in the tradition of Sayagyi U Ba Khin
Course Schedule
Center Location: Website | Map
** Unless noted otherwise, course instructions are given in the following language(s): English
The Northwest Vipassana Center, also known as Dhamma Kuñja, is situated on 50 acres in rural western Washington, conveniently located approximately two hours drive from both Seattle, WA and Portland, OR. It was established in August 1991 to offer training in Vipassana meditation.
- Access the application form by clicking Apply for the desired course. Old students will be given the option to serve.
- Please carefully read the Introduction to the Technique and Code of Discipline which you will be asked to follow during your course.
- Fully and completely fill out all the sections of application form and submit it. An application is required to register for all courses.
- Await notification. All correspondence will be through e-mail if you give an e-mail address in your application. Due to the large volume of applications, it may take up to two weeks before receiving notification.
- If your application is accepted then we require you to confirm you will be attending in order to secure your place in the course.
Northwest Vipassana Meditation Center | General Course Registration | Child/Teen Course Registration |
LOTTERY PROCEDURE WILL DETERMINE ACCEPTANCES.
Courses open for applications for just 72 hours
Applications received during this period will have a chance of acceptance.
Applications restricted to Washington or Oregon residents
All will need to self-quarantine for 10 days immediately before coming to the Center.
While under quarantine, you can still perform necessary activities, e.g. grocery shopping or medical appointments, as long as you wear a mask and maintain social distancing.
PRE-APPLICATION GUIDELINES
Anyone with any of the following conditions should not apply at this time:
- Testing positive with Covid-19 virus or direct contact with someone who tested positive.
- Not consistently wearing a mask and maintaining 6’ physical distance from others while away from home.
- Close contact with anyone not routinely wearing a mask and maintaining social distancing while outside of their home.
- Experiencing any of the following Covid-19 symptoms:
- new or worsening cough
- mild or moderate difficulty breathing
- fever, chills, or sore throat
- vomiting or diarrhea
- headache or body/muscle aches
- sustained loss of smell, taste, or appetite
- fatigue
- Significant changes that involve higher risk of contracting Covid-19 viruses (traveling, moving residences or others moving into their home, changing jobs, etc.)
Everyone coming to the Center will be screened for the above conditions at the time of their arrival. Anyone with any symptoms of Covid-19, flu, virus, or other serious communicable illnesses will be asked to return home immediately.
Although the Center is taking all precautions, there still remains risk of exposure to COVID-19 while at the Center. Please note certain conditions may increase the risk of serious illness from Coronavirus. These conditions include:
- Age over 65 years
- Chronic lung disease or moderate to severe asthma
- Serious heart condition
- Immuno-compromise (e.g. from cancer treatment, smoking, bone marrow or organ transplant, immune deficiency, poorly controlled HIV or AIDS, or prolonged use of corticosteroids and other immune weakening medications)
- Severely overweight (body mass index [BMI] of 40 or higher)
- Diabetes
- Chronic kidney disease undergoing dialysis
- Liver disease
- Pregnancy
If you have any of the above conditions, it is advised that you not place yourself at risk to Covid-19 by coming to the Center at this time.
Travel:
At this time, to ensure the safety and well-being of everyone at the Center, we are unable to accept anyone who will be flying, car-pooling/ride share, or taking public transportation to the Center.
Diet:
Due to the extra demands on servers at this time, we regret that we are unable to accept servers or students who have special dietary requirements.
Various additional precautions are being taken at the Center to protect against the virus. These include: individual rooms, social distancing, assigned seats in dining hall, and requiring masks while in the Dhamma Hall.
If you fall ill at the Center with flu, a virus, or similar symptoms, you will be quarantined and will be asked to leave the Center as soon as possible. If you fall ill and are unable to independently return home, you will need to ask your emergency contact for assistance. Please advise them of this possibility prior to coming to the Center.
For questions contact Registration
No First Time students. 1-Day, 2-Day, and 3-Day courses are short courses for Old Students only.
ALL GROUP SITTINGS AND 1DAY COURSES ARE SUSPENDED AS OF MARCH 13, 2020.
For Old Students, Virtual Sittings are taking place. Please visit: Virtual Sitting web page
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Hillsboro Site when safe will re-open More details here
*** UPCOMING CHANGES TO REGISTRATION ***
Beginning with courses in August,
Dhamma Kuñja will reopen at full capacity by asking everyone coming to the center to be fully vaccinated. This will allow us to safely serve twice as many students as we can currently accommodate.
In addition:
- Masks will be optional
- No self-quarantine will be required
- Geographic and travel restrictions will be removed, as long as travelers follow advised precautions
- Lottery procedure will be suspended
- Proof of vaccination will be required
When the CDC lifts all restrictions on public gatherings, enrollment will be open to both vaccinated and unvaccinated applicants.
APPLICATION RESTRICTIONS
- First-time students may sit, but not serve
- Applications restricted to Washington or Oregon residents
- Waitlisted Old Students may apply to sit a second course; two course limit; once accepted for a course, all other applications will be cancelled
- Multiple serving applications are welcome
- Please don't apply to sit if you have completed sitting a 10-Day course within the last 6 months
FOR NOW, ACCEPTANCES WILL BE DETERMINED IN A LOTTERY PROCEDURE. ACCEPTANCE WILL NOT BE BASED ON TIME OF APPLICATION. ALL APPLICATIONS SUBMITTED IN THE FIXED PERIOD THE COURSE IS OPEN FOR APPLICATIONS WILL HAVE A CHANCE FOR AN ACCEPTANCE.
All ten day courses begin in the late afternoon of the first day on the schedule,
and end in the early morning of the last day on the schedule.
Courses and Activities conducted at other locations.
Note: Idaho courses are sponsored by the Intermountain Vipassana Association, and Montana courses are sponsored by the Montana Vipassana AssociationCourses for young people. Child courses are for ages 8-12; Teen courses are for ages 13-17.
See more information
The online application form encrypts your information before it is sent from your computer to our application server. However, it may not be totally secure even though encryption is used. If you are concerned about the possibility of security risks of your confidential information while it is on the Internet, do not use this form and instead download an application. Print and complete it. Then please send the form to the course organizers. By faxing or posting your application form it may delay the registration process by one to two weeks.
To access the Old Student Regional Site please click http://kunja.dhamma.org/os. A user name and password will be required to access these pages.
Questions may be addressed to Email: [email protected]
All courses are run solely on a donation basis. All expenses are met by donations from those who, having completed a course and experienced the benefits of Vipassana, wish to give others the same opportunity. Neither the Teacher nor the assistant teachers receive remuneration; they and those who serve the courses volunteer their time. Thus Vipassana is offered free from commercialisation.
Old students are those who have completed a 10-day Vipassana Meditation course with S.N. Goenka or his Assistant Teachers. Old students have the opportunity to provide Dhamma Service at the courses listed.
Bilingual courses are courses which are taught in two languages. All students will hear daily meditation instructions in both languages. The evening discourses will be heard separately.
Meditation courses are held at both center and non-center locations. Meditation centers are dedicated facilities where courses are held regularly throughout the year. Before meditation centers were established in this tradition, all courses were held at temporary sites, such as campgrounds, religious retreat centers, churches and the like. Today, in regions where centers have not yet been established by local students of Vipassana who live in the area, 10 Day meditation courses are held at non-center course sites.
