Videos about Vipassana meditation
Various films about Vipassana are now available. Below you will find a selection with links to the corresponding portals.
Discovering Vipassana
An introduction to Vipassana
Goenkaji answers some fundamental questions about Vipassana meditation and the science of mind and matter.
ENVimeo
Practicing Vipassana
Students from around Europe discuss how they discovered meditation and how it has shaped their lives. Shot on location at Dhamma Atala in Italy.
ENVimeo
Ten-day course overview
A very useful brief summary of how a residential course covers the three principal elements of Vipassana meditation.
ENVimeo
UN Address
Goenkaji’s address to the Millennium World Peace Summit in New York.
ENVimeo
Children and teenagers’ courses
Time to breathe
A short documentary about British children learning Anapana as part of their school activities, giving their unique perspective on how it works.
ENVimeo
Seeds of awareness
Schoolchildren’s experiences with Anapana meditation and the benefits both at home and in school.
ENYouTube
Documentaries
From Myanmar to the World – Part 1 : Overland to India
This 1-hour film follows some of the ten thousands of Westerners who travelled the world in the early 1970s “looking for something”. It is the story of those hippies and seekers who discovered India, S.N. Goenka and the incomparable gift of the Dhamma. (65 min.)
From Myanmar to the World – Part 2 : From Caves to Pagodas
For a meditation tradition that claims to have nothing to do with organised religion, some questioned the seemingly religious architecture. But are the pagodas merely decorative, or do they have a practical function, something that meditators can actually experience and benefit from?
Doing Time, Doing Vipassana
This documentary takes viewers inside India’s largest prison, one of the toughest in the world, and documents the dramatic change that the introduction of Vipassana meditation has brought to both inmates and guards. (52 min.)
Changing from Inside
Documentary about the King County Correctional Facility, Seattle, Washington, USA – 1998 (44 min.)
Breathe Easy, Brick City
Anapana meditation for children and young people in socially deprived areas of Newark, New Jersey, USA.
The Essential Aspects of the Buddha-Dhamma for meditation practice
Discourse by Sayagyi U Ba Khin for his foreign students who could not easily come to Myanmar.
The first pagoda in Europe
The wonderful new pagoda at Dhamma Padhāna, the European Centre for Long Courses, is ready. It is the first European pagoda of this tradition. (3 min.)
ENYouTube
The Great Global Pagoda
The Great Global Pagoda is a documentary showcasing the history of Vipassana and concentrates on the early years of the construction of the Global Vipassana Pagoda until mid-2006. It details how the structure was built and how the novel construction method of masonry was used instead of concrete.
ENFRENVimeo
The lineage of teachers
The following interesting and inspiring lectures introduce, among others, the teachers who have transmitted and passed on Vipassana. The lectures are available on various portals.
Ashoka
Life of Emperor Ashoka and the spread of Dhamma from India to Burma, leading to the Vipassana lineage of Teachers from Ledi Sayadaw to Sayagyi U Ba Khin and S.N. Goenka.
Ledi Sayadaw
Life of Ven. Ledi Sayadaw (1846-1923), the first Vipassana teacher that we know of in this tradition in modern times.
Saya Thegyi
Life of Saya Thetgyi (1873-1945), a critical link between the great monk Ven. Ledi Sayadaw and Sayagyi U Ba Khin, in helping to establish a tradition of Vipassana householder teachers.
Webu Sayadaw
Life of Webu Sayadaw (1896-1977), one of the most venerated monks in Burma, an arahant, who encouraged Sayagyi U Ba Khin to start teaching Vipassana meditation.
Sayagyi U Ba Khin
Life of Sayagyi U Ba Khin (1899-1971) the foremost lay teacher of Vipassana meditation in Myanmar (Burma) and S.N. Goenka’s teacher. He had a strong conviction that “the time-clock of Vipassana has now struck” for the worldwide revival of the Buddha’s path to liberation.
S.N. Goenka – Part 1
Life of S.N. Goenka (1924-2013) – Part 1. S.N. Goenka’s early years: his childhood, his training under Sayagyi U Ba Khin and the establishment of Dhamma in India.
S.N. Goenka – Part 2
Life of S.N. Goenka (1924-2013) – Part 2: The spread of Dhamma and development of Vipassana meditation centres throughout the world, from 1979 to 1999.
S.N. Goenka – Part 3
Life of S.N. Goenka (1924-2013) – Part 3: Goenka engaged in numerous activities and projects that show a deep gratitude to his teacher, Sayagyi U Ba Khin, and Myanmar (Burma) for the flowering of Dhamma worldwide.
This Living Tradition
2500 years after the passing of Gotama the Buddha, the practice of Vipassana meditation lives on because of all those who passed the Dhamma on from generation to generation – teacher to pupil. This talk looks at the challenges – the apparent difficulties, disasters, and dead-ends – that the tradition faced, and how often, after what appeared to be a disaster, Dhamma rose to the occasion and emerged more resilient, stronger, and more widely spread than ever before.