Dr. Arnie Kozak, Beliefnet: I was surprised by the news of S. N. Goenka’s death this past Saturday. He was almost 90 years old.
In the summer of 1989, I sat my first vipassana meditation retreat with Goenka at the Vipassana Meditation Center in Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts. That experience was a watershed for me. It changed my life. I view it as the single most difficult and beneficial experience of my life. It put meditation and the Buddha’s teachings at the center of my life and has been part of a daily conversation for the past almost twenty-five years.
Anyone who has sat with Goenka…
