Dhamma Abha

Dhamma Abha (Dhamma Ābhā, “Radiance of Dhamma”) is a Vipassana centre in Wang Thong district, Phitsanulok province, in northern-central Thailand. It teaches Vipassana as taught by S. N. Goenka in the tradition of Sayagyi U Ba Khin. The Thai Vipassana site calls it the second centre of this tradition in Thailand and dates its first ten-day course to 17 July 1999.

The centre stands near the middle of its site on a green plateau, with mountains rising to the east. The buildings are in a modern Thai style, and the grounds hold ponds, fruit trees and bamboo.

Abha has one of the wider course programmes in Thailand. Besides the standard ten-day course, its schedule lists three-day courses for old students, Satipatthana Sutta courses, special ten-day courses, and long courses of 20, 30, 45 and 60 days. The longer and special courses are for old students only. The site says a special ten-day course needs at least five completed ten-day courses. Dhamma.org gives the default language of instruction as English and Thai unless a course says otherwise, and its schedule marks at least one course (a three-day course) as Thai speakers only.

A ten-day course here follows the format set out in the Code of Discipline. It spans twelve days counting arrival and departure. Students keep Noble Silence, meaning silence of body, speech and mind, until the morning of the last full day, and men and women are kept apart. They take five precepts and meet the teacher in set interview hours. The practice starts with observing the natural breath and then widens to observing the changing nature of body and mind, according to dhamma.org’s introduction to the technique. Recording devices and cameras are not allowed.

Courses are run on donations only, and dhamma.org says these are accepted from people who have completed at least one ten-day course in this tradition. A first-time student may give at the end.

Applications go through dhamma.org, and the site says notification can take up to two weeks. The first centre of this tradition in Thailand was Dhamma Kamala, in Prachinburi.