Episode 5: Daniel Mayer
If you have ever taken a ten-day vipassana course in the tradition of S.N. Goenka anywhere in Latin America, South America, or Africa, chances are that Daniel Mayer has probably been involved in some way or other. And if you’ve ever heard the Spanish translation of the discourses or instructions, you may well recognize his voice. Yet oddly enough, meditators in the Goenka tradition may have the Argentinian president, Juan Perón, to thank for all this! Peron’s 1972 return to power was the impetus for Daniel to begin a self-imposed exile from his homeland.
It was during his life in exile when he first learned about Dhamma. Daniel had landed in France, overseeing a 7-room, 3-fireplace Parisian flat, where he hosted an array of social events. In his own words, “We were trying to be happy but we were not. We were trying to be calm but we were very loud.” At one of these events, he met a girl whose calmness distinguished her from the usual party-goers; he learned that she had recently returned from a 30-day retreat with Buddhist lamas in Nepal. Right away, he felt that this was something he had to try, and he left for Nepal soon after.
However, the ritual chanting and prostrations that characterized those particular teachings did not appeal to him, so he traveled further south into India. This was at the height of the Western counter-culture, hippy movement pouring into to India to seek Eastern spiritual teachings. Although some of his friends became interested in Rajneesh (Osho), Daniel rejected him right away; he steered towards the teachings of Patanjali before eventually taking a course with S.N. Goenka. It was then that he knew he had finally found his teacher.
Daniel was immediately drawn to Goenka’s honesty, integrity, and humor, noting that these traits distinguished him from some of the other Indian teachers of the day. He especially appreciated how Goenka-ji did not give any preferential treatment to students according to their background. In the podcast, he describes his experience as a meditator in those early days, and the flexibility he observed in the way that his teacher dealt with a variety of students, as well as how open-minded Goenka was in understanding diverse cultures and backgrounds. In the years since, Daniel was appointed a senior teacher (acharya), a Center Teacher (CT) originally for Dhamma Santi in Brazil, and most recently a Coordinating Area Teacher (CAT) “to serve the rest of Africa.” In his mundane life now, he is a licensed acupuncturist.
In looking back at his past experience, Daniel encourages senior teachers in the tradition today to continue to cultivate that same open-mindedness, recalling Goenkaji’s advice about meditation centers, that they should be run in such a way that “you [could] bring your mother to them.” Daniel also worries that first world standards of luxury and comfort are being imposed on meditation centers in poorer countries that may well not have the means to support them. And as the tradition has continued to expand so much, he hopes that the increasing need for managerial and administrative work will not overwhelm the primacy of formal sitting meditation.
We close by discussing Daniel’s work in spreading the Dhamma to remote parts of the Americas and Africa, some of which had never previously heard the Buddha’s teachings. Finally, he describes his personal experiences with some of the great teachers of that day, including Goenkaji, Mataji, Sayama, Robert Hover, Ruth Denison, and John Coleman. Daniel’s humility and selfless devotion to spreading the Dhamma illuminate the interview from start to finish.
Later, with Zach Hessler, Joah realizes how Daniel’s dates in Paris coincided with his mother’s time there as well, but how she ended up going south towards Africa at around the time Daniel and others went eastwards towards India. While the circles of their lives would join again some decades later when she began to sit vipassana retreats through her son’s involvement, Joah and Zach reflect on how subtle conditions and influences can suddenly send similar lives in such different directions. Zach talks about Daniel’s brief ordination as a monk, in terms of the different opportunities that spiritual aspirants can get during a time in robes. Finally, the two discuss Daniel’s anecdotes and depictions of those early days of vipassana courses under S.N. Goenka, and how centers have codified those practices.
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