What I feared is exactly what happened. People have confined this to a game of sensations.
But the teaching here is not about sensations, nor about how they feel or what they are.
The true teaching is about staying equanimous — at every single moment.
The teaching is to see the anicca nature in every moment.
S.N. Goenka did not merely teach us to sit and watch sensations — he taught how to bring that insight into real life.
The first thing to realize is: external things are not under my control.
Whatever happens outside, the real disturbance arises inside — in the mind and body.
Let’s leave the outside for a while and just observe what’s happening within.
That’s where everything unfolds — greed (lobha), delusion (moha), craving (taṇhā) — it all arises inside.
So where do I need to remain equanimous? Right there — toward all of them.
That’s the teaching.
But people have turned it into a mere sensation game.
Sensations are just a medium.
The main goal is to maintain a state of equanimity.
Goenka kept saying repeatedly:
“Observe the anicca nature of sensation — this is not me, not mine, I have no control over it. It arises and passes away.
So why should I crave it? Why should I hate it? Why should I get attached to it? It’s anicca… anicca… anicca.”
You must listen to his 1-hour evening Dhamma discourses.
Personally, I don’t find much difference between what Goenka teaches and what’s on PureDhamma.net.
Yes, it’s true that Pure Dhamma explains Paṭicca Samuppāda, Tilakkhaṇa, etc. in more technical detail and structure.
But Goenka taught these too —
Only those understood him who went beyond just watching sensations during those 10 days.
Those who remained stuck in the sensation game came out of the 10-day retreat with confused, delusional interpretations.