A couple of years ago, after serving my first Vipassana course, I wrote a piece for this journal to let my fellow meditation practitioners know that not only is serving a course beneficial for one’s practice, but it can also be fun.
Since then, I served part of a course and helped in other ways, but for some time did not return to the Center to serve a full 10-day course. Eventually, I registered to serve again and arrived back with high expectations. While there were some familiar faces and it was inspiring to see the continual improvements at the Center, after the initial excitement wore off, I realized, quite frankly, that I wasn’t having fun. My fellow kitchen workers were congenial but I didn’t share the same sense of humor as the rest of our group. One of them left abruptly on day three, and things felt even heavier. But then I realized that having fun wasn’t of primary importance. I had come to help spread the gift of Dhamma that had been given to me, and that’s exactly what I intended to do regardless of my current frame of mind.
Every morning, after our first group meditation session, the kitchen servers convened and our manager reminded us that we were on an “Applied Dhamma Service Course.” This phrase aligns with the “Code of Conduct for Dhamma Servers” booklet that I had obtained in the registration hall. In it, Mr. Goenka notes, “While serving, you are learning how to apply Dhamma in day-to-day life. After all, Dhamma is not an escape from daily responsibilities. By learning to act according to Dhamma in dealing with students and situations here in the little world of a meditation course or center, you train yourself to act the same way in the world outside. Despite the fact that unwanted things keep happening, you practice trying to maintain the balance of your mind, and to generate love and compassion in response. This is the lesson you are trying to master here. You are as much a student as those who are sitting the course.”
For students who are applying, courses fill up rapidly, often within an hour of the registration opening. But centers often have some difficulty in getting sufficient volunteer servers for each course. While there are other forms of service that are essential to help centers operate, I’ve been told that less than 3 percent of students who complete a course return to serve. The other 97 percent are missing out on a wonderful opportunity to take part in another fundamental aspect of the practice.
When you serve on a course, you are not merely prepping food, cooking, cleaning, washing dishes and putting them away. You are also meditating at least three hours a day in the hall and, equally important, you are throwing yourself in among a group of people whom you probably don’t know and trying to work in harmony with them. You might be blessed with a group that is light and harmonious from the get-go, or you might end up with people who are quite unlike you and who have arrived at the Center with a lot of baggage from the outside world. Regardless, you get a chance to work in a closed-off, gentle environment where everyone is trying to contribute within a similar code of conduct and way of life. You can perform other forms of service on committees and trusts at the Vipassana centers, and you can meditate in self-courses outside of a Center, but you simply can’t simulate this applied Dhamma service atmosphere.
In the end, our group came together, found harmony, and learned a lot from each other and our shared duties on the course. So, even though no one is going to pressure you into it, I suggest that you seriously consider signing up to serve—that is, taking an Applied Dhamma Service Course. And, remember that we are all students on the course, even though the server option doesn’t explicitly state it.
For more from Mr. Goenka on Dhamma service, go the the following link:
https://www.globalpagoda.org/Seva-questions
Here are a couple of my favorite Q&As from this link:
What should we do when we are giving Dhamma service and a conflict arises with another Dhamma worker?
When you are in a conflict or confrontation with others, retire from service; don't serve. When you cannot keep your mind free from negativities, try to remain calm, quiet, full of love and compassion for others. Then understand: "I am not fit to serve now; I had better meditate." Otherwise, you will only be distributing this vibration of negativity to others.
You may say, “The other person is at fault, not me.” But whatever the apparent cause may be, your mistake is that you have started generating negativity.
If you find that there is a fault in someone with whom you are working, then you can very politely and very humbly point it out: “To me, it looks like this is not correct, this is not according to Dhamma.” If the other person does not understand, then very humbly and politely explain again after some time. Still, the other person may not agree. You have given all your reasons, explained your point of view calmly, without making your mind unbalanced.
Suppose this doesn't work. I would say that to explain your view twice is enough. In very rare cases you can do it a third time, but not more than that, never! Otherwise, no matter how correct your view may be, it shows that you have developed a tremendous amount of attachment to it. You want things to happen according to your view, and that is not helpful. When pointing something out to your Dhamma brother or sister who has made a mistake, you can mention it once, twice, at the utmost thrice. If that doesn't help, then, without backbiting, politely tell him or her: “Well, this is my understanding. Perhaps our elders can explain it better than I can.”
Before putting the case to anyone else, first talk with the person with whom you have a difference of opinion. Only then inform your elders, senior students, assistant teachers or, in rare instances, the Teacher. But first you have to speak with the person concerned. Only then is there no unwholesome speech; otherwise, you are backbiting, you are breaking your sila, which is wrong.
Still, if nothing has worked and this person is not improving, then don't have aversion; have more compassion. You always have to examine yourself, whether you are getting agitated when you want something done and it is not being done. If so, it means that your ego is strong; your attachment to your ego, your view, is strong. This is not Dhamma. Try to correct yourself before trying to correct others.
Sometimes it seems that we are picking up negativity, fear, etc., from the students we are serving. How does this happen and what can we do?
You can’t pick up anything from others. If you are affected by another student’s emotions, it is because you have a stock of the same kind of impurity within you. For example, if a fear complex comes to the surface in a student because of their practice of Vipassana, the atmosphere around them will become charged with that kind of vibration and that stimulates your own stock of fear to arise. Be thankful to the student that this situation has allowed your own impurity to be eradicated. Meditate, observe sensations, and come out of it. Why worry?
David Cohen