COURSE INFO
Course Overview
Learning Vipassana Meditation — A Path of Self-Transformation through a ten-day residential retreat.
01
Basics
How do I learn Vipassana?
New students learn Vipassana by taking an intensive, residential ten-day course in a rural setting. All courses are conducted by assistant teachers of S.N. Goenka using audio and video recordings of Mr. Goenka's instructions and discourses.
All ten-day courses begin the evening of the arrival day and end early morning of the departure day. Please note that the total duration of a course, including travel, is 12 days. Due to our current infrastructure, Dhamma Sela offers single-gender courses.
As there is often a waiting list, applying two months in advance is recommended. After reviewing information about the program, course requirements and code of discipline, you can check our course schedule to see which dates are available and register online, by fax, or by mail.
How are courses offered?
All courses at Dhamma Sela are run solely on a donation basis. Donations are accepted only from students who have completed at least one ten-day course with S.N. Goenka or one of his assistant teachers and have experienced for themselves the benefits of Vipassana. Thus, Vipassana is offered free from commercialism. The teachers conducting the course, the course managers and all those who work in the kitchen are all volunteers.
Students taking the course for the first time may give a donation at the end of the course. You may give a donation, small or large according to your means and volition. You donate not with the idea of paying for what you have received, but to give someone else the same opportunity in the future. Returning students may give a donation at any time.
What kind of food is served?
The food served comes from a tasty and nutritious vegetarian menu that is carefully planned in advance. Please discuss any dietary issues with the Registrar during the registration process.
What are the accommodations?
Students on the course will be offered a bed either in the main house or a tent accommodation. Rooms within the main house are dormitory style with shared bathrooms. The tents are spacious canvas tents located on tent platforms and have a twin mattress inside.
02
What to Expect on a Course
These ten-day Vipassana meditation courses are very serious — a deep operation of the mind. They can be a rigorous undertaking, both physically and mentally, and require a high level of responsibility and maturity from each student.
Students spend most of their time alone, without speaking to other students, inside their own mind, meditating for up to ten hours per day over ten days. While the course includes lectures, instructional recordings, a few meetings with the teacher, and some limited time for questions, the bulk of the ten days is spent within the autonomous, private sphere of a person's own mind.
The meditation course requires a reasonable capacity to maintain focus, cooperate in a large-group setting, follow detailed instructions, keep to a delineated time schedule, maintain silence, not disturb other students, and to work with a teacher with honesty and full cooperation.
Many students experience great benefit from these courses, but it is important to understand that results come gradually through continued practice. It is unrealistic to expect all problems to be solved in ten days. Within that time, however, the essentials of Vipassana can be learned so that it can be applied in daily life. The more the technique is practiced, the greater the freedom from misery, and the closer the approach to the ultimate goal of full liberation. Even ten days can provide results which are vivid and obviously beneficial in everyday life.
It is essential that you understand the serious nature of the ten-day course before applying. As part of the application process, all course applicants must read the Introduction to the Technique and Code of Discipline.
03
Accepted Students
Course Checklist
Information for Accepted Students
If you have been accepted to a course, the Course Checklist page has everything you need — registration confirmation, arrival and departure times, and a full packing list.
CONFIRM REGISTRATION
3–4 weeks before the course begins
ARRIVE
2:00–4:00 p.m. on the first day
DEPART
6:30–7:00 a.m. on Day 11
