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From Myanmar to the World is a unique trilogy of films about how the ancient teaching of Vipassana meditation spread from the remote forests of Upper Myanmar to reach every corner of the world. Part I of the trilogy, Overland to India (2019), tells the story of the young Westerners who traveled to India in the 1960s and early 1970s, encountered S.N. Goenka there and learned Vipassana from him. Part II, From Caves to Pagodas (2020), chronicles the efforts of those Westerners to establish meditation facilities in their own countries. Now the final film of the trilogy is taking shape. To the Multitudes (working title) traces the life journey of S.N. Goenka, from his transformative meeting with Sayagyi U Ba Khin in the 1950s, to his 1969 departure for India for the purpose of teaching meditation, to his many travels for the purpose of bringing Vipassana to every major country of the world. The third and final film requires financial support to reach completion. If you would like support the completion of the trilogy, click here: More on Caves to Pagodas: Long ago, after receiving guidance from the Buddha, meditators would withdraw to practice in the solitude of a forest or a cave. Fast forward to the 1950s, when Burmese meditation master Sayagyi U Ba Khin was planning his ideal meditation center in Yangon. Inspired by some ancient structures in India, he chose a design featuring concentric rings of meditation “caves,” sheltered under the soaring structure of a golden Burmese zedi, or pagoda. This is the story of how Sayagyi U Ba Khin’s design was re-created first in India by his disciple, S.N. Goenka, and decades later in locations all over the world. For a meditation tradition that claims to have nothing to do with organized religion, some questioned the seemingly religious architecture. But are the pagodas merely decorative, or is there a practical function, something meditators can actually experience and benefit from?
