Vipassana Centers
The Austrian Vipassana Trust has been established in 2008 in order to serve the growing demand for Vipassana courses in Austria. From 2008 till 2010 three courses could be organized annually at rented sites with capacities of up to 150 persons. In 2011 and 2012 four courses have been held and even five courseshave been scheduled for 2013 and 2014.
The long term perspective is to establish an Austrian meditation centre, dedicated solely to running Vipassana Meditation Courses. A site has been bought. Planning, design and funding are already in progress.
The first 10 day course in Portugal was held in Algarve in 1990 for only 9 students. Two of the students were old students and they were not Portuguese. At that moment, there were only two Vipassana students in Portugal. Since then, one 10 day course was conducted every year, having increased later on to two/three courses a year. Until 1998 the courses were conducted in English and Spanish, but thanks to the efforts of several Brazilian students, the course was recorded in Portuguese, allowing more and more Portuguese students to learn the technique.
In 2011, the Vipassana Association of Portugal was formed (non-profit Association), which is responsible for the organization of courses and also the spread of this meditation technique that promotes self-knowledge, morality, mental concentration, the observation and profound understanding of one’s own physical and mental reality. The Association is constituted by old students who meet at least once a year and are appointed every 3 years.
Because the Association is not connected to any type of organization, the running of the courses is only made possible by the voluntary donations. These donations are only accepted from those who have completed at least one course and who wish that other courses may happen so that other people may benefit as well
At present only short courses for old students are held in the Territory. The nearest ten day courses for new and old students are in Bali.
Fiji has non-centre courses on an irregular basis. So far the 10-day courses have been held at a Catholic Teacher Training College on the outskirts of Suva. The courses attract participants from all communities in Fiji.
Vipassana Cambodia, legally named as Vipassana Organization of Cambodia (VOC) is a legal NGO registered with Ministry of Interior of Cambodian Government, No. 4612 on 03 June 2016. Vipassana Organization of Cambodia is handling all legal issue as well as administrative tasks for Vipassana Centers as taught by S.N. Goenka in the tradition of Sayagyi U Ba Khin in Cambodia. The head office is located in Phnom Penh, the capital city of Cambodia, and inside the office there is a Meditation Hall (non-center) that offers 1-day courses every month and 2-hour group sittings every Sunday. Its Meditation Hall can comfortably accommodate 50 male and female students.