Vipassana Centers
The Hong Kong Vipassana Meditation Center (HKVMC) is located in the quiet village of Hang Tau in Sheung Shui. The center was built on a 7,000 square foot farmland. The site comprises a meditation hall, separate living quarters for male and female (complete with toilet and bathing facilities), as well as an office and living quarters for volunteers. The meditation hall and all living quarters are fitted with air conditioners and can accommodate about 50 students.
Courses in Klaten are held at Wisma Dhamma Guna. Klaten is located 25 km from Jogjakarta. The site has a cool climate - the temperature around 23 C at night time and 29 C at day time. The site can accomdate 60 students.
This hired course site is surrounded by tropical gardens, a vegetable farm and green fields. It is used regularly for up to 40 students. The main lodge of the farm property is used for female students and has several shared dorms. Another building is used for male students. The main hall is air-conditioned.
We rent a site at Krutyń in the north east to run all the 10-day and Satipatthana courses held in Poland and will do for the foreseeable future.
The attempts to spread Vipassana in Lithuania originate from 1992, the year of the first group sitting in this East
European country. That year a few people went to meditate at the French and English Vipassana centres but only on
individual basis.
From 2001, the spread of Dhamma became more organized with people sitting courses at Dhamma Geha in Germany
and the beginning of weekly group sittings. By 2004, a group of ten active meditators were able to organize the first
10-day Vipassana course in Lithuania, in the town of Troskunai, approximately an hour away from the capital Vilnius.
45 students participated in this course.
The participants on this first course were mostly Lithuanians, with one student from Russia and two from Ukraine.
The rented site was a Catholic seminary, which offered a very suitable facility. Donations for this first course came
from the French, Spanish and English Vipassana Trusts as well as from individual students from different countries.
After the first course in 2004 one Vipassana course was conducted in Lithuania every year. In several years time there
was a rapid growth of demand in the country and since 2011 two 10-day courses and one 3-day course is being
conducted every year.
In year 2012 Dhamma workers and trustees were successful to find a venue for a large course: around 130 students
and 15 servers could take part in the course in September, 2012. Although such a large course was conducted in
Lithuania for the first time, it all went well and was very successful.
Even with two annual courses and increased number of students, the waiting lists for courses are long. The interest in
meditation is rapidly increasing in Lithuania.