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Breathing-in-peace tour: Noted teacher brings Vipassana Meditation to classes in the U.S.

By Arun Venugopal
Religion News Service

NEW YORK — Have you heard the one about the lawyer who attained mental peace? If that sounds like a question begging for a bad punch line, brace yourself: It's merely the reality of Vipassana Meditation. Attorneys are doing it, CEOs are flocking to it, violent criminals are being reformed at this very moment by practicing a set of breathing exercises that is said to clear the mind.

Vipassana is an ancient practice, taught by the Buddha himself. In spite of its roots, however, Vipassana's functional emphasis has attracted adherents from all faiths.

"Over 2,000 Christian priests have come to see us," said S.N. Goenka in New York shortly before beginning a four-month tour of the United States to teach the practice. "This is universal. You sit and observe your breath. You can't say this is Hindu breath or Christian breath or Muslim breath. Knowing how to live peacefully or harmoniously — you don't call this religion or spirituality. It is nonsectarian."

Goenka, 78, is considered the best-known lay practitioner of Vipassana, and has personally taught tens of thousands of students. His organization is growing rapidly. There are 80 meditation centers around the world, and 100,000 people attend 10-day retreats annually.

As a young Hindu growing up in Burma, Goenka took up the practice as a last resort.

"I was suffering from a severe migraine; the doctors couldn't help me," he said. He even traveled to the United States and Switzerland in search of a cure. A friend suggested he attend a 10-day Vipassana course, but the thought horrified him.

"I was a very staunch Hindu," he said, smiling. "How could I go for a Buddhist course? I'd go to hell."

Study with a master

Not only did the course rid him of his migraine, but it led him to U Ba Khin, a master of the technique with whom he studied for the next 14 years.

After completing his training in 1969, he moved to India, where his family had roots, and began teaching. Before long, word spread and people were flocking to the courses.

Of course, he had his share of critics, recalled Goenka. A friend said he'd only be convinced if the most hardened criminal could be reformed through the technique. So the course was taught at an Indian correctional facility in 1975, and both police officers and inmates learned the technique. It wasn't until the 1990s, however, that the idea really took off.

Kiran Bedi, the head of Tihar Jail, India's largest and most notorious prison, decided she would use the practice to prepare her inmates for a successful return to society while also making the prison a little more peaceful.

Soon Bedi was hailed as a revolutionary and national hero for the dramatic turnaround she wrought.

The technique has since been imported to the United States, where a number of prisons teach Vipassana.

The National Institutes of Health is paying for a study through the University of Washington to examine the effectiveness of Vipassana on prison inmates, said Richard Crutcher, who teaches Vipassana in Seattle. "I think once they get their results out, we're going to find prisons everywhere flocking to do this," he said.

According to another study, of inmates at an Alabama prison, the rate of rehabilitation among Vipassana students was dramatically higher, as measured by how many inmates returned to prison within two years of their release.

Crutcher exemplifies Vipassana's effect on business people. When he took his first Vipassana course, in 1981, he was running a successful business, but he was looking for something more.

"I was a contractor," Crutcher said. "Contracting is a very difficult and quite dirty game. You're always looking at the bottom line. The temptation is there to cut corners. You overbid. I found all that a great tension. I knew at some level that I was sometimes cheating people."

Different expectations

Today, Crutcher continues to run a business — he now sells books on Vipassana and Buddhism — but he's changed his expectations of what constitutes financial success.

"I don't know if they're lower," he said of his profit margins. "They just become more realistic. The attitude of service to the customers grows."

The business impact has been considerable. Executives from IBM and Monsanto, among others, have become firm believers. More than a hundred CEOs and business executives gathered Monday in Lenox, Mass., for the beginning of a 10-day Vipassana course.

The regime may be daunting for some, Goenka said. After the first day: no conference calls, no power lunches, no talking.

"Silence is important because the mind is talkative," he said. "So for these nine days there is complete silence."

Copyright © 2002 The Seattle Times Company