Mr. Goenka is one of the world's preeminent spiritual leaders and guides over seventy international Vipassana meditation centers. In three decades of teaching the nonsectarian technique of Vipassana to hundreds of thousands of people worldwide, Mr. Goenka's purpose has been unwavering: to provide a practical method for people of any background to purify their minds and conduct, permitting them to lead more wholesome and peaceful lives.

World Economic Forum & Millennium World Peace Summit

In January 2000 Mr. Goenka was a featured speaker at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. This unique event promotes interaction among over 1,000 world leaders from government, business, academia, the arts, and the media with the objective of improving the state of the world. In several sessions Mr. Goenka presented a simple and profound message: by practicing what is fundamental to all religions—ethical conduct and purity of mind—people of the world can be freed from intolerance, violence and suffering.

Mr. Goenka's remarks at the WEF set the stage for an invitation to participate in the Millennium World Peace Summit of Religious and Spiritual Leaders to be held at the United Nations in New York, August 28-31. This summit—the first of its kind—will unite several hundred of the world's religious and spiritual leaders as "interfaith allies to the United Nations in its quest for peace and global understanding." Sessions will be broadcast live on CNN and on the Internet so that these messages of hope can reach many tens of millions of people around the world.

After the Millennium World Peace Summit, Mr. Goenka will address the 

conference Insights from an Ancient Tradition: Medicine, Science & Spirituality in the Light of Vipassana Meditation, to be held at the Vipassana Meditation Center in Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts (experiential retreat Aug. 23 to Sept. 3, conference Sept. 3 & 4, 2000). Mr. Goenka's topic will be Vipassana: Science of Mind and Matter.  This will be a rare opportunity to hear Mr. Goenka in person.

Mr. Goenka will also give a public talk at Smith College, Northampton Massachusetts, on September 5th, 7pm.

About S.N. Goenka

S.N. Goenka is an internationally recognized teacher of Vipassana meditation in the tradition of the late Sayagyi U Ba Khin (1898-1971) of Myanmar (Burma).

Indian by descent, Mr. Goenka was born and raised in Burma. While working as a successful industrialist, he had the good fortune to come into contact with U Ba Khin, a prominent Burmese government official and renowned lay Vipassana teacher.

Mr. Goenka studied with U Ba Khin for fourteen years before being authorized as a Vipassana teacher himself in 1969. It was in this year that Mr. Goenka settled in India, a land sharply divided by differences of caste and religion, and began teaching meditation. His courses attracted thousands of people from every 

The 10-day courses offered by Mr. Goenka and his assistant teachers worldwide currently attract an estimated 100,000 students annually.

Under Mr. Goenka's guidance and inspiration, special Vipassana programs are also provided to drug addicts, prison inmates, police cadets, civil servants, business executives, college students, school children, street children, and the physically challenged.

The technique Mr. Goenka teaches is the core of a tradition that can be traced back to the Buddha. And since the Buddha never taught a sectarian religion (he taught Dhamma—the way to liberation—which is universal), Mr. Goenka's approach is also completely nonsectarian. For this reason his teaching has a profound appeal to people of all backgrounds, of every religion and no religion, and from every part of the world.

For Additional Information

Contact the Vipassana Meditation Center, 386 Colrain-Shelburne Road, Shelburne, MA 01370. Tel. (413) 625-2160, fax (413) 625-2170, e-mail info@dhara.dhamma.org, www.dhara.dhamma.org. 

Click on the following links for details of S.N. Goenka's schedule, conference brochures, and registration forms.