DHAMMA: LIGHT OUT OF DARKNESS by Acharya S.N. GOENKA [ANNUAL MEETING: Dhamma Thali, India January 1, 1993 OPENING ADDRESS]

DHAMMA: LIGHT OUT OF DARKNESS 
by Acharya S.N. GOENKA
[ANNUAL MEETING: Dhamma Thali, India January 1, 1993 OPENING ADDRESS]

My dear Vipassana meditators:

As every year, we have again assembled to review whatever we have done, to find whether there have been any defects, and to understand how to eradicate those defects. We review whatever has been attained, not to develop ego, but with a balanced understanding; and we see how this success can be increased. 

Last, we meet to make practical plans for the future. 

This meeting should not be like other ordinary social gatherings where people debate, pass resolutions, and forget all about it. No! The practical aspect of Dhamma is of utmost importance to us. 

That is why, before starting this annual meeting, most of you participated in a long course, and after the meeting many others of you will do so. This is a good sign. You are giving more importance to the practice, and discussions are based on this foundation. This healthy tradition should be maintained in the future; otherwise our service to suffering humanity will not be successful.

There is suffering, it cannot be denied. All around there is darkness and suffering. People are miserable, and they are groping about in the darkness, not knowing how to come out of misery. 

Throughout the world in the name of different religions there are conflicts, struggles and wars. 

Unfortunately this country, which takes pride in being the land of origin of the pure Dhamma, is also suffering from such conflicts. When the darkness is very deep, it invites light. The way to come out of misery arises from the deepest misery.

It is good that the light has come and that the way is becoming clearer. In the last years a beginning has been made. People have started examining the technique and have found that it gives results. Intelligent, wise people—intellectuals from different communities, sects, countries and traditions—have come to the Ganges of Vipassana, taken a dip and found that it is truly refreshing and fruitful.

Every step on the path has to be examined at the intellectual level: Is it rational, pragmatic and reasonable? 

And then at the actual level of practice: Is it fruitful, is it giving benefit here and now? The path leads you to the goal where you become totally liberated, an arahant. That is good, but what result does it give now? 

It is a long path to reach the final goal of becoming an arahant; is one coming out of misery now? 

Everyone who walks on the path finds it is fruitful. Of course the fruits differ from person to person according to one’s own past accumulations and according to how one works now, but the path is fruitful.

Vipassana cannot be spread by discussions, nor merely by writing articles, giving lectures or trying to prove at the intellectual level that ours is the best. No, it won’t help. It is only by the actual results. There is suffering all around, let people know that there is a way out. And you can do that only by your own way of life. If people find that there is a change for the better in you, that you have attained something which you were missing, they will be attracted. This is how Dhamma will spread.

Just as every town must have schools, colleges, hospitals and gymnasiums, similarly Vipassana will become a necessity throughout the world. There must be some place where mental training is given to control and purify the mind, and there should be no fear that attending these courses will convert people to a particular religion or sect. It would be a great danger to the spread of Dhamma if Vipassana courses converted people to a particular organized religion. It would no longer be Vipassana. Going to a school, hospital or gymnasium one is not converted from one religion to another, and so it is going to a Vipassana course. Vipassana is free from sectarianism. That must become clearer in the minds of those who want to teach it, and clear in the minds of those who want to practise it. If this is missing, then everything will be missing.

The purity of the path is to keep it universal. It has been universal and it should remain universal in the future. It is helpful to one and all. Anyone and everyone who practises is bound to benefit. This is a very important message that should reach the world. And it is possible to spread this message when you yourself show that you have not been converted from one religion to another, but the impurities that you had in the mind are being eradicated by this technique and you have started coming out of your misery. 

This will be the best example of the value of Dhamma.

Another important thing that we have started doing is making the theoretical aspect of Dhamma more widely available. Because the practice was lost in many countries, the meaning of some of the Buddha’s words was not clear and the interpretations were wrong. It is important for a meditator to understand the theoretical aspect of Dhamma in order to see whether what we are practising is correct.

The theoretical aspect of Dhamma will support the practice of Dhamma. But understand that this should not become our main aim. Out of overenthusiasm if we start giving too much importance to the theoretical aspect of Dhamma, and forget the practical part, we will miss everything. This practical aspect of Dhamma is of utmost importance. Keeping this in mind, we have to research the theoretical aspect of Dhamma.

May all of you become flag-bearers of Dhamma, torch-bearers of Dhamma. Take the message of Dhamma throughout the world to help people to come out of their misery.

Generate nothing but compassion, love and goodwill to help more and more people to come out of their misery. We have nothing to do with these organized religions. We have nothing to do with this sectarianism. The suffering, the malady, is universal, and here is a remedy which is also universal. See that it remains universal, and helps people to come out of their misery.

May more and more people come in contact with Dhamma. May more and more people start coming out of their misery. May more and more people start experiencing real peace, real harmony.

 Bhavatu sabba maṅgalaṃ