On Vipassanā and Authenticity

Insight Myanmar

Episode #380: “I started meditation at a fairly young age,” begins scholar and author, Daniel Stuart. At nineteen, he traveled to India, disillusioned by the world he grew up in and searching for an alternative. What he discovered was vipassanā meditation as taught by S.N. Goenka, and for him it was “a quite revolutionary experience!”

For Stuart, meditation was never confined to the cushion. His practice sparked questions about history, authenticity, and cultural context. This curiosity took him through India and Burma, into the study of Pāḷi and Hindi, and ultimately into academia, where he now bridges rigorous research with personal commitment. A “die-hard student” of S.N. Goenka, Stuart nonetheless insists on examining the lineage within its historical complexity, even when this has put him at odds with the community.

Over time, Stuart has come to see that many teachings in the Goenka tradition emerged from Buddhism’s historical evolution over time, not in an unbroken line unchanged since the time of the Buddha, as is claimed in the tradition. Yet for him, this does not diminish the value of the teachings; it reveals how Buddhist traditions adapt and remain meaningful. He contrasts this with what is called the “Protestant” view of authenticity by many Western meditators who equate purity and authenticity only with the original texts.

Instead, Stuart sees Goenka’s teaching as a pragmatic response to the cultural worlds and contexts he navigated. He says that embracing this complexity has only deepened his faith and his practice. “We live in this space in between,” Stuart says, “like ancient tradition and modernity… and that’s where the whole game is.”