually choose the accommodation for particular participants according to their internal instructions and common sense, while estimating the level of individualism of each participant, so that, e.g., women from the same village often stay together in the dormitory and Western participants stay in single rooms. 207 See Fig. 7.

44 same way, they would visit the centre of any other tradition in the vicinity of their village. Nevertheless, they often have problems to follow the technique and understand the more theoretical parts of Goenka's teachings.

Another type, which is quite prominent among participants, assistant teachers and regular dhamma workers, is the elderly member of the local educated urban elite; they are very often teachers. Another common type is the college going student of middle class urban background. her/his motivation is usually the desire for extraordinary experience beyond the horizon of her/his daily life or solving existential, relationship, and/or mental problems. Most of the students do not return, at least not before several years, as they usually perceive the course discipline as too strict and realise that it is not the right time for them to engage in disciplining their mind and in what they consider ascetic practices.

A specific type of people who visit the courses repeatedly is the well educated urban middle and upper middle class professional who mostly experiences a mid-life crisis and searches for new perspectives in life, or just looks for some relief from her/his busy life. Last, but not least (especially in places near tourist sites like Dharamsala), there is the foreign tourist, who comes out of curiosity, “spiritual search” or the need to save some money on her/his travels.208

The 10-day courses begin on day zero and end on day eleven. On day zero all students have to register, give their personal details (personal data as well as details about physical and mental condition) and sign that they have got acquainted with the course schedule and commit to obey the timings and observe the course discipline.209 They have to submit all articles that are not allowed in the course precincts during the course, i.e., reading and writing materials, any kind of so-called religious objects (talisman, rosary, sacred thread, etc.), intoxicants including tobacco, valuable items, money and mobile phones, etc.210 Some centres allow or even encourage (Bodhgaya in Bihar) the students to lock their rooms, some centres (Khadavali in Maharashtra) strongly recommend to keep them open and some even occasionally check the rooms for forbidden objects such as tobacco.

Day zero is the last day when old students are officially allowed to eat after the noon, be in contact with opposite gender in general and other participants of the same gender. On the following days, old students get only lemon water for dinner. All students are obliged to observe ārya maun, noble

208 The description of the participants of Goenka's courses is based on the ethnographic data collected during the field research. Nevertheless, this topic has never been the main focus of the study, therefore (and also because of the limited extent of the study) it has not been paid the attention it deserves. More work on the foreign tourist participating in Vipassana courses in India has been done by Thibeault (François Thibeault, Le bouddhisme dans la société mondiale). 209 See Fig. 8, 9. 210 See Fig. 10.

45 silence, which means no contact whatsoever with co-meditators.

In the evening of day zero, instructions are given regarding practical aspects of the course, followed by the official beginning of the course – the allotment of the seats in the meditation hall to the participants (according to the principle of merit – the older and more experienced the student, the closer s/he will sit to the teacher's seat), the initial formal submissions and requests and the first meditation instructions regarding ānāpāna sati (breath awareness/observation) meditation. The formal submissions consist in taking tisarana (Triple refuge in Buddha, dhamma and sangha), taking pañcasīla (five precepts) or aṭṭhasīla (eight precepts) in case of old students, and taking submission to the guru.211 This is followed by a formal request for the ānāpāna meditation instructions.212 The beginning of this session marks the beginning of the noble silence period which lasts till the morning of the tenth day. The students are allowed to talk only to the appointed assistant teacher and dhamma workers when it is necessary.

From day one to day nine the same time schedule is followed213 with minor deviations on the fourth day when the meditation instructions change. During the first three days, ānāpāna meditation is practised and instructions become more and more precise every day. In the afternoon of the fourth day students formally request the instructions for vipassanā meditation,214 which they practise for the rest of the course.

There are three 1-hour group meditations a day during which the students are obliged to meditate together in the meditation hall (from 8 – 9 am, 2:30 – 3:30 pm and 6 – 7 pm) and five 1,5-hour – 2- hour meditation periods during which the students can meditate in the hall, in the pagoda or in their residence, according to the instructions of the assistant teacher. Old students and later often also new students (depending on the capacity of the pagoda) are assigned a meditation cell in the pagoda. The first 2-hour meditation starts at 4:30 am and its last half an hour is dedicated to Goenka's recitation of the Refuge in the Triple Gem, Homage to the Triple Gem, Pali suttas,215 etc. The amount of strictness with which the assistant teachers with the help of dhamma workers insist that the students attend all meditations, especially the early morning one, depends on the centre, on the assistant teacher and on current Goenka's instructions.216

211 Ātmasamarpan, as Goenka calls it in Hindi. 212 The submissions and request are repeated after Goenka. 213 See Fig. 2. 214 Which in Goenka's interpretation means systematic observation of vedanā (bodily sensations) as will be shown later in detail. 215 From the first to the tenth day: Āṭānāṭiya Sutta, Ratana Sutta, Karaṇīya Mettā Sutta, Buddha Jayamaṅgala Aṭṭhagāthā, Tikapaṭṭhāna, Paṭiccasamuppāda, Bojjhaṅgaparitta, Mittānisaṃsa, Maṅgala Sutta and Mettā Bhāvanā (The Gem set in Gold, p. v). 216 Goenka's instructions about attending the early morning meditation have allegedly mellowed down in 2010. Before that, all students used to be woken up in the morning and brought to the meditation hall by dhamma workers.

46 There is one more feature which is included in the instructions on the fourth day – adhiṭṭhāna, which Goenka translates as “firm resolution”. It applies to all group meditations and means a firm resolution not to move any part of one's body during the meditation period. The interviews with assistant teachers take place approximately every second day (one day with new students, the other day with old students) during non-adhiṭṭhāna meditations either in the morning or in the afternoon at the front of the meditation hall, where the students assemble around the teacher, one by one or in groups, depending on the total number of students, and respond to her/his questions regarding their progress in practice and overall well-being.

Ārya maun ends on the tenth day morning after the group meditation and the subsequent introduction to mettā meditation (translated by Goenka as meditation of loving kindness). On the tenth day, the students are supposed to get extroverted again after nine days of introspection. They are free to mingle, share their experiences, take back their possessions, give donations and buy books etc. Nevertheless, they are still supposed to come for the group meditations. The course ends in the morning of the eleventh day after breakfast.

Satipatthana courses have a similar timetable and discipline to 10-day courses. The difference is that in the evening discourses of the Satipatthana course the Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta, which Goenka considers to be the principal text in which the technique of vipassanā is systemically explained, is carefully examined.217

4.2. Meditation instructions and teachings

The main declared target of Goenka's school of Vipassana is to spread the original dharma that was taught by the Buddha and that can be realised through the vipassanā meditation technique. Though in Tipitaka there is no such large-scale distinction, many teachers of the Vipassana movement distinguish the practice of the so-called samatha meditation on one hand from vipassanā meditation on the other hand. According to this view, samatha meditation is oriented towards attaining concentration (samādhi) through focussing on a specific meditation object, whereas vipassanā is aimed at achieving insight leading to liberation from dukkha through the realisation of the true nature of physical and mental phenomena.

217 Satipatthana course is designated for old students who have sat at least three 10-day courses, have not been practising any other meditation techniques since the last 10-day course, have been practising the technique of the Vipassana school for at least one year and are trying to maintain their meditation practice and the five precepts in their daily lives.

47 The vipassanā meditation practice is usually based on mindfulness or choiceless awareness of the present moment without preferences. During formal meditation (the time assigned solely to meditation activity), it consists in particular of the awareness of breath, body position, bodily sensations, states of mind, objects of sense organs that come into one's mind, etc. Goenka does not mention the term samatha,218 but he makes the same kind of distinction between the ānāpāna meditation, aimed at calming of the mind through focussing on breath, and the vipassanā meditation, aimed at detached observation of bodily sensations and attaining insight into anicca.

Nevertheless, in practice there is a smooth transition between (his interpretation of) ānāpāna and his vipassanā practice, as he encourages his disciples to start observing the bodily sensations in the triangular area between the nostrils and the upper lip during the ānāpāna practice. Usually, the ānāpāna practice consists in observing the process of breathing from ingoing breath to outgoing breath and the basis for observation are the nostrils or the rising and falling of the abdomen.219

The timing of meditation instructions is intended for new students. At the beginning of the course, old students are encouraged to follow their own pace. New students practice ānāpāna for the first three days. However, according to Goenka, the ānāpāna practice leads to concentration of the mind which only temporarily suppresses defilements of the mind.220 All practices by the Vipassana school are done through sitting meditation, which is the only position Goenka teaches his disciples.221

On the fourth day, the “vipassanā” practice is introduced. The instructions are supposed to practice “choiceless” awareness regarding bodily sensations (vedanā) in a systematic manner.222 First, the disciples are told to proceed from head to toes, part by part, and observe the sensations they experience at every place of the body surface. They are told that they can experience two kinds of sensations – gross, unpleasant sensations (such as pain), and subtle, pleasant sensations.223 If they can't feel any sensation at a certain place of the body, they are instructed to wait up to one minute for the sensation to crop up and then proceed further. Goenka explains that the more subtle are the sensations one experiences, the sharper the mind has become and the further one has advanced on

218 Often translated into English as the “meditation of calmness”. 219 According to some authors, ānāpāna comprises both the samatha (or samādhi) and vipassanā methods (e.g., Paravahera Vajirañāna Mahāthera, Buddhist Meditation in Theory and Practice, Kuala Lumpur, Buddhist Missionary Society, 1987, 1st edition 1962, p. 227). 220 Similar idea can be found already in Ledi Sayādaw (R. C. van Oosterwijk, Doctrinal Backgrounds of Vipassanā- meditation, p. 60). 221 Though he speaks also about the possibilities of standing and lying positions, in 10-day meditation courses of other teachers (such as Ven. Sujiva or Ven. Pemasiri), meditation in the sitting position is taught along with walking meditation (P. cankamana). 222 This brings some more experienced meditators to the view that it is actually a kind of samatha meditation, and indeed, beginning students often maintain that Goenka's vipassanā practice is supposed to induce a calm, concentrated mind. 223 In the Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta, two types of gross as well as subtle sensations are mentioned, pleasant and unpleasant, as well as a third kind of feelings, a neither pleasant nor unpleasant feeling, both gross and subtle.

48 the path of progress.

During the course, he teaches the disciples to reverse the order and proceed from the toes to the top of the head and back. In the last days, the disciples who can feel a flow of subtle sensations (so- called dhārā pravāh) on the whole surface of the body are supposed to try to feel sensations inside the body as well. If they succeed, they are instructed to penetrate the whole body to the last inch with their mind, and when there is no gross sensation left, they have reached the state of so-called bhaṅg gyān in Hindi, or the knowledge of dispersion. The knowledge of dispersion is described as the realisation that the human body as well as the whole world consists of minute particles (kalāpas) that have only momentary existence and leads to insight into anicca. This idea plays a big role already in the teaching of U Ba Khin.224

Attaining the knowledge of dispersion is the highest goal that Goenka mentions in the meditation instructions for the 10-day course. However, at the same time he stresses that the most important measure of progress is equanimity (samtā) during the observation of the gross and subtle sensations. These two goals seem to be disparate, which inevitably leads to confusion, though Goenka repeatedly warns the students in his evening discourses that they are not supposed to “play the game of the sensations”, that means crave for the subtle ones and despise the gross ones.225

The fact that Goenka sets before the disciples the goal of their efforts in a particular form and describes meditation experiences that are awaiting them is problematic – meditation teachers usually discourage students from sharing their meditation experience and even reading too many books about meditation, because the expectations that inevitably arise will prove harmful for their meditation practice. The craving for the particular experiences will create an obstacle in their minds. This kind of behaviour results from Goenka's effort to prevent students from leaving the course before the end226. He uses this means though he himself criticises his students for sharing their meditation experience with co-meditators.

As has been mentioned, unlike the evening discourses from the 10-day course and from the Satipatthana course, which are available on VCDs and in substantially abbreviated version also in written form, the meditation instructions that Goenka gives at the beginning of every meditation period are not publicly available.

224 R. C. van Oosterwijk, Doctrinal Backgrounds of Vipassanā-meditation, p. 66. 225 E.g., Vipassana Discourse Hindi, day 9A, 33:25 min., day 11B, 16:15 min., etc. Being given these two contradictory goals, it is hard for the students not to crave the sharpness of the mind which is supposed to bring the final state of bhaṅg gyān and the experience of anicca. 226 Courses where all the students stay till the end are very rare. According to the findings from the field research, about 5% of students leave the course. The rate variates depending mainly on the quality and approach of the assistant teacher and the dhamma workers.

49 The 10-day course evening discourses introduce the basic teachings of the Vipassana school. The theoretical background of the school has been adopted from the teachings of Goenka's Burmese teacher U Ba Khin. The functioning of the technique peculiar to the school is explained in following manner. The main problem of human existence is dukkha, resulting from attachment (upādāna) to things which are impermanent (anicca). According to Goenka, in order to attain liberation from dukkha, the chain of dependent origination has to be broken between the two links of vedanā and taṇhā through the meditation technique taught by the Vipassana school. The disciples are taught to systematically observe the bodily sensations all over the body and learn to react to the sensations (vedanā) they experience with samtā (equanimity) instead of taṇhā (literally “thirst”, according to Goenka “craving or aversion”), thereby loosening the chain of dependent origination.

If one does not practice this meditation technique and understands this principle only on the intellectual level (buddhi ke star par), the deeper layers of the mind will stay unaffected and they will keep reacting to sensations with craving or aversion. That is why it is necessary to practise and realise the relationship between sensations and taṇhā on the basis of one's own experience (apne anubhav se). If one continues practising, even the deeper, non-intellectual layer of the mind will start reacting to sensations with equanimity, not with craving or aversion.

A further cornerstone of Goenka's teaching is the relationship between saṅkhāra227 and vedanā. He considers many of the sensations that are experienced to be manifestations of saṅkhāras that have been stored in this and past lives. He claims that if one does not react to the sensations with craving or aversion, one's saṅkhāras get eradicated. This is connected to another important point – according to Goenka, while observing bodily sensations, it is necessary to proceed systematically. If the sensations are observed only when they call one's attention, as in many other meditation systems, one might not notice the subtle sensations, which will prevent her/him from eradicating the stock of old saṅkhāras of craving. As Goenka says, even in the state of bhaṅg gyān, a sudden gross sensation might crop up, a manifestation of a deeply rooted saṅkhāra that would otherwise never have come to the surface.

This relationship between saṅkhāras and sensations is of crucial importance for the theoretical background of Goenka's meditation method. Through the eradication of saṅkhāras, the mind gets rid of vikāras.228 With a mind purified of vikāras, one attains nibbāna.

227 Imprints left on the mind by one’s deeds. 228 Goenka uses vikār in Hindi for the Pali expression āsava (taints or cankers, the most frequent of which are kāmāsava (sensual craving), bhavāsava (craving for existence), avijjāsava (ignorance) and sometimes also diṭṭhāsava (holding onto false views).

50 5. Modernisation of the form

After introducing the Vipassana school, it will be demonstrated how different aspects of modernity have shaped its form and contents. In this chapter, the influence of modernity on the form of the school will be discussed, in particular its rationalisation and bureaucratisation as it has been described by Max Weber and under the designation McDonaldization applied specifically in the field of business chains by George Ritzer.

In this study, McDonaldization is used rather as a metaphor than as an analytical tool, as it pinpoints particular aspects of Weber's theory of modernisation, which are characteristic for chain enterprises. There are two main spheres of influence that need to be covered. Firstly, the impact of the above- mentioned aspects on the outer form of the school will be explored. Secondly, the effects of rationalisation and bureaucratisation on the transmission of the teachings of the school, particularly its meditation instructions, will be briefly mentioned.

The main four aspects of McDonaldization are efficiency, calculability, predictability, and control through technology. McDonalds is just one prominent example of a trend which originated in the early second half of the twentieth century in the US, particularly in its fast-food restaurants and has been spreading since then to other areas of human life and the world. McDonaldized systems are effective and calculable, the environment and all the procedures are standardised; employees behave exactly according to unified instructions they get from the management and all their interactions with the customers are scripted to prevent unexpected and confusing situations.

McDonaldized systems are controllable – they implement procedures which are aimed at controlling how employees, customers and other people involved in the process behave. These procedures are supposed to deal with recurrent situations and the objective is to create enough procedures to cover all recurrent situations, which leaves the employees with almost no space for personal decision making. This control is often managed with the help of technology. Another important feature of these systems is that the customers are being led to perform a number of tasks without pay that formerly had to be performed by paid employees.229

How does this apply to Goenka's Vipassana? Rationalisation and bureaucratisation is current in nowadays world of meditation schools as well and Goenka is an example par excellence. The basic element of the Vipassana school are 10-day meditation courses, which run in the same form from

229 George Ritzer, Mcdonaldizace společnosti.

51 the 1970's. The courses are designed to be very efficient, calculable and predictable. Each minute of the programme is preplanned. The equipment of the bedrooms for students and meditation halls has all but changed since the 1970's. Everything is standardised, including the different colours of the meditation mats and pillows for men and women, even the carpets and curtains are identical everywhere. The menu for the 10 days is also fixed with negligible local variations. The programme starts at 4:30 in the morning and ends at 9 in the evening. The students get the maximum meditation in the minimum time and they always know exactly what will follow at what time. Even the meditation instructions, mantras played during the morning break and everyday's lectures are the same in every 10-day course – to ensure their invariability, all of them are pre-recorded and played from tapes, DVDs and iPods. All interactions between teachers, helpers (dhamma workers) and students are scripted. There are seminars for teachers and dhamma workers where they get precise instructions for every possible situation that might occur, so that their behaviour is absolutely in control.

The cleanliness, one of typical features of these systems, is provided for by paid employees, as well as the cooking. Other “employees”, that means the teachers and the dhamma workers, who take care of everything else, work on voluntary basis. Similarly to other McDonaldized systems, the “customers” (here the students) have to do many things themselves which would otherwise have to be done by paid employees, e.g., cleaning the dishes, cleaning their rooms, etc. They accept it because they do not have to pay anything for the services – the meditation courses run on donation basis. Considering that almost all the human labour during the courses is being done for free and that these courses are quite popular with executives (special courses for executives are regularly being held near Mumbai and Delhi), the profit the enterprise makes is enough for expansion and promotion – for example, for building the Global Vipassana Pagoda.

Why has this meditation chain become so popular in India? Who constitutes the largest segment of people that repeatedly participate in the courses and in dhamma work? According to the findings from the field research, they are usually western-educated members of the urban middle and upper middle class and their motives are usually very similar – problems resulting from value conflicts resulting from alienation from their respective traditions accompanied by exposure to and partial adoption of concepts from different world views230 (through media and Western education)231, other personal problems (very often relationship problems in the broader sense of the word) and search

230 From gender equality and secularism to keeping dogs as pets. 231 On the women's side, the problem very often consists in the perceived discrepancy between the traditional role of a woman in the family and the idea of an emancipated woman with her own career gained through higher education. The confusion regarding gender roles in nowaday modern India often results in problems regarding their relationship to men.

52 for a non-complicated solution to them, or work related stress due to work in big private, often multinational companies.

Currently, this social group seems to be rapidly growing in India along with the overall relative growth of the Indian middle class. Their life style together with the setup the of Vipassana courses enables them to apply for a training of the mind at the lowest possible cost. Instead of years spent in a monastery they can attend a 10-day course which is short enough to fit in their busy schedule at least once a year (as recommended by Goenka)232 and promises the maximum amount of meditation in minimum time at no cost to the participants. The course can be planned and booked well in advance. The applicants can calculate how much leave they have to take to attend one 10-day course. They can choose a meditation centre which is near their home and dates that suit them best, as the courses run throughout the year. One needs only to fill out an online application form and is either admitted to the course straight away or put on a waiting list. The courses are aimed at gaining mental health and leading a happier life (apart from having a very distant goal in nibbāna), in the same way as there are courses aimed at physical health elsewhere.

In short, Goenka's Vipassana as well as other McDonaldized enterprises are very predictable, which induces the feeling of safety and security so appreciated in today's liquid world. The “employees” behave in a ritualised way with all their answers prepared to any questions the disciples could possibly ask. The spotless clean premises which strongly resemble each other evoke the feeling of arriving at home – similar outer structures, similar equipment, similar colours, no matter which part of India you are in. There is just one main meditation technique for everyone which is relatively simple. These characteristics are the main reason behind the success of these systems – it is the very efficiency, calculability, predictability and control that attract the potential disciples. They are under the impression that they are getting something valuable, in this case the ability to handle their life problems with equanimity, for relatively little expense, and that also in a reassuring environment in this world otherwise full of uncertainty.

Attending a 10-day course is very convenient especially for a person fully involved in the modern world where all the rationalised structures fall flawlessly together. Nevertheless, the rationalisation and bureaucratisation of the system brings some new aspects regarding meditation practice. In this respect, the most important novelty is the limited role of the meditation teacher. As has been shown, the course is being supervised by so-called assistant teachers. Their duty during the meditation

232 Goenka considers his 10-day course only a preliminary introduction, the real work is the everyday practice – the students are supposed to practise vipassanā every day, one hour in the morning and one hour in the evening. However, according to the findings from the field research, a very small percentage even of the long-term adherents of Vipassana actually fulfil this requirement.

53 hours (4:30 am to 9 pm with breaks for lunch, rest and evening's lecture) is to start and end the individual sessions by playing the tapes or MP3s with Goenka's meditation instructions. Apart from that, there are daily interviews with the students. However, the teachers are taught to behave exactly according to their scripts and have little space for personal decisions. This measure has been taken in order to prevent any deviations from the technique taught by Goenka as well as to ensure the smooth progress of the course.

The next question is – is it only the outer structure of the meditation courses that has changed to comply with the needs of the modernised world, or can also some changes in the content of the tradition be observed, e.g., in its meditation instructions? There is no doubt that the content had to be compromised in order to conform to the outer structure. This is an inevitable effect of the rationalisation and bureaucratisation of the tradition. Firstly, to make the organisation of the course run smoothly, all students have to have the same programme. No matter what their personal dispositions are, everyone gets the same treatment. More importantly, they all get the same meditation instructions at the same time, which is unthinkable in traditional Buddhist monasteries, modern meditation centres and even 10-day courses of other traditions where individual teachers are present. Even the ancient texts speak about a differentiated approach. As Shaw puts it, some texts in the suttas show that the Buddha assigned specific meditations for particular problems or hindrances [...] there is an underlying understanding of character however, found to a certain extent in Tipitaka and developed more systematically by the time of the meditation manuals, that people are divided into different temperaments, or basic human types, and that some meditation practices suitable for some may not be for others.233

Also according to Visuddhimagga,234 the practitioner should “apprehend from among the forty meditation subjects one that suits his own temperament.”

As has already been mentioned, the very specific meditation instructions that are uniformly given in Goenka's courses are focused on the systematical observation of the bodily sensations while using the method of body-scan. This type of meditation is not suitable for all types of students; the awareness of vedanā is only one of the ways of establishing mindfulness in the Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta. As the field research has shown, even many old students do not actually follow the meditation instruction during the courses, though they remain afraid to talk about it openly, and they keep practicing ānāpāna instead. Furthermore, the technique is aimed at experiencing insight into impermanence, anicca, which is supposed to be followed by insight into non-self, anattā and finally

233 Sarah Shaw, Buddhist Meditation, p. 8-9. 234 Visuddhimagga III, 28.

54 insight into suffering or unsatisfactoriness, dukkha. Nevertheless, though some suttas are in favour of this view, as has been shown in the chapter on meditation, according to some sources this is not the way it works with everyone.235

6. Modernisation of the content

6.1. Classification of Goenka's Vipassana

At this point, the attention will shift from modernisation of the organisational structure of the Vipassana school to the modernisation of its concent. Nevertheless, in the first place it will be necessary to deal with the question of the classification of the school as Buddhist. The origin of the concept of Buddhism has already been discussed in the chapter on Modern Buddhism; now the time has come to analyse what approach the Vipassana school takes to it.

As has been mentioned, in the very beginning of all courses that are conducted in Vipassana centres by Goenka's assistant teachers on his behalf, all students are asked to take tisarana, i.e., refuge in the Triple Gem (Buddha, dhamma and sangha), and accept pañcasīla/aṭṭhasīla (five/eight “ethical precepts”). As has already been described above, the last half an hour of the early morning meditation consists of Goenka's reciting of suttas and paritta verses in Pali. In his everyday evening discourses, Goenka elaborates on life and deeds of the Buddha and expounds basic “Buddhist doctrines” (the Four Noble Truths, the Noble Eightfold Path, the Chain of Dependent Origination, etc.236). Whenever Goenka visited Burmese monks, he used to pay respect to them, offer them food, etc. He used to go on pilgrimages (which he denoted as yātrā, the Sanskrit name for pilgrimage) to Burma.

All bigger centres have a Burmese type pagoda erected within their premises. The most prominent example is the Global Vipassana Pagoda that has been built on the outskirts of Mumbai. In 2011 the Vipassana school participated in the World Buddhist Congregation in Delhi. In short, it is no wonder that many people who have encountered the Vipassana school have considered it to be 235 E.g., according to Ven. Pemasiri (the head monk in Kanduboda, Sri Lanka, with 50 years of meditation experience, whose teacher was a pupil of Mahasi Sayadaw) agrees with the three human temperament types theory of Visuddhimagga (III, 74 – 103). He adds one more aspect to the classification – the faithful type is inclined to get insight into anicca, the intelligent type into anattā and the speculative type into into dukkha. Experienced monastics such as Ven. Pemasiri consider Goenka's meditation school good for beginners, but not for advanced meditators as the strict timetable does not allow the students to achieve right concentration. However, even Ledi Sayadaw from Goenka's lineage refers to Meghīya Sutta [AN 9.3-IV, 356, and Udāna iv.1] to argue that impermanence has to be realised to acquire insight into non-self (R. C. van Oosterwijk, Doctrinal Backgrounds of Vipassanā-meditation, p. 60). 236 Four Noble Truths – day five, Noble Eightfold Path – day three, The Chain of Conditioned Arising – day five.

55 Buddhist. People who repeatedly attend the courses and are involved in the organisational structure of the school, often start considering themselves Buddhists as well. Nevertheless, the official statements of the founder of the school convey a different message.

In spite of all the above-mentioned, it is a matter of fact that S. N. Goenka rejects labelling Vipassana as a Buddhist school. He declares that the only target of his school is to promote the teaching, pure dharma (in Hindi discourses)/dhamma (in English discourses), which is eternal and leads to liberation. It is absolutely non-sectarian237 and open to people of all religions; it does not belong to any organised religion (including Buddhism).238 In Hindi, he uses the term sampradāy239 for religion, or, as he says, “organised religion”. On a few occasions, instead of sampradāy he uses the word paramparā,240 which is symptomatic of his specific understanding of the concept of religion.

Paramparā is a lineage of masters who are both repositories and transmitters of tradition, each of whom was connected to her/his predecessor either through the teachings (śikṣā) or through initiation with a mantra (dīkṣā), or a combination of both. Sampradāy, which is tied to a particular paramparā, is according to R. M. Gupta241 set of specific practices, views, customs and attitudes which are transmitted and reviewed by its adherents.242 The lay followers are mostly born into the sampradāy, only the “monastics“ (svāmīs, usually translated as “saints” or “monks”) of the tradition get a dīkṣā (initiation) upon being admitted to the sampradāy.

After this small excursion, let us come back to Goenka's denial of any affiliation whatsoever to

237 Vipassana Discourse Hindi, day 1A, 23:55 min.: “Aur dharm hameśā sārvajanīn, dharm sāmpradāyik nah hotā. Jah sampradāy se juṛā to samjho dharm dharm nah rahā phir. Uskī śuddhtā naṣṭ ho gayī. Dharm aur sampradāy – yah bilkul alag alag” (Dhamma is always universal, dhamma never belongs to any particular religion. Where it is associated with a religion, you should understand that it is not dhamma any more. Its purity is destroyed. Dhamma and religion – these two things are entirely different). 238 Vipassana Discourse Hindi, day 2A, 13:03 min.: “...vah hinduõ kā alaq nah hotā, jainiyõ kā alaq nah hotā, bauddhõ kā alag nah hotā, īsāiyõ kā alag nah hotā...” (it is not different for Hindus, it is not different for Jains, it is not different for Buddhists, it is not different for Christians). This claim has the effect that especially his Western disciples consider the Vipassana school secular in the general sense of the term (“not connected with religious or spiritual matters” according to the Oxford Dictionary), because in this context, they usually tend to operate within the dichotomy of the secular and the religious. 239 R. S. McGregor (The Oxford Hindi-English Dictionary, New Delhi, Oxford University Press, 2004), p. 601, translates sampradāy as: 1. an established doctrine, persuasion or system of teaching. 2. a religious sect; school (of thought). 3. a religious community (p. 967). Klaus K. Klostermeier (A Survey of Hinduism, Albany, State University of New York Press, 2007), p. 604, translates it as “a religious order or sect”. Gavin Flood (The Blackwell Companion to Hinduism, Oxford, Blackwell Publishing Ltd., 2003), p. 596, on the other hand interprets it as “tradition”. 240 R. S. McGregor (The Oxford Hindi-English Dictionary) translates paramparā as 1. series, succession, 2. tradition, 3. family line; Klaus K. Klostermeier (A Survey of Hinduism), p. 600, translates “(chain of) tradition”, Gavin Flood (The Blackwell Companion to Hinduism) does not mention the word in his index. 241 Quoting W. C. Smith. 242 Ravi M. Gupta, Walking a Theological Tightrope: Controversies of Sampradaya in Eighteenth Century Caitanya Vaisnavism, Iskcon Communications Journal, Vol. 11, 2005.

56 Buddhism. The extent of this denial can be illustrated on the example of Goenka's Czech disciples who turned down the offer to include the Vipassana school in an anthology of Czech Buddhist groups,243 which would undoubtedly have been beneficial for the promotion of the school in the Czech Republic. The editor of the book stated that the reason the Czech Goenka followers gave him for their unwillingness to include Vipassana was that “they are non-sectarian and their method is not Buddhist”.244

Moreover, in the “West”, the Vipassana school is often associated with the term “secular meditation”. S. N. Goenka is sometimes criticised by Buddhist monastics and lay people for not expressing due gratitude to the Buddha by not displaying his images anywhere in the centres.245 Having considered all this, a question arises – why does Goenka so vigorously refuse to be included in the Buddhist fold? His decision to reject all association of Vipassana with Buddhism can have several reasons.

Firstly, the unwillingness to be associated with Buddhism can have rather practical reasons. To begin with, Goenka's intention might be to avoid association with the so-called proselytizing religions whose missionary activity is being frowned upon by a large part of Indian society. There is no doubt that Buddhist traditions are due to their historical relationship to India, the obvious similarities such as the way of performing rituals, use of mantras etc., and due to the absence of the colonial aspect not perceived as a foreign element in the same way as, e.g., in some contexts Christianity.246

Nevertheless, there is a great deal of resentment on the part of Hindu nationalist groups toward conversion not only to Christianity and Islam,247 but also toward dalit conversion to Buddhism, which started in 1956 under the example and guidance of Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, because, in the words of Sumit Sarkar, “the central unificatory thrust of Hindutva ideology made autonomous lower-caste assertions appear inevitably divisive.”248 These groups would certainly observe the propagation of a new Buddhist tradition with suspicion. At the same time, many citizens who

243 Honzík, Jan (ed.), Jednota v rozmanitosti, Buddhismus v České Republice, Praha, DharmaGaia, 2010. 244 A conversation with the editor of the book from 22.7.2014. “Sect” has strongly negative connotations in Czech language. 245 E.g., a conversation with a Cambodian nun in the Thai Forest Tradition monastery in Amaravati, England in June 2013. Goenka does that only in the main centre in Igatpuri and the display of images from Buddha's life is given a form of an art gallery. 246 Most often in the context of Hindu nationalism, where Christianity and Islam are frequently branded as “foreign elements”, without considering the leght of their persistence in India and the form particular traditions have taken over the centuries. 247 As in the case of mass conversion of dalits to Islam in Meenakshipuram, Tamil Nadu (Gauri Viswanathan, Outside the Fold, Conversion, Modernity, and Belief, Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1998, p. 225.) 248 Sumit Sarkar, Indian Nationalism and the Politics of Hindutva, in David Ludden (ed.), Making India Hindu, Religion, Community, and the Politics of Democracy in India, p. 289.

57 ideologically subscribe to left liberal segments of the political spectrum (as many westernised followers of Vipassana do), have developed a certain aversion to anything that remotely resembles “religion”. Even “secular” meditation raises their suspicion, let alone a Buddhist school.249

Another obvious reason might be Goenka's effort not to deter disciples fearing that they will be converted to another religion. In Hindi, he uses the following expressions: kisī aur dharm/sampradāy mẽ dīkṣit honā (to be initiated into another „dharma“/tradition)250/kisī aur dharm/sampradāy kī śaraṇ grahaṇ karnā (to take refuge in another „dharma“/tradition).251 For the time being, it will be useful to remember that Goenka uses the term religion and conversion in English discourses, however, but in the ones that are in Hindi, which is very close to Goenka's mother tongue, the autochthonous terms sampradāy and dīkṣā appear. As has been explained above, for “taking refuge” in a different sampradāy, dīkṣā is not necessary, but this kind of inconsistency is not rare whenever Goenka tries to reconcile in his mind modern Western concepts on one hand and traditional indigenous concepts252 on the other hand. Further examples resulting from this tension will be shown below, e.g., when he speaks about different religions such as Christianity and Islam and denotes them by mistake as paramparā a few times.)

Goenka knows the fear of adopting a different tradition very well from his own experience, most likely even more intense because of his minoritarian identity, from the time when he first applied for U Ba Khin's course. He confesses:

When I went to my teacher during the first camp, I was a bit hesitant because it belonged to Buddhists... 253 I was hesitant for a few days. Why was I hesitant – the same old labels, isn't it? The labels of us, Indians, cause a lot of difficulties for us. I have learned so many times since my childhood: The best treasure lies in your own dharma, someone else's dharma is horrifying, horrifying [...] This is someone else's dharma. Oh my God, the dharma of Buddhists. And what are these Buddhists like – they do not believe in ātmā, they do not believe in paramātmā, such non-believers. What if I also become a non-believer? What will happen? So much worry.254

249 Discussions with several leftist intellectuals (e.g., a famoust leftist gay rights activist Dr. Ashley Tellis, at that time affiliated with Delhi University) who showed great distrust towards Vipassana, Delhi 2010. 250 Vipassana Discourse Hindi, day 10A, 4:03 min. 251 S. N. Goenka, Pravacan – sārāṃś, p. 86. 252 Most of the time, this study will be dealing with concepts that roughly correspond to this dichotomy; nevertheless, it is obvious that it is applicable just to certain undisputed cases. Later this dichotomy will be broken by the idea of indigenous Indian secularism, current in the Indian intellectual circles. 253 Vipassana Discourse Hindi, day 10A, 31:01 min.: “Pahle hī śivir mẽ apne gur dev ke pās gayā, to gayā zarā hicak ke sāth, yah bauddhõ kā hai.” 254 Vipassana Discourse Hindi, day 10A, 24:44 min.: “… hicak rahī kuch dinõ tak. Hicak kyā rahī – vahī purāne lep haĩ, na? Ham bhāratiyõ ke lep bahut kaṭhināyiy paidā karte haĩ hamāre lie. Bār bār bacpan se paṛhtā āyā: svadharme nidhānaṃ śreyah paradharmo bhayāvah, bhayāvah [...] Yah to parāyā dharm. Arre bāp re, bauddhõ kā dharm. Aur kaise bauddh – ātmā ko nah mānẽ, paramātmā ko nah mānẽ, aise nāstik. Kah maĩ bhī nāstik ban

58 Noticeably, it is a big obstacle for Goenka's disciples as well, and Goenka feels compelled to repeatedly state during the evening discourses that no “conversion” is taking place.255 The reasons he gives are the following: he says that he teaches solely the “pure dharma”.256 According to him, dharma is the “rule of nature”, “qudrat kā niyam”, it is “eternal”257 and it applies to everyone.258 He says: “The law of nature is universal; the universal law of nature is dharma, truth, law.”259 Dharma is not Hindu, Buddhist, Jain, Christian or Muslim,260 it has nothing to do with organised religion,261 it is asāmpradāyik, it has nothing to do with any particular tradition.262 Conversion can happen only from one “organised religion” to another, which is not the case here. “What is the use of being initiated (dīkṣit honā) from one tradition (sampradāy) to another tradition (sampradāy)?” asks Goenka.263 This is very clearly a disputed subject as he feels the need to return to it time and again.

Hasn't a discrepancy just been revealed? A school that at the very first sight seems to belong to

gayā, to? Kyā ho jāegā? Itnā ghabrāv.” 255 Goenka 1987, p. 38: “… taking refuge in dhamma has nothing to do with sectarianism; it is not a matter of being converted from one organised religion to another.” 10-day Vipassana Discourse Hindi, day 10A, 32:58 min.: “To yah jo buddh ke prati, siddhārth gautam nām ke buddh ke prati, jo yah ktagyatā kā bhāv jāge, to samjho, ki dharm mẽ pak rahe haĩ, kisī sampradāy mẽ bilkul dīkṣit nah ho rahe...” (This feeling of gratefulness that arises towards the Buddha, the Buddha called Siddhartha Gautama, is a sign that we are maturing in dhamma, we are by no means getting converted to any organised religion). Day 10A, 38:15 min.: “Āge bhī kabhī koī śaṅkā āye to ūb acchī tarah samajhnā cāhie, ham kisī sampradāy mẽ nah bandh rahe” (In case we have any doubt in future, we have to understand very well that we are not being bound in any organised religion). Day 7B, 23:53 min.: “Har ādmī is vidyā dvārā apne bhītar kyā saccāī hai, usko vedanāõ se jān kar ke apnā kalyāṇ kar saktā hai [...] Sārvajanīn bāt hai. Koī sampradāy mẽ bandhne kī bāt nah hai” (Everyone can recognise the inner truth with the help of this teaching, through the sensations, and bring about one's well being [...] It is universal. It does not mean being bound in any organised religion). 256 10-day Vipassana Discourse Hindi, day 1A, 31:16 min.: “Vah ūb samjhāte haĩ ki sampradāy se koī len den nah haĩ, maĩ śuddh dharm sikhātā h” (He thoroughly explains: It has nothing to do with organised religion, I teach pure dharma”). 257 10-day Vipassana Discourse English, day 10, 6:40 min. 258 10-day Vipassana Discourse Hindi, day 8A, 1:57 min.: “jiskī hukūmat sab par caltī hai” (the rule of which applies to everyone). 259 S. N. Goenka, The Discourse Summaries, p. 7; S. N. Goenka, Pravacan – sārāṃś, p. 18: “qudrat kā niyam, viśv kā vidhān” (the law of nature, the law of the world). 260 The Gem Set in Gold, p. 62: “dharama na hindū bauddha hai, dharama na muslima jaina”. 10-day Vipassana Discourse Hindi, day 10A, 13:35 min.: “aisā qudrat kā kānūn jiskī hukūmat sab par caltī hai, jis kānūn ko anu anu dhāran kartā hai [...] Vah t, vah viśv ka vidhān, bhārat mẽ use dharm kahā jātā thā, vah hindū kaise hogā, bauddh kaise hogā, īsāī kaise hogā, jain kaise hogā” (such a law of nature that rules everyone, that is being observed by every atom [...] That universal law, the world order, which was called dharma in India, how can it be Hindu, how can it be Buddhist, how can it be Christian, how can it be Jain”. 261 10-day Vipassana Discourse English, day 10, 3:20 min. 262 10-day Vipassana Discourse Hindi, day 1A, 4:04 min.: “Lekin vidyā itnī nāzuk hai, itnī śuddh hai, is mẽ sampradāyiktā ṭik nah saktī” (But the teaching is so delicate, so pure, it can not contain anything communal), Vipassana Discourse Hindi, day 1A, 23:55 min.: “Aur dharm hameśā sārvajanīn, dharm sāmpradāyik nah hotā. Jah sampradāy se juṛā to samjho dharm dharm nah rahā phir. Uskī śuddhtā na naṣṭ ho gayī. Dharm aur sampradāy – yah bilkul alag alag” (And dharma is always universal, dharma is never communal. Where is it connected to organised religion, you should understand that it is not dharma any more. Its purity is destroyed. Dharma and organised religion – these are two entirely different things). 263 10-day Vipassana Discourse Hindi, day 10A, 12:07 min.: “Ek sampradāy se kisī dūsre sampradāy mẽ dīkṣit hokar kyā mil jāegā.”

59 Theravada Buddhism, claims to have nothing to do with Buddhism at all. A school that seems to show features of a sampradāy, relates to a paramparā, etc., as will be shown later, claims to be asāmpradāyik. Can there be deeper reasons for these assertions than the above-mentioned? Or, even if Goenka as a skilled entrepreneur, seasoned in the field of public relations, wants to facilitate the acceptance of his teachings by the public, for what reason is the audience receptive to his claims?

What seems to be obvious at this point is that Vipassana claims not to be Buddhist, because it sees itself as not religious or sāmpradāyik at all. But before its being asāmpradāyik can be discussed, it is essential to see how Goenka understands the concepts he uses, especially the key concepts such as dharma/dhamma, sampradāy and religion.

Religion is usually translated into Hindi with the unfitting term dharma, as there is no corresponding word (and concept) in Indian languages. This designation is the result of a development which took place in India during the nineteenth century, a gradual absorption of European meanings relating to religion into indigenous terminology, in case of dharma/religion completed by the end of century.264

Goenka himself uses the usual rendition as dharma very rarely and in most cases just to draw attention to the dubious nature of the translation.265 The reason he states for his discontentment with the translation is that it obscures the original meaning of the word dharma.266 As has been shown, he decided to use the term sampradāy, which is sometimes translated as religion, sometimes as sect, again for the lack of a more corresponding term in English.

It is likely that one of the motives why Goenka decided to use the word sampradāy for religion, from which he tries to distance himself, are the negative connotations of the modern expressions sampradāyvād267 and sāmpradāyiktā,268 from which he wants to dissociate his school.269 These 264 Geoffrey A. Oddie, Constructing “Hinduism”, The impact of the Protestant Missionary Movement on Hindu Self- Understanding, In Robert Eric Frykenberg (ed.). Christians and Missionaries in India, Grand Rapids, Michigan/Cambridge, U.K., Eerdmans, and London, Routledge/Curzon, 2004, pp. 161 – 164. 265 He is obviously not the first one to criticise the new usage of the word dharma. At the end of the nineteenth century, Bankimchanda Chatterji observes, that “the word dharma has been used with different meanings. Several of the meanings have no use for us [...] The meaning in which you now used the word dharma, that is simply a modern translation of the English word Religion. It is no indigenous thing.” (Geoffrey A. Oddie, Constructing “Hinduism”, The impact of the Protestant Missionary Movement on Hindu Self-Understanding, p. 163). 266 10-day Vipassana Discourse Hindi, day 1A, 24:15 min.: “Yah to apne deś kā durbhāgy ho gayā ki pichle do hazār varṣ ke andhere mẽ ham ne sampradāy aur dharm in donõ ko paryāyvācī śabd banā diyā. Dharm kahe to uskā arth sampradāy hī hone lagā aur sampradāy ko dharm hī mānne lage” (Our country was unlucky that in the darkness of the last two thousand years we have made the words sampradāy and dharma synonyms. If someone says dharma, it began to mean sampradāy, and sampradāy started being considered as dharma). 267 R. S. McGregor (The Oxford Hindi-English Dictionary), p. 967 translates sampradāyvād as belief in or assertion of communal entities, values or purposes. 268 Suresh Kumar and Ramanath Sahai (eds.), Oxford English-English-Hindi Dictionary, New Delhi, Oxford University Press, 2008, p. 231. 269 10-day Vipassana Discourse Hindi, day 6A, 11:52 min.: “Itnī saral bāt hai dharm kī, itnī sīdhī bāt hai dharm kī. Uljhā diyā. In sampradāyvādiyõ ne kaisā uljhāyā” (The dhamma is so simple, the dhamma is so simple. They have

60 expressions, translated as “communalism” in English, are in contemporary India usually used to denote the tensions between the imagined Hindu and Muslim “communities”.

However, Goenka does take into account the apparent difference between the concepts religion and sampradāy, and he tries to make identical statements in Hindi and in English regarding both (which sometimes results in peculiar situations, as has been mentioned above). How does Goenka understand the concept religion/sampradāy? Firstly, he sees religion/sampradāy as arising from a distorted way of transmitting the “pure dharma”.

For a couple of hundreds of years, for five hundred years, people use it and practise as they were told, and then they slowly stop practising. They start discussing about it. They make it a subject of intellect. They add some philosophical view to it, some philosophy. They add some ritual to it. They confine it in a fold of some organised religion.270

When the essence of dhamma is lost, it becomes a sect [sampradāy], and then each sect gives a different definition of piety, such as having a particular external appearance, or performing certain rituals, or holding certain beliefs.271

The distortion of the original pure dharma with time is seen as something that is bound to happen, and that had always happened after a certain period of time, whenever the pure dharma was discovered. In the beginning, the disciples practised the original dharma, which according to Goenka means that they practised the technique he teaches. But after some time they stopped practising dharma, and instead of that they started calling themselves Buddhists, Hindus, etc. That is the moment when “organised religion” or “sampradāy” came into being. This will probably happen with the Vipassana school as well, causing a sampradāy of “Vipaśyīs” to arise in future:

...in two, four or five hundreds of years [...] in the same way as the Hindu religion originated, Buddhist religion originated, a Vipaśyī religion will arise, a Vipaśyanā religion, no matter if the people practise

confused it, the communalists have absolutely confused it). 270 Day 6A, 13:02 min.: “Do – cār, sau pc sau varas tak log uskā lābh uṭhāte haĩ, jaise batāyā gayā vaise kām karte haĩ, phir dhīre dhīre kām to karte nah. Ab uskī carcā śurū kar dete haĩ. Usko buddhi kā viśay banā lete haĩ. Uske sāth koī darśan joṛ dete haĩ, koī philosophy joṛ dete haĩ. Uske sāth koī karamkāṇḍ joṛ dete haĩ. Use kisī sampradāy ke bāṛe mẽ bdh dete haĩ.” Also in 10-day Vipassana Discourse Hindi, day 1A, 4:10 min.: “Aur kuch samay, kuch sadiy bītne ke bād yah vidyā kuch aise bāvle logõ ke hāth mẽ paṛ jātī hai jo is mẽ sāmpradāyiktā joṛ dete haĩ, koī dārśanik mānyatā kā bojh joṛ dete haĩ, koī karamkāṇḍ joṛ dete haĩ, yā viddhi mẽ kuch aur nayī bāt joṛ dete haĩ. Saṃmiśran kiyā, yah vidyā apnā bal kho detī hai, phir is se jo lābh milnā cāhie vah nah mil pātā, jab lābh nah mil pātā to log iskā abhyās karnā choṛ dete haĩ aur dhīre dhīre vidyā lupt ho jātī hai” (And after some time, after some centuries this teaching passes to hands of such crazy people who combine it with communal matters, they burden it with philosophical views, they combine it with rituals or add something new to the technique. After the mixing is done, the teaching loses its power and it ceases to bring the benefits it is supposed to bring. When it ceases to bring the benefits, people stop practising it and the teaching slowly disappears). 271 S. N. Goenka, The Discourse Summaries, p. 6.

61 vipassanā or not, because their parents called themselves Vipaśyīs.272

This shows that Goenka's understanding of religion (used interchangeably with sect, tradition) or sampradāy corresponds with the above-mentioned definition of sampradāy. For Goenka, it is rather a social category, defined by customs, festivals, rules, fasts, rituals and philosophical views.

A group of this kind of people, a society of this kind of people, a tradition of this kind of people that observes a certain type of customs and manners, celebrates annual festivals, observes a certain type of observances and fasts, performs a certain type of rituals, holds a certain type of philosophical views, one society is like this, one society is like that, it has nothing to do with dharma.273

As has been mentioned, Goenka does not reflect the problematic nature of the concept of religion and its usage at all. He treats all religions/sampradāys he mentions as equal specimen. In his discourses, he does not question the differences regarding the ontological status of Jesus,

Muhammad, Viṣṇu, Śiva, Rām, Mahāvīr and Buddha.274 He talks about Christian, Muslims, Hindus, Jains and Buddhists in one breath, as well as the Ten Commandments, ten (or five/eight) “ethical precepts” (sīla) and ten yam and niyam.275

He sees no qualitative disparity between what he considers to be the particular “organised religions”, among which he always mentions Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism, sometimes also Christianity and less often Islam. Regarding islam – there are two sets of Goenka's pre-recorded evening talks. One of them which is sometimes played in the 10-day courses, mentions Muhammad and narrates the story of his patience. Nevertheless, the mention of Muhammad is omitted in the set which is available for public purchase. This omission might have practical marketing reasons – though Goenka claims that Vipassana welcomes practitioners regardless of their background, the numbers of Muslim participants are extremely low and the possible uneasiness created in the minds of more right-wing participants by too detailed elaboration on Islam related topics is simply not worth it.

However, this approach towards these “religions” again generates inconsistencies. For example, next to the founder figures such as Jesus and Mohammad (and the historical Gautama Buddha),

272 10-day Vipassana Discourse Hindi, day 10A, 20:50 min.: “... do cār pāc sau varas ke bād [...] jaise āj ek hindū dharm ho gayā, bauddh dharm ho gayā, īsāī dharm ho gayā, vaise ek vipaśyī dharm ban jāegā, vipaśyanā dharm, koī admī vipaśyanā kare yā na kare, kyõki uske mā bāp apne āp ko vipaśyī kahte the.“ 273 10-day Vipassana Discourse Hindi, day 10A, 14:05 – 14:40 min.: “kuch ek aise logõ kā samūh, aise logõ kā samāj, aise logõ kā sampradāy, jo ek kisī prakār kī rīti nīti pālnevāle, parvatyauhār manānevāle, ek kisī prakār kā vrat upavās karnevāle, ek kisī prakār kā koī karmkāṇḍ karnevāle, ek kisī prakār kī koī dārśanik mānyatā mānnevāle, ek samāj aisā, ek samāj aisā, ek samāj aisā, dharm se len den nah.” 274 10-day Vipassana Discourse Hindi, day 7A, 34:00 min. – beginning of 7B. 275 10-day Vipassana Discourse Hindi, day 1A, 21:42 min. The “Ten Principles” introduced by the modern Neo-Hindu movement Arya Samaj, apparently mimetising the Ten Commandments.

62 three characters for the so-called Hinduism suddenly appear: Śiva, Viṣṇu and Rām.

All these signs indicate that Goenka implicitly and most probably unreflectedly accepts the usage of the term religion to denote Indian cultural realities while confusing it with the Hindi term sampradāy, though the concept of sampradāy has an utterly different semantic field and connotations than “religion” as it is used in modern Europe, being more narrow regarding the social group it concerns, while at the same time encompassing a broader area of human life, as can be seen from Goenka's definition of the term sampradāy. It is obvious that his statements about religion/sampradāy mimetically reflect some of the constituents of the concept “religion”,276 such as the presence of a “founder” figure, “commandments”, scripts (the Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta), and doctrines.277 Nevertheless, this seems to be an influence that does not go far beyond the surface, as can be observed on the frequent distortions this confusion generates.

As in the case of religion, Goenka sees no problem in using the term conversion in the context of Indian traditions. He repeatedly reassures his disciples that no conversion is taking place: “You started your work by taking refuge in the Triple Gem, that is, in Buddha, in dhamma, in sangha. By doing so you were not being converted from one organised religion to another.” 278 However, many of them still fear that they will be converted to a different religion/go over to a different sampradāy. The following facts might explain their concern. Firstly, it is clearly stated in the rules of conduct that all course participants have to abandon all ritual practices during the course.279 They are not allowed to take any ritual objects with them to the course premises.280 Many potential participants who perform daily rituals (and perceive them as defining their identity and adherence to a certain community) are deterred by this demand.

Apart from that, while applying for the course, the applicants are asked to give all details about their previous meditation practice.281 They are not supposed to practise different techniques between the courses. Loyalty to the system is an important demand of the Vipassana school. Moreover, whenever Goenka advises his disciples to practise the dharma either during the course or on daily

276 See S. N. Balagangadhara, The Heathen in his Blindness. 277 Goenka in Vipassana Discourse Hindi, day 10A, 24:44 min. expresses his past consternation about Buddhists who do not believe in ātmā and paramātmā. 278 S. N. Goenka, The Discourse Summaries, p. 53. Also in S. N. Goenka, Pravacan – sārāṃś, p. 86: “dharm kī śaraṇ grahaṇ karnā kisī sampradāy kī śaraṇ grahaṇ karnā nah hai. Dharm kā sampradāy se koī len-den nah hotā” (to take refuge in dhamma is not taking refuge in an organised religion. Dhamma has nothing to do with organised religion). Vipassana Discourse Hindi, day 10, 4:03 min.: “kah mujhe apne sampradāy mẽ dīkṣit to nah kar rahe” (are they not converting me to their religion?) 279 See Fig. 11. 280 See Fig. 10. 281 See Fig. 8,9.

63 basis at home, he always remembers to warn them not to “mix practices”, not to “sail on two boats” or “ride two horses”:

...the thing is not only that your progress will stop if you add something. A danger arises from that. You will become so entangled in it that even if we want, we will not be able to pull you out. I had to work really hard with many people who fell into difficulties and only then they were able to get out. Do not take the dangerous turn [...] See why it is dangerous. A person travels on a black horse; someone brought a white horse to him. Look, try to ride my horse, it is better. He said – I will definitely do that, but I will not leave my horse. I will put one leg over my horse and one leg over your horse and then I will ride. It is dangerous, isn't it?282

The disciples are advised to leave all practices that could in any way interfere with the practice of dharma: “In Vipassana, any practice that interferes with the awareness of sensation is harmful, whether it is concentrating on a word or form, or giving attention merely to physical movements of the body or to thoughts arising in the mind.”283

Secondly, as has been mentioned, at the very beginning of the course the students are asked to take tisarana and pañcasīla in Pali. Ambedkar's official conversion to Buddhism in 1956 started in the same way,284 while the taking of tisarana and pañcasīla was followed by twenty-two oaths of Ambedkar's own device in Marathi, and by mass conversion to the path of Navayana Buddhism. The “conversion to Buddhism” was first carried out in Sri Lanka in 1880, when the tisarana and pañcasīla was taken by Helena Blavatsky and Henry Olcott.285

However, Goenka is aware of the similarity, and denies it:

This tradition of taking refuge in Triple Gem has unfortunately turned into converting people from one organised religion to another organised religion.”286 “You started your work by taking refuge in the Triple 282 10-day Vipassana Discourse Hindi, day 1B, 27:20 min.: “...itnī hī bāt nah hai, ki tumhārī pragati ruk jāegī kuch joṛne se. Is se atrā paidā ho jāegā. Aisā ulajh jāoge ki phir ham cāhẽge to bhī nikāl nah pāẽge. Bahut is tarah se kaṭhināiyõ mẽ paṛe hue logõ ke sāth bahut kām karnā paṛā tab bhī nikal pāye. atrā moṛ nah lenā. atrā kyõ hai samjhẽ. Ek kāle ghoṛe pe savārī karnevālā ādmī, uske pās koī safed ghoṛā le āyā. Arre tu mere ghoṛe par savārī karke dekh, zyādā acchā hai. Vah kahe zarūr kargā. Par apnā ghoṛā nah choṛnevālā. Ek ṭg apne ghoṛe par rakhgā, ek ṭg tere ghoṛe par rakhgā, ab savārī karke dekhgā. atrā hai, na?” Also in 10-day Vipassana Discourse Hindi, day 10A, 44:20 min.: “Thoṛā sā apnā joṛẽge, ki hamārī paramparā to yah bāt hai, yah bhī to acchī hai, yah kar rahe haĩ, calo thoṛā sā vah bhī kar lẽ [...] apnī hāni kar lẽge, bahut baṛī atre kī bāt hai“ (We add a bit from our side, there is this thing in our tradition, this is also good, we are doing this, so let's do that also [...] we will harm ourselves, it is a very dangerous thing). Also in Goenka 1987, p. 53: “Mixing techniques [...] could have led you into serious difficulties.” 283 S. N. Goenka, The Discourse Summaries, p. 56. 284 “The ceremony [...] began with Bante Chandramani leading Ambedkar in the two-and-half-millenium old traditional initiation into the Buddhist faith, the Pañca Sīla (Five Precepts) [...] followed by the Tri Sarana. This recitation was conducted in Pali...” (Gary. B. R. Tartakov, Ambedkar and the Nayavana Diksha. In Religious Conversions in India: Modes, Motivations and Meanings, eds. Rowena Robinson and Sathianand Clarke. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2003, p. 192). 285 Frédéric Lenoir, Setkávání buddhismu se Západem, Praha: Volvox Globator, 2002, p. 159. 286 10-day Vipassana Discourse English, day 10A, 2:10 min.

64 Gem, that is, in Buddha, in dhamma, in sangha. By doing so you were not being converted from one organised religion to another.”287 “It is never a refuge in the person called Gautama, Siddhārtha Gautama [...] But as you mature in dhamma, the feeling of gratitude towards the Buddha called Siddhārtha Gautama, towards that person will certainly arise in your mind.288

However, the concept of conversion set aside – taking of Triple Refuge and Five Precepts and the following submission (samarpan) to the teacher and asking him for the instructions to the technique, as well as the fact that vipassanā instruction are not available to public, clearly resembles an initiation (dīkṣā) into autochthonous traditions. On one hand, this raises alarm in some students, on the other hand, it strengtens the ties to the Vipassana school for those who have decided to follow its teachings, and their identification with the group.

As has been stated, Goenka understands sampradāy predominantly as a social category, related mainly to practices, customs and social groups, with philosophical views playing only a minor role, and going over to a different sampradāy therefore means an identification with a different social group. Exactly the same can be said about Ambedkar289 and his campaign for dalit conversion to Buddhism – the conversion is even here primarily not a conversion to ideas and beliefs, though Ambedkar claimed Buddhism to be superior to Christianity, Islam and Hinduism for its rationality and ethical principles, but a way of to achieve social equality.290

A similar understanding concerning adherence to particular Indian traditions can be found in case of some critics of modern secularism and proponents of „Hindu pluralism“, who proclaim that the Indian culture has the resources to handle the question of religious pluralism: “The traditions are upheld not because they contain some exclusive truth [...], but because they make some community into a community”.291

Goenka's own point of view on the tradition being absolutely asāmpradāyik, “non-sectarian”, seems to be clear, but the perception of his disciples differs. It obviously varies with different types of

287 S. N. Goenka, The Discourse Summaries, p. 52. 288 10-day Vipassana Discourse Hindi, day 10A, 27:13 min.: “To śaran Gautam, Siddhārth Gautam nāmak vyakti kī kadāpi nah. 27:20 min.: Lekin jaise jaise dharm mẽ paktā jāegā, Siddhārth Gautam nām ke Buddh ke prati, vyakti ke prati man mẽ ktagyatā kā bhāv to jāgegā hī.“ 289 According to Fitzgerald, Ambedkar's concept of religion is “about fundamental values that make possible different kinds of social institutions, in one case the institution of caste, which is based on the sacred Brahmninical principles codified in the Smritis, and in the other case the institutions of democracy, which are based on the sacred principles of liberty, equality and fraternity” (Timothy Fitzgerald, The Ideology of Religious Studies, New York, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2000, pp. 125 – 126). Along with that he employs the concept of religion as a matter of personal commitment and choice in a “secular” society (Timothy Fitzgerald, The Ideology of Religious Studies, pp. 126 – 127). At this point, because of the excessive extent of these concepts, Fitzgerald suggests to avoid the concept of religion in the context of Ambedkar Buddhists altogether. 290 Gary. B. R. Tartakov, Ambedkar and the Nayavana Diksha, p. 194. 291 S. N. Balagangadhara, Reconceptualising Indian Studies, New Delhi, Oxford University Press, 2012, p. 209.

65 participants. There is a specific group of Buddhist converts292 present almost exclusively in Maharashtra and comprising mainly of members of Ambedkar's Mahār community, most of which officially converted to Buddhism in the middle of the twentieth century. This second and third generation of converts consider themselves Buddhists, nevertheless, despite the declared aim of the conversion, their social status has not changed significantly. In crucial question such as marriage, these converts are still considered Mahārs and treated as such. Regarding their practices and customs, again, nothing much has changed. Though reprimanded by intellectuals of their community, many still insist on their traditional marriage customs, including Brahmins performing rituals, etc.293

As per the findings of the field research, this type of participants, unlike the rest, feels very comfortable surrounded by different attributes of Buddhist traditions and highly reveres Goenka for what they feel he does, which is promoting the tradition of their parents and grandparents and finally illuminating its actual content to its adherents as well as outsiders.294

Regarding the other types of (potential) participants, it is possible to make a general statement. People who are firmly embedded in their respective sampradāy and communities usually do not even consider participating in a Vipassana course or dismiss the idea after realizing that they would have to compromise on their rites and rituals. The more estranged are the participants from their indigenous cultural roots, the bigger is the chance of her/his participating on a gradual creation of a new sampradāy. This includes common practices (sitting for the practice of vipassanā for two hours a day, at least once in a week together with other followers of the school, which inevitable includes establishing new centres of common practice), unificatory social tendencies (preferable marrying a co-Vipaśyī), common views (adopting Goenka's teachings), etc.

As has been observed during the field research, people who attend the courses regularly and actively participate in the running of the Vipassana school indeed often refer to their co-participants as Vipaśyīs and show all the previously mentioned aspects of belonging to a separate sampradāy, which moreover has a proper (Burmese) paramparā to derive its legitimity from. A similar process has been observed with Western participants, who get seriously involved in the Vipassana school, though the emphases they put on particular aspects of the school differ significantly from the participants in India.

292 According to the 2001 census, there are currently 7.95 million Buddhists in India, at least 5.83 million of whom are Buddhists in Maharashtra. 293 A discussion in Delhi in 2007 with a world famous dalit writer who encountered all these problems himself while unsuccessfully trying to marry off his daughter outside his community. 294 A conversation with a third generation young Mahar lady, a participant of a 10-day course, December 2012, Khadavali.

66 Author's findings from the field research in Germany show that Western participants usually do not appreciate Goenka's teachings presented in his evening lectures, quite opposite to their Indian counterparts.295 Due to their different cultural background, they often can't naturally relate to their contents, though his English discourses are much simpler and less culture-based than the Hindi ones. What the majority of them respects and appreciates, unlike most of the Indian participants, is Goenka's technique. Put shortly in words of one of the participants: “I find his teachings odd, but the technique works perfectly.“296 The difference in the perception of the teachings is understandable; the reason(s) for the completely dissimilar opinion on the technique is something that calls for further research.

Regarding the modern concept of Buddhism, it can be stated that the level of identification with it again depends on the background of the participants, i.e., on the exposition to Western education and the level of familiarity with modern concepts, such as the concept of religion and Buddhism. All in all, it cannot be said that Goenka's idea of his school not belonging to any sampradāy or religion has fallen on a fertile ground in India. The reason is simple – Goenka's verbal assertions weigh in the perception of the participants much less than his background and actions, such as his lineage, the texts, symbols and the language he uses, the philosophical views he expounds in his lectures and the initiation he performs. Another common type of perception of Goenka's Vipassana (as belonging to the Hindu fold) will be discussed below in the chapter on “Hindu tolerance”.

6.2. Modern features of Vipassana

So far, the influence of modernity on the organisational structure of the Vipassana school has been examined (and in a high degree confirmed). After that, the question was answered concerning how this modernised school actually understands itself, i.e., how it is classified by its founder and its participants, and partially also how it is perceived by others. It has been discovered that while mixing the two concepts of religion and sampradāy, Goenka refuses adherence to any of those. Nonetheless, in spite of all his efforts, it has been shown that in the eyes of most of Goenka's followers, the school seems to be just one of the many Indian traditions (sampradāys).

However, it must be acknowledged that it is a sampradāy which shows many “untraditional” features, not only in regard to its organisational structure, but also in regard to its teachings, as will be shown in the following chapter. This chapter will roughly follow the topics of the chapter on

295 At least those who attend his discourses in Hindi. 296 A conversation with a Polish female participant naturalised in Germany, February 2013, Triebel.

67 Modern Buddhism and illustrate the particular modern traits on the teaching of the Vipassana school.

The first topic that will be discussed are the specific manifestations of the demythologisation which is typical for modernised (not only) Buddhist traditions. Regarding legends and myths, Goenka always looks for logical explanations which are compatible with contemporary science. For example, in the case of the burial rite where son has to break his father's scull at the cremation ground, Goenka dismissed the explanation that upon breaking it, the door of heaven will open and enable father's ātmā to rise to heavenly realms. He explains that it is necessary to break the scull so that it burns easier on the funeral pyre. It becomes the role of the son to do it so that the feelings of the relatives do not get hurt.297

Another good example is the legend about Buddha being accused of having fathered a child. The story narrates that a young woman pretending to be pregnant with Buddha, having fastened a wood log under her garment, came to the Buddha and accused him. Indra allegedly helped Buddha by sending a mouse who chewed on the strings that were holding the log under the woman's garment and the fraudulently pregnant woman was exposed. Again, Goenka tries to find a different, scientific explanation of Indra's help. He comments on Indra's role in the story in a patronizing tone while the people in the audience are laughing:

A story is a story, the devotees who join every great man add so many stories... it could have happened, it could be even true because when we start a good work, all devatās help us, it could have happened, we are not denying that... The poor girl probably became nervous. The strings have loosened up and the piece of wood fell out.298

Moreover, all mythological aspects of the devatās are explained in a metaphorical way. Kālī standing on Śiva is interpreted as a person trampling down her/his own luck (Śiva is associated with mangal, luck). The rākṣasas she is fighting against are interpreted as vikāras, the negative inclinations of the mind. Her blood licking tongue is the tongue of wisdom (pragyā) which prevents new seeds of vikāras from germination.299

Ganga flowing down Shiva's hair is a metaphor of dhārā pravāh, the stream of subtle sensations, the Moon on his head symbolises calmness. Lakshmi pressing Vishnu's feet signifies wealth; four

297 10-day Vipassana Discourse Hindi, day 4B, 1:27 min. 298 10-day Vipassana Discourse Hindi, day 8B, 13:25: “To kahānī kahānī hai, har mahāpuruṣ ke sāthī jo bhagat log hote haĩ ye na jāne kitnī kahāniy sāth joṛ dete haĩ... hogā, sahī bhī hogā, kyõki jab acche kām mẽ lagte haĩ, to sāre devatā madad karte haĩ, hogā, ham uskā virodh nah karte... Becārī nervous ho gayī hogī, rassiy use ḍhīlī paṛ gayī hõgī aur lakṛī kā ṭukṛā gir paṛā hogā.” 299 10-day Vipassana Discourse Hindi, day 8A, 33:00 min.

68 faces of Brahma stand for endless maitrī, karuṇā, muditā and upekṣā. Jesus is the embodiment of maitrī. He is the son of God in the same way as all people are children of God, who is identified with “the Truth”.300 Even the status of liberation changes from an ontological one to a psychological one. Many of these explanations have their traitional roots, nevertheless, the motive behind Goenka's mentioning them at this place is clearly to make the teaching sound more scientific and rational, in accordance with modern thinking and beyond the realm of everything irrational and variable, dependent on a particular tradition.

Apart from demythologisation, there are other features that seem to show the influence of Protestant thinking, the iconoclastic and antiritualistic tendencies. In Goenka's school of Vipassana, the iconoclastic tendencies are reflected in total absence of mūrtis of any kind in the precincts. Goenka's explicit criticism of rituals seems to echo the Protestant idea of return to the “pure faith” where no official rituals are needed. In his evening discourses, apart from criticising rituals, Goenka also denounces annual festivals and other “religious practices” as useless and futile regarding the attainment of the goal of human life:

Yet another attachment is the clinging to one's rites, rituals and religious practices. One fails to understand that these are all merely outward shows, that they do not contain the essence of truth. If someone is shown the way to experience truth directly within himself but continues to cling to empty external forms, this attachment produces a tug-of-war in such a person, resulting in misery.301

Though he calls India the land par excellence for achieving the goal of human life, he criticises Indians for their beliefs that he considers mere superstition302 and ritual specialist for making their living by performing them.303

In accordance with these proclamations, no rituals are performed in the centres. Goenka criticises bhakti which is based solely on the hope of liberation by one's iṣṭa devatā (favoured deity), and stresses the importance of one's own effort:

300 10-day Vipassana Discourse Hindi, day 7A, 27 min. – day 7B, 1 min. The identification of God and Truth has been made already by Gandhi, who stated that “saty īśvar hai” (God is Truth), after first claiming that “īśvar saty hai” (Truth is God). 301 S. N. Goenka, The Discourse Summaries, p. 41. 10-day Vipassana Discourse Hindi, day 10B, 16:45 min.: “Lakṣy yah hai ki citt ko kaise vītrāg banāyẽ, vītdveṣ banāyẽ, vītmoh banāyẽ […] manuṣ kā jīvan milā hai, aur manuṣ ke jīvan mẽ utnī baṛī śakti qudrat ne dī hai [...] aur yah itnī baṛī śakti jo hamāre pās hai, usko jagāyẽ nah, uskā upayog karẽ nah aur na jāne is dārśanik mānyatā mẽ, us dārśanik mānyatā mẽ, is vrat upvās mẽ, is parvtyauhār mẽ, is karamkāṇḍ mẽ, us karamkāṇḍ mẽ, sārā jīvan kho dẽ apnā” (The aim is to free the mind from passion, from hatred, from delusion [...] we got a human life and the nature gave such a huge power to human life [...] and it can happen that we do not awaken this huge power that we have, we do not use it and we lose our whole life in this or that philosophical view, vows and fasting, annual festivals and this or that ritual). 302 10-day Vipassana Discourse Hindi, day 10B, 4:13 min. 303 10-day Vipassana Discourse Hindi, day 4B, 00 min.

69 Let us show it on an example: one person lives on this bank of the river. S/he knows the reality of this bank very well from her/his own experience, because s/he lives on this bank. Someone goes to the other bank of the river and when s/he comes back, s/he says: Oh, that bank is great. It is so lovely, so agreeable. So this person thinks – I would also like to see it. I also want to delight in its loveliness. And s/he sits on this bank with folded hands and closed eyes and prays in a timid voice: Oh, that bank of the river, come here, I want to see you, I want to delight in your loveliness, come here. S/he will weep all his life.304

He reiterates time and again that the maximum someone can do for a person aspiring for liberation from dukkha is to show her/him the way. Nevertheless, s/he will have to start treading the path to liberation on her/his own. Another example he gives is that of a doctor, who prescribes medicine to his patient. The patient is very happy and praises the the doctor everawhere he goes; he keeps fighting with people, saying that his doctor is the best, but he never buys the medicine. Another patient buys the medicine, puts in in his room and every day in the morning approaches it with folded hands and burning inscense, praising the doctor and the medicine, but he never takes it. This is a useless bhakti.305

However, he denies that his school is a gyān mārg (the path of knowledge, different from bhakti mārg, the path of devotion) and defines real bhakti as following in the steps of one's iṣṭa devatā. The resemblance with the significant Protestant theme of following in the steps of Jesus can not be overlooked, just as the stress on one's own effort. Once a disciple came to him insisting that she will not leave her bhakti mārg for Vipassana which she considers a gyān mārg. He explained to her that the school of Vipassana is a bhakti mārg in the true sense of the word. He denotes bhakti as it is usually understood as merchant, beggar bhakti,306 based on give and take relationship. Encyclopedia of South Indian Folklore defines bhakti in the following way:

In the broadest sense, it [bhakti] can refer to those forms of worship associated with a temple, in which ritual

304 10-day Vipassana Discourse Hindi, day 1A, 41:25 min.: Ek udāharan se samhjẽ: Koī vyakti nadī ke is taṭ par rahnevālā. Nadī ke is taṭ kī saccāī ūb jāntā hai, kyõki is taṭ par rahtā hai, anubhavõ se. Koī nadī pār kar ke us taṭ par calā jāe aur ākar ke kahe: arre, us taṭ kā kyā kahnā. Aisā manoram hai, aisā suhāvnā hai. To is ādmī ke man mẽ āye ki arre maĩ bhī uskā darśan kar. Maĩ bhī uskī manoramtā kā sukh bhogke dekh. Aur isī taṭ par baiṭh kar ke hāth joṛ kar ke dabdabāyī khõ se aur kātar svar se kare prārthnā: E nadī ke vah taṭ tū yah ā jā, maĩ terā darśan karnā cāhtā h, maĩ terī manoramtā kā sukh bhognā cāhtā h, tū yaha ā jā. Sārī jīvan rotā rah jāegā. 10-day Vipassana Discourse Hindi, day 2A, 14:26 min.: “Jo is bhram mẽ baiṭhā ho ki mujh par kisī kī kpā ho jāegī, mujhpar to anukampā ho jāegī, aur vah anukaṃpā karke, dayā karke, krpā karke mujhe to tār hī degā, to use socnā cāhie. Kyõ bhāī, mujhe kyõ tār degā? Mere mẽ kyā viśeṣṭā hai? … Arre sab ko kyõ nah tār degā? Sāre to dukhiyāre haĩ? Nah tār diyā na? Iskā matlab yahī hai ki har ādmī ko svayam apnī mehnat karnī paṛtī hai” (The one who succumbed to the error: “Someone will bestow her grace on me, someone will have mercy with me, and she will save me by her grace, mercy and compassion,” should think twice. Why should she save me? What is so special about me? … Why does not she save everyone? Everyone is unhappy? She has not saved them, has she? That means that everyone has to make their own effort). 305 10-day Vipassana Discourse Hindi, day 3A, 25:00 min. 306 Baniyevālī, bhikhmaṅgan, nikammī bhakti.

70 is addressed to an icon (deva-pūjā) and viewing (darśan) of the deity's representation is paramount. In this form, bhakti can include pilgrimage to sacred centres (tīrtha), the taking of vows (vrata), devotional singing (bhajan), and the presentation of dramas, dances, musical recitals, and other forms of worship in collective settings. On the other hand, bhakti can also connote a devotee's intensely intimate experience with a personal deity (iṣṭa devatā, īśvara).307

These are exactly the “religious practices“ that Goenka criticises as useless. It is hard to deny that Goenka “adjusts” the idea of bhakti to suit his purpose to win over disciples who have a strong relationship to their iṣṭa devatā, whom he interprets either as an exemplary personality or as a mere symbolic expression of psychological qualities.

Another typical feature of modernised Buddhist tradition is the above-mentioned stress on rationality and great significance attributed to personal experience, as has been shown in the chapter on meditation. The teaching of S. N. Goenka again shows a good example of this phenomenon. He accentuates the fact that his teaching is in accordance with reason; he reiterates many times that blind faith has no place in it:

Now we will go home and after calm contemplation we will see how is the teaching we have tried... is it logical, is it rational? How could an intelligent person accept something that does not seem to be compatible with our common sense? … Are we not being told to accept something with blind faith?308

He goes even further and explains that the wisdom of the Buddha and other ṣis and sants is not only compatible with Western science, but supersedes it. The reason is that the knowledge of Western scientists was gained by intellectual reasoning, whereas the knowledge of the Buddha and Indian sages was acquired by direct, inner, personal experience.

In this context, Goenka gives an example of an identical discovery made by the Buddha and a Western scientist concerning the speed of appearance and disappearance of the smallest particles. The difference is that the Buddha, unlike the Western scientist, acquired the knowledge on the basis of his own experience, which had changed him from within, whereas the Western scientist who made the discovery with the use of his intellect stayed unhappy and tense all his life. 309 There have been many of these scientists in India's past:

India is a very ancient land, a land of ṣis, munis, sants, satpuruṣas, mahāpuruṣas [different kinds of

307 Margaret A. Mills, Peter J. Claus and Sarah Diamond (eds.), Encyclopedia of South Asian Folklore, New York, Routledge, 2003, p. 59. 308 E.g., 10-day Vipassana Discourse Hindi, day 11A, 2:41 min.: “Ab ghar jā kar ke śānti pūrv chintan manan karke dekhẽge, ki bhāī jis vidyā ko ajmāke dekhā, vah vidyā kaisī hai... kyā tarq saṅgat hai, kyā buddhi saṅgat hai. Jo bāt hamāre sāmāny buddhi ko hī saṅgat na lage, use bhalā koī samajhdār ādmī kaise svīkar karegā? … Kah andhviśvās ke sāth to hamẽ mānne ko nah kahā jā rahā?” 309 10-day Vipassana Discourse Hindi, day 3A, 38:20 min.

71 “sages”], arahants, buddhas. There have been so many ṣis in India. The word ṣi means that they were great scholars, whom we nowadays call research scientists. They were scholars who were researching the truth. Today's Western scientist researches the truth of external things, situations, events... he divides them in small pieces, gets to know their truth and uses it... so that the comfort of people increases, but even if the comfort increases a bit, it also brings a lot of damage. Indian ṣis did not consider this important.310

It has been shown how the emphasis on one's own effort along with the stress on personal experience brought forth the unprecedented central role of meditation practice in Modern Buddhism. The Vipassana school evidently attributes enormous importance to meditation as well. People in the “West” as well as the above-mentioned western-educated Indian followers of Goenka usually encounter modern Buddhist traditions and develop interest in them primarily because of meditation. Once they start attending meditation courses, they proceed with acquiring knowledge about other aspects of the particular tradition. The motives for their engagement with meditation have already been mentioned; Goenka himself encourages them to practice to improve their personal and work life and gives an example of his teacher U Ba Khin, whose productivity increased enormously due to his practice so that in the end, he held four posts at a time.311

The rise of specialised lay meditation centres has already been mentioned. Some meditation centres still have a more or less separated monastic community that takes care of the centre with the help of lay people, which can be either an inseparable part of the monastery (as in the already mentioned meditation centre in Kanduboda, Sri Lanka) or a separate part of a monastery with its own management (such as in the Amaravati monastery of the Thai Forest tradition in Hertfordshire, Britain).

Goenka's idea of a centre devoted solely to intensive meditation courses stands on the far end of the spectrum. The emergence of lay centres and even many lay meditation teachers is another feature which might be related to the influence of Protestant anticlericalism, transformed into the critique of the apparently idle Theravada monastics.312 Goenka himself never criticises monastics, nevertheless, as has been said, they play no role whatsoever in the conception of his school.

310 10-day Vipassana Discourse Hindi, day 9A, 4:07: “Bhārat bahut purātan deś, ṣiyõ kā deś, muniyõ kā deś, santõ kā deś, satpuruṣõ kā deś, mahāpuruṣõ kā deś, arhantõ kā deś, buddhõ kā deś. Itne ṣi hue Bhārat mẽ. ṣi śabd kā arth hī yah hai ki ye baṛe vigyānik the, research scientist jise kahte haĩ. Vigyānik the jo saty ka anusandhān karnevāle the. Āj kā paścim kā vigyānik saty kā anusandhān kartā hai, bāhar bāhar kī vastu, sthiti, ghaṭnā... ṭukṛe kar kar ke, ṭukṛe kar kar ke, uskī saccāī ko ūb acchī tarah jāntā hai aur uskā upyog kartā hai... ki logõ ke sukh suvidhā baṛhe, lekin sukh suvidhā thoṛī si baṛhtī bhī hai, uske sāth sāth hāni kī bāt bahut ho jātī hai. Bhārat ke ṣiyõ ne use mahattva nah diyā.” 311 10-day Vipassana Discourse Hindi, day 11A, 44:30 min. 312 Philip C. Almond, The British Discovery of Buddhism, p. 119.

72 After having discussed some aspects of the modern influence on Theravada traditions, it is time to proceed to more specific developments – the influence of Christian thought via the concept of religion. Though much less than “Hinduism”, Buddhism as a concept has also been criticised for its colonial baggage, to the extent of being considered a pure colonial construct.313

As Peter Bishop fittingly remarks:

Buddha-Dharma first became Buddhism, and then Buddhism became a world religion. By the beginning of the twentieth century it had its own Bible, commandments, fundamental principles agreed to by all “Buddhist” sects, and its international conferences. Concerned Westerners played a major part in initiating all of this activity.314

One of the distinct features of the concept of religion which was modelled on Christianity, is the importance it attributes to the founder figure. It has been already shown in the chapter on conversion that for Goenka, Gautama Buddha is a historical person worth following, as are other Buddhas in other eras. Though Goenka does not call him the founder of the religion/sampradāy as it would be in contradiction with his understanding of him, he nevertheless denotes him as the one who discovered the true dharma and is the first one in the lineage of masters who taught it to others, which mean that he is the founder of the paramparā.

The figure of the Buddha has taken many position in different historical periods and traditions, from the times of aniconic depiction in the first centuries in India when the tale of his life was just a framework story for the exposition of dharma, to revering the figure of the Buddha along with local deities in nowadays Sri Lanka. Nevertheless, the attention Goenka pays to the Buddha and the way he elaborates on his life, his deeds and the doctrines he allegedly proclaimed, clearly mirrors the crucial role that Jesus Christ plays in Christianity.

It is interesting that Goenka retains the aspect of the above-mentioned Protestant-like critique of the Brahmans for their „empty ritualism“,315 but omits the idea of Buddha being a social reformer. This could possibly reflect Goenka's background of a wealthy businessman; whenever he speaks about material life conditions, he refers to the law of karma and points to changing one's shoes through disciplining the mind rather than trying to change the thorny world we tread.316 (On the other hand, he explains that equanimity does not mean passivity; it is necessary to be active, but never act on the basis of negative emotions.317)

313 Ibid. 314 Peter Bishop, Dreams of Power, Tibetan Buddhism and the Western Imagination, London, Athlone Press, 1992, p. 91, quoted in Richard King, Orientalism and Religion, p. 146. 315 10-day Vipassana Discourse Hindi, day 8B, 7:45 min. 316 10-day Vipassana Discourse Hindi, day 9A, 7:10 min. 317 10-day Vipassana Discourse Hindi, day 8B, 24:00 min.

73 Nevertheless, Goenka does not neglect the point of social activism characteristic for modernised Buddhist traditions – with due publicity, the Vipassana school has been organising meditation courses in prisons during the last 25 years in India and eight other countries.318

Another attribute that Buddhism as a “religion” should possess is ethics and ethical commandments. It has been shown that Goenka instruct his disciples to take pañcasīla/aṭṭhasīla (five/eight “ethical precepts”), and mentions them in one breath with the Ten Commandments in his evening discourses. Not surprisingly, Encyclopaedia Britannica from 1842 states that “The doctrine and law of Gautama consists chiefly in observing five commandments, and abstaining from ten sins.” 319 Goenka also attaches great importance to sīla in general and repeats over and again that it is an indispensable prerequisite for the practice,320 while criticising other approaches (here, he might be targeting Osho and his like).321 Nevertheless, the stress on sīla has ancient autochthonous roots, as has been shown above.

The concept of religion is among others centred around “sacred” texts, with Bible being the prototype. The decisive role of Buddhist texts in the period when the concept of Buddhism was formed has been already discussed. Goenka's Vipassana school is not an exception in this respect. The importance of Tipitaka texts for Goenka's school has been mentioned. On one hand, Goenka recites them in the morning and at the end of group meditation periods to create “good vibrations”. This non-content oriented attention defies Goenka's disapproving attitude to rites and rituals and his non-sectarian claims in the eyes of sensitive practitioners.322 Furthermore, whenever he talks about Tipitaka, he implicitly assumes that the texts come from the Buddha himself. However, this kind of approach and reverence towards texts is typical for many Buddhist traditions.

318 See http://www.prison.dhamma.org/ 8.8.2013. 319 The Encyclopaedia Britannica, Edinburgh, A. & C. Black, 1842, V: 637. Quoted in Philip C. Almond, The British Discovery of Buddhism, p. 112. The usage of the term “sin” is also noteworthy. A concept with the same or even similar connotation as the Christian concept of sin is not to be found anywhere in the Buddhist traditions. 320 10-day Vipassana Discourse Hindi, day 10A, 41:09 min.: “Śīl thīk se nah pālan kiyā gayā to samādhi samyak samādhi nah hogī [...] aur samyak samādhi nah hogī to pragyā nah jāgegī” (If someone does not observe ethics, the concentration will not be the right concentration [...] and if there is no right concentration, wisdom will not arise). 321 10-day Vipassana Discourse Hindi, day 10A: 39:28 min.: “Aisā pāgalpan āj bhī to caltā hī hai. Ki śīl aur sadācār māno yā na māno, dhyān karo hamāre pās, phir dekho, aisā ānand āega, aisā ānand āegā” (Even today it is possible to find such madness. It does not matter if you observe ethics and good behaviour, come and do meditation with us and see, you will experience a great joy, a great joy). Goenka had several indirect (through media) exchanges of views mainly about sīla with Osho, who called him just a “technician”, not a “man of enlightenment” (unlike himself; in Osho (Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh),The Great Pilgrimage: From Here to Here, Talks given from 06/09/87 am to 03/10/87 pm in Gautam the Buddha Auditorium, English Discourse series, 28 Chapters, Year published 1988, chapter 7). Osho's students claim that it is not advisable to mention practising with Osho while filling in the application form for admission to the Vipassana courses (discussion with two Osho pupils in Dehradun in 2010). 322 For more information on Goenka's stand on ritual see Frank Neubert, Ritualdiskurs, Ritualkritik and Meditationspraxis: Das Beispiel von Vipassanā nach S. N. Goenka im “Westen”.

74 On the other hand, he also pays special attention of a different, content-oriented kind, to Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta, the most important piece of theoretical equipment for meditation practice in modernised Theravada. It has been mentioned that a whole course is devoted to the study and interpretation of its content. Goenka claims that his meditation instructions are based on directions contained it this sutta. This emphasis on the text undoubtedly serves the purpose of legitimisation of his meditation technique.

Why does Goenka put such a strong emphasis on legitimisation of the technique of vipassanā and therefore on its backing by a textual source? The answer seems to lie in the history of meditation practices in Burma. It seems that before the eighteenth century in Burma and other lands with Theravada traditions, it was generally believed that in the present corrupted age it was no longer possible to attain nibbāna. The only thing left was the path of merit-making by means of which one could hope to be reborn in the presence of the future Buddha, Ariya Metteyya and attain liberation as his disciple.323

In the eighteenth century, the monks in Upper Burma seem to have revived meditation practices from long dormancy along with the belief that it is possible to attain liberation in this life even in contemporary decadent age. The earliest known record of someone held this opinion mentions a monk from the Sagaing Hills in Upper Burma named Waya-zawta in the first half of the eighteenth century. The scholar-monk named Medawi (1728–1816) is the first know person to write vipassanā manuals, based on interpretation of authoritative Pali sources, the core of which is a discussion on three marks of existence in relation to the five aggregates. By mid-nineteenth century, meditation caves and forest monasteries were a very often occurrence in the Sagaing hills and vipassanā enjoyed the favour of the royal court, as did the scholar-monk Ledi Sayadaw, the forefather of the Vipassana school.324

Because of this apparent long intermezzo in practising ways leading to awakening, the need for legitimization of meditation techniques (called vipassanā in Burma of that time) has been perceived as particularly strong and S. N. Goenka seems to share this motive. There has been yet another reason for emphasising texts. The textual obsession by the middle and latter part of nineteenth century thinkers was an expression of their quest to find the original, pure teaching, be it the effort to return to original Christianity or the search for the original teaching of the Buddha.

Goenka, unlike his teacher U Ba Khin (who refused to accept students who had previously studied

323 Patrick Pranke, On saints and wizards, Ideals of human perfection and power in contemporary Burmese Buddhism, Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies, Vol. 33, No. 1-2, 2010 [2011], p. 455. 324 Ibid., p. 457 ff.

75 with other teachers, in order to prevent them from criticising their former teachers), repeatedly states that he is the one who brings the only “pure dharma”. The dharma he teaches comes from the Buddha himself and was lost to the majority of Buddha's followers,325 except for the lineage of Goenka's teacher U Ba Khin where it has not been corrupted by human influence.

It was able to be beneficial only for four to five centuries, and then it started getting mixed with other things and it slowly disappeared. It deteriorated and disappeared. Luckily, it spread to several neighbouring countries and one of the neighbouring countries preserved this teaching in its pure form. It did not allow for any mixing with other things. It kept it exactly as it received it from India, in the line from teacher to pupil, teacher to pupil, generation after generation, generation after generation. Very few people practised it, the common people of that land had forgotten it, very few people practised it on the basis of sensations and kept it alive through the line of teacher to pupil. In this way we got it today in its pristine form.

This along with Goenka's idea of the unavoidable corruption of the original dharma and rise of “organised religion” is a perfect reflection of the idea of pure textual Buddhism of nineteenth century European intellectuals and its allegedly degenerated popular form.

Many modern Buddhist teachers used the romantic ideas of Orient as the cradle of spirituality, still present in thinking of many “Westerners”, for nationalistic purposes and enhancing the self- confidence of the local population in the confrontation with (former) colonisers.326 The prime examples are Japanese D. T. Suzuki or Sri Lankan Sangharakshita.

This trait can be found even in Goenka's lectures, where he depicts India as the great land, land of ancient scientists,327 the “land of spirituality”.328 He establishes the dichotomy between “India” and “the West”, to which he attributes (with a certain degree of hostility and disdain) the usual stereotypical characteristics. Whereas India is the land of spirituality and deep insight, the West is characterised by lack of spiritual knowledge and insight into real nature of the world and human psyche. It is ruled by technocratic ignorance and blind materialism (as in the above-mentioned comparison of the Western scientist and the Buddha).

325 10-day Vipassana Discourse Hindi, day 1A, 6:09 min.: “Cār – pc sadiyõ tak hī kalyāṇ kar pāyī, phir is mẽ sammiśran hone lagā aur dhīre dhīre vilupt ho gayī. Vikarit hotī gayī vilupt ho gayī. Saubhāgy se jah anek paṛosī deśõ mẽ gayī vah ek paṛosī deś ne is vidyā ko apne śuddh rūp mẽ qāyam rakhā. Usmẽ zarā sā sammiśran nah hone diyā. Jaise Bhārat se prāpt huī thī bas vaise hī use qāyam rakhā, guru siṣy paramparā, guru siṣy paramparā se, pīṛhī par pīṛhī, pīṛhī par pīṛhī. Baṛe bahut thoṛe se log hī iskā abhyās karte rahe, us deś ke ām log ise bhulā cuke the, thoṛe se log hī guru siṣy paramparā dvārā ise abhyās karte hue anubhavõ ke star par ise jīvit rakhā. To āj hamẽ yah apne maulik śuddh rūp mẽ prāpt huī hai.” 326 This is what James E. Ketelaar calls “strategic occidentalism” (Ketelaar, James E. Strategic Occidentalism: Meiji Buddhists at the World's Parliament of Religions, Buddhist-Christian Studies, Vol. 11, 1991, quoted in David L. McMahan, The Making of Buddhist Modernism, p. 96). 327 10-day Vipassana Discourse Hindi, day 9A: 15:58 min. 328 10-day Vipassana Discourse Hindi, day 6A: 32:26 min.: “Bhārat to adhyātmā kā deś hai.”

76 A lot has been said above about the return to roots, return to the original, pure dharma. It will be useful to look at the origin of this concept a little closer. It might shed some light on the processes that led to the establishment of this kind of modern ideas which have been used by their protagonists to assert their identity or even propagate their nationalist goals.

In Goenka's teachings, this tendency clearly shows, especially when he talks about the “pure dharma”.329 It has been mentioned above that according to him, dharma is “eternal”330 “universal”.331 However, he also claims that dharma is “Indian”. “This is a very ancient Indian teaching, very ancient. It arose many times in India, it brought well-being to Indian people and also to people in the world outside of India, many times.”332 Nevertheless, it disappeared from India for a long time, “that is why even though it is such an ancient Indian teaching, it seems to Indians that it is a new teaching.”333

When dharma was rediscovered by the Buddha 2600 years ago in India, it spread among others to Burma and after a long period came back to its place of origin in its pure form, which is now being propagated by Goenka alone, as has been said above.334 Goenka claims that the dharma is universal; unlike traditional sampradāys embedded in a certain locality and community, he insists on having found a way to liberation applicable to all, but his universalism is exlusivist.335

Dharma is according to Goenka 1) “the law of nature”, the way things are, 2) the knowledge (vidyā) of this law, and 3) the way to realise this, the vipassanā technique. In his “creative interpretation” of gved, Mahāvīr, Bhagavadgīta, Kabīr and Nānak, Goenka shows that they all speak about vipassanā.336 The disciples are taught that though long lost to the people, vipassanā is an Indian phenomenon par excellence. The “asāmpradāyik dharma”, the way things work, the law of nature, has been known to ṣis, munis and sants throughout the Indian history.337

329 10-day Vipassana Discourse Hindi, day 1A, 31:16 min.: “... maĩ śuddh dharm sikhātā h” (… I teach pure dharma”). 330 E.g., “esa dhammo sanantano, this is sanātan, that means eternal” (10-day Vipassana Discourse English, day 10, 6:35 min.). 331 S. N. Goenka, The Discourse Summaries, p. 52: “The entire teaching is universal.” 332 10-day Vipassana Discourse Hindi, day 10B, 27:15 min.: “is vyakti se itnī baṛī vidyā bhārat kī milī” (I got such a big Indian teaching from this person), 10-day Vipassana Discourse Hindi, day 1A, 3:40 min.: “Yah Bhārat kī bahut purātan vidyā hai, bahut purātan. Bār bār Bhārat mẽ jāgī hai, Bhārat ke logõ kā aur phir Bhārat ke bāhar viśv ke logõ kā kalyān kiyā hai, bār bār.” 333 10-day Vipassana Discourse Hindi, day 1A, 7:30 min.: “To Bhārat kī itnī purānī vidyā hote hue bhī āj Bhārat ke logõ ko lagtā hai ki nayī sī vidyā hai.” 334 10-day Vipassana Discourse English, day 10, 43:00 min. – 43:45 min., 59:10 min – 60:10 min.; 10-day Vipassana Discourse Hindi, day 10A, 33:40 min. 335 Though it has to be admitted that in the first English evening discourse, he admits that there are other ways also, nevertheless, this is a rare occurence. 336 10-day Vipassana Discourse Hindi, day 6A, 15:30 min. – 41:30 min. 337 10-day Vipassana Discourse Hindi, day 9A, 5:30 min.

77 The concept of Goenka's eternal, all-applicable, pan-Indian asāmpradāyik dharma strongly resembles the concept of sanātana dharma, “the eternal order/way of life”.338 Goenka himself states that he comes from a “strict Hindu sanātanī” family.339 The term sanātana dharma gained widespread currency in India in the last two centuries as “a programmatic expression of traditionalist self-arrestion”.340 It is a standardizing and essentializing concept favoured especially by urban middle classes, which surround themselves around it in opposition to culturally alienating influences. This modern construct is especially popular in the Hindu diaspora with their increased emphasis on formulating a uniform Hindu identity.341

The concept of sanātana dharma came into being in the nineteenth century among the so-called “Hindu reformers”, and played a central role in Hindu “reformist” and “revivalist” writings of the nineteenth and twentieth century. Its interpretations ranged from the eternal, purely Indian dharma to universal philosophia perennis of the Theosophical society and Sri Aurobindo, and informed thinking of many generations of (not only) Indian thinkers up to these days. It has been an important part of Neo-Hindu and Hindu nationalist thinking and argumentation, though later the concept of Hindu nation gained prevalence in Hindu nationalist ideology. Dharma is both universal and Indian – this thought is typical for the so-called Neo-Hinduism. To quote at least one representative of the Hindu nationalist thought, the RSS general secretary H. V. Seshadri, who is of the same opinion:

If Dharma is eternal and applicable to all climes and races, why insist on calling it “Hindu”? The answer is quite simple. It is because Hindus happened to discover these eternal laws. It is just like denoting certain scientific laws or theories after their discoverers'names... In fact, formerly our Dharma was called Sanatana Dharma or Manava Dharma. It was only when foreigners came here that a need arose for differentiating Dharma from other religious faiths and the epithet Hindu was joined to it.342

The conception of perennial philosophy was developed by Leibniz and popularised by Universalists, Unitarians and the Theosophical Society. These perennialist thinkers got stimulated by “Hindu reformers” who were in turn inspired by their universalist tendencies in a process of intercultural mimesis.

A similar process could be observed on the field of “Buddhism”. The outcome was the idea of a

338 The roots of the phrase go back to Bhagavadgīta 1.401: “kuladharmāḥ sanātanāḥ”, the enduring rules of the family or community (Julius Lipner, in Sushil Mittal and Gene Thursby (eds.), The Hindu World, New York and London, Routledge, 2004, p. 20). 339 10-day Vipassana Discourse Hindi, day 6A, 21:00 min. 340 Wilhelm Halbfass, India and Europe, An Essay in Understanding, Albany, State University of New York Press, 1988, p. 343. 341 Julius Lipner, in Sushil Mittal and Gene Thursby (eds.), The Hindu World, p. 20. 342 H. V. Seshadri: Universal Spirit of Hindu Nationalism, pp. 2 – 3, quoted in Koenraad Elst, Decolonizing the Hindu Mind, Ideological Development of Hindu Revivalism, Delhi, Rupa, 2005, p. 470.

78 “self-identical dharma that has moved from one Asian culture to another, unchanged through the vicissitudes of time,” while “the share of complicity of Buddhists and Buddhologists in this universalist vision remains to be apportioned.”343

It therefore seems that the importance Goenka attributes to the pure and eternal dharma can be traced both to his Hindu diaspora environment as well as to the teachings of U Ba Khin. Later on, after his relocation to India, it has helped him to win the hearts of the more traditionalist and nationalist segments within as well as outside his audience, despite of introducing what looked like a Buddhist tradition coming all the way from Burma.

As has been shown, Buddhism as a religion is a modern concept, which has by now to a certain extent taken root in the modernising Asian societies and even engendered an offspring, the so-called Modern Buddhism. A different historical situation has led to a creation of another modern concept with questionable legitimacy, Hinduism, and its descendent, the so-called Neo-Hinduism. After all what has been said – where does Goenka as a former Hindu leader from a sanātanī family propagating a Burmese Theravada tradition stand?

Shall his Vipassana school, which is usually considered a part of the Theravada Vipassana Movement, be identified as a manifestation of syncretism between Buddhism and Hinduism? Otherwise, can it be the case that these two monolithic concepts rather “occlude” the reality than make it more comprehensible? To be able to proceed further, at this point it will be useful to examine the example of Vivekananda, a representative of the so-called Neo-Hinduism. The focus will stay on the modern period, particularly on the second half of the nineteenth century, but this time in India.

In 1893, the Parliament of World's Religions took place in Chicago. Anagarika Dharmapala was invited as a representative of Theravada and was to become the first of many Theravada teachers in the West. Among others, he met there with Soyen Shaku, D. T. Suzuki and the Indian delegate Swami Vivekananda,344 the chief disciple of Ramakrishna. Vivekananda is considered the first person who introduced Vedanta philosophy in the West and propagated Hinduism as a world religion. He played an important role in the Hindu revival and the ascent of Indian nationalism. He founded the Ramakrishna Math and the Ramakrishna Mission.

Vivekananda's family was to a large extent professionally and culturally influenced by the early

343 Donald S. Lopez, Curators of the Buddha, p. 8. 344 I have chosen Vivekananda here over Dayananda Saraswati because of his international activities; in other respects, Dayananda and his Arya Samaj would have been an even better illustration of the influence of modernity and Protestantism.

79 British rule345 and he and the young men he lead were products of Western education of Bengal's schools and colleges.346 Late nineteenth century Bengali intellectuals, the so-called “reformers of Hinduism”, responded to Western, especially missionary criticism of Hindu traditions, which was very much influenced by Protestant critique, with an emphasis on symbolic nature of mūrtis and departure from rituals.

Regarding Buddhism, Vivekananda saw in the Buddha the climax of rationality, the only “absolutely sane man” in human history, “perfect [...] in reason”, who alone “freed religion entirely from the argument of the supernatural.”347 He even once stated that vedānta, which he promoted, was the foundation of Buddhism.348 He saw no contradiction between Western science and the philosophical postulates of vedānta.349 Vivekananda often spoke critically of formal scriptural learning, but his aim to propagate Hinduism made him realise the value of ancient Hindu scriptures,350 using the dominant discourse against its bearers.

Furthermore, his texts mirror the Romantic perception of India as the land of spirituality. “You in the West are practical in business, practical in great inventions, but we of the East are practical in religion.”351 Nevertheless, this spirituality was according to Vivekananda not irrational, it was “founded equally in reason and intuition”.352 Similarly to Goenka, Vivekananda, coming from a privileged background, refrained from social criticism.353

Vivekanada's thinking has many more interesting facets, but only the ones have been presented here that have been already mentioned in connection with modernised Theravada Buddhism. As the fleeting introduction of the main exponent of Neo-Vedanta shows, the modern aspects of Goenka's teachings could have been as well related to the Indian Neo-Hinduism. His insistence on the Indianness of the sanātana dharma (which was for some reasons kept in “Burma” for a certain period and despite Goenka's resolute disapproval given the epithet “Buddhist”) might make all the “Buddhist” features of his school look like a superficial coating.

345 Tapan Rayachaudhuri, Europe Reconsidered, Perceptions of the West in Nineteenth-Century Bengal, New Delhi, Oxford University Press, 2006, p. 221. 346 Ibid., p. 119. 347 Sister Nivedita, The Master as I saw Him, Kolkata, Udbodhan Karyalaya, 1972, chap. XVIII, quoted in Tapan Rayachaudhuri, Europe Reconsidered, Perceptions of the West in Nineteenth-Century Bengal, p. 244. 348 Tapan Rayachaudhuri, Europe Reconsidered, Perceptions of the West in Nineteenth-Century Bengal, p. 245. 349 Amiya P. Sen, Hindu Revivalism in Bengal, 1872-1905: Some Essays in Interpretation, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1993, p. 339. 350 Amiya P. Sen, Hindu Revivalism in Bengal, 1872-1905, p. 341. 351 Lecture at Minneapolis, reported in Minneapolis Journal, 27.11.1893, quoted in Tapan Rayachaudhuri, Europe Reconsidered, Perceptions of the West in Nineteenth-Century Bengal, p. 268. 352 Amiya P. Sen, Hindu Revivalism in Bengal, 1872-1905, p. 344. 353 Sister Nivedita, The Master as I saw Him, chap. I:220, quoted in Amiya P. Sen, Hindu Revivalism in Bengal, 1872- 1905, p. 343.

80 Where does Goenka actually stand? The idea of syncreticism would probably lead us astray, considering for example the fact that Modern Buddhism of Anagarika Dharmapala is closer to the Neo-Hinduism of Swami Vivekananda than to Modern Buddhism of D. T. Suzuki. There is no space to further elaborate on this subject in the present study, but the question is clear. Isn't it rather the case that there is something essentially wrong with the modern concepts of Hinduism, which has been already thoroughly criticised, and Buddhism, the existence of which owes much to the existence of specialised field of Buddhist Studies?

Isn't the above-mentioned dilemma of the classification of Goenka's Vipassana caused by the fact that these concepts are wrongly perceived as disparate realities of the same kind, i.e., religions, though both of them developed along different lines (Buddhism due to the common roots and Hinduism to some extent regionally and negatively, as will be shown later)? Goenka's school of Vipassana seems to corroborates this assumption, as it can be fitted into both of these seemingly essentially disparate concepts.

7. Indigenous roots and the Hindu fold

7.1. The sants

With the idea of sanātana dharma, the focal point has meanwhile slowly moved to other than foreign influences that affected Goenka's thinking. Is it possible to look at some aspects of Goenka's teachings, which were in the previous chapter interpreted as products of intercultural mimesis, from a different perspective? Could they as well go back to indigenous roots?

At the beginning of this chapter, the antiritualistic and iconoclastic tendencies in Goenka's teaching were described and it was suggested that they had a Protestant prototype. These tendencies have their parallels in other parts of the world as well, e.g., in the eighteenth century the Wahhabi movement in Saudi Arabia. However, in India the evidences of this kind of notions are much earlier. In the fifteenth century, devotional poet-singers called sants emerged in northern and central India. The majority of sants belonged to the lower strata of the society; they were poor and mostly uneducated; some of them were women. Nevertheless, by the eighteen century, they also included many figures from middle castes.354 They expressed themselves in local languages of the people.

The sants themselves were essentially asāmpradāyik, though a number of them have been

354 Daniel Gold, What the Merchant-Guru sold, Social and Literary Types in Hindi Devotional Verse, Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 112, No. 1, 1992.

81 considered founders of traditions (panths) which bear their name but have developed after them.355 They are usually associated either with the above-mentioned bhakti movement or with sufism. Nevertheless, according to some authors,356the academic differentiation between these two monolithically perceived schools of thought contributed to their separation on confession grounds, which is not always in accordance with the foundings based on medieval veneration of sants.

Apart from the strength of their devotion, they were also characterised by (at least declared 357) openness to everyone, irrespective of the social status and the rules of ritual purity. Some of them, like fifteenth century Kabīr, regarded the outward or institutionalised manifestations of devotion, such as visiting pilgrimage places, keeping vows and fasts, practising yoga and asceticism, and performing rituals including mūrtipūjā (honoring the deities) in temples or praying in mosques as useless. All that is necessary for liberation has to be achieved within the wo/man her/himself.358

An expression of this approach can be found in Kabīr's pad “Moko kah ḍhūṇḍhe re bande” (Where will you find me, my friend?, translated by Lorenzen:359

Where will you find me, my friend? I'm always near. Not in idols360 or sacred spas, not in secret places,

355 Charlotte Vaudeville in Karine Schomer and W. H. McLeod (eds.), The Sants, Studies in a Devotional Tradition of India, Delhi, Motilal Banarsidass, 1987, p. 21. 356 Dušan Deák, Indickí svätci medzi minulosťou a prítomnosťou, Hĺadanie hinduistov a muslimov v Južnej Ázii, Trnava, Univerzita sv. Cyrila a Metoda, 2010, p. 79. 357 Alan W. Entwistle, The Sants: Studies in a Devotional Tradition of India by Karine Schomer and W. H. McLeod, The Lord as Guru: Hindi Sants in the Northern Indian Tradition by Daniel Gold, Review, Journal of the Americal Oriental Society, Vol. 109, No. 2, 1989, p. 321. 358 Charlotte Vaudeville in Karine Schomer and W. H. McLeod (eds.). The Sants. Studies in a Devotional Tradition of India, p. 39. 359 David N. Lorenzen, Praises to a Formless God, Nirguṇī Texts from North India, Albany, State University of New York Press, 1996, pp. 212 f. For illustration, a slightly longer popular contemporary version of the pad: moko kah ḍhūṇḍhe re bande / maĩ to tere pāsa mẽ // ṭeka // nā tītha (pilgrimage sites) mẽ nā mūrta (icons) mẽ / nā ekānta nivāsa mẽ // 1// nā mandira (temple) mẽ nā masjida (mosque) mẽ nā kābe (Ka'aba) kailāsa (Kailash) mẽ // 2 // maĩ to tere pāsa mẽ bande // maĩ to tere pāsa mẽ // ṭeka // nā maĩ japa mẽ nā maĩ tapa mẽ / nā maĩ barata (vows) upāsa (fasting) mẽ // 3 // nā maĩ kriyā karma (rituals) mẽ rahatā / nahĩ joga srayāsa mẽ // 4 // nahĩ prāṇ a mẽ nahĩ pi ṇḍ a (offerings to ancestors) mẽ / nā brahmāṇḍ a ākāśa mẽ // 5 // nā maĩ prakati pravāra gufā mẽ / nahĩ svsõ kī svsa mẽ // 6 // khoji hoe turata mila jāũ / ika pala kī tālāśa mẽ // 7 // kahata kabīra suno bhaī sādho / maĩ to h viśvāsa mẽ // 8 // (http:// www.prayogshala.com/poems/Kabīr-moko-kahan-dhundhe, 25.8.2014) 360 Because this translation uses Christian theological terminology, just a few correcting remarks are needed: „idols“ stands here for mūrti, the iconic manifestations of devatās etc.

82 I'm not in temples361 or mosques, not on Kashi or Kailash. I'm not in prayer362 or penance, not in vows or fasts. I don't stay in yoga, in rites, or renunciation. Look and you'll find me as quick as the wink of an eye. Says Kabīr: Listen, sadhu. I'm found in faith.

The sants had a different focus and a different declared aim, which was the union with their chosen deity, like in the case of Mīr Bāī and her love for Kṣṇa, or with Kabīr's “Rām” who eludes any description. In spite of that, the songs of the sants apparently seem to contain many similar ideas to those that have been observed in Goenka's teachings.

There are more parallels than the above-mentioned. Firstly, the typical sant is a layman; sants rejected professional asceticism and refused the traditional opposition of home and forest (gha versus vana). Acording to sants, nothing can be achieved in the forest that cannot be achieved in the home.363 Goenka is of the same opinion. He proclaims that it is not necessary to become a bhikṣu or a bhikṣunī to get liberated, the only advantage is that monastics have more time for practice.364

For this reason, the sants wore no special attire or insignia that are in India associated with the profession of asceticism; moreover, they considered these things useless and just another proof of the hypocrisy of professional yogis and sadhus.365 Similarly, Goenka refrained from wearing any kind of special attire. He was satisfied with wearing a simple cotton kurta pyjama, while his wife (whom he called “the fat proof of my being a layman”) used to wear a simple cotton sari. It is worth noting that he explicitly says that even the Buddha never wore any special dress assigned to professional ascetics.366

The sants did not think much of intellectual knowledge and learned discourses. Goenka likewise

361 Mandir. 362 Japa, repetition of a mantra/name. 363 Charlotte Vaudeville in Karine Schomer and W. H. McLeod (eds.), The Sants, Studies in a Devotional Tradition of India, pp. 36, 39. 364 10-day Vipassana Discourse Hindi, day 6B, 15:39 min. 365 Charlotte Vaudeville in Karine Schomer and W. H. McLeod (eds.), The Sants, Studies in a Devotional Tradition of India, pp. 36, 39. 366 10-day Vipassana Discourse Hindi, day 8B, 7:45 min.

83 reiterats that knowledge on the level of intellect (buddhi ke star par) can be a useful reminder, but nothing more. What is important is one's own experience that affects the deeper levels of the mind.367 Sants generally had a pessimistic view of family ties, dominated by self-interest. 368 Mīr Bāī has a beautiful poem on this topic, “Tuma sunõ dayāla mhārī arzī” (Oh compassionate, hear my plea):369

Oh compassionate, hear my plea. I am floating in the ocean of being, pull me out if you wish. No one can be called own in his world, the only true and own is Raghubar. Mother, father, family and tribe, all see only their own benefit. Mira's Lord, hear my plea, grant me place at your feet.370

Goenka shares this view; he gives a detailed explanation of it in the evening discourse of the ninth day371 and concludes with the statement that we love only ourselves; we love others only so far as they are helpful in fulfilling our own dreams.

A very important aspect of the teaching of the sants372 as well as Goenka is ahiṃsā, non-violence, which manifests itself in compassion and gentleness.373 The sant and the practitioner of vipassanā should endure injustice without retaliating.374 The implication of this attitude to living beings is in both cases strict vegetarianism. However, Goenka never says it explicitly, probably not to deter the

367 10-day Vipassana Discourse Hindi, day 5A, 6:00 min. 368 Charlotte Vaudeville in Karine Schomer and W. H. McLeod (eds.). The Sants. Studies in a Devotional Tradition of India, p. 39. 369 Purohit, Harinārāyaṇ, Mīr bhatpadāvalī, Jodhpur, Rājasthān Prācyavidyā Pratiṣṭhān, 1968. tuma sunõ dayāla mhārī arjī (teka) bhosāgara mẽ bahī jāta h kāḍho to thārī marjī //1// yo saṃsāra sago nahĩ koī scā sagā raghubara jī //2// māta pitā aur kutũba kabīlo saba matlaba kā garajī //3// mīr ke prabhu arjī sun lyo caraṇa lagāo giradhara jī //4// 370 Translation: author. 371 10-day Vipassana Discourse Hindi, day 9A, 49:45 min. 372 Charlotte Vaudeville in Karine Schomer and W. H. McLeod (eds.), The Sants, Studies in a Devotional Tradition of India, p. 39. 373 10-day Vipassana Discourse Hindi, day 8B, 21:00 min. Goenka gives example of his teacher U Ba Khin, who, though raising his voice to help a disciple get disciplined, had his heart filled with compassion. 374 10-day Vipassana Discourse Hindi, day 8B, 16:00 min. Goenka narrates a story from Buddha's life, when an old man came to him and scolded him angrily. Buddha refused to accept the scoldings and react to them in the same way, which finally made the old man realise his mistake.

84 non-vegetarian practitioners, as he wants to keep his teaching, like the teaching of the sants, open to everyone. Nonetheless, as has been said, all the meals in his courses are vegetarian. Moreover, when he speaks about right conduct (sammā ājīva) in Buddha's teaching, he elaborates on Buddha's condemnation of raising animals for meat and selling meat – the implications for meat-eaters are self-evident.

It is a matter of fact that the sants were, in the same way as the Buddha, interpreted in many different ways, depending on to the beliefs of their interpreters. Noveztke375 observes that in the context of colonialism and early modernity, bhakti was described as a “Protestant movement”. In the 1960s and 1970s, many scholars of highly politicized university environments considered it a form of “social protest”, and some members of the Subaltern Studies Collective saw in it the answer of the subaltern to the subjugation by the elite through religion. Nevertheless, the negative approach of at least of some of the sants towards rituals etc. is undeniable, and it is very likely that Goenka, who cites Guru Nanak and mentions sants many times, was inspired by this famous indigenous tradition, though his inspiration might have been reinforced by later Protestant influences.

The equal treatment of anyone coming to the courses, irrespective of their social status or creed, is another feature of Vipassana that resembles the attitude of the sants. Goenka himself comes from a traditional merchant (baniyā) family,376 just like the sants Guru Nānak (sixteenth century), Carandās and Palṭū (eighteenth century). Goenka is sometimes even mocked by some of his students because of his bacground, his jovial speech and simple behaviour and appearance (e.g., one of the regular course participants, Bengali brahman lady, would half mockingly, half affectionalely call him „the fat black (dark-skinned) merchant“ (kālā baniyā)).377

As has been said, Goenka does not come from a background of traditional learning. Moreover, he belongs to a paramparā which is virtually unknown to the Indian public and to the newcomers to his courses. On the top of that, it is a paramparā from a foreign land and familiar, but still foreign “religion”. The only chance for Goenka to make the participants of the courses understand the purpose of the school and gain legitimacy in their eyes are the evening discourses.

The evening discourses are a very important part of the course. After the whole day (approximately 10 hours) of intensive meditation work, interrupted by a few breaks, the evening discourse is the only opportunity to relax, stop trying to exercise control over one's mind and let it loose. Goenka is very well aware of that and uses this opportunity well to encourage and motivate his disciples. 375 Christian Lee Novetzke, Bhakti and Its Public, International Journal of Hindu Studies 11, 3, 2007, p. 265 f. 376 Baniyā in the broader sense of the word means a member of a mercantile community. 377 Dhamma Sota centre, Delhi, September 2010.

85 He goes about explaining the teaching and the meditation technique in a jovial way, sometimes combined with a patronising approach towards his disciples. He addresses them as bhāī378 or even bābā379 and very frequently uses colloquial forms of address such as arre, re, e.380 While approaching his disciples, he uses the informal second person singular (as in “Tū kaisā sannyāsī hai re?”381). He tries to cheer them up by using humorous examples, such as the example of a husband admiring his wife's hair and nails, until he finds them in his breakfast,382 an example of a person according to whose paramparā, ātmā is supposed to have the size of a thumb and that is why during meditation he imagines seeing a thumb,383 an example of a blind man who tries to understand the colour of white khīr384 by touching a white bird,385 etc.

To establish a connection to his disciples, about 80 – 85% of whom are usually new students,386 he often uses colloquial words and phrases (sir pe caṛhāye baiṭhe rahẽ,387 ūb zorõ se,388 koī phūl patte chaṛhā do, kām ban jāegā,389 etc.). Even some common agrammaticalities can be noticed, such as not observing the subject – verb agreement in case of personal pronouns regarding number or ergative construction (vah ūb samjhāte haĩ;390 yah hamārī paramparā mẽ to yah bāt hai391) or gender in case of nouns (koī dūsrā vyakti).392 Another prominent feature of his language is the frequent occurrence of the subjunctive mood. All of this adds to the colloquial character of his speech, which matches well with his simple appearance described above.

To increase the impact of his statements, he uses expressive words (becārā393), word couples (arth- varth, alag-thalag394), frequent repetition of phrases (inkā ahit honā band ho jāye, inkā amaṅgal honā band ho jāye, inkā dukh saṃvardhan band ho jāye,395 etc.) and whole clusters of ideas

378 Vipassana Discourse Hindi, day 1A, 19:09 min., and many more; the meaning is “brother”; a friendly form of addressing strangers. 379 Vipassana Discourse Hindi, day 8B, 9:37 min. In this case it is an affectionate form of address. 380 Interjection that could be translated as “hey”, mostly expressing surprise, disgust or disapproval. 381 Vipassana Discourse Hindi, day 8B, 9:30 min. 382 Vipassana Discourse Hindi, day 3B, 21:20 min. 383 Vipassana Discourse Hindi, day 10B, 12:02 min. 384 Sweet rice cooked with milk, with added nuts and saffron. 385 Vipassana Discourse Hindi, day 3B, 1:00 min. 386 According to author's estimation on the basis of the field research. 387 Vipassana Discourse Hindi, day 8A, 17:43 min. It literally means “to sit having lifted them on one's head”, while talking about ideas that are being revered instead of trying to gain own experience. 388 Vipassana Discourse Hindi, day 10B, 30:38 min. Colloquially, “very strongly”. 389 Vipassana Discourse Hindi, day 8B, 10:05 min.: “Give her/him some flowers, some leaves, and your work is done” – speaking about a devatā. 390 Vipassana Discourse Hindi, 10A, 44:23 min.: “He explains thoroughly.“ 391 Vipassana Discourse Hindi, 10A, 31:16 min.: “In our tradition we have this.” 392 Vipassana Discourse Hindi, 1A, 20:50 min.: “Some other person.” 393 Vipassana Discourse Hindi, day 8A, 43:41 min.: “Arre, in becārõ ko maṅgal ke rāste pe le āyẽ” (Oh, if we could bring those poor people on the way of happiness!) 394 Meaning “some sense”, “somewhat different”. 395 Vipassana Discourse Hindi, day 8A, 43:43 min.: “The harm they are experiencing would stop, the misfortune they

86 (dharma is neither Hindu nor Buddhist, Jain, Christian, Sikh or Muslim396), or emphasis (the emphatic particle hī, “precisely, particularly”). The same purpose is being served by rhetorical questions often combined with the use of the particle na (To pāgalpan huā, na?397 Yah bāt to pratyakṣ hai, na?398) and exclamatory sentences (Kya tāregā!399). Another means to keep the attention of his audience is the inverted word order (to bhāī, dharm nah samajh mẽ āyā;400 vipaśyanā se aisā ho nah saktā).401

In spite of all these efforts to capture the attention of his students and not to deter the newcomers and the village audience, the philosophical contents of his teachings are not easy to understand by someone not acquainted with abstract thinking, and the inevitable usage of tatsamas or Pali words denoting philosophical or psychological ideas (sanskār, sati, etc.) does not make it any easier. On the other hand, he uses a remarkably small amount of English loanwords, presumably for the sake of the non-English speaking part of his audience (mainly local villagers who often constitute more that half of the participants of the courses).

However, there could be a different reason for this, if another specific feature of his speech is taken into consideration. In the evening discourses, he almost exclusively uses vocabulary drawn from Sanskrit rather then the widely used Persian and Arabic equivalents. This results in the fact that his language resembles the language of learned pundits which signals to the audience that the speaker is a person educated in traditional wisdom. This evokes the appropriate atmosphere and undoubtedly enhances Goenka's authority regarding matters of dharma.

Evidently, his language reflects long years of studying modern Hindu literature in sanskritised Hindi in Gorakhpur Gita Press style and giving lectures and speeches as a leader of the Burmese Hindu community. It might be as well influenced by Marathi environment where he had spent most of his life after moving from Burma to India, as tatsamas are much more common in Marathi with its traditional brahman based bureaucratic system than in Modern Standard Hindi, which emerged in North India where the official court language had been Persian for many centuries. In Marwari, Goenka's mother tongue, Perso-Arabic loanwords are also less frequent that in Modern Standard Hindi.

Regarding the content of Goenka's lectures, his usage of illustrative examples has already been

are experiencing would stop, the increasing of their unhappiness would stop.” 396 E.g., Vipassana Discourse Hindi, day 1A, 2A, 6A, 6B, 7B, 10A. 397 Vipassana Discourse Hindi, day 8A, 44:06 min.: “It would be a folly, wouldn't it?” 398 Vipassana Discourse Hindi, day 8A, 17:35 min.: “This is evident, isn't it?” 399 Vipassana Discourse Hindi, day 10A, 11:15 min.: “How could they save you!” 400 Vipassana Discourse Hindi, day 8A, 17:45 min.: “In that case, brother, they did not understand the dhamma!” 401 Vipassana Discourse Hindi, day 11B, 19:56 min.: “This cannot happen with Vipassana.”

87 mentioned. Apart from that, he makes use of narratives from Indian mythology, mainly about devīs (8A) and devatās (7A). Another literary form he employs are parables, e.g., a parable about a widower who promises to give the keys of the house to the daughter in law who can take the best care of five grains he had entrusted to her,402 or about the resemblance of the seed and the fruit of the tree which grows from it (the famous parable of neem and mango).403 His lectures are characterised by distinct intonation and accompanied by lively gesticulation. All these elements make his evening discourses a worthwhile diversion for his students, while having a high informational value regarding the teaching of the school.404

All in all, Goenka, just like other famous Indian gurus, such as the controversial Osho (Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh), the recently deceased Sathya Sai Baba of Puttaparthi, or the contemporary famous Tamil guru Jaggi Vasudev (Sadhguru), seems to comply to the ancient Indian tradition of rhetorics. Its theory, sādhāraṇīkaraṇ (“simplification”), is rooted in Natyaśāstra. It is a type of communication where persuasive language405 of the speaker induces emotional reactions in the audience, which leads to attaining sahdayatā. Both communication partners become sahdayas, literally “one with similar heart”. The audience experiences the rasa406 (the taste) of communicandum, or in this particular case shares the message as intended by the guru.407

7.2. Hindu fold and secularism in India

Let us now leave Vipassana's indigenous roots and proceed to examine its position within Indian (particularly Hindu) society. So far, Goenka's Vipassana has been described as one of the traditions belonging to the Theravada Vipassana movement, modernised regarding its form and to a certain extent also regarding the contents of its teachings. It has been said that the Vipassana school is very often perceived as Buddhist, i.e., foreign to contemporary India. Nevertheless, here are two practical examples of the perception of Vipassana by outsiders of Hindu background that defy this statement.

There has been a case of an unofficial collaboration between one of Goenka's meditation centres in

402 Vipassana Discourse Hindi, day 11B, 20:33 min. 403 S. N. Goenka, The Discourse Summaries, p. 18. 404 The evening discourses are mandatory for all students including old students who are able to quote certain passages word by word. 405 Nevertheless, it applies to non-verbal communication as well. 406 The “taste” of the speech, its character and the sentiment prevailing in it. 407 See Nirmala Mani Adhikary, An introduction to sadharanikaran model of communication, Bodhi, Vol. 3(1), 2009, p. 74, and Keith Lloyd, Culture and Rhetorical Patterns: Mining the Rich Relations Between Aristotle's Enthymeme and Example and India's Nyāya Method, Rhetorica, 2011, p. 77.

88 North India with a certain big industry regarding the training of freshers. It is one of the big Indian industries that hire many employees at a time mostly in IT and similar fields and train them for three months. It does not accept applicants who belong to minority religions408 and trains the freshers in yoga and meditation; they have to learn about healthy nutrition according to āyurveda and attend saṅkīrtan and spiritual lectures. One part of the programme consisting of this kind of activities is a mandatory participation in a 10-day Vipassana course. Apparently, this industry does all but feel threatened by possible “conversion” of its employees and considers their training in Vipassana to be in compliance with their “traditional” Hindu education.

To mention another example – the government in Maharashtra, one of the strongholds of Hindu nationalism (in the form of the Shiv Sena, a Marathi political organisation), has recently made a decision to implement compulsory morning and afternoon meditation sessions in all state schools under the supervision of Vipassana teachers.409 Even here, the Vipassana school with its “Buddhist” meditation apparently poses not threat to Hindu sentiments, on the contrary, it is perceived as a part of the (Hindu) national heritage.

These examples, together with the fact that the presence of Muslim and Christian minorities in Vipassana courses is extremely rare, show that Goenka's Vipassana can be easily identified as a part of the Hindu fold (in the broader sense of the word, i.e., including Sikhs and Jains).410 In these cases, it was perceived as one of the many local traditions of the subcontinent. Its non-sectarian claims could have actually in the second case served as a good argument for its supporters, while trying to push through the implementation of its practice into the secular education system.

There is no place for “religious tolerance” or for the dichotomy of religious and secular which enables the Western meditators to use the term “secular meditation”. Instead, an implicit presumption of an inclusivist Indian (Hindu) culture that is beyond religious and secular and encompasses all traditions of Indian origin is at play here. The question that arises at this point is – how does this autochthonous conception cohabitate with modern concepts that have come to dominate the modern Indian intellectual discourse? For illustration, let us take a brief look at one example of these concepts – the Indian secularism.

The Indian form of secularism is inseparably connected to the specific historical developments on the subcontinent. Among others, it is the British colonial rule, the freedom movement and the specific way of coexistence of what started to be perceived as different “religions” in the nineteenth

408 This is obviously not its official politics, but it is not an exception; i.e., there are housing estates that do not accept Muslims with the excuse that it is a vegetarian settlement, etc. 409 This was an announcement after the 10-day course in Khadavali, December 2012. 410 In the same way that for example the Hindu marriage act from 1955 applies to Sikhs, Jains and Buddhists as well.

89 century and has since then been understood in an increasingly monolithic way. The concept of secularism was introduced in India by the British colonial administration and after the Independence it became a component of the Indian constitution, partly also due to the traumatic Partition events.411

However, nowadays it seems that for various reasons, the introduction of secularism has not fulfilled the expectations. According to many authors, it has been counterproductive as it actually started causing the problems that it was supposed to prevent (communalism412 in politics, riots between religious communities, pogroms, etc.).413

Most participants of the debate about the Indian secularism point out its distinctive character. Rather than separation of religion from the state, it has the form of a balanced approach to different “religious communities” by the state. Though this interpretation prevails, there are situations where secularism is generally understood in the first sense, e.g., in case of Indian secular higher education.414 The Indian form of secularism is related to the above-mentioned formation of two large and heterogeneous interest groups with fuzzy borders415 which are in this context perceived as the “Hindu community” or the “Hindu majority” and the “Muslim community” or the “Muslim minority”.416

A huge contribution to the construction of the idea of “Hindu majority” was made by the ethos of nationalism, which often unknowingly identified the idea of Indian nation with the idea of Hindu nation. A classical example of this approach, which becomes the basis for constructing the notion of the Hindu majority, is Gandhi's refusal of separated electorates for dalits in 1932, the undisguised reason of which was to prevent the splitting of the “Hindu unity”. This kind of inclusivism is an integral part of the ideological equipment of Hindutva.417 The implicit identification of Indian with Hindu persists in different forms till today. The advance of this idea can be observed especially after the advent of the Modi sarkār.

The spectrum of approaches to Indian secularism is wide. It ranges from complaints about

411 Nevertheless, the term “secularism” itself became a part of the Indian constitution only in 1976. 412 The term communalism is in India used in the sense of giving preference to the interests of one's own “religious community”, particularly Hindu or Muslim, before the interest of the nation. 413 See Rajeev Bhargava (ed.), Secularism and its Critics, New Delhi, Oxford University Press, 2011. 414 For example, in April 2013, the University of Delhi issued a strict regulation regarding the celebrations of Holi festival in the precincts of the university campus (Fig. 12). 415 As in the case of the so-called Muhammadan Hindus, see below. 416 The term „religious community” has been so far used in inverted commas because in reality, they are “communities” in the same sense as, e.g., the imaginary “Roma community” in the Czech Republic. This is not to say that it does not make sense to speak about “religion”, “Hindus”, “Muslims” and “religious communities”, since these terms carry a political meaning, but even then it is necessary to be aware of their true nature of constructs that often prevent us from using other concepts that would be more appropriate to the context. 417 Hindutva is a generic term denoting groups, the ideology of which is based on Hindu nationalism.

90 insufficient implementation of secular thought, critique of the non-functioning of secularism in India in the sense of separation of religion and politics, and grievances about “pseudo- secularism”,418 to the rejection of the concept of secularism as a foreign element. Regarding the debate about the Indian secularism, the conflict, very broadly delineated, is between „communitarians“, so called because of their opposition to coercive state secularism, their advocacy of a pluralist and decentralised polity, and their support of autonomy for religious communities; and left-liberal secularists, who support egalitarianism, uniformity of law, and the separation of religion from politics.419

Both of the parties are opposed to Hindutva hegemony.420

A typical representative of the conception of secularism that entails a strict separation of religion and politics was the Indian prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru. The conception of secularism as the separation of state and its institutions from religion presupposes at least a partial secularisation of society. Nevertheless, in the long-term horizon, with increasing political participation of different groups, partially defined by their religious affiliation, this conception turned out to be naive and non-functional.421

As has been mentioned, in the Indian context the concept of secularism consists mainly in equal approach of the state to different religious communities and protection of their rights enshrined in the constitution. The state has therefore assumed responsibility for “religious” matters, from the administration of religious funds and interpretation of “religious” law, to financing of schools administered by “religious” communities (e.g., madrasas in Bengal), etc.

Are there any indigenous concepts that would make an alternative to secularism? What are the main arguments of two of the most vocal critics of secularism – Ashish Nandy and Triloki Nath Madan? In his famous article An Anti-secularist Manifesto,422 Ashish Nandy distinguishes two types of secularism. The first type presupposes a devaluation of religion in public life and separation of politics from religion. The second type, the Indian variation, is according to him an antidote to ethnocentrism, xenophobia and fanaticism, and treats all religions with equal respect.

Nandy criticises the first type of secularism, for it does not consider the fact that all forms of

418 This term invariably indicates concessions to minorities on the part of the state, so called „minority appeasement“. 419 Anuradha Needham, Rajan Dingwaney and Rajeswari Sunder (eds.), The Crisis of Secularism in India, Ranikhet, Permanent Black, 2007, p. 1. 420 Ibid., p. 1. 421 Joseph Tharamangalam, Indian Social Scientists and Critique of Secularism, Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 30, No. 9, 1995, pp. 457-458. 422 Ashish Nandy, An Anti-secularist Manifesto, India International Centre Quarterly, Vol. 22, No. 1, Secularism in Crisis, 1995.

91 religion do not lead to intolerance. He distinguishes three ideal types that emerge as a result of the clash between modernity and religious traditions: 1) a modern secular rationalist, Hindu or Muslim influenced by Western thinking, 2) semi-modern fanatic, 3) non-modern peripheral Hindu of Muslim (peripheral only from the point of view of the fanatic and secularist, in reality this type comprises the majority of Indian population).

According to Nandy, with growing political representation and limited secularisation of the Indian population, the secularism which separates religion from politics fails. Nandy sees an alternative in religious source of tolerance towards other religions, in mutual tolerance (or „hospitality“423) of peripheral Hindus and Muslims. He mentions the frequent argument concerning religious riots or pogroms – according to him, the principal character of the riots or pogroms is secular; they are motivated by political interests. They are led by religious fanatics who use religion for their own purposes, and only subsequently justified by non-secular rhetoric.424 One of their aims is to establish the rule of “majority” (not the “religious majority”425) over the Indian state.

T. N. Madan in his well-known article Secularism in Its Place426 expresses his view, that „...it is the marginalisation of religious faith, which is what secularisation is, that permits the perversion of religion. There are no fundamentalists or revivalists in traditional society.“427 He claims that secularisation is a gift of Christianity to humanity which arose from the dialectics of modern science and Protestantism; the expulsion of religion to the private sphere is a thought of late Christianity. In Madan's opinion, it is therefore not only religious fundamentalists who contribute to fundamentalism, but also secularists who deny the legitimacy of religion in human life and society and provoke a reaction.

Madan criticises the idea that secularisation necessarily needs to be a part of modernisation in non- Western societies. At the same time he states that unlike Lenin and Atatürk, Nehru never tried to enforce secularism in the form of a separation of state and religion with the help of state power. Secularism in India therefore assumed a purely negative form of state neutrality towards different religions, which under the heading of “religious freedom” allowed the citizens not only to practise, but also to promote religion. According to Madan, the result was that secularism, an ideology rooted in foreign culture and without a strong support of the state, has necessarily become an empty notion.

423 Ashish Nandy, Closing the Debate on Secularism, A Personal Statement, in Anuradha Needham, Rajan Dingwaney and Rajeswari Sunder (eds.), The Crisis of Secularism in India, p. 116. 424 He gives and example of the pogrom against Sikhs in 1984. 425 Gyan Prakash in Anuradha Needham, Rajan Dingwaney and Rajeswari Sunder (eds.), The Crisis of Secularism in India, p. 177. 426 T. N. Madan, Secularism in Its Place, The Journal of Asian Studies, Vol. 46, No. 4 (1987). 427 Ibid., p. 749. T. N. Madan uses Durkheim's theory of religion based on the dichotomy of sacred and profane.

92 The Belgian pupil of S. N. Balagangadhara, Jakob de Roover, has on the ground of different premises come to a similar conclusion.428 He uses Balagangadhara's deconstruction of the concept of religion and shows that secularism, which he defines narrowly as a separation of religion and politics, is based on the concept of “religion” which none of the participants of the debate about Indian secularism has been able to (or even tried) to define. It is therefore a hollow term which should better be abandoned before the building of an alternative theory of pluralism in Indian society begins.

How has secularism been viewed by Hindu nationalists? Contrary to widespread opinion that these “religious fundamentalists” strive for theocratic state, Ashish Nandy has shown that their attempt to establish a rule of Hindu majority does not necessarily mean a negative attitude to Indian secularism. According to Hindu nationalists, secularism has in reality always been biased against Hindus, and it failed because their political opponents, especially the Gandhians and the Leftists, understood it as appeasement of minorities.429 Hindu nationalists assert that they have a single goal – to achieve a true secularism based on equality430 where the majority and minority play roles appropriate to their significance, unlike in the pseudo-secularism of most political parties, particularly Congress and the Leninists.431

These assertions imply an idea of a homogeneous Hindu identity and culture that is identical with the Indian nation. According to this idea, Muslims and Christians remain foreigners, a notion owing its existence to the “reformers” of the nineteenth century and implicating that the above-mentioned should actually have no rights in India (forgetting the obvious fact that most of them are descendents of converts). The myth about a thousand years long fight of Hindus against Muslim occupants also plays its role in these considerations.432

Another prominent feature of Hindu nationalism is its struggle for ban on religious conversions.433 It is also worth mentioning that BJP, the political expression of the Sangh Parivar, a family organisation of Hindu nationalists, as one of the few players on the political scene tries to enforce the implementation of a unified Civil code.

428 Jakob De Roover, The Vacuity of Secularism: On the Indian Debate and Its Western Origins, Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 37, No. 39, 2002. 429 Ashish Nandy, Closing the Debate on Secularism, A Personal Statement, in Anuradha Needham, Rajan Dingwaney and Rajeswari Sunder (eds.), The Crisis of Secularism in India, pp. 109. 430 They intentionally use the formal interpretation of equality which does not take into account the starting line where the subjects actually stand and as a result does not provide a real equality of opportunities. 431 Ashish Nandy, Closing the Debate on Secularism, A Personal Statement, in Anuradha Needham, Rajan Dingwaney and Rajeswari Sunder (eds.), The Crisis of Secularism in India, p. 109. 432 Anuradha Needham, Rajan Dingwaney and Rajeswari Sunder (eds.), The Crisis of Secularism in India, p. 16. 433 Religious conversions could lower the superiority of numbers of the Hindu majority; for the same reason, the popular myth about Muslims having many more children than Hindus is reiterated with fear (with a hidden hint at the fact that it is because of the larger number of wives).

93 Both Nandy and Madan reject secularism in the first sense of the word and advise for returning religion its role in (public) life. However, the argument of De Roover is too important to be ignored – it is undoubtedly essential to first deal with the concept of religion itself. Nevertheless, it is a matter of fact that in today's India, the understanding of Hindus and Muslims as two disparate and sometimes even opposing parties has firmly set its roots.

The historian Cynthia Talbot in her article about Hindu-Muslim identities,434 based on her research on epigraphical material in Andhra, tries to trace this phenomenon in the history. Following her arguments might help elucidate the understanding of Goenka's Vipassana as belonging to Hindu fold. Talbot argues435 that in Sanskrit literature of ancient and medieval India, foreigners as well as indigenous tribes were often called mleccha, the most accurate translation of which she considers the term “barbarian”, which signals their social and cultural difference. Purāṇas often mention the early barbarians, the Yavanas and the Śakas.

These names were revived in medieval India to denote the incoming Muslims. What mattered was their being perceived as the Other, not the specifics of their belief. In Talbot's opinion, their denigrating depictions resulted from frontier confrontations; in times of power balance, the vilifying images disappeared and the inscriptional sources testify to the existence of a conceptual scheme that incorporated Muslim polities in Andhra.436

On the basis of the presumption that “prolonged confrontation between different groups intensifies self-identities,”437 Talbot believes that a broader Indic identity began to develop after the Muslim polities were founded in South Asia. One of the signs of this process was the adoption of the designation Hindu by non-Muslim writers in Andhra inscriptions from 1352, which is according to her the earliest usage of the term Hindu in any Indian language source. 438 At that time, Hindu meant simply Indic as opposed to Turkish, an sign of an incipient Indic ethnicity, linked to territorial association, language, common past and customs.

Neither the terms Muslim or Islam, nor any allusions to Islamic beliefs or doctrine (except for the prohibition of eating pork) are ever mentioned in the inscriptions before the mid-seventeenth century in Andhra. In other areas of the Indian subcontinent, the situation might have slightly

434 Cynthia Talbot, Inscribing the Other, Inscribing the Self: Hindu-Muslim Identities in Pre-Colonial India, Society for Comparative Studies in Society and History, Vol. 37, No. 4, 1995. 435 Ibid., p. 698 f. 436 Ibid., p. 720. 437 Ibid., p. 700. 438 Ibid., p. 700.

94 differed, as Kabīr, Nānak or Eknāth in fifteenth and sixteenth centuries do not speak only about mlecchas, Yavanas or Turks, but about Hindus and Muslims (hindū and musalmān).439 In some songs it is explicit, others contain substitute pairings, like the mandir – masjid couple in the above- mentioned Kabīr bhajan.

Deák captures Eknāth's sixteenth century dialogue between “a Hindu and a Turk”440 that centres around the ideological differences between a brahman and a Muslim, which means that the differences of ideology was definitely known and reflected upon. However, what Talbot says about Andhra can be probably applied to the rest of the subcontinent that witnessed the arrival of Muslims:

While Muslims were often cast as the Other in medieval Hindu discourse, Andhra inscriptions never placed Islam in the foreground at the basis of the Muslim's alien character... their Otherness included many distinct features beyond simply religion – language, costume, marriage customs and fighting styles, to name but a few.441

The same probably hold for the rhetoric of both sides:

New Andhra leaders could draw on earlier Brahmin images of the struggle against demons and the godless, while the Central Asian Turks could present their activities within the paradigm of the Islamic jihad. But the rhetoric of the destroyer of temples in the case of Muslim elites and of the protector of temples and Brahmins in the case of Hindu elites can be misleading in suggesting that the primary motivation for conflict were religious in nature. Instead, I believe that these representations should be understood as strategies aimed at consolidating community allegiance.442

Even then, for a very long time period, it was not completely obvious what it meant to be a Hindu and a Muslim. As recently as in 1911, two hundred thousand Indians referred to themselves as Mohammedan Hindus in the Gujarat census.443 Nevertheless, according to Pandey,444 Partition

439 Dušan Deák, Indickí svätci medzi minulosťou a prítomnosťou, Hĺadanie hinduistov a muslimov v Južnej Ázii, p. 132. 440 Ibid., Hindū – Turk samvād. 441 Cynthia Talbot, Inscribing the Other, Inscribing the Self: Hindu-Muslim Identities in Pre-Colonial India (1995), p. 720. 442 Ibid., p. 720. 443 Gauri Viswanathan, Outside the Fold, Conversion, Modernity, and Belief, p. xxii, quoting Ashish Nandy. 444 Gyanendra Pandey in Anuradha Needham, Rajan Dingwaney and Rajeswari Sunder (eds.), The Crisis of Secularism in India, p. 168 f. Pandey mentions an illustrative account of a Gujarat village by the anthropologist David Pocock: “There were four Muslim households in the village Pocock studied in the mid-1950s. Two of them were called Vora, the other two Sipai, the former derived from the Shia sect of Bohras, and the latter indicating that some ancestor had been a soldier. One or two pictures in their houses suggested Shia allegiance, but (says Pocock) these Muslims knew nothing of Shia-Sunni or other sectarian differences. „Similarly the Propher was represented as a holy man, one of many, who was born in India and was the originator of the sect to which they belong.“ The children were given Muslim names and sons were circumscribed, but the families followed customary Hindu rules of property and succession, participated in Hindu ceremonies in the village, and were treated much as a Hindu caste by other villagers” (p. 169).

95 accelerated the process of divergence and communities that “had worn their Islam lightly for centuries” and used to be described as half-Hindu and half-Muslims, came to be treated as Muslims. Even after Partition, in Western India, Bohras and Khojas were recognized as Muslim groups of this special kind. Though the most Bohras nowadays claim adherence to a branch of Shia Islam, the author of this study herself encountered Bohras denying identification as either Hindus or Muslims.445

This historical prologue has hopefully showed that the denotation Hindu, in spite of having geographical and ethnic significance, has originated and to a certain extent functioned as a negative specification. It is particularly obvious in case of the above-mentioned separated electorates for dalits. Even tribal population which makes more than 8% of the Indian population is often counted under Hindus. Goenka's vegetarianism, his claim to belong to an old sanātanī family and propagate the original Indian dharma, his references to traditional Indian authorities, etc., make his acceptance as a part of the Hindu fold perfectly understandable.

All of the above-said indicates that being “Hindu” or Muslim is nothing more than just one facet of the multifaceted and context-dependent personal identity. Moreover, considering the importance of one's social status, caste, community, sampradāy, and regional and linguistic identity, at least till the end of the nineteenth century it could have been probably even termed a peripheral (to invert Nandy's statement) facet.

However, with the increased importance that being Muslim, Hindu (or Christian) acquired within the last century (supported by the spread of Western education and concepts such as religions to broader segments of society), it has started making sense to speak about secularism, at least in the “Indian” sense of equal treatment of Hindus and Muslims (and Sikhs, Christians etc.) by the state. In some contexts, such as the “Western” higher education or law (except for family law), it has been successfully applied.

Since the term religion is a tool that does not suit Indian cultural realities, as we have tried to illustrate above, it is not surprising that no one is able to draw the line between “religious” and “non-religious”. Secularism as the removal of religion from the public sphere (e.g., politics) to the private sphere does not make much sense in India, at least for the vast majority of population that have not detached themselves from their roots in a radical way.446 This problem is obviously not limited only to South Asia – nowadays debates concerning the right to wear hijābs at schools or Muslim protests against public display of religion in the form of setting up Christmas trees on the 445 A conversation with a Gujarati Bohra in November 2012, Prague. 446 Radical from the point of view of Nandy, as is the case of the Westernised native, a marginal modern secular rationalist.

96 squares of European cities have similar causes. Timothy Fitzgerald's analysis of the concept, mentioned at the beginning of the study, according to author's opinion elucidates the cause of the problem.

Conclusion

The aim of the study was to provide an insight into the way the South Asian Theravada traditions have been modernised. The effect of modernisation was to be illustrated on a case study, the Vipassana school of S. N. Goenka. For this purpose, it was necessary to look into the origins of the changes these modernised Theravada traditions have undergone. In the course of the work, disputed topics have been touched, such as the imposition of modern and sometimes unfitting concepts (religion, Buddhism, etc.) on South Asian cultural realities. On several occasions, it was illustrated that they are a hindrance rather than a useful tool to describe the reality.447

At the beginning, it was stated that though significant work has been done on Modern Buddhism and articles and PhD dissertations have been written of several aspects and branches of Vipassana, no one has done any extensive research on Vipassana in India, the home country of its founder, where the school set its roots and where it has established its densest network. The current study therefore tries to be at least a preliminary effort in this direction.

A theoretical framework was set up to support the author's intention to shed light on the foundations of the above-mentioned modern concepts, and relevant methodology was chosen. The theoretical views of the two authors, Timothy Fitzgerald and Philip C. Almond, on which the critique of the concepts of religion and Buddhism in this study was based, are relatively radical, however, they have proven to be conclusive. Furthermore, the relevant theories pertaining to the key terms that have been used throughout the study, modernity and intercultural mimesis, were specified.

The first step in the endeavour to show the changes modernised Buddhist traditions underwent was to introduce the phenomenon of Modern Buddhism and its distinguishing features as they have been described by specialists in this field. A significant role of Protestant thinking, the influence of Enlightenment stress on rationality and ideas of Romantic Orientalism was revealed. One of the

447 In this context, Milan Fujda (Proč nestudovat náboženství: K sociologickému uspořádávání skutečnosti. Why not Study Religion: On the Sociological Ordering of Reality. Sociální studia. Katedra sociologie FSS MU, 3/2013) aptly states: „I argue that the concept of religion, or more precisely the whole conceptual structure (composed of interrelated concepts like secular, sacred, rational/irrational, natural/supernatural, science, politics, etc.) surrounding it, is a significant hindrance to the analysis of exactly those things which we want to analyse in the sociology of religion, with results that are theoretically significant for the wider field of sociology.“

97 most substantial changes was the transformed role of meditations practices. The role of meditation in Modern Buddhism cannot be overrated (Goenka's school of Vipassana is an example par excellence), therefore a whole chapter was devoted to a profound description of the position of meditation and of the meditation practices in modern Theravada, in comparison to the old texts of Tipitaka and the most significant commentaries, starting with the analysis of the concept of meditation itself.

It was shown that the concept of meditation is a modern idea, and that the old texts seem not to provide clear-cut information about meditation practices and their goals. Nevertheless, it became evident that the modern divide between samatha and vipassanā was not present in the old texts and that jhāna probably commanded more esteem. The role of meditation practices changed considerably with an apparent shift towards lay meditation, accompanied by the establishment of lay meditation centres. However, an obvious continuity was observed in all aspects between the old texts and the modernised traditions. It turned out that the modern Vipassana teachers often derive from the old texts meditation instructions as well as the legitimacy of their techniques.

Thereafter, the case study was introduced and the main characteristics of S. N. Goenka's Vipassana school of meditation were given, including the history of the school, the organizational structure of its centres and meditation courses, which are the central point of the whole enterprise, and its meditation instructions and teachings.

After introducing the school, the influence of modernity in Weberian sense was explored and it was discovered that the organisational structure of the school was rationalised and bureaucratised to a significant extent. However, when the focus shifted to the modernisation of the content of Goenka's teachings, the findings were not so unequivocal.

In the first place, the classification of the Vipassana school as “Buddhist” was discussed. It was ascertained that though practical reasons must have played their role in Goenka's reluctance to be associated with Buddhism as well, a decisive reason was probably his unwillingness to be associated with any sampradāy whatsoever, which he explains with the universality of his teaching and meditation technique that cannot be limited to one tradition.

Furthermore, Goenka's approach to the concept of religion was analysed. It was discovered that Goenka mixes up the modern concept of religion with the indigenous concept sampradāy in his evening talks. Nevertheless, he distances himself from both, claiming that the eternal dharma he teaches is asāmpradāyik/not pertaining to any religion. The usage of the concept religion which was modelled on Christianity resulted in Christian theological concepts such as conversion finding their

98 place in South Asia, e.g., in case of Ambedkar's “conversion” to Buddhism; however, they attain features of similar autochthonous concepts. Though Goenka tries to dispell the fears of his potential followers of being converted, repeatedly referring to the “non-sectarian” nature of his school, his behaviour with the course participants evokes the concept of conversion/the indigenous concept of dīkṣā that resembles it in some aspects.

After these initial clarification, modern features of the Vipassana school were discussed, mirroring the chapter on the characteristics of Modern Buddhism with concrete examples of iconoclastic and antiritualistic tendencies, emphasis on rationality and texts, return to the roots, etc. The subject of the return to the roots has deflected the focus in the direction of indigenous roots of Goenka's teachings, in particular his notion of universal, eternal dharma, which is a concept known from “Buddhism” as well as “Hinduism”.

Apart from his dharma being universal and eternal, it proved significant that the dharma is also Indian, which turned the attention back to the classification of the school. Though Vipassana school shows all typical features of Modern Buddhism, after comparing it to the teaching of Vivekananda, it became apparent that it would be equally justified to classify it as a part of Neo-Hinduism. This provided just another argument for the critique of the monolithically perceived concepts of Buddhism and Hinduism. Unfortunately, the extent of this work did not allow for a discussion of the even much more disputed concept of Hinduism in the way it would have deserved. However, it has been skilfully done elsewhere.448

As has been said, with the idea of sanātana dharma, the attention finally shifted to indigenous roots of Goenka's teachings. Up to this point, the application of the theory of intercultural mimesis prevailed; nevertheless, at this point it was revealed that many of the aspects of Goenka's teachings whose origins were attributed to modern influences, probably go back to precolonial indigenous roots. To illustrate this idea, the discussion moved over to the fifteenth-century Northern and Central India in search for a well-known Indian figure − the sant. The sants, at least some of them, shared Goenka's iconoclastic and antiritualistic tendencies and his claims to a non-sectarian teaching and equal access for all.

There are even more similarities between Goenka and the sants, whom he also often refers to in his discourses, but those do not relate directly to the topics of this study. There are differences also, the most obvious being the missing devotion on part of Goenka, though he explicitly claims to profess the correct bhakti. Another difference lies in the form of their utterances.

448 E.g., Wilhelm Halbfass, India and Europe, An Essay in Understanding.

99 Sants, poets and singers, expressed their thoughts and feelings in various poetic forms, whereas Goenka opted for a more sober form of a lecture as the main means of communication with his disciples. Despite of not having the background of traditional learning, he followed the example of pundits skilled in philosophical lecturing and embraced the language of learned discourses, such as the ones that are published by Gita Press, and adopted traditional rhetoric skills used by Indian orators, gurus and politicians.

The explicit as well as implicit claims of allegiance to Indian roots can be the reason of the incidents narrated further, which show the Vipassana school being treated as a part of the Hindu fold by Hindu nationalists and corroborates the possibility of Vipassana being classified as “Hindu”. Nevertheless, especially Goenka's disciples from the West often denote his school as “secular”. Due it the composition of its inhabitants, the modern idea of secularism is a much more heated topic in India than in the predominantly Christian/atheist Europe. It has also suffered devastating critique, as has been shown in the chapter about secularism. The clue to the unsatisfactory functionality of the secularist principle was discovered in its being derived from the contested concept of religion.

To understand the idea of the indigenized concept of Indian secularism, it was necessary to deal with the categories Hindu – Muslim. The first one originated as a partially negatively defined category, denoting the non-foreigner, and has to a certain extent retained this negative definition till today, as has been shown on examples of dalits and ādivāsīs, though the positive concept of “Hinduism” (however questionable) tries to conceal it. That is the reason why it is generally perceived as inclusivist, and to come back to the previous argument, why it was so easy for the Hindu nationalists to accept Goenka, who anyway tried to legitimise his enterprise by claiming its Indianness (Hinduness), in their fold.

To sum up – at first glance, the Vipassana meditation school of S. N. Goenka seemed to be an example of a modernised tradition par excellence. Seeing its flawlessly rationalised outer form, the author of this study could not resist to use the metaphor of “McDonaldization”. Nevertheless, having analysed its teachings, many of the features that had been understood as manifestations of the influence of (European) modernity by a superficial look, have turned out to be of mixed or indigenous origin.

It has become clear that the current form of the Vipassana school is a resultant of influences of the European modernity, autochthonous Indian sources (some of which could be also denoted as modern) and Theravada roots, woven together, and successfully propagated thanks to the managerial skills of its founder, a seasoned entrepreneur and community leader, S. N. Goenka.

100 The main focus of the school and its declared purpose is teaching meditation; at first sight, Goenka's meditation instructions seemed to be insufficient and one-sided in comparison to the richness of meditation practices contained in the old texts of Tipitaka and the commentaries. However, it has been shown that neither do the later show any one unambiguous and binding way to proceed with meditation practice, nor can Goenka be proven to handle the meditation instructions arbitrarily. He behaves similarly to the other above-mentioned modern teachers of the so-called Vipassana movement, that means he follows the teachings of his lineage (at least to a certain extent) as well as the textual sources. Nonetheless, it has to be admitted that the bureaucratic functioning of the Vipassana school undoubtedly limits the possibility to treat students individually.

Another proclaimed goal of this study was to at least partially explore the foundations of modern conceptions, such as religion, Buddhism and Hinduism on the basis of a case study which seemed to be localised in no man's land between them − neither religious, nor secular, neither Buddhist, nor Hindu.

At first glance, when looking through the framework which has the concept of religion as one of its corner stones, it seemed that the Vipassana school could be without any doubts classified as a part of Modern Buddhism. It seemed to have all the aspect of the Buddhist religion – the founder, the commandments, the doctrines and the sacred texts. Nevertheless, when the actual position of the Vipassana school in the Indian society was examined, it became apparent that it is (by insiders as well as outsiders) very often perceived as one of the autochthonous (“Hindu”) traditions.

To understand this phenomenon, the author had to leave aside the modern Western concept of religion which caused the distortion, making the two concepts appear to be two real species of the same kind, i.e., religions. After that, it became apparent that the two concepts have an entirely different genesis and are of a different kind altogether, which is the cause why they can in particular historical cases easily overlap.

It is a matter of fact that the Western concept of religion has at least indirectly influenced the form of modernised traditions and changed their emphases. However, the concept itself with its implicit Christian attributes such as the stress on sacred scripts, on the founder and particularly on the doctrines can be hardly applied to the indigenous Indian traditions. Even Goenka, when forced to use the term religion in his English discourses, attributes to it the content of the indigenous concept sampradāy. All in all, it is beyond any doubt that the usage of the term religion in the South Asian context necessarily creates a distortion.

To conclude – because of the above-mentioned reasons, denoting Vipassana as religious or secular

101 does not make much sense in India, and its position between Modern Buddhism and Neo-Hinduism is illusory. Due to the incompatibility of the two concepts, Goenka's school can easily fit in both of them, should the need arise. Hopefully, this work has succeeded to show that a different need has arisen – the need for a more fitting description of South Asian cultural realities.

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111 Appendix

112 Figure 1 – Vipassana Research Institute

Photo: Author

113 Figure 2 – Timetable of the 10-day course

Photo: Author

114 Figure 3 – Meditation hall (Igatpuri)

Photo: Author

115 Figure 4 – Dining hall (Igatpuri)

Photo: Author

116 Figure 5 – Pagoda with meditation cells (Igatpuri)

Photo: Author

117 Figure 6 – Accommodation (Igatpuri)

Photo: Author

118 Figure 7 – Global Vipassana Pagoda

Photo: Author

119 Figure 8 – Course Application Form, page 1

Source: http://www.dhamma.org, 14.1.2011

120 Figure 9 – Course Application Form, page 2

Source: http://www.dhamma.org, 14.1.2011

121 Figure 10 – Code of Discipline (1)

Source: Vipassana International Academy leaflet, July 2012

122 Figure 11 – Code of Discipline (2)

Source: Vipassana International Academy leaflet, July 2012

123 Figure 12 – Holi restrictions in DU campus

Source: http://www.du.ac.in/index.php?id=634&back=single&uid=245, 27.3.2013

124