Project finalized

Dhamma Pajjota purchases the neighbouring youth camp

In 2014 the possibility arose to purchase the youth camping grounds that are located across the road from Dhamma Pajjota. The negotiations came to a happy end with the parties agreeing to a price that was good for the camp owners and for the Vipassana vzw. The acquisition will take place this year. As part of the arrangement, Dhamma Pajjota will allow the former owners to honor their contractual agreements with a number of tenants who were already scheduled to rent the camp grounds till summer 2016. This usufruct will have ended by December 31, 2016, at which time the new property, with its grounds and building will be transferred completely to the Vipassana vzw.
 
The purchase of the camping grounds will insure more silence, allowing thousands of  students to meditate more seriously in the years to come. The grounds will provide space for a new parking lot and may be used as quarters for long-term servers, or other purposes in future.
 
Since the transaction will take place this year, donations and loans specifically for this cause are very welcome. Because of the competing demand on funds, a number of planned large building projects-- a new male accommodation building, a new kitchen and dining halls-- are likely to be delayed by up to 8 years. Even so, the renovation of the present accommodation building will proceed as planned this coming year.
 
The surface area of the new property, in part classified as recreational land and in part as forest, is about 24,000 square meters, or nearly 2.4 hectares. All old students are invited to support this purchase.

You may want to contribute by donating one or more square meters. The cost is €21/sq.m.
 
For information on how to support the purchase of the youth camp financially, please visit the donations page for old students.
 

For meditation a place of solitude is required—secluded and with no disturbance. The meditator goes to a forest (arañña-gato vā), the foot of a tree (rukkha-mūla-gato vā) or a place where nobody lives (suññāgāra-gato vā) —any of these three.
(from the Satipatthāna Sutta discourse, day 3 - S.N. Goenka)