(Excerpted and adapted from the open Question-and-Answer session at the Annual Conference on 10 January, 1998.)

Question: How do you select your trustees, assistant teachers, and teachers from among the meditators?

Goenka: Ask me how I don’t select them. What are the reasons where I don’t select somebody as assistant teacher or a trustee? You see, the responsibility has fallen on me to start a new tradition of householder teachers of Vipassana.

A hundred years back, Venerable Ledi Sayadaw was the first person who broke the barrier. We are very grateful to him. Before that Vipassana was limited only to the bhikkhus. He said: "Why bhikkhus? The lay people, the householders, must also learn Vipassana." And he started teaching Vipassana to householders. And then he opened another gate for the householders. There must be householder teachers also. And he made the first household teacher of Vipassana—Saya Thetgyi. That was a big opening. Because he saw the future very well. "Now two thousand five hundred years are going to be completed, and the next buddha-sāsana is going to start."

In the countries where the people are followers of Buddha, or at least they say that they are Buddhist, if a bhikkhu sits on the Dhamma seat—they are very happy, they will accept everything that he says and follow him. But in a so-called non-Buddhist country, if a bhikkhu goes there and says, "Well I have come here to teach you Dhamma.", nobody will come. They will all run away. "Oh, he has come to convert us from one organized religion to his organized religion." But if a layman sits on the Dhamma seat, that problem goes away. And the layman has to be very careful—"We are not interested in converting people from one religion to another religion." So that is one reason why this tradition, of household teachers has started. Ledi Sayadaw made Saya Thetgyi a teacher. Then Sayagyi U Ba Khin became a teacher. There were very few students then. But now the number of students is growing.

So the tradition which is starting now must start in a proper way. Any mistake done today will deteriorate further in future generations; will keep on deteriorating. So as far as my wisdom goes, as far as my intellect goes, I have to see that the beginning should be in a very pure way.

What is a pure way? Dhamma is so pure. The moment that I come to know that some person has indicated that he or she wishes to be an assistant teacher—I feel very sorry for this person—but I have to draw a line, this person is blacklisted. This person is not fit to be an assistant teacher. Somebody tries to indicate that: "Well, if I become a trustee, it will be so good; I can do this, I can do that." If I get an indication that somebody wants to become the president or the general secretary of a certain organization, however close this person may be to me, he is blacklisted. Because this person has not ripened in Dhamma. He wants the position, the power, the status, which is more important to him than serving.

If somebody comes to me and says: "I can serve in any way, but I want to serve. Look, I have got so much time, please tell me which way to serve."—I start giving him good marks. And when I find that he is really doing selfless service without expecting any position, power, or status, then gradually this person is given greater responsibility.

Even if somebody is chosen, and later on, I find that he is developing more and more ego, he is becoming very arrogant in dealing with people, he generates nothing but aversion and hatred—he is harming himself—I feel very compassionate for this person. "Look, I am responsible for him or for her generating impurities. If I had not placed him on this high position, he would not have generated this kind of ego and would not have harmed people, he would not have used aggressive words." Oh, so wait.

I cannot take away the teachership from that person, but I take that particular job away from him and give him another job. And explain to him, "Well, this is your mistake. If you want to come out of it only then will you get more important work"—more important in the sense that you will get more opportunity to serve more people, to help them to develop in Dhamma. That is a big responsibility of a responsible Dhamma teacher who wants to start a tradition of householder teachers.

An ideal way of running Dhamma centres of Dhamma managements, not only for me but also for future principal teachers, should be set now. So wherever I have made a mistake, I try to keep on rectifying it.

When it comes to trustees and managements, then certainly I would like them to keep changing. In a trust, after every two years everyone has to resign. I may reappoint some of them or I may appoint somebody else. Why? Not because there is anything wrong in them. But the trouble is, if somebody holds the same post for a long time, he may unintentionally, unconsciously develop a kind of attachment for it. "I am general secretary, nobody else can do this job. I am so perfect in it, I must continue. If I don’t continue the whole thing will go haywire." What has happened? What is he doing? He starts feeling that he is indispensible. It is not Dhamma. So for every two years, change him. Another reason is that more and more people should get an opportunity to develop their pāramitās, so that more and more people come in the fold of serving people, serving students.

Whenever I ask a trustee, a president, a secretary to resign, his period of testing starts from that moment. I keep on testing him. "Now how is he serving? When he or she was president, then he was working with so much enthusiasm. Now he is not president any more. Now what happens?" If I find that this person has lost all interest in the Dhamma work—he was having all that interest for the post, to develop his own ego, to increase his own ego, he had nothing to do with service, now look, he is not serving, I have all compassion for this person; I try to explain to him and to bring him back to Dhamma. I try to bring him back to Dhamma but not by giving that post. This is the job of a principal Dhamma teacher, to see that his Dhamma sons and daughters keep on growing in Dhamma. Very important.

Whenever a new teacher is appointed, another thing that has to be kept in mind is: now this is a tradition of household teachers. For centuries the bhikkhus were teachers. Well, at the time of Buddha there were household teachers; but then later on, there were only bhikkhu teachers. If a bhikkhu is living the life according to vinaya, he cannot accumulate wealth, only his needs. So if I see a bhikkhu teacher does not keep himself limited according to the vinaya, the moment I see this person is breaking vinaya, he is there just to accumulate money, then he is not fit to teach. Well, that is the problem of the bhikkhu teachers. But my concern is with the household teachers. I have to start a very healthy, wholesome tradition for the household teachers. When it comes to household teachers I have to be very careful.

Somebody is made a teacher—assistant or senior or whatever it is—and he has no means of livelihood. As a householder he has certain responsibilities towards the family, and if he has no means of livelihood, he starts spreading his palms: "I want something. Look, my son is sick, my daughter is sick, my son is going to be married, my daughter is going to be married, I have got this family problem, that family problem." And students also, out of sympathy or respect for the teacher, they start giving donation. The whole tradition will get spoiled.

So I have to examine whether this person whom I am going to appoint is able to maintain his family. If he has a means of livelihood, perfectly all right. When I find that a person has no means of livelihood, then however perfect he may be as a teacher, I don’t appoint him even though it will look as if I am not giving preference to people who are poor. Those who are very poor, I support them to help themselves in different ways so that they can at least come to the stage where they can support their own family. If one cannot support one’s family and becomes a teacher, this will become a very harmful tradition.

So all these problems that we are facing now, we are trying to solve in the best Dhamma way, so that they become an ideal for the future generations. So everything that is done, always keeping in mind that the purity of Dhamma should not get spoiled. People should not make it a means of livelihood—it is very dangerous. People should not use this position to develop their ego, to increase their ego or pride—they become haughty, they start talking rough language with people. Then very politely we have to train them. We take them away from a particular position and then train them. So all those things for the future teachers also, future responsible, principal teachers. Because Dhamma is going to spread. We are seeing now, within one or two generations, it will spread throughout the world.

So proper tradition should be made now, proper principles should be laid down. This is the vinaya, our vinaya, the vinaya of the householder teachers. When the situation arises, more rules may come. Even at the time of Buddha, he made certain vinaya rules and then something happened—oh, one more. Something happened—oh, one more. Like this, with experience, we have to keep on increasing rules or changing rules. But the whole aim is to keep the whole Dhamma mission totally pure. Nothing should go wrong. And this is the only way by which I appoint people.

Question: Guruji, there is an apprehension that the pagoda coming at Bombay might lead Vipassana into another sect.

S. N. Goenka: Yes, yes. Well, if this teacher will have at least a few more years of life, you will see that he is so strict that he will not allow anything that we are doing to take the turn of sectarianism. If the pagoda becomes a tool for making Buddha’s teaching a sect, an organized religion, then all our teaching has gone to mud. We have not understood what Buddha’s teaching is. If this pagoda is used for people who come and pray: "Oh pagoda, please give me this, please give me this, I need this, I need this," then the whole thing will become an organized religion, certainly.

But the pagoda—how are we going to use it? If the pagoda is used in the proper way, for meditation, nothing but meditation, and for the spread of Vipassana, people will know what Vipassana is: "Oh, Vipassana pagoda." Many people will come just out of curiosity —"Such a magnificent building, what is there in it?" And when they come there, they get the information: "Well look, he was the Buddha, and what sort of Buddha, and what he taught, and what happened in his life, and the Vipassana which made him a Buddha, and Vipassana which made him a good Dhamma teacher for the whole world, and people got so much benefit."

We will give this information, and out of, say, ten thousand people who come, even if a hundred get inspiration to take a course, well at least a hundred are benefited and the rest get at least the right message. So we will see that this pagoda is not allowed to build up another sect. Otherwise our purpose will be lost.

Question: Guruji, we have heard that you have agreed to be the chief guest at the unveiling of the statue of Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar in Bombay. We have an apprehension that this might give a signal that you are supporting a sectarian organisation. Kindly clarify.

S. N. Goenka: Well, if somebody calls me as a chief guest, how can I say, "Don’t make me a chief guest, make me a third grade guest."? But they are making me the chief guest. All right, I will sit there as the chief guest. But whatever I speak, I will speak nothing which goes against pure Dhamma. I have great respect for Dr. Ambedkar. My forefathers, all the upper class people have suppressed them from so many generations. What a great injustice has been done to them! I have got all sympathy for them. And I want them to come up in Dhamma.

But at the same time, what is pure Dhamma? They have not understood it. It is my duty to explain to them what is pure Dhamma. So I told them, "If you call me I will talk about Vipassana, and nothing but Vipassana." And they said, "Wonderful. You speak only about Vipassana. We are calling you only for that purpose—so people know what is Vipassana, what is the real teaching of Buddha." And all those people who had been suppressed from generations, for centuries, Babasaheb did a very good thing that he gave them self-respect. "We are no more under this caste system." Well, good. But the real teaching of Buddha is missing. If that also goes to them, wonderful. So I will play my role to bring the pure Dhamma to them.

Question: Is having children a possible hindrance to progress in Dhamma?

S. N. Goenka: Why should it be a hindrance? You look after your children with Dhamma. You get a wonderful opportunity to give mettā to your child. And that will help you to give mettā to the whole world. Mother Visākhā had twenty children, and still she developed so much. That doesn’t mean you should not have any family planning. But I say that even with children you can progress in Dhamma.

Question: In the teaching of Vipassana, in the theoretical aspect, there are many things which do not seem appropriate. For example, there is the mention of innumerable lives of the Enlightened One and his supernormal power. Is it necessary to accept all this?

S. N. Goenka: Not necessary. People come here who have come from the tradition where they don’t believe in the past life, or future life—and still they progress. So people may not accept it. We are not imposing this: "You must accept this." Nothing like that. But as a responsible teacher, with whatever experience I have, with whatever understanding I have, I have to place the facts before them. I cannot say, just to please people: "Oh no, no, there is no past life, there is no future life." Well, then I will be misleading people. So I have to be very careful. People may accept, may not accept. It is not my problem.