It's not just a Western thing. The likes of Goenka have made the case for Vipassana meditation as a universally beneficial secular practice compatible with a va

It's not just a Western thing. The likes of Goenka have made the case for Vipassana meditation as a universally beneficial secular practice compatible with a variety of religious beliefs and amenable to scientific study in India too. This approach inevitably attracts more attention and new adherents than more longstanding cultural traditions, rules and suttas. I asked a friendly volunteer outside the Global Vipassana Centre (which emphasises the secular universal nature of its meditation practices, but also contains holy relics of the Buddha) how often he personally meditated. He paused for a moment, looked a bit sheepish and then said "not very often".