The Association for Vipassana Meditation was founded in 2008 by Austrians who had previously experienced this meditation in other countries. This established an appropriate legal (and financial) structure to offer and participate in these courses within their own country.
Vipassana organizations in this tradition are connected worldwide for the purpose of sharing experience. There are currently more than 270 centers in over 90 countries, as well as approximately 130 rented venues where courses are organized in the tradition of S.N. Goenka. In Europe, there are currently 21 meditation centers. The national organizations are completely independent in legal and financial terms. From a legal standpoint, there is no global organizational structure.
What, then, creates the sense of belonging as a worldwide organization?
This lies in international coordination, whereby regional coordinators and teacher groups ensure that shared core principles and quality standards are upheld across all associations. For example, there are periodic quality assurance meetings and uniform course guidelines.
There is no central governing body and no hierarchical leadership figure. Decisions are always sought through consensus.
Three core principles are upheld:
- Preserving the purity of the original teaching
- No mixing with other techniques
- No commercialization
Following the death of S.N. Goenka in 2013, the tradition was deliberately continued without a central successor figure. S.N. Goenka himself never considered or referred to himself as a guru, only as a teacher. He rejected any personality cult around his person. Like all assistant teachers and volunteers, S.N. Goenka never earned money from Vipassana. It was particularly important to him that courses be offered free of charge, so that they remain accessible to all people regardless of their financial means, and so that no commercial structures or profit-oriented thinking could take hold on the Dhamma path. No one should earn their livelihood through Vipassana and thereby turn away from the world outside.
The Vipassana teaching and its associations place great importance on being non-profit, non-commercial, and non-religious.
The Association for Vipassana Meditation in Austria:
- has no hierarchical structure
- offers no membership
- requires no declaration of belief
- makes no claim to exclusive truth
- engages in no public proselytizing
- does no advertising
The association is organized such that its 7 members are the supporters (4 assistant teachers and 3 board members), while those who benefit from its activities are not association members. This makes the benefits of the association’s work accessible to all people.