Aniccā with Feeling

About this episode

Friedgard Lottermoser discusses the unique meditation teachings of Sayagyi U Ba Khin at the International Meditation Center in Rangoon.

Episode #519: Friedgard Lottermoser, a German student of Sayagyi U Ba Khin, describes the unique character of meditation at the International Meditation Center (IMC) in Rangoon between 1959 and 1971. Unlike the large,standardized courses later developed by S. N. Goenka, U Ba Khin taught only one ten-day course a month to small groups. Each student received individualized instruction based on temperament and background. “He went by feeling,” Friedgard recalls, noting that he could sense a student’s meditative progress even from afar. She contrasts U Ba Khin’s flexibility and adaptability with Goenka’s standardized system of recorded discourses and fixed schedules centered on a single technique. When political restrictions prevented U Ba Khin from traveling abroad after Ne Win’s 1962 coup, he could not realize his own dream of teaching dhamma outside Burma. So he trained several non-Burmese teachers to undertake this mission, as well as Goenka, who as an Indian businessman was able to obtain a passport. In particular, Goenka’s organizational talent and charisma transformed meditation into a vast global network. Yet Friedgard stresses that U Ba Khin never intended his teaching to be…

People in this episode

Host: Insight Myanmar Podcast

Guest: Friedgard Lottermoser

Topics covered

• meditation
• Buddhism
• individualized instruction
• vipassanā
• cultural adaptation
• historical context

Keywords

• meditation
• U Ba Khin
• S. N. Goenka
• vipassanā
• Buddhism
• Rangoon
• individualized instruction
• cultural adaptation

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: The Essentials of Buddha Dharma in Meditative Practice

Places: Rangoon, Burma

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