Questions and Answers with Goenkaji. (@ Vancouver during his tour of North America in 2002. It was first published in the April 2011 International Vipassana Newsletter.) 1) Question: You talk so much about suffering and mental defilements. Isn’t your message pessimistic? Goenkaji: How is it pessimistic? This is the most optimistic message! Misery exists, but if there is a way to come out of misery, the message is full of optimism. If somebody says, “There is misery and no way to come out of it, you have to suffer misery your whole life,” that would be pessimistic. But here the message is, “You can come out of it!” Whatever the misery may be, there is a way to come out of all the miseries. It is the most optimistic message! 2) Question: Many prophets have said that the end of the world or a cleansing of the Earth is coming. Do you belief this is true? Why or why not? Goenkaji: We are responsible for spoiling the purity of the Earth. We are generating so much pollution. We talk so much about chemical pollution, which is visible. It is harmful, but what about mental pollution? Everyone generates negativity, and the entire atmosphere gets polluted. We are responsible for that, and we are responsible to purify this atmosphere. Change the habit pattern of the mind and the Earth will become free from all the miseries. 3) Question: How can I practice Dharma and yet hold on to my hopes and aspirations to make the world a better place? Goenkaji: You have aspirations, there is nothing wrong in that. But to attain your aspirations, if you keep on generating impurity in your mind, you are far away from your goal. You are losing the peace and harmony of your mind. With peace of mind, maintaining perfect balance of the mind, do whatever is necessary in human life, good for you and good for others. 4) Question: Do you believe in reincarnation? Goenkaji: I am not interested in these beliefs. Beliefs are always blind beliefs. Why believe? Experience it. See what happens after death, whether you get reincarnated or not. Then only accept it! 5) Question: How can you be passionate about life but remain detached at the same time? Goenkaji: Come to Vipassana and you will know how! It looks so difficult now because you don’t know how to balance the mind at the deepest level. You try to impose this balance at the surface level. That itself is difficult. And even if you have made your mind balanced at the surface level, the lack of balance remains at the depths. You can’t come out of it. Vipassana is for this purpose, so that you can work at the root level and become really happy. 6) Question: If craving and aversion are to be avoided, what are they replaced with? Goenkaji: They are replaced with love, compassion, good will. Whenever the mind is impure, it becomes more and more impure as you start generating craving and aversion. This is a habit pattern going back far into the past. Before, you kept on generating craving and aversion; and now again you generate craving and aversion. You are becoming more and more miserable. By this technique, the habit pattern changes and the mind becomes purer and purer, free from craving, free from aversion. A pure mind by nature is full of love, full of compassion. You don’t harm yourself, you don’t harm others. Just eradicate the impurities in the mind and love and compassion is a natural result. 7) Question: Can’t I still have fun in life if I learn Vipassana? Goenkaji: Have fun, but with equanimity! Don’t lose your equanimity, and have fun. Nothing wrong in enjoying fun!
Posted on: Thu, 01 Jan 2015 14:38:16 +0000
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