Goenkaji first publicly set guidelines for his assistant teachers at a February 1984 meeting in Jaipur, India. A full report on the meeting appears in the April 1984 Newsletter, Vol. 11, No. 2. Following are some extracts.

An assistant is a representative of the Teacher, and hence of the Dhamma. The function of an assistant at a course is not just the mechanical playing of the tapes. Rather, assistants must see that Dhamma is presented to students in the proper way, and by their own meditation they must help to create the proper Dhamma atmosphere in which students can work best.

Assistant teachers must maintain the Five Precepts as carefully as possible in daily life. They must abstain completely from the use of drugs and intoxicants. They must be either married or celibate. The morality of an assistant should not only be beyond reproach, it should appear irreproachable as well.

The Dhamma work must never become a source of profit for assistants or their families. Assistants must have their own means of support for themselves and their dependents. They may not accept money or costly gifts from students, nor may their families do so.

Assistants must be fully committed to the Path of Dhamma. In their teaching they must maintain the purity of the technique, seeing that students in courses led by them receive exactly the same teaching as they would in a course led by Goenkaji personally.

In courses led by assistants, the teaching is presented by means of tapes of Goenkaji’s chantings, instructions and discourses. However, in case of mechanical difficulty, an assistant must be prepared to speak or chant directly when necessary.

Assistants should always try to work without ego, with the humble feeling that they are merely assisting the Teacher, by performing the task which he has asked them to undertake. On the other hand, students should have an attitude of respect toward assistants as the representatives of the Teacher. Not everyone can be given the same job. One should feel sympathetic joy (muditā) for fellow students whom Goenkaji considers fit to undertake the work of assistants, and should wish them well in their difficult task.

If one believes something is wrong in the conduct of an assistant, one should bring the matter respectfully to the attention of that assistant. If the student is not convinced by the explanation of the assistant, then the matter should be placed before Goenkaji.

In the two years since the first assistant teacher–led course was held [i.e. 1982 to 1984], over 100 such courses have been given, allowing many the opportunity to practice and establish themselves in the technique of Vipassana meditation. The success of these courses is indicated by the fact that the demand for them continues to grow sharply. In order to meet the increasing demand, Goenkaji has appointed several more assistants. In this way, the Dhamma will be able to spread more widely than ever before.