There is a new book out titled Emissary of Insight. The first half is a biography of Goenka; the second half is a collection of his writings.

What stayed in my mind was Goenka’s gradual retreat into an entrenched position of his own rightness and everybody else’s wrongness. At one point Goenka was one of a handful of students authorized to teach by U Ba Khin. As the years went by, he broke away from the others. Only Goenka’s teachings were pure; everyone else’s were impure. I’ve seen that dynamic of pure vs impure before in cult leaders.

And what about Goenka’s treatment of his children:

“He would at times beat the children very badly. Once one of the children was so badly beaten that his cheek swelled up and his eyes became stuck shut. Fearing that the child might go blind, a doctor had to be called. Another time, he grabbed a different child by one foot and one hand and flung him down the cement stairs onto a cement terrace.”