One thing that struck me whilst listening was the strongly Americo-centric presentation of Goenka's Vipassana courses by the participants of this discussion. Granted, they are all North American, and like most Americans, it seems they have very little awareness of the world beyond the borders of the USA.

This discussion is illustrative of how ignorant Americans seem to the population of the rest of the world. I say this as an European with extensive traveling experience in Asia, and therefore perhaps a greater sensitivity to the fact that the world in general, and the Buddhist world in particular, revolves not around America. Yes, that's right, this is a fact that may come as a shock to Americans!

But I also understand that the target audience of these podcasts are other Americans, and therefore, the ignorance on display here is wholeheartedly pardoned.

What specifically am I referring to here? Well, I am thinking of when the discussion takes a turn to speculating how the Goenka courses cater specifically to Americans, speculating that the course format was purposefully changed and redesigned to appeal specifically to Americans. They back up their misconception by mentioning how the course appeals to the American-protestant work ethic, the American lifestyle of watching TV at night, and the American invention of franchising and replicating a successful concept using the Henry Ford factory line.

The panel participants seem to be ignorant of the fact that the present daily schedule of the 10-day Vipassana courses comes from post-war Burma of the 1950's. The same format was later exported to India, and only after a decade in India was it presented in Japan, Australia, Europe and North America, being just one place of many where the ten day courses have been established.

Perhaps the ingeniousness of Goenka's 10-day courses lies in its ability to make people from all over the world feel possessive about it. I have heard people from Russia say it feels like Vipassana was developed specifically to appeal to Russians. Same goes for the Japanese. And not to mention the Indians! Actually, more than any place, the Buddha's teaching comes from India. Many, many Indians I've talked to feel very strongly that modern day Vipassana as proliferated by Goenka was developed specifically to suit the Indian disposition, which to a great extent is backed up by Goenka's discourses on the course.

Another thing is that the recording of the meditation course onto audio and video tapes was not invented by Goenka. It had already been done before by others. It was more a matter of necessity as Goenka's courses grew into hundreds of participants. The demand for a place on Goenka's courses was so great that it was impossible to accommodate everyone. The recording of the courses was therefore rather a solution that was stumbled upon when new video technology was developed for the consumer market in the 1980's.

Goenka's 10 day courses were clearly never specifically intended for a North American audience, contrary to what our friendly panel participants might believe, or might want to give an impression of in order to support their thesis of the cold and calculating entrepreguru and the meditation factory.

Which is quite funny, yes I get the joke (and the poke)! .