Dhamma Pubbananda

Dhamma Pubbananda ('joy of the East') describes itself as the first urban Vipassana centre in North America. It is on 13 acres in a quiet residential area of Claymont, Delaware, about 30 minutes south of Philadelphia (the centre gives 117 miles to New York City and 118 miles to Washington, DC), and is owned and run by the Mid-Atlantic Vipassana Association, a non-profit that grew out of the region's first course in 1997 and bought the property in 2013. The centre opened in November 2014 with one building and room for 15 students; a second building with a kitchen and two dining halls followed in 2016, raising capacity to 60. According to dhamma.org, 30 of the 60 students now have private rooms with en suite bathrooms, a small pagoda holds 30 meditation cells, and the master plan adds 30 more rooms and cells, a larger Dhamma hall and a teacher's residence. About 20 ten-day courses are held a year, some bilingual (English with Burmese, Mandarin, Khmer, Nepali or Spanish), alongside courses for old students and courses for children and teenagers. There is no charge for teaching or for room and board: courses run on donations from past students. Claymont station, on the Wilmington/Newark rail line, is about one and a half miles away, and Philadelphia International is the closest major airport.

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).