Many of us do not consider delving into a spiritual practice because we associate it with a certain religion. The same holds true for Vipassana. It is a 2500 year old meditation technique first introduced to the world by Gautama the Buddha– Buddha not being a noun used for a legend born thousands of years ago, but an adjective used to describe a “Bodhi” or the enlightened one.
The technique was spread throughout the world by fully liberated disciples of Gautama the Buddha who travelled the world carrying with them the keys to the path to enlightenment. Asoka, a great Indian emperor born two centuries after Buddha, also attained enlightenment through the same technique and further sponsored the movement. It was in 1969 when a senior civil servant Sayagi U Ba Khin of Burma appointed his disciple Mr. S. N. Goenka to take the tradition forward. The latter established numerous meditation sites in India and abroad and till date people from all around the globe attain peace and enlightenment at more than 245 centres and 129 non-centres.