Today, in our own time, the Ganges of Truth is once again flowing out from India to a thirsty world. A new era in human history dawned India was regarded as the World Teacher. A fresh breeze blew which gradually swept the whole world. This universal teaching brought profound relief to the suffering humanity. To people steeped in ignorance, superstition, and blind beliefs chained in rites and rituals and fettered by the bonds of philosophical dogmas, he gave the possibility of a way out. He gave to humanity its first charter of freedom. He taught that every person must discover for himself what is conducive to his own good and welfare, and the good and welfare of others. The Buddha boldly declared all human beings equal, caste distinctions ignoble debates and controversies on dogmas and philosophies, sterile sectarian distinctions baneful. They describe how people from a wide spectrum of society were benefited by his ennobling doctrine: rich and poor, powerful and weak, learned and ignorant, saints and sinners, privileged and downtrodden, without any distinction of caste or hierarchy. Sources from the Pāli literature offer a graphic account of the societal conditions during the Buddha's time. He taught a practical method to help mankind escape from the bonds of suffering: the Eight-fold Noble Path, the quintessence of which is Vipassana. In all his addresses, the Buddha's theme was the same: sila (morality) samadhi (control over the mind) and panna (wisdom, insight, purification of the mind by wisdom). Speaking to groups or individuals, renunciates or householders, he delivered tens of thousands of discourses. Out of overflowing love and compassion, he taught Dhamma in the villages and towns of the kingdoms and democratic republics of northern India throughout his life. From the time he became enlightened until his passing away ( maha-parinibbana) at the age of eighty, the Buddha wandered from place to place. The sources of Vipassana meditation are the teachings of Gotama the Buddha, contained principally in the vast Pāli literature. To understand the significance of this project, it is necessary to briefly describe the sources of Vipassana Meditation. With its ongoing research into Vipassana, the Vipassana Research Institute (VRI) assumed a monumental undertaking: the publication of an authentic version of Pāli literature in Devanagari script.
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