In to the Nature
Rockies
Stampede
Committed Relationship: The Doors are Closed
The Northern Point of the North American Tour
Success Without Dhamma Means Ego and Intolerance
Mosquito Menace
Open Sky
Rain and Sunshine
Mind Matters Most
Staying Together
Longest Distances and another Flat Tire
Day Eighty-Three (July 1) (Dhamma Surabhi, Merritt / Golden, Canada)
Goenkaji’s maiden visit to British Columbia generated much more interest in the general public than local meditators had hoped for. It also brought most of the local meditators together.
It was interesting and inspiring to see so many people gathered to hear the profound and yet simple wisdom of Vipassana. It is easy to incite the passions of the masses with inflammatory speeches or religious fervor but it is not so easy to teach people to quietly look within. Dhamma is simple and logical and it is also serious and profound. The clock of Vipassana definitely has struck in this area.
Meditators serving on the Dhamma Caravan felt so pleased with the response to Goenkaji’s visit. Dhamma Surabhi was living up to its name. Surabhi (fragrance) of Dhamma was spreading all over B.C.
The Caravan left the pretty Cold Water Valley in the morning. The mountains were covered with lush green trees of pines, giant cedars and firs on both sides of the road. As the Caravan climbed through the Canadian Rockies it came across one breathtaking view after another. The air was pleasantly cool. Green forests on either side produced a meditative atmosphere. Every now and then treeless, rocky mountaintops raised their heads and there was still some snow on all of them. In the Glacier National Park the snow flowed in rivulets down the mountain gorges.
This day was devoted entirely to travel. There were no events that day to push the Caravan to reach its destination. After a hectic program from San Diego to Dhamma Surabhi, the crew was able to sit back and relax a little bit. After passing through the Glacier National Park, Goenkaji was able to get down from his motorhome to walk in the quiet cool mountain air.
It was after 9 in the evening that the Caravan reached Golden, a sleepy little town. It was quite late in the night when the caravan crew finished setting up. After that they meditated in small groups in their tents, pop up trailers, motor homes etc. The last group finished its sitting at about one in the morning.
Day Eighty-Four (July 2) (Golden / Calgary, Canada)
The night was short and daylight broke early. The Caravan crew was rewarded with a beautiful view of snowy mountains in the distance and the sound of the the Kicking Horse River nearby. Because of the previous late night it was hard for everyone to get going again, even though there were many miles to cover to the next destination. Some crew members decided to take advantage of the clean cool mountain air to jog, walk or bike. One crewmember headed towards the lone Internet café close to the park to get news for Goenkaji. The Caravan had been isolated from big towns for a long time and it was important that he had news from the Vipassana organizations worldwide as well as from the mundane world.
The Caravan finally rolled out of the park around eleven. On this stretch it encountered some of the most beautiful scenery on the tour. There were turquoise mountain lakes, verdant trees, clear creeks and inviting rivers all along the way. The Caravan stopped at the famous Lake Louise, a serene glacier lake, for lunch. On this journey the Caravan encountered the Rocky mountains in all their grandeur—sometimes covered with soothing green trees, sometimes austere bare steel gray mountains with or without snow but always grand.
The Caravan skirted one huge steel gray mountain in Banff that looked an epitome of solidity and stability. A crew-member recollected the Dhammapada verse:
Selo yath± ekaghano, v±tena na
sam²rati;
eva½ nind±pasa½s±su, na samiñjanti paº¹it±.
(Just as a solid rock that doesn’t get shaken by the wind, just so a wise person is not affected by praise and criticism.)
It looked as if the mountains were unending on either side of the road, but in the late afternoon suddenly the Caravan hit the plains before Calgary. The Caravan reached the KOA RV Park around six in the evening. However, the sun continued to be as relentlessly intense as on an Indian summer afternoon.
The Caravan crew was busy with various mundane activities when someone saw Goenkaji walking on his own up a steep slope just after 9 pm.
Day Eighty-Five (July 3) (Calgary, Canada)
That weekend Calgary was hosting their annual fair and rodeo show called the Calgary Stampede. Although most beings run in a stampede from birth to death, there are a few who do want to get out of this cycle of misery. A Vipassana meditator realizes that there is no greater stampede than the stampede of thoughts in the mind.
In the morning an enthusiastic group of local meditators including trust members and assistant teachers came to the RV park to meet with Goenkaji and ask him questions.
Because one of the requirements for a long course is that one is either single or is in a committed relationship, one of the students asked what a committed relationship is. Goenkaji answered that a committed relationship means a lifelong commitment. It means that the doors are closed.
In the evening Goenkaji talked at the Metropolitan Centre in downtown Calgary. In anticipation of a large crowd, the organizers had made arrangements for a simulcast of Goenkaji’s talk in an adjacent room for those who could not find a seat in the main hall. When it became clear that there would be an overflowing crowd, old students were asked to go watch the talk next door, giving non-meditators the opportunity to listen to Goenakji live in the main hall. Even this smaller room filled up and some had to stand.
Goenkaji explained that although this technique is commonly described as Vipassana meditation, usually meditation means concentration on a stationary object. Vipassana is different in that one observes the reality inside as it manifests itself from moment to moment and which is constantly changing. In this sense Vipassana is unlike all other meditations.
Then he described what is practised in a ten-day Vipassana course. One sits down in a comfortable posture. One keeps the eyes gently closed because the eyes have no function in the awareness of breath and sensations. If the eyes are open then the mind is bound to be distracted. Therefore during a meditation sitting one meditates with the eyes closed.
It is easier and faster to concentrate the mind if, along with awareness of respiration, one starts repeating a word, a mantra, a god’s name, or if one starts imagining the shape or form of a deity. But in Vipassana, one is required to observe bare respiration, as it naturally is, without regulating it; no word or imagined form may be added.
These are not permitted because the final aim of this meditation is not mere concentration of mind. Concentration is only an aid, a step leading to the higher goal of total purification of mind thereby attaining liberation from all misery.
Using an imaginary object or an outside object of attention—a word or form—does not help one to discover the subtler truths about oneself. To penetrate to a subtler truth, one must begin with truth, with an apparent, gross reality such as respiration. Breath has the advantage of always being available—from birth to death.
Vipassana is a path from the known to the unknown. The respiration acts as a bridge from the known to the unknown, because respiration is one function of the body that can be either conscious or unconscious, intentional or automatic. One practices awareness of natural, normal breath. And afterwards one starts experiencing still subtler truths about oneself. Every step is a step with reality; to discover subtler realities about oneself, about your own body and mind.
One is asked to observe only the physical function of respiration, but at the same time, one starts observing the mind, because the nature of the breath is strongly connected to one’s mental state. As soon as any impurity, any defilement arises in the mind, the breath becomes abnormal—one starts breathing a little rapidly, a little heavily. When the defilement passes away, the breath again becomes soft. Thus the breath is strongly related to the mind. and can open the door to the reality pertaining to the mind-matter phenomenon.
The next step is the awareness of sensations. Vipassana is the objective observation of sensations without identifying oneself with the sensations.
Calgary had recently hosted a Summit of G8 nations. In his talk, Goenkaji explained that there cannot be peace in the world if there is no peace within each individual. After all, society is made up of individuals.
Goenkaji told the audience that intellectual understanding is for mere inspiration. Real results come only from actual practice. Therefore he urged the audience to spare ten days to learn this wonderful technique. He said, “Practice it, see the results for yourself and only then accept it!”
After the talk Goenkaji gave an interview to Shaw TV. Afterwards he met with about 90 students from the SHAD program in which some of the brightest high school students throughout Canada are brought together. It was encouraging to see that these bright intelligent teenagers had the opportunity to learn about Vipassana at such an early age.
Day Eighty-Six (July 4) (Calgary / Edmonton, Alberta, Canada)
It was a hectic day. The Caravan got ready early for its journey to Edmonton, the capital of Alberta (The Wild Rose Province)).
In the initial planning stages of the tour, there was some hesitation about including Edmonton on the tour as it meant that the Caravan would have to go northward from Calgary and then again go south to Calgary.
However, the enthusiastic turnout of people at the evening public talk in the beautiful Edmonton City Hall showed that Edmonton merited a visit from Goenkaji.
Every time one defiles the mind one becomes a miserable person. Sometimes, one can divert one’s attention when any defilement arises by reciting a name or imagining a shape. But this is not the reality. Those who explored the entire field of mind and matter and became fully enlightened understood that diverting the attention, although it appears to push out the negativity, actually only suppresses it. Whatever negativity - anger, hatred, ill will, passion, or fear - at the surface level of the mind seems to have disappeared, but it has actually been pushed deep inside.
Deep inside it keeps rolling and multiplying. You are not free from your misery. Escape is not a solution to the problem. Instead these enlightened people realized that the negativity has to be observed. Whenever any negativity arises, it should not be suppressed nor given a free license to express itself at the vocal or physical level. The middle path is just to observe it. Observe it objectively. Then the impurity becomes weaker and weaker, and passes away.
Although a good theoretical solution, it is very difficult to practise. When negativity arises, it overpowers you so quickly. Even if one wanted to observe the negativity, how can one observe abstract negativity? Even if you sit to meditate, you can't observe it. Suppose anger has arisen: the first difficulty is that you are so overpowered that you don't even remember that you should observe the anger.
You need a private secretary to remind you whenever anger comes. This private secretary will only work an eight-hour shift, and you have no contract with your anger only to come when your private secretary is on duty! You may need three private secretaries or four or five private secretaries. Well, assume that every moment you have a private secretary nearby. And when anger arises, the private secretary calls out: "Look, sir: anger! Observe the anger!" The first thing you will do is to shout at him or slap him: "You fool! Are you here to teach me? I know what to do!" Anger is anger, after all! Suppose you behaved properly, and thanked him: "You were kept for this purpose. You advised me well. Now I must observe my anger." How will you observe it? Anger has no shape or colour. If you try to observe it with closed eyes, you will only observe the object of your anger, the person or the incident, which made you angry. It keeps repeating itself in your mind, and stimulating your anger, making it worse. You are not observing anger.
This is why enlightened people taught observation of respiration and sensations. They realized that mind and matter are totally interconnected. They are two sides of the same coin. As soon as anger, passion, fear, or any negativity arises in the mind, two things start happening at the physical level—the first at a gross level, the second at a subtler level.
At a gross level, the breath loses its normality. It becomes fast or hard or irregular. When the impurity abates, again it becomes normal. Something else starts at a subtler level, at the sensation level. It might be palpitations, heat, perspiration, or tension etc.
While it is very difficult to observe abstract anger or passion, one can observe the respiration or sensations on the body. With practice, even an ordinary person can develop this ability. In this way objective observation of any impurity becomes easy. Then you are not diverting your attention to something else. You are facing the problem: neither running away from it, nor suppressing it.
It is a wonderful solution, but requires practice. Mere sermons don’t help. Even a child knows that anger, hatred, fear etc are not good for one’s happiness. One has to practise. There is no magic or miracle. The old habit pattern of the mind is to focus on the apparent cause of the misery outside, never trying to understand the process inside. Vipassana helps you with this, which is far more important than anything outside.
After the public talk, Goenkaji was interviewed for the TV show “Image India” by Mr. Sharma.
Edmonton was the northernmost point on the North America tour. Even at 10pm. There it was still light outside. As Goenkaji was driven back from the public talk, three huge rainbows appeared on the horizon. One was very prominent and bright, and two were somewhat hazy. They were so big that they looked like huge shafts arising from ground. They faded towards the top. None in the Caravan crew had seen such big rainbows. Just then someone saw the other end of two rainbows on the left side, which also looked like shafts arising from ground. Before the appearance of the rainbows, two of the Caravan crew were discussing with a local meditator whether that area was known for the Northern Lights. After the appearance of the rainbows, everyone agreed that the rainbows were almost as good as the Northern Lights.
Day Eighty-Seven (July 5) (Edmonton / High River, Alberta, Canada)
In spite of the previous late night, Goenkaji was ready early the next morning for a talk to business people at the Telus Centre in the University of Alberta.
The talk was co-sponsored by the Canadian Center for Social Entrepreneurship. Goenkaji told the audience that before he learned Vipassana, success in his worldly life made him very egocentric. He became very intolerant and angry as a result of this strong ego. He then explained how everything changed after he received the gift of Vipassana.
He remarked jokingly to a question that Dhamma is not a credit business. It is a cash business. One gets the results here and now. And one’s credit also builds up as one accumulates good merits.
Answering another question, he said that honesty is the best policy. However, one’s greed makes on blind to even one’s own welfare.
With Vipassana one becomes very soft deep inside but one can still take tough action outside.
He recited one of his favorite little poems:
It is easy enough to be pleasant
when life flows along like a sweet song;
but the man worthwhile is a man with a smile
when everything goes dead wrong!
In the end he thanked the audience for sparing more than an hour to listen to him. He reminded them that the talk was only for intellectual understanding and that they had to spare ten days to learn this technique to get the actual benefits from it.
After the talk, Goenkaji and Mataji met with the local meditators at a roadside rest area just outside Edmonton.. Goenkaji answered their questions about administrative matters, to the possibility of starting a new center and questions about their practice.
In the afternoon the Caravan left Edmonton for a campground south of Calgary.
In the Tipitaka (the collection of the discourses of the Buddha and some of his chief disciples) one finds mention of ¹a½samakasav±t±tapasar²sapasamphass±na½ (contact with gadfly, mosquito, wind and reptiles). Although a monk’s robes protect him against such a contact, he is expected to develop tolerance for these things when he can’t avoid them. The mosquitoes are less of a problem for today’s meditator who lives and meditates in a more protected environment. The Dhamma Caravan had to face the mosquito menace every now and then at different campsites. But the campsite where the Caravan arrived that evening was a den of the fiercest mosquitoes that the Caravan had encountered so far. If the stinging mosquitoes are common at the time of the Buddha and today, the wonderful Dhamma is also the same at the time of the Buddha and today. That night the Caravan crew set up the meditation tent and some members that were too busy to make it to the tent in time sat their second sitting in the documentary filmmaker’s motor home past midnight.
Day Eighty-Eight (July 6) (High River, Alberta, Canada / Whitefish, Montana)
This morning Goenkaji had a brief meeting with a local assistant teacher couple before the Caravan departed for the next destination back in the USA.
From Edmonton past Calgary the Caravan travelled on a long, flat stretch of plains. The Rocky Mountains could be seen on the right in the distance. After some time they disappeared from view and those not familiar with the geography of the area thought they had said goodbye to the Rockies for good. However, after travelling for some time on the plains the Caravan again faced Rockies ahead. For lunch the Caravan stopped at a rest area surrounded by mountains that still had some snow on them.
The border crossing, unlike on the way from Seattle to Vancouver, was a small, quiet place where a lone vehicle was waiting in front of the Caravan to get into the USA. The immigration officer was gracious. She wished Goenkaji and Mataji a joyous trip of the USA and the Caravan headed for a meditator’s property near Whitefish, Montana.
The Caravan left the main road for a windy dirt road until it reached a long, pretty meadow. This property was an ideal place for a recluse. A meditator had been living there alone for years. The house had a meadow in the front and a meadow in the back, with low-forested hills behind. What it lacked in material comfort was more than made up by simple, genuine hospitality, a meditative atmosphere and bountiful nature. There were deer playing on the meadow behind the house. They were oblivious to the largest number of human visitors the property had received in a long time. The property reminded some of the description of the Migad±va (Deer park) in Sarnath where the Buddha set in motion the Wheel of Dhamma.
One more mundane thing that all the Caravan crew was happy about was the telephone connection even in that remote place. Most could connect their laptops to the Internet and get their mail.
Unfortunately the terrain was too uneven for Goenkaji to walk outside.
Day Eighty-Nine (July 7) (Whitefish / Missoula, Montana)
Montana is called the “Big Sky” state. The Buddha had said, samb±dho ghar±v±so raj±patho, abbhok±so pabbaj± (a householder’s life is difficult—a path full of dust, while monk-hood is like an open sky). Now a Dhamma teacher who teaches the householders how to remain clean in the dust of the worldly life was travelling in a remote sparsely populated state that not many would have even imagined that he would visit.
All the newspapers in Missoula carried news of Goenkaji’s arrival and articles on Vipassana. In Missoula the Caravan stayed on the property of a meditator’s mother who had not only kindly allowed the Caravan the use of her property but had also offered the use of her house while she herself stayed away in a friend’s house. All were touched by her gesture especially because of the inconvenience at her advanced age. The Caravan had received a request from a prominent local TV news channel for an interview with Goenkaji. Therefore as soon as the Caravan arrived on the front lawn of the house, the TV crew was waiting. The journalist had time for only one question to Goenkaji before she rushed to deliver the tape to the news producer. That night many of the crew and local students gathered in the house to see Goenkaji on the 10 o’clock news.
The Caravan crew were greeted warmly and fed sumptuously by the huge team of local Dhamma workers. They delighted in watching the Osprey eagles who had built a nest for three young ones on a telephone pole at the corner of the property. A herd of cows and one new calf lived in the field at the entrance and charmed the crew each time they passed by. The famous Montana mosquitoes kept the Caravan company but did not trouble them too much. .
Day Ninety (July 8) (Missoula, Montana)
It rained in the morning and then there was bright sunshine in the late afternoon and evening.
A tent was set up on the neighboring property of a local assistant teacher for meditators who had come to meditate for the one-day course that day.
In the morning Goenkaji gave Vipassana and also answered questions from the students.
In the evening he gave a public talk at the Music Recital Hall of the University of Montana. Again there was an attentive crowd that hung onto every word of Goenkaji.
He told them about the misery that is apparent to everyone and the misery that is underlying the attachment to the five aggregates. While talking about apparent misery he described old age. How one’s senses deteriorate, how one walks with a stick, how there are wrinkles on the face and all over the body. For most, even the thought of death is horrible.
In describing the solution to the problem of misery, Goenkaji explained that the observation of mental impurities eradicates them. Breath and sensation are intimately connected to mental defilements—they are the two sides of the same coin. Therefore one can observe breath or sensations and thus face the mental impurities and eradicate them.
The local meditators served punch and cookies to the audience after the talk.
Day Ninety-One (July 9) (Missoula / Billings, Montana)
In the morning, Goenkaji gave an interview over phone to Minnesota Public Radio.. He explained that at the base of any unwholesome vocal and physical action there is an unwholesome mental action. And for every mental action there is sensation on the body at the same time.
Manopubbaªgam± dhamm±, mano-seµµh±, mano-may±.
Mind precedes everything else. Mind is most important. Mind matters most.
Manas± ce
paduµµhena bh±sati v± karoti v±.
Tato na½ dukkhamanveti cakka½'va vahato pada½.
Whoever with the
base of an unwholesome mind, performs any action vocal or physical,
then misery will keep following him, like the cart wheel follows the foot of
the draught horse.
Manas± ce
pasannena, bh±sati v± karoti v±.
Tato na½ sukhamanveti, ch±y±'va anap±yin².
Whoever with the
base of a pure mind, performs any action, vocal or physical,
then happiness keeps following him, inseparable like his own shadow.
The interviewer was curious to know about Vipassana courses for business executives and for prisoners.
Today was the first of the three long travel days.
The Caravan set out just before eleven in the morning.
It made an uneventful journey through the vast plains of Montana to a motor home park in Billings.
Day Ninety-Two (July 10) (Billings, Montana / Bismarck, North Dakota)
One of the challenges on these long stretches of travel is to keep the Caravan vehicles together. Sometimes some vehicles go ahead and some lag behind. This may cause confusion especially if the distance is too great for the walkie-talkies or the cellular phone signals are weak making communication difficult. Usually, there is good discipline and coordination among the drivers of various vehicles of the Caravan.
Today the Caravan survived a minor confusion, when communication between vehicles was broken before lunch, and got together at a rest area for lunch. The expert cook and his efficient assistant made sure that the food was served as quickly as possible to Goenkaji and Mataji. Other crewmembers cooked for the Caravan and made sure that the Caravan crew ate without any delay.
When Goenkaji and Mataji learned that there was some likelihood of delay, they decided not to stop for tea. Thus the Caravan could travel continuously and reach its destination by 8 pm. The Caravan had entered the Central Time Zone.
Day Ninety-Three (July 11) (Bismarck, North Dakota / Minneapolis, Minnesota)
Today was the longest distance the Caravan travelled while Goenkaji and Mataji were in the Caravan. It had travelled further when Goenkaji and Mataji were not present at that time in the Caravan—once when he flew to Houston for a public talk and the second time when he flew to New York to deliver the keynote speech at the official Vesakha celebrations of the United Nations.
The Caravan had to reach the next destination in time because the campsite closed its doors at 9 pm. There was some apprehension about whether the Caravan could make it in time.
The drivers again applied themselves. Only absolutely mandatory stops were made. Minor delays on the road such as fuelling stops at gas stations were either minimized or eliminated. At times, the Caravan was split into two groups of vehicles. But the crew had learned from its communication problems the day before and kept in close contact. In the afternoon the pop-up trailer, which was carried by the kitchen motor home, had a flat tire. Fortunately, a kind driver on the road pointed it out otherwise it might have gone unnoticed for some time. With close radio contact, the Caravan crew was once again able to gather to help quickly change the tire. The Caravan was soon on the road again.
Goenkaji was briefed about correspondence on the road. He gave instructions and clarifications in response to questions from all over the world about administrative issues as well as meditation.
All the vehicles reached their destination almost at the same time. The local meditators came with food for Goenkaji and Mataji as well as the crew. That evening Goenkaji and Mataji had the opportunity to walk at their leisure for the first time in three days.