European Long Course Center
On January 24, 2008, the European Long-Course Center (ELCC) Trust received confirmation from Herefordshire District Council that its planning application has been accepted for the proposed buildings for Dhamma Padhāna, the first dedicated long-course center in Europe. This completes the detailed outline planning permissions needed to build the new center on the land adjacent to Dhamma Dīpa in the UK.

The first course dedicated to Dhamma Padhāna will begin on September 12. This is a special Satipatthāna Sutta course hosted by Dhamma Dīpa and will accommodate 200 students. Goenkaji intends to give some of the instructions live by video uplink from India; the students will be able to see Goenkaji on the screen and Goenkaji will be able to see the students. Weather permitting; students will occasionally meditate together on Dhamma Padhāna land.

Construction work is planned to start at the end of the course, and there will be a special sitting on the Dhamma Padhāna land.

Building will progress as funding is offered. If sufficient funds are available, it is possible there will be an operational center for 50 students as early as the end of 2009, including a meditation hall, cells and private en-suite accommodation. The completed center for 100 students will include permanent cells in a two-story pagoda.

The ELCC Trust welcomes suitably experienced or enthusiastic old students to help with the construction of the new center. This work is dependent on the availability of a professional project manager and will be augmented as needed by professional subcontractors. 

If you would like to receive email updates on developments concerning the ELCC, please send a blank email to long-course-exchange-subscribe@eu.region.dhamma.org.

Dhamma Maṇḍa Vipassana Center
The Northern California Vipassana Association has purchased a former resort in Lake County and has been granted a use permit to develop the 17-acre property into a permanent meditation center. Located in the Cobb mountain area, Dhamma Maṇḍa is a two-and-a-half-hour drive from the Bay Area, one hour from Santa Rosa, and less than two hours from Sacramento. This lovely property, with its delightful collection of rustic buildings nestled among mature pine, fir and oak trees, will serve meditators well in the years to come.

Fulfilling the conditions of the use-permit requires substantial remodeling, including construction of a new commercial kitchen and expansion of the meditation hall to hold up to 60 students. There will be much work in the coming months to complete these many projects in order to begin offering ten-day courses for approximately 50 students by late fall 2008. For more information, email info@manda.dhamma.org.

First Course at Dhamma Patāpa
Dhamma Patāpa (Majesty of Dhamma) is the Southeast Vipassana Center in Jesup, Georgia, USA. It stands in a beautiful, secluded location on 40 acres of land surrounding the center’s cluster of buildings. Majestic old pines, oaks, and other trees and vegetation add to an ideal environment for peaceful meditation.

The land for Dhamma Patāpa was bought on December 21, 2005. Ever since, construction has progressed thanks to help from several old students who joined the Dhamma worker construction crew.

Present facilities include a meditation hall for 40 students, dining hall, and accommodation for 30 students as well as teachers, and Dhamma servers.
Peaceful, foliage-lined walking paths for students are available on both sides of the buildings. Since space remains tight, the Center Development Committee has begun planning for a single accommodation building that will allow the comfortable addition of more students, and this plan is expected to move forward as soon as finances allow.

The first course at Dhamma Patāpa took place in March 2008. Twenty-eight students finished the course, with six old students providing service. Several more courses have been scheduled for throughout the year.

For more information, email info@patapa.dhamma.org or call Tel. [1] (912) 663-5646 or [1] (770) 456-5385.

A New Home for the Dhamma in Italy
Servers from all over Europe and beyond arrived at the new home of Dhamma Atala, the Italian centre, a few days before the first 10-day course to transform the site into a Vipassana centre.

The new Dhamma Atala consists of a classic Italian villa and three old stone buildings on a huge plot of land, situated in the peace and calm of the lush green, steep hills of Tuscany. The surroundings are beautiful and inspiring, with a great variety of animals, plants and trees, such as cherry, fig and Mediterranean pine. When the servers arrived, there was no electricity, no running water and a lot to do to do in a very short time.

But it’s amazing what can be done by working together for the good of the many. Two days before the course, water starts pouring out of the taps. One day before, the centre got electricity and the mattresses for the students arrived.

On registration day, all the toilets and showers got their own door and the huge pile of rubbish on the courtyard suddenly disappeared. Students arriving for the course have been warned about possibly challenging conditions.

But in the evening 43 students are sitting in the meditation hall, which had been brought all the way from the old, rented, Dhamma Atala. The course starts turning Dhamma Atala into a true Vipassana centre, where birds nest in the female dining hall.

There were 43 students from USA, Poland, Russia, Slovenia, Belgium, France and of course Italy in the first course. There were some failures of electricity, the water pump, the gas in the kitchen but all these were handled very well and could not disturb the wonderful atmosphere. The baby birds in the female dining hall hatched on day 2 and the first one left the nest on day 9. On mettā day many of the new students showed interest in coming back to serve and even in joining committees.

Some of the servers felt very much at home at the new centre and would like to return, for longer periods. It’s a wonderful new home for the Dhamma, with all its wonderful nature including fire flies.

May this wonderful new Vipassana centre be a dwelling of pure Dhamma, for the good and liberation of many.

The Dhamma Brothers and Letters from the Dhamma Brothers
The Dhamma Brothers, an award-winning documentary film about the first Vipassana courses held at Donaldson Prison in Alabama, has been opening in theatres and receiving an enthusiastic response. It tells a dramatic tale of human potential and transformation as it closely documents the stories of 36 prison inmates who enter into the arduous and intensive Vipassana meditation program. It challenges assumptions about the nature of prisons as places of punishment rather than rehabilitation and raises the question: “Is it possible for these men, some of whom were convicted of horrendous crimes, to change?”

For more information, visit dhammabrothers.com.

The recently released book Letters from the Dhamma Brothers gives us direct access to the thoughts, struggles, dreams, and triumphs of the inmates who completed the first Vipassana course at Donaldson, through letters they sent to those who brought the Vipassana course to the prison in 2002. Each man shares his own story of finding the courage to keep sitting; of resisting the temptation to fall back into old habits and negative ways of coping with prison life; of reconciling his past actions with their effects on himself, family, friends, and the victims of his crimes; and of experiencing a bond with the other student inmates that extended far beyond the intense experience of the ten-day course. The Dhamma brotherhood survives even when the Vipassana program itself is suspended and some of the men find it too difficult to keep the practice going.

When the prison once again invites the Vipassana Prison Trust to conduct a three-day course for the old-student Dhamma brothers in January 2006, there is a joyful homecoming and a revival of Dhamma practice and enthusiasm. Six years on and counting, these letters written by the inmates will give readers the chance to decide whether Dhamma can grow even in the most unlikely soil.

For more information about Letters from the Dhamma Brothers contact Pariyatti Press: www.pariyatti.org.

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