BANGKOK -- There was recently a cultural event in Bangkok that deserves to be singled out. It was a special Dhamma talk given by the foremost Vipassana meditation teacher of our times, Satya Narayan Goenka, to a select audience presided over by Princess Galyani, the sister of the King of Thailand.

The venue was the prestigious Chulalongkorn University, which cosponsored the event, along with the Dhamma Society Fund of Thailand. The proceedings were televised live all over the country and even abroad by satellite. Thanks also to new information technologies, they are available on the Internet for all those who seek to surf for something meaningful and spiritually rewarding.

The whole undertaking was conceived as a tribute to the birth centenary of the princess mother, who has always and is still revered in Thailand for her unrelenting social work and dedication, especially to the poorest people.

All the elements were harmoniously blended to produce a fine example of Indo-Thai cultural-religious synthesis. The Dhamma Society of Thailand, apart from its recent remarkable contribution to establish one of the largest collections of Theravada Buddhist sacred texts in the world, is now putting the finishing touches to a monumental work of publishing, the first complete romanized Tipitaka in 40 volumes. Scores of Pali scholars and other academics have been enthusiastically working on this project, whose broad outline was given in an earlier column I wrote.

But in Buddhism, knowledge of texts remains lopsided if not complemented by practice of the Dhamma. This is where the appearance of Goenka -- an Indian who resides in Myanmar -- shed such a brilliant light on the overall picture. The Indian "achariya," or teacher, after leading the life of a successful businessman for years, discovered serenity and bliss through Vipassana, a meditation technique used by the Buddha. While it was lost for centuries in India, fortunately it survived in Myanmar.

This is not the place to expand on the well-known meditation retreats that Goenka's Vipassana Research Institute organizes in almost 100 cities throughout the world. But it would be appropriate to summarize his main message, as he developed it during his talk and as he further elaborated on it at a private meeting where we discussed this and other related issues in an atmosphere of absolute tranquillity and simplicity.

Vipassana, he said, is an extremely rational, pragmatic, scientific and result-oriented technique. Its main purpose is to extricate mental negativity and to train the mind to remain equanimous and liberated from craving reactions.

It does not use any religious labels, as it cuts across all sectarian concepts. Hatred, Goenka said, cannot be qualified as Muslim, Christian, Buddhist, etc., as it pertains to humans in general. Consequently, people from different traditions join the Vipassana courses and get the same result.

Another point that Goenka emphasizes is the most encouraging response to his teachings in various prisons in India, and this not only on the part of prisoners, but also on the part of wardens and penitentiary personnel. Of course, Goenka adds, this is not only limited to prisoners. For him, every one is a prisoner of one's unwholesome behavior pattern.

A final point that made this event truly memorable was the simultaneous launching of a unique publication: "The Tale of the Five Precepts," a masterpiece of the popular Buddhist literature of the old kingdom of Lan Na, in northern Thailand, unearthed from an old manuscript by noted scholar Anatole Peltier. It is presented in four versions, the original Lan Na manuscript, in modern Thai, in French and in English. And thanks to the Dhamma Society Fund, close to a dozen other translations of the same work will follow, as a tangible example of efforts to disseminate Buddhist culture internationally.

One marvels at the deep meaning of the text, modestly hidden under a most simple style; a style reflecting the unique atmosphere of recitation during quiet vigils, in various temples in the land, for the benefit of rural believers.

All the above may sound a little remote and pedantic to present day readers, daily confronted with stress and with anguish as they try to keep pace with new demanding and exhausting trends. But we feel that the inner peace and serenity pursued by the Vipassana tradition, as well as "The Tale of the Five Precepts" and numerous other similar texts, may offer even a temporary, spiritually refreshing breeze.