Dhamma Sumeru

Dhamma Sumeru ('the heavenly mountain of the Dhamma') was founded in November 1999 as the first Vipassana centre of this tradition in Switzerland. It is on Mont-Soleil, a village in the Swiss Jura at about 1,100 m (3,600 feet), near St-Imier, between Biel and La Chaux-de-Fonds, among pastures, fields and forest. The house was built in 1904 and was a hotel until the 1920s, then a holiday camp for children, which it still was when the Swiss Vipassana Association bought it in autumn 1999. It stands in two acres of land with tall trees, pasture and walking paths. The centre asks students to come by public transport, because winter roads can be difficult and parking is limited: by train via Biel/Bienne to St-Imier (about 1.5 hours from Bern and 2.5 hours from Zürich or Basel), a 15-minute walk to the funicular up to Mont-Soleil, then a 10-minute walk to the centre. Courses are taught in English, French, German and Italian, and the centre advises new students to sit their first course in their native language. Besides 10-day courses, the centre holds Satipatthana Sutta and 3-day courses for old students, and Anapana courses over a long weekend for children aged 8 to 12 and teenagers aged 13 to 18, in German and French; its schedule also lists 1-day courses for old students in towns such as Bern and Lausanne. All expenses are met by donations.

How to apply

Apply online through the centre's page on dhamma.org (in Nepal, start from np.dhamma.org). New students must first complete a 10-day course, and there is no charge.

What is taught here

Donation-funded 10-day courses taught with S. N. Goenka's recorded instructions, in the line of Sayagyi U Ba Khin, at centres in Nepal and worldwide. Read about Goenka (U Ba Khin).