Dhamma Sela

Dhamma Sela ('rock of Dhamma'), the Rocky Mountain Vipassana Center, is on more than 156 acres of ponderosa pine forest and grassland on the high plains of Colorado's Front Range, near the town of Elbert. It is about 60 miles south-east of Denver and 35 miles north-east of Colorado Springs, and the centre lists Denver International as its airport. S. N. Goenka's students began holding courses in Colorado in 1982 at rented sites, including, from 2006 to 2020, a children's camp next door. In 2002 Goenka encouraged the Rocky Mountain Vipassana Association to build a permanent centre near Denver; after a search of more than fifteen years, the centre was established here in 2017, and dhamma.org lists its first course in 2021. Students sleep in dormitory-style rooms with shared bathrooms in the main house or in canvas tents on raised platforms, and because of the current buildings each course is for one gender only. The centre holds 10-day courses and short courses of one to three days for old students; as of 2026, priority for 10-day courses goes to applicants from Colorado and New Mexico. There are no charges: courses run solely on donations from past students. The centre notes that, perhaps by coincidence, it sits in a large area of petrified wood deposits.

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).