Larry Leshin interviewed Eric in spring 1996 and published that interview in Grassroots, a newsletter of the Albuquerque vipassana community. Here is a reprint of that interview:
Interviewer's Note: I'm sort of paraphrasing Eric -- any inaccuracies or inelegance of phrasing is surely my mistake and has nothing to do with Eric.
GR: Eric, could you say something about your background, personally and in meditation?
EK: I've been teaching vipassana since 1985. My main teachers have been Joseph Goldstein and Sharon Salzberg, although I have studied with many other teachers along the way.
Except for a two year period in the 1980's when I studied Zen, all my background is in the vipassana/Theravadin tradition.
GR: You never went to Thailand or Burma or any place to study in a monastery?
EK: No. I have attended 12 of the three month retreats at IMS (Insight Meditation Society in Barre, MA), but I have never studied overseas. So you might call this "pure American dharma". Additionally, I was a long term yogi at IMS. If the intent to practice hard is there, I don't think it's so important where you study.
GR: And personally?
EK: I'm from Portsmouth in rural New Hampshire, and grew up working class rural. I went to Middlebury College in Vermont, and got a Ph.D. from Yale in English.
For several years I taught college English, but then two things happened simultaneously. One was a severe and disabling depression, and the other was a newfound interest in the dharma. The dharma seemed to provide solutions to problems that weren't being addressed by the medical community, issues relating to a traumatic childhood, violence, and alcoholism in the family.
GR: Can you talk about coming to New Mexico and what that means to you?
EK: I was invited to New Mexico by the Santa Fe Vipassana Sangha and decided to come. Sangha is a very important component of Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. Without this kind of grassroots dharma (editor's note: this was Eric's unprompted expression. He used the term "grassroots" on several occasions during the interview.) there would have been no occasion for anyone to invite me to New Mexico. When the sangha was formed in Santa Fe, it was one of their basic intentions to get a teacher to come to New Mexico.
My primary objective is to support the formation of a strong spiritual community.
GR: Could you expound a bit on what you mean by "strong spiritual community"?
EK: The sangha is a group of people committed to a different way of living, and to support each other in that effort. It's a community which is in contrast to the prevailing culture of distraction and material pursuits. There is a willingness to face difficulties in a different way.
GR: And what do you see your role being?
EK: My only purpose is to support people's own liberating practice. I'm not coming to throw around any spiritual authority. I know that, in Albuquerque for example, separate meditation groups have formed on their own, and I am in favor of autonomous communities. On the other hand, I think that it would be useful to iron out any existing tensions between the groups and to ask if they could create some kind of larger community.
One other thing: years ago, a teacher asked Ram Dass what was the most important thing he could bring to his teaching. The reply was, "faith in the dharma". Perhaps my most important role would be this: I have 100% faith in the effectiveness of this practice. The Buddha said that the most powerful kind of faith is verified faith, from your own experience. So, my message will be that this practice really works.
May you be well.