Early self courses

After Goenkaji moved to India in 1969 he was no longer able to do courses with U Ba Khin his teacher. He could not go back to Burma at that time. He needed to keep doing annual courses just as he advised his students to do. To replace this loss he began doing an annual self course each year. He did it the same way he recommends in the ten day discourses. He advises practicing Anapana meditation one third of the time and two thirds of the time doing Vipassana.

In the early days Goenkaji liked to do his self course in at the Burmese Vihara in Bodhgaya. As Bodhgaya is the place where the Buddha attained enlightenment it is a very powerful place to meditate for those on the path of Dhamma. A small pagoda had been built onto the Vihara building on the second floor by one of his students and he would sit and live there during his course and he would take his daily walk on the roof. Never leaving the building during the 10 days.

He would invite old students to join him, but they meditated separately, they sat downstairs. He did this every year at the Burmese Vihara until Dhamma Giri was finished and he moved his annual self course there permanently. Then it became much more formalized and students would sign up for the course and register as we do today. Things changed and old students would fly in from their home countries to join him. Every year many old students gathered at Dhamma Giri for the winter months sitting and serving courses. This was also the time when the annual meeting was held by Goenkaji.

In the early days when his self course was held in Bodhgaya most of the students sitting the course with him were students that were attending other 10 day courses held there. It was a very special time for him because this was when he rejuvenated his practice and worked to make his practice deeper just as all of us students do. Anyone who experiences this annual boost knows what a great asset it is to our practice and our daily lives.

To honor Sayagyi the course was set to end on January 19th the day that Sayagyi U Ba Khin passed away. The most special part of this annual self course was on the last night. Goenkaji and all of the students would gather after it got dark and Bodhgaya had gone to sleep. They would walk in a group through the streets of Bodhgaya to the Bodhi Temple in silence and with awareness of sensations. Not only was the town quiet and calm there was no one about. In a window here or there a candle might be burning or there might be a few fire flies. Everything was still except for the sounds of a dog barking from time to time as they passed.

It had been arranged with the Temple manager that the gates would be open and everyone would sit together in three places. The first sitting was held in the upstairs temple shrine room, then the downstairs shrine room and finally everyone would go outside and sit under the Bodhi tree just as the Buddha had 2,500 years before. To those that got to experience this it is something they will always remember.

This tradition of an annual self course continued throughout Goenkaji’s life. Even today each year around the world there are Teacher self courses held that old students may join.