Dhamma Patapa

Dhamma Patāpa ('majesty of Dhamma'), the Southeast Vipassana Center, is in a secluded rural area of Wayne County in south-eastern Georgia, ten miles south of the small town of Jesup. It is about 70 miles south-west of Savannah, 90 miles north of Jacksonville, Florida, and 250 miles south-east of Atlanta; the Jacksonville and Savannah airports are each about 1.5 hours' drive away. The land is pine, oak and mixed hardwood forest: dhamma.org gives forty acres, the centre's own history page sixty. Courses in the region began in 1993 and for years were held at rented sites. The Southeast Vipassana Association, founded in 2004, bought the property in December 2005, and the first courses here were held in March 2008 in buildings for 30 students. An expansion completed in 2011 nearly doubled capacity to close to 60 and added a new meditation hall, and as of 2026 the centre has 36 private rooms for each gender. Besides 10-day courses it holds Satipatthana Sutta, 20-day and 3-day courses for old students, bilingual 10-day courses in English with Vietnamese or Khmer, and Black Heritage 10-day courses (first held in 2023), taught like any other course but meant to support Black students. Its children's courses are sometimes held elsewhere in Georgia. Courses are free, including room and board, and run on donations from past students.

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).