from The Chronicle of the 50th anniversary of Vipassana returning to India and the world
The first Teacher's Self-Course (TSC) was also at the Burmese Vihara in Bodh Gaya from 3rd December to 17th December 1973, a 15-day course. During TSC the Principal Teacher Sayagyi U Goenka became a student and listened to recorded discourses of his teacher Sayagyi U Ba Khin.
In the following years, the TSC duration varied from 10-days, 20-days, 30-days to a 45-day course.
Fifty years later, the TSC has returned to its original format of 15-days.
In the next fifty years, the TSC will return yet again to being 30-days and will be held annually in December in Dhamma Giri - the duration, location, and the time of most of the annual TSCs when Sayagyi U Goenka and Mataji meditated in Dhamma Hall-1 of Dhamma Giri. The effect can be felt even today in Dhamma Hall-1.
The TSC in Dhamma Giri was a special, unique experience - an unforgettable highlight of life. It was a rare chance to serve Sayagyi U Goenka and Mataji when they were meditating - a rare chance to repay a little of the infinite gratitude for receiving Vipassana in purity. Even the respectful town people of Igatpuri served in the TSC by deciding not to play their loudspeakers during Goenkaji's self-course.
Sayagyi U Goenka personally went through the list of those sitting and serving the TSC to give his final permission. Those whom he did not permit to serve the TSC were asked to sit the course. Preparations for the TSC took a few days and meditators began arriving from all over the world. Many were teachers and long stay Dhamma workers. It was an annual joyous Dhamma family reunion in Dhamma Giri.
During the 30-day Teacher's Self Course in Dhamma Giri, Goenkaji personally gave students the brief Anapana instructions on Zero Day evening in Dhamma Hall-1. Then he too started meditating in silence with the students. Students included many senior teachers who served closely with Goenkaji. At the end of this meditation session at 9.00 pm, all students carried their meditation cushions to Dhamma Hall-2 - the Dhamma Hall where they meditated for the 6.00-7.00 pm group sitting, Hindi/English discourse (and in their Pagoda cell) until Metta Day on Day 30.
Dhamma Hall-1 was closed from Zero Day night to Day 30 morning, as was the upper Pagoda (from the marble staircase). The Principal Teachers Goenkaji and Mataji were the only two human beings who meditated here. After the Anapana evening, TSC students next saw the Principal Teachers on Metta Day morning of Day 30.
During the TSC, Goenkaji meditated to his teacher Sayagyi U Ba Khin's recorded instructions and discourses in Burmese. All students meditated to U Ba Khin's Tikapattana chanting every morning in the pre-6.30 a.m sitting.
Dhamma Giri was closed to visitors during TSC. The meditation campus (from the small gate near the dining halls) was also closed to the other non-course residents. A makeshift dining facility was arranged outside the meditation campus. Only TSC students and Dhamma workers resided within the meditation campus to which no one else was permitted to enter.
A well-trained cook (in later years Deepal Maharaj or Bimal Singh) came from the Dhamma Giri kitchen to prepare Goenkaji's and Mataji's meals in the small kitchen of the Principal Teachers' residence.
Principal Teachers' residential premises which was essentially one bedroom with attached bathroom and a small dining room. The residential block included the Metta Hall to meet students, library, Goenkaji's study room, a recording room and two secretarial offices. Dhamma Giri, Vipassana International Academy.
The hard-working VIA kitchen staff of about 25 workers wake up at 3.30 am every day to prepare meals for more than 1,200 people daily during regular courses. From the central Dhamma Giri kitchen, they efficiently transport and serve food simultaneously in seven dining halls (male, female dining halls of Dhamma Giri, Assistant Teachers' Dining Room, Dhamma Tapovana-1, Dhamma Tapovana-2) and nine serving counters. During TSC they put in extra effort to prepare special food and treats.
Either R.P Yadav or Narayan Dasarwar served in the Teachers Residence during TSC. These two personal secretaries took turns serving the Principal Teacher with dedication throughout the year, residing with him 24/7 and away from their own families. Shanta Bai did the washing and laundry. A TSC Dhamma worker watered the garden in the Teacher's Residence, and other Dhamma workers attended to plants in the male and female areas. The VIA gardening staff did not enter the meditation campus during TSC.
Sayagyi and Mataji could not be seen in the meditation campus during the course. They took their daily walking exercise in the terrace of the Dhamma Giri pagoda. They meditated in the Upper Pagoda central cell, in Dhamma Hall-1, and in the Teacher's residence.
On Metta Day morning of Day 30, students returned to Dhamma Hall-1 for the Noble Silence-ending Metta session. A special lunch followed. Sayagyi and Mataji were busy the rest of the happy day meeting students in the Metta Hall of the Teacher's Residence.
The TSC ended the next morning with the course-concluding Metta in the Pagoda terrace. On a usually chilly winter morning, students went up the marble staircase to the open air terrace of the Pagoda. We meditated under the pre-dawn sky from 4.30 am. Goenkaji meditated for some time in the central Principal Teacher's cell of the Pagoda and then he conducted the Metta session for all beings.
Dhamma Giri Pagoda terrace (on the upper right) where the concluding Metta session of the Teacher's Self-Course was held in the early morning light of Day 31, under the open sky.
As Goenkaji began meditating into his self course, the entire atmosphere within Dhamma Giri (already strong) became stronger. It increased in indescribable serenity, silence, and deep peace. After the sun had set, and the 6.00 pm group sitting was in progress, a Dhamma worker on duty in the Shanti Pathar (Peace Plateau), adjacent to Dhamma Hall-1, wondered in the incredibly tranquil evening light: "can the deva lokas (the celestial planes) be better than this?"
For the future
The one-month TSC in December should be returned to Dhamma Giri - with the same arrangements made as during the lifetime of Goenkaji. This will benefit future generations of senior meditators worldwide, particularly assistant teachers. They will benefit from meditating in a 30-day course at the Vipassana centre where Goenkaji conducted and meditated in the most number of Vipassana courses.
Importantly, 10-day course new students in Dhamma Giri will benefit the rest of the year from the strengthened Dhamma atmosphere.
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The early Teacher's Self-Courses (TSC)
TSC-1 Burmese Vihara, Bodh Gaya 3-1-73 - 17-1-73
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: practicing Anapana meditation one-third of the time, two-thirds of the time doing Vipassana, concluding with practicing Metta Bhavana.
In the early days, Goenkaji liked to do his self course 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. He would never leave the building during the 10 days.
He invited old students to join him in the self-course. They meditated separately; they sat downstairs. He did this every year at the Burmese Vihara until the construction of Dhamma Giri was completed and he moved his annual self course there for many years. 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 Goenkaji presided over the annual meeting for assistant teachers and Dhamma workers worldwide.
The Teacher's Self Course (TSC) was a very special time for Goenkaji 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 honour Sayagyi U Ba Khin, the first Teacher's Self 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 the students gathered in the darkness at night, after Bodhgaya had gone to sleep. They walked in a group through the streets of Bodhgaya to the Bodhi Temple in silence and with an awareness of sensations. Not only was the town quiet and calm, but there was also no one about. In a window here or there, a candle might be burning or there might be a few fireflies. 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.
from The Golden Nuggets
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