This is the first part of a two-part film entitled From Myanmar to the World in which people recall how they came to India, and their encounter with S N Goenkaji and the meditation technique he was teaching, Vipassanā.
In the 60s and 70s many young westerners in particular were disillusioned with their corrupt and war-torn societies and were looking for something more, something different, and headed east and many ended up in India.
Some of these many seekers enrolled on courses with SN Goenka in the retreats he had begun giving in India in 1969. The courses were less structured than they later became, but by all accounts were also very demanding in other ways, owing to a distinct lack of facilities.
Some of those who did the courses were eventually appointed as Assistant Teachers and started taking the teaching back to their own countries, and eventually centres were established throughout the world. This is their stories mainly through their own recollections, and with films and photographs from those early days.
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