October 2023

Inspirational words

News from Dhamma Muditā

Opportunities to help

New bank account and doubling of donations until 31.12.2023

Courses in Ukraine 2023

Inspirational literature

Do you have questions regarding your practice?

Dates of upcoming courses

Inspirational words

The Buddha said that one who practices right speech, “is steadfast in truthfulness, trustworthy, dependable, straightforward with others. He reconciles the quarreling and encourages the united. He delights in harmony, seeks after harmony, rejoices in harmony, and creates harmony by his words. His speech is gentle, pleasing to the ear, kindly, heartwarming, courteous, agreeable, and enjoyable to many. He speaks at the proper time, according to the facts, according to what is helpful, according to Dhamma and the Code of Conduct. His words are worth remembering, timely, well-chosen, and constructive.”

News from Dhamma Muditā

Summer was an exciting time at Dhamma Muditā! While plans were already underway in the background for the start of construction in spring 2024, the first 3-day courses, four in number, were held very successfully. The participants stayed overnight in tents or in their cars. The weather was kind to the courses and the heavy rain capability of the tents was only thoroughly tested on the first night of the last course in September. The 3-day courses were a beautiful and enriching experience for all, for the meditators as well as for the servers.

Between these first four 3-day courses, which were spread over the whole summer, eager helping hands were able to complete the area-wide photovoltaic system on the roof of the garden hut and connect it to the power grid. During the last service period in mid-October, the center sign was now also put up, which in the future will inform all people who come to the center grounds about Vipassana meditation according to S.N. Goenka and the Dhamma Muditā centre project.

In addition to the construction activities, shrubs and trees are also planted each year to provide privacy and valuable shade. For this purpose, mainly regional and/or climate-friendly and ecologically valuable species are selected. If you would like to donate a plant for the centre grounds, please transfer the following amount to the account of the association:

• Shade tree (incl. trunk protection, tree anchoring and starting fertilizer): € 150,-
• Ecologically valuable bird protection shrub (incl. browsing protection and starting fertilizer): €7,-

Start of construction in spring 2024

In spring 2024, thanks to generous donations, student loans and a bank loan, the long-awaited construction work at Dhamma Muditā can finally begin. Construction phase 1a, which will begin early next year, includes two accommodation buildings for course participants and a small section of the KDO (Kitchen-Dining-Office), in which a temporary kitchen and dining rooms will be installed for the time being. The existing “garden hut” will continue to be used as a meditation hall and will be expanded next year to accommodate up to 70 course participants. You can read more details about the new building concept in the July newsletter (access data: oldstudent/behappy).

We expect that the intensive construction phase will last until spring 2025 and that regular courses can start in Dhamma Muditā in summer 2025. For the next construction phase 1b – i.e. the construction of the KDO – about 4 million Euros are still needed, which have to be collected through new donations and loans. Parallel to the planning of the KDO and the ongoing course operation, we will try to complete the third accommodation building. It is planned to build it mainly with our own labour in order to keep the additional costs as low as possible.

New bank account and doubling of donations until 31.12.2023

The Association for Vipassana Meditation Austria recently opened a new bank account. The new account details for donations, loans and standing orders can be found at the end of this newsletter. Of course, the old account will continue to exist and be serviced for a longer period of time.

Until the end of the year, it will continue to apply that every dāna the association receives will be doubled. A meditator supports the construction of Dhamma Muditā in this way.

Opportunities to help

Expansion of the Dhamma Hall: March – August 2024

From 2024 onwards, in addition to the regular work on the grounds, there will be many very concrete opportunities to help with the construction of the centre:

• from March to August 2024, the current Dhamma Hall (garden hut) is to be extended for course operation. The work required for this includes: Insulation of the walls, heating installation, installation of escape doors and the addition of new lobbies, which will significantly increase the interior space.

• From autumn 2024, timber construction can then begin on the third residential building, provided that the foundation could already be built by then.

For both projects, a professional woodworker and Vipassana meditator is available to supervise the construction and to guide other meditators to help. We are especially looking for meditators with some experience in handicrafts, but other motivated helpers who can be trained accordingly or who would like to support the building activities with cooking, tidying up, cleaning, preparing etc. are also very welcome.

It is very special to be able to help build a new Vipassana centre – an opportunity that is very rare and not given to many people. We hope that many will take the chance to participate in this very special Dhamma service. Please contact us at [email protected] if you are interested.

Outlook for the next courses

Summer is over, autumn has come into the country and the Association for Vipassana Meditation is looking forward to a total of six 10-day courses that will be organised in Austria until mid-March 2024.

Very soon, from 12.11. to 23.11. and from 24.11. to 05.12. another “double course” will take place in Raabs an der Thaya. For the course starting on 24.11. we are still acutely looking for servers, especially female servers! So far, only six out of the 18 necessary helpers have signed up. If you would like to contribute to make the course happen and have at least 7-8 days for a part-time service or ideally 11 days to give service at the whole course, please register via the course programme.

After these two courses in Raabs an der Thaya, the popular New Year’s course will take place in St. Arbogast, Vorarlberg, which is peppered with many holidays due to its favourable timing and is also already well filled on the part of the servers.

In spring 2024, from 7 February to 15 March, for the first time three courses will be held in series at the JUFA Waldviertel in Raabs an der Thaya. For details on the dates and start of the registration deadlines, please see the course programme. To make three courses in a row possible, many helping hands will of course be needed!

Giving service on a course is a very valuable and enriching experience – but it is equally valuable if you come to help set up or dismantle a course and meditate together. A great deal of support is needed in setting up the first course and dismantling the last course of a series. If you are interested in helping to set up or dismantle a course, or if you would like to help organise a course in general, please contact us at [email protected].

Courses in Ukraine 2023

The following report was given by a Vipassana teacher on the present situation in Ukraine:

“Autumn 2021 had been the last time when courses had taken place in Ukraine. During the usual winter break the war started in 2022 and all planned courses were cancelled that year as large gatherings were not possible. At some point in 2023 gatherings were allowed again and old students started to search for potential sites. It was decided to look for a location near Kiev as most old students that were still active lived there. This turned out to be much more difficult than before because most camps were now used for military purposes or for refugees from Eastern Ukraine. Whatever was left was usually occupied by holiday makers who wanted to get out of the city. (One old student told me that there was a new saying that “you need to look after your war/life balance”).

…continue reading here.

Inspirational literature

For those fluent in German we can recommend the following new publication:

“Werner Vogd ist dem Phänomen Vipassana in einem mehrjährigen Forschungsprojekt nachgegangen. Zusammen mit Dunja Batarilo beschreibt er Vipassana als die Kunst, ein Leben zu führen, in dem sich die Sinnfrage nicht mehr stellt. Stattdessen kann sich das Potenzial der eigenen Existenz wirklich entfalten. Das Leben – seiner Natur nach instabil, berührbar und fragil – wird gerade dadurch lebendig, dass es auf dem Fluss ständiger Dynamik und Veränderlichkeit beruht. Das Buch erläutert u. a. eingehend die positiven Auswirkungen von Vipassana auf Depression, Angstzustände und tiefe Verunsicherung.”

This recently published book can be obtained from www.ayana-book.de, the Germany based distributer of Vipassana literature in German and English. Media in English can also be found on the website of the Vipassana Research Institute www.vri.dhamma.org and on www.pariyatti.org. Pilgrimages to India and Nepal are also offered via pariyatti.org. It is worthwhile to browse a little on these websites!

Do you have questions regarding your practice?

Then please do not hesitate to contact [email protected]. Please state in your email when and where you attended your last course and include your contact details. A teacher will get in touch with you.

Dates of upcoming courses

The course programme on the Vipassana website is regularly updated. Here you will find a current excerpt:

For information on official group sittings and short courses in Dhamma Muditā (Upper Austria), Vienna, Dornbirn, Graz, Klagenfurt, Oberpiesting (Lower Austria) and Bolzano (South Tyrol) please follow this link, register with oldstudent/behappy and contact the appropriate person.