Anagarika Munindra learns Vipassana meditation from SN Goenka

[P]erhaps most important in terms of understanding Goenka’s sense of identity in this moment is the fact that Goenka’s old friend, the Indian Buddhist meditation master Munindra Barua (Anagarika Munindra), helped to organize the course, encouraged his students to participate in it, and participated in it himself. Munindra’s participation was a defining moment for Goenka because his presence in Bodh Gaya brought to the surface questions about Goenka’s identity as the single true revivor in India of the Buddha’s pure teachings preserved in Burma. Munindra was a Bengali Buddhist who had spent nine years in Burma, from 1957 to 1966, studying ancient Pali Buddhist texts and learning meditation from a number of monastic teachers, most notably the Mahasi Sayadaw. Goenka was Munindra’s sponsor during that time, and the two knew each other well. But Goenka was not yet a teacher then. He had introduced Munindra to U Ba Khin, and Munindra had hoped to learn meditation from the latter. But U Ba Khin declined to teach him, since Munindra was already the student of a monastic teacher, and it was U Ba Khin’s policy not to teach those who were already students of other teachers. Apparently, U Ba Khin wanted to avoid the controversy that could arise from the comparison of practice lineages.

An excerpt from Daniel Stuart’s S. N. Goenka: Emissary of Insight (Lives of the Masters), describing Goenka’s relationship with Munindra. Future posts here will look more deeply into this work, and we hope to have Daniel on the Insight Myanmar Podcast as well to discuss his new book.