Official Vipassana website, app and social media: spot fakes

The official website for Vipassana as taught by S. N. Goenka is dhamma.org: it lists the tradition's centres worldwide, and you search and apply for its courses there or in the Dhamma.org app. None of those courses charges a fee. Its sister sites are vridhamma.org (the Vipassana Research Institute in India) and globalpagoda.org (the Global Vipassana Pagoda in Mumbai).

Anything that asks you to pay for a "Goenka course", or offers to teach you the technique over a video call, is not part of that tradition, whatever it calls itself. Below are the official websites, apps and social media accounts, each checked against the tradition's own sites in September 2026, then the signs of an imitation.

The official websites of Goenka's tradition

Channel	What it is for	Address
dhamma.org	Course search and applications, worldwide directory of centres, introductions to the technique	https://www.dhamma.org
Centre websites	Each centre's own schedule and information, for example Dhamma Shringa in Kathmandu	name.dhamma.org, such as https://shringa.dhamma.org
Vipassana Centres in Nepal	Links to every centre in Nepal and to course search	https://np.dhamma.org
Dhamma Resources	Talks, documentaries and Mini-Anapana recordings; course discourses for old students	https://discourses.dhamma.org
Special sites	Courses for business executives, prisons, and children and teenagers	https://executive.dhamma.org · https://prison.dhamma.org · https://children.dhamma.org
Vipassana Research Institute (VRI)	History, research, Goenka's writings, books, and course schedules for centres in India	https://www.vridhamma.org · https://schedule.vridhamma.org
VRI old students' site	Resources for people who have completed a 10-day course (login needed)	https://os.vridhamma.org
Global Vipassana Pagoda	The pagoda in Mumbai, its museum and app, and one-day courses for old students	https://www.globalpagoda.org

dhamma.org's own menu links to its special sites for executives, prisons and children, and to VRI and the Global Pagoda. VRI's "Related Websites" page lists dhamma.org, its course search, the Global Pagoda and the executive, prison, children's and old students' sites. In Nepal, np.dhamma.org links to each centre's site, such as Dhamma Shringa and Dhamma Janani in Lumbini; our Nepal centres list links to the same sites.

The official apps

• Dhamma.org (iPhone and Android), linked from every page of dhamma.org. According to dhamma.org, it lets you find centres and courses, apply, and listen to or watch talks and the Mini-Anapana introduction. Old students can also reach group-sitting recordings and a sitting log that "is only stored locally on your device".
• Anapana for Young People, also listed on dhamma.org, for children and teenagers who have learned Anapana on a course.
• Vipassana Meditation, published by the Vipassana Research Institute and linked from vridhamma.org.
• Global Vipassana Pagoda, also published by VRI and linked from globalpagoda.org.

Install these from the links on the official sites. In the app stores, the publisher shown is Dhamma.org or the Vipassana Research Institute. What the apps offer, and what stays for old students, is explained in guided Vipassana audio and online courses.

A plain timer is a different kind of app from these. Clean Pomodoro, a meditation and focus timer free on iPhone and Android, is not the app of any tradition or organisation; after a course, you can use it at home to time a silent daily Vipassana or Anapana sitting of your own length, which it ends with a gentle cue.

Books: VRI and Pariyatti

VRI publishes Goenka's books and has a "Free Books" section on its site. dhamma.org's list of publications for meditators names VRI, Pariyatti (https://pariyatti.org) and suppliers in Australia, Britain, New Zealand, Germany and France as "Suppliers of Books about Vipassana", and notes that these sites also offer free downloads. Selling books is normal. Selling the course, or the instructions given on it, is not.

Official social media accounts

We list an account only if an official site links to it. dhamma.org and np.dhamma.org link to no social media accounts at all. The accounts below are linked from vridhamma.org and globalpagoda.org.

Account	Linked from	Address
Facebook: Vipassanaorganisation	vridhamma.org, globalpagoda.org	https://www.facebook.com/Vipassanaorganisation/
X (formerly Twitter): @VipassanaOrg	vridhamma.org, globalpagoda.org	https://twitter.com/VipassanaOrg
Instagram: @vipassanaorg (profile name "Vipassana Research Institute")	vridhamma.org, globalpagoda.org	https://www.instagram.com/vipassanaorg/
YouTube: VipassanaOrg	vridhamma.org, globalpagoda.org	https://www.youtube.com/user/VipassanaOrg
Telegram: vipassanaorg (labelled "Anapana Telegram" on VRI's site)	vridhamma.org, globalpagoda.org	https://t.me/vipassanaorg
Facebook: VipassanaPagoda	globalpagoda.org	https://www.facebook.com/VipassanaPagoda
Instagram: @globalvipassanapagoda (profile name "Global Vipassana Foundation")	globalpagoda.org	https://www.instagram.com/globalvipassanapagoda/

VRI also links a separate Telegram group for old students, which we do not list. Many other pages and groups use "Vipassana", "Dhamma" or "Goenka" in their names. Some are run by meditators with good intentions, but unless an official site links to them, they do not speak for the tradition. We could not verify any social media account for Nepal's centres.

Official websites of other traditions

Other traditions have their own organisations, and several of them do charge fees or teach online. That is their practice, not a sign of a fake. These are the official sites used on our techniques pages.

Tradition	Organisation	Address
International Meditation Centres (Sayagyi U Ba Khin)	International Meditation Centre	https://www.internationalmeditationcentre.org
Mahasi noting	Mahasi Sasana Yeiktha, Yangon; Panditarama Lumbini, Nepal	https://mahasi.org.mm · https://panditarama-lumbini.org
Pa-Auk	Pa-Auk Forest Monastery	https://www.paaukforestmonastery.org
Thai forest	Forest Sangha (monasteries in Ajahn Chah's lineage)	https://forestsangha.org
Insight meditation in the West	IMS, Spirit Rock, Gaia House	https://www.dharma.org · https://www.spiritrock.org · https://gaiahouse.co.uk
Shwe Oo Min	Sayadaw U Tejaniya	https://ashintejaniya.org
Suan Mokkh	Suan Mokkh International Dharma Hermitage	https://www.suanmokkh-idh.org
Sunlun	Kaba Aye Sun Lun Monastery	http://www.sunlun-meditation.net

No official English-language website was found for the Mogok tradition as of 2026.

How to spot an unofficial or paid imitation

These signs apply to courses that claim to be in S. N. Goenka's tradition. Each rests on what dhamma.org itself says.

It charges a fee

dhamma.org says: "There are no charges for the courses - not even to cover the cost of food and accommodation." Its Code of Discipline adds that "Donations are accepted only from those who have completed at least one 10-day course in this tradition." A request for money before you have sat a course, or a price for a seat, is outside the tradition's rules. So is a paid teacher: "Teachers receive no payment, donations or other material benefit." More on money is in is Vipassana free?.

It teaches Vipassana online or in a few hours

dhamma.org says: "The technique is taught at ten-day residential courses." None of the official sites offers an online course for new students. The online activity the tradition does run, such as group sittings listed in the app, is for old students who have already completed a residential course.

It sells or streams guided Vipassana instructions

The only guided session the tradition offers the public is Mini-Anapana, an introduction to breath awareness. VRI says: "There should be no charge whatsoever for attending a Mini Anapana session." Paid recordings, or free videos presented as a guided Goenka Vipassana session, are not official.

The course is not on dhamma.org

dhamma.org's help page says applying for a 10-day course "is done through our website or mobile app". If a course is not listed on dhamma.org, on a centre's name.dhamma.org site or, for India, on schedule.vridhamma.org, treat it with caution.

The web address is slightly wrong

Look at the address before you type anything in. Official sites sit on dhamma.org (including its centre subdomains), vridhamma.org and globalpagoda.org. A similar-looking name on another domain is not one of them.

If you are unsure

Contact a centre you know is genuine through the directory on dhamma.org, or through the centre pages in our centres directory, and ask. For questions about a booking, dhamma.org asks you to contact the centre you applied to, "as only they have access to the course applications".