By the mid-1980s, it seemed to be smooth sailing for Vipassana meditation in California. In the general population, awareness of Vipassana was growing. A large group of Americans had learned Vipassana from Goenkaji in India starting from the early 1970s, and now they channeled their enthusiasm into organizing meditation activities where they lived. Goenkaji came repeatedly to conduct courses for hundreds of participants at a time, and still more people would have joined if there had been space for them. A trust had been formed and was steadily accumulating experience. Best of all, in 1987 the trust became the owner of a property in Occidental, a small town a little over an hour north of San Francisco. Although designed as a single-family home, the site could host small courses and potentially could become a full-fledged meditation center.
All that came to a halt in the late 1980s, when the county refused the trust’s application for a “conditional use permit”—that is, authorization to expand accommodation at the property for the purpose of holding meditation retreats. Eventually, the county prohibited even small courses in the existing facilities at the site. It was time to move on. The trust put the property up for sale and started looking for another place that could become the home for Vipassana in California.
It found several possibilities, but all of them fell through. In one case, we encountered the same problem as in Occidental: local owners convinced the county not to approve a conditional use permit. As the search dragged on, it was easy to feel discouraged. The trust wrote to Goenkaji, requesting guidance. The reply came back, short and sweet: “Dhamma will help. With mettā, S.N. Goenka.” His words didn’t point to any immediate solution, but they did provide hope.
An unexpected opportunity
Then, in 1990, out of the blue came a call from a realtor in Fresno, who left a message: there was a children’s camp for sale in North Fork, a small town in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains. This seemed too far away, and the trust president did not return the realtor’s call. A couple of weeks later, though, the realtor called again and caught the trust president at home. The realtor described the children’s camp and the facilities. The property seemed to meet all the search criteria and was under four hours by car from San Francisco, a distance that put it just within the focus area that the trust had established for a site search. Most important, the property had an existing conditional use permit; this meant that there was a strong likelihood we would be able to get a permit for the purpose of holding meditation retreats at the site. The trust president made an appointment for the search team to visit North Fork.
On the day of the appointment, two trust members drove from the Bay Area to Fresno and three others coming from Mendocino, in the north, flew down in a four-seater private plane. When they met the realtor, they asked him how he knew about the trust’s search for a property. He explained that he had heard about it from Phourng Kol, an old student from the Fresno Cambodian community. The realtor led the visitors to the site. The buildings were old, and some were in need of maintenance work, but everything required to start courses was in place. Still, the location presented a major challenge: there were no old students living nearby, and the site was a long drive from the areas where most old students lived—San Francisco and Marin, Sonoma, Napa and Mendocino counties.
At the next trust meeting, some were willing to make an offer, while others were opposed. The trust faced a choice: to keep looking for a property in a location that would be convenient for most old students, or to take the risk of transplanting the Dhamma sapling to an area where there were few old students to serve.
The objectors presented their position three times. They then set aside their misgivings and accepted the consensus of the meeting. The trust had a green light to make an offer for purchase of the property.
But fate had other plans. The owners of the property unexpectedly decided not to sell.
Just when it looked as though we would need to start the search once again, the realtor found another property in North Fork. It had 109 acres of land, the sellers had been successful when they applied for a conditional use permit for a youth camp, and the price was within the trust’s budget. A member of the search team made a solo trip to check out the property. He returned with positive reports and an amateur video produced with the latest high-tech gadget—a handheld video camera. The trust reviewed the footage and it decided to make an offer of $575,000 for the property. However, it set an important condition: the county would need to approve the trust’s application for a conditional use permit to hold meditation retreats. This time, the offer was accepted. Subsequent visits by trust members confirmed that the site would be suitable for use as a Vipassana center.
The next challenge was to secure the crucial permit so that we could start turning this site into a Vipassana center.
Just as Goenkaji said
By now, the trust had learned a thing or two about the permitting process. They knew that they would have to prepare a detailed site plan, draft a statement of operations and conduct various studies. The site was in a region that traditionally had been home to Native American peoples. This meant that the process required not just a biological survey to identify plant or wildlife species in need of protection, but also a survey to identify anything of archaeological significance. Sure enough, the survey uncovered evidence of Native American habitation. On a granite outcrop near a seasonal stream, there were grinding holes used by local Nium tribes to process acorns, a staple of their diet. Other archaeological evidence indicated that Native Americans had inhabited the area as far back as 8,000 to 10,000 years ago, when humans first came to California after the last Ice Age.
In the hope of avoiding any red flags, the trust decided to submit a conservative proposal that envisioned a modest number of students and servers for the courses.
Once all the documentation was ready, the application went to the county in December 1990. The first step was a review conducted by the county staff. The report came back with a recommendation to approve, with some conditions that seemed manageable. It was a good sign, and the trust started to see a glimmer of hope. But the real test lay ahead: the public hearing.
This was set for early March 1991, and trust members felt considerable apprehension. After all, public opposition had derailed our plans twice before. The trust braced for what might be a repeat of the past: another long, contentious meeting that would lessen our chances of getting a conditional use permit.
But then something remarkable happened. Two neighbors had written letters, but no one at all showed up to object at the hearing. The planning commission reviewed the permit application, asked a few questions, and then went on to approve the application with minimal fuss. It was just as Goenkaji had suggested when he wrote, “Dhamma will help.”
In winter 1991, the trust finalized the purchase of the property. At last, the California Vipassana Center had a new home.
When the purchase had been completed, we shared the news with Goenkaji. He decided to call the center “Dhamma Mahāvana,” meaning “Great Forest of Dhamma”—a name reflecting the serene location in the forests of the Sierra foothills.
The first course
Standing on the property at the time of purchase were a large ranch-style home, a two-story garage, five small cabins, two manufactured homes, a bath block, an old barn, and a building with a kitchen and dining room. Dotting the rolling terrain were pine trees, 20 species of oak (some more than 200 years old), fruit trees and even a pond.
Before the county had given approval for the conditional use permit, the trust had scheduled a 10-day course at a rented facility in April. However, once the permit was approved and the purchase was final, we decided to hold the course at Dhamma Mahāvana itself.
This might not have been the wisest decision. No meditators lived in the vicinity, and a mountain of work needed to be done to prepare for 30 students. We quickly realized that we might have bitten off more than we could chew.
Luckily, Rudy and Sophia Wisener agreed to step in as center managers. This meditator couple had organized courses at rental locations. Now they moved into one of the manufactured homes at the center, and set to work. But more hands were needed, and fast. The word went out, and old students with the necessary skills appeared just at the right time.
One particularly energetic meditator named Amerigo Biollo—a true jack of all trades—arrived and took charge of a key task: transforming the three-car garage attached to the main house into a functional kitchen. As the first students began to arrive on Day 0, he was still hard at work, hooking up propane burners for the massive pots that would soon be used to cook the breakfast oatmeal and the lunchtime soups. This “just in time” style of preparation would become very familiar at Dhamma Mahāvana.
After many hours of work, some pricey upgrades and essential purchases, the inaugural course at the center began on April 25, 1991. Assistant teacher Arthur Nichols conducted the course and there were 11 new students, 25 full-time old students, 2 part-timers, and 8 servers, most of them full-time. The sapling of Dhamma had taken root and started to thrive at Dhamma Mahāvana.
It wasn’t the only sign of renewed life during the first course. April in the Sierra foothills is a magical time. Spring brings wave after wave of wildflowers, each taking its turn to bloom. After conducting the first two 10-day courses at the center, Arthur Nichols was asked what he thought about Dhamma Mahāvana. Without hesitation, he said that it was one of the most beautiful course sites he had ever served at.
Goenkaji’s first visit
With the search, purchase and first courses finally behind us, Dhamma Mahāvana was up and running. Now the challenge was to prepare for a large 10-day course to be conducted by Goenkaji in August 1991. Once again, there was a whirlwind of activity. Once again, there was an outpouring of support from old students to help get the center ready.
The biggest job was remodeling the meditation hall for the large number of students expected. Volunteers dismantled an interior room and enclosed the porch flanking the building. This allowed us to welcome just over 100 students, along with 20 servers. However, we had accommodation for only 45, and so most students camped in tents. As usual, workers were putting the final touches on the facilities as students arrived on Day 0.
Goenkaji also decided that this was an opportunity to re-record his evening discourses. As always, the recording was done live in the meditation hall. A blue backdrop was taped to the wall behind the Dhamma seat, lights for filming were carefully arranged, and a camera was positioned in the middle of the room. On Day 1, the packed hall—measuring 63 by 23 feet—held 104 students, 20 servers, and the videographer. Meanwhile, it was high summer in North Fork, and the temperature soared to above 100°F. Inside the hall, the air conditioning system could not cope and the temperature climbed to uncomfortable levels. Despite the heat, Goenkaji delivered his discourses with humor, energy and overflowing mettā. If you watch those 1991 English discourses today, you might notice Goenkaji occasionally dabbing perspiration from his forehead without pausing for a moment. These recordings have become the standard for English 10-day courses worldwide.
In addition to conducting the course, Goenkaji answered our questions about the future development of Dhamma Mahāvana. Every day, he was taken to different spots on the property to decide where the permanent meditation hall, the pagoda and teachers’ residence should be built. When shown the spot where these structures now stand, he decisively stated, “This is where the buildings should go.”
The day before the course ended, a site tour was planned for Goenkaji and trust members. It was intended to be a small group, but how could we leave out anyone who had been involved? Before we knew it, our group numbered about 20 people. Together, we walked the grounds, savoring this moment and imagining what lay ahead for Vipassana in California.
Early efforts
Some trust members felt uneasy about finances when Dhamma Mahāvana began. Would donations be enough to cover the mortgage and other operating expenses?
The answer turned out to be yes, in large part because we were able to adapt the existing facilities without any major financial outlay. This helped keep initial costs down at a time when resources were limited.
Not only did donations cover expenses, but we soon found that the center was operating at a surplus. The extra funds were carefully set aside for future construction projects.
A more difficult challenge was the lack of meditators living nearby. The first center managers made do with a manufactured home located in the middle of the campus. It wasn’t ideal, and in 1992 the trust built a replacement: a studio with a loft. Shortly after, this was expanded to provide a two-bedroom caretaker’s house with an area of just 384 square feet. This tiny house became a valuable asset. Center managers continue to use it as a place where they can live close by but outside the course compound.
For this project, old students pitched in to keep costs down. One designed the house, and others helped with construction. But not everyone had construction experience, and that led to some memorable hiccups. For example, on the day the foundation was to be poured, only two trust members were available to help and neither knew much about construction. The cement truck was already on its way, so they frantically called an experienced builder for advice. With the help of the truck driver, they managed to pour the foundation. But they waited too long to remove the wooden forms, and had to spend hours prying loose some of the boards. This experience taught an important lesson: Every building project needed professional oversight, whether from an experienced old student or a paid contractor.
Also in 1992, a newly married meditator couple moved to North Fork. They stayed in the caretaker’s cottage at first, and later they bought a home in the town. Around this time, Norm and Colleen Schmitz arrived, whom Goenkaji had appointed to be the first center teachers of Dhamma Mahāvana.
With this small but dedicated crew, the situation began to stabilize. Between courses, the center would essentially shut down because there weren’t enough people to keep it running full-time. Norm and Colleen took on a wide range of responsibilities. In those early years, it wasn’t unusual to see Norm on the lawn mower or Colleen pitching in with center management tasks. With each successful course and the small but dedicated community, Dhamma Mahāvana steadily grew stronger.
At first, the center could accommodate 30 to 40 students on courses. But the demand grew steadily, and by 1996 we were regularly hosting courses for over 50 students. That number rose to 104 students for the very popular course over the Christmas and New Year holidays. We were hitting the limits of what was allowed under the original conditional use permit issued to us in 1991.
More accommodations were not the only item on our wish list. We needed a larger kitchen and dining room, a pagoda with meditation cells, a larger meditation hall and a teachers’ residence. In 1996, we applied to amend our conditional use permit to allow for these expansions.
By then, we had solid relationships with our neighbors. To our relief, no one objected to the proposed changes. When the county staff reviewed our application, we were in for a surprise: Not only did they support our request but they recommended that the planning commission approve a capacity of up to 190 people on site. This was significantly higher than the number we had requested in the application to amend the conditional use permit.
The planning commission approved the amendment with minimal debate. We were granted permission to build up to 43,000 square feet of new facilities and hold courses with up to 190 people at the site. This cleared the way for Dhamma Mahāvana to grow and serve increasing numbers.
New meditation hall and teachers’ residence
Once we had approval for expansion, we turned to the first major project on our list: building a new meditation hall and teachers’ residence in the location Goenkaji had selected. According to his guidelines, these buildings were to be aligned on an east-west axis and situated at the same elevation. The initial design for the hall was the brainchild of Charlie Busch, a meditator and professional architect, who had served at the Massachusetts center in the first years after it opened. Charlie drew inspiration from the buildings at the local lumber mill, and another architect hired by the trust then refined the design.
The trust then hired a local contractor to build the hall as well as a bath block. Within a year, the new hall was ready. This allowed us to convert the old hall into additional student accommodations.
Next came construction of the teachers’ residence—a two-bedroom, two-bath building with a living area and a small kitchenette. This was a big step up from the accommodation previously provided. Aside from being cramped and not very private, the first teachers’ residence was located a 10-minute walk away from the meditation hall. There sometimes was a last-minute scramble if a teacher forgot to bring to the hall an audio or video cassette for the instructions or discourse. Now those scrambles became a thing of the past.
Master facility plan
By the year 2000, Dhamma Mahāvana was regularly holding courses for 80 to 90 students, with some summer courses and the winter holiday course exceeding 100.
One of those students was Elissa Brown, now an assistant teacher. She recalls her first course in 1999, with 90 students. She stayed in an old three-bedroom, two-bath manufactured home along with 14 other students. At the age of 44, she found herself sleeping in a curtained cubicle with two beds. They were so close together that if she stretched out her arm at night, she’d touch the person in the bed next to her.
The center was overdue for some serious upgrades.
Exactly when needed, a new member joined the trust: Peter Saucerman, a meditator who was a partner at a master planning firm. He provided guidance through the process of creating a comprehensive master facility plan for the center.
Goenkaji often described the ideal center as one where every student has a private room and meditation cell. With this vision in mind, the trust developed a phased master plan that called for construction of a pagoda, new student residences, and a new kitchen and dining halls.
After finalizing the plan in 2001, the trust invited several architectural firms to submit proposals for designing the pagoda and student residences. The trust focused on firms experienced in sustainable building techniques.
Two firms submitted a joint proposal, with one designing the student residences and the other the pagoda. The firm working on the pagoda suggested an innovative approach: use of straw bales for the exterior walls to create a structure that was sustainable and in harmony with the natural surroundings.
The trust worked closely with these firms and developed construction drawings for a straw bale pagoda with concentric rings of cells in the interior. Designing the zedi (Myanmar-style spire on the roof of the building) was beyond the skill set of the firm, and so this element was left out of the initial plan.
Goenkaji’s return visits
In 2000, Goenkaji returned to North America and to Dhamma Mahāvana. His visit included a one-day course for 296 old students, as well as several trust meetings. He also gave public talks about Vipassana.
Two years later, in 2002, Dhamma Mahāvana was one of the stops on Goenkaji’s Meditation Now road tour of North America. When the Dhamma caravan arrived at the center, a three-day course was in progress. Goenkaji meditated with the students and gave them instructions live. He and Mataji also enjoyed daily walks around the center. On one of these walks, Goenkaji asked about the many tents he saw in the meditation compound. A server explained that the tents were necessary because of the limited indoor accommodations available.
During the same visit, Goenkaji also attended a trust meeting, where plans for the pagoda were presented. The trust was eager to bring this project to life. Goenkaji listened thoughtfully to the presentation. But when asked for his feedback, he gave practical advice: prioritize adding more student residences before focusing on the pagoda.
The trust embraced this advice and shifted its focus to constructing additional student accommodations before building the pagoda.
New student residences
The trust worked closely with the architects to design individual rooms with attached baths for students. The plan originally called for each room to have its own exterior entrance, maximizing privacy. But the estimated cost for this design turned out to be well above what the trust could afford. In the end, the trust settled on a more cost-effective model: a building with 12 single rooms, six on each side of a central corridor, with a shared bathroom at one end containing sinks, toilets and showers.
This new design brought the project much closer to budget. The trust decided to go ahead. Without delay, in 2005 construction started of three 12-room buildings: two on the men’s side of the campus and one on the women’s side. The work was completed within a year, adding 36 new rooms. This was a significant boost to the center’s capacity and a great improvement to the accommodation for students attending a course.
With the new residences in place, the center now was able to accommodate 90 to 100 students per course.
Designing a pagoda, again
With the new student residences completed, the trust turned its focus back to the long-awaited pagoda. It asked Jim Kahn, an experienced meditator and construction project manager, to help bring the straw bale pagoda design to life.
However, as Jim reviewed the plans, he flagged several concerns. The use of unconventional materials and methods presented challenges that could drive up costs and complicate construction. Jim recommended scrapping the straw bale approach in favor of conventional construction. This wasn’t an easy decision, especially since the trust had already invested significant funds in the original design. But in the long run, it accepted that redesigning the pagoda would be more practical and cost-effective.
This decision launched a multi-year process to refine the new design. Jim traveled to Myanmar to seek inspiration and expertise, hiring several Myanmar architects to collaborate with the trust. The result was a beautiful new design for a pagoda in the Myanmar style, offering even more functionality than the original plan.
The new design included a total of 128 meditation cells, a small meditation hall, and an additional interview room. The layout featured a conventional four-sided outer shell. Inside, however, both the ground and upper floors had meditation cells for students surrounding a central cell for the teachers, on the model of the pagoda at Sayagyi U Ba Khin’s center in Yangon.
The trust was thrilled with the outcome. The pagoda would honor Myanmar’s role in preserving the Buddha’s teachings, and would inspire students for generations to come.
The pagoda and related construction projects
The master plan positioned the pagoda right next to the meditation hall, and inevitably the noise and disruption during construction would affect ongoing courses. To minimize the impact, the trust decided to build a new men’s dining hall, which could serve as a meditation hall while the pagoda was being built.
The new dining hall was completed in 2007. It initially served as the meditation hall while work on the pagoda was underway.
Constructing the pagoda was the most ambitious, complex project ever undertaken at Dhamma Mahāvana. This was a building of nearly 10,000 square feet, with an unusual design and a unique external finish. There were challenges at every phase, from the foundations to its topmost point.
The design included a basement, a ground floor and an upper story, all to be built on a hillside. This location necessitated careful planning to ensure that the structure would be stable.
Despite the complexity, all went well and a facility began to take shape that would inspire and support generations of students in their meditation practice. The building was completed just in time for the start of a 20-day course. On October 11, 2011, a fortunate 54 old students inaugurated the pagoda, and used it for their daily practice throughout the course.
Zedis from Myanmar
In fulfillment of Goenkaji’s wish to honor Myanmar for its role in preserving the practice of Vipassana, the plans called for the meditation pagoda at Dhamma Mahāvana to be crowned with a zedi—a golden spire modeled on the world-famous Shwedagon Pagoda in Yangon. The challenge was how to build this unique architectural feature. In Myanmar, zedis are traditionally solid brick, with a stucco-like coating that is hand-sculpted into an intricate design. That method, however, was unsuitable for earthquake-prone California, and particularly because the zedi would stand on the roof of a wood-frame building.
A bold idea emerged: the zedi would be manufactured in Myanmar itself, by a team of skilled Myanmar artisans working under the guidance of Jim Kahn. The story that followed this decision could easily fill an entire book. There was a typhoon that disrupted work, political upheavals that threatened to halt the project, and customs inspections that delayed shipments and tested everyone’s patience. Yet despite the obstacles, the team established a factory, and a modular zedi was fabricated from fiberglass—lightweight, durable, and able to be installed on the roof of the wood-framed pagoda building. And not just one zedi but a large 26-foot spire with eight smaller zedis surrounding it.
In May 2015, when the shipment of the large central zedi finally arrived in North Fork, meditator volunteers under the supervision of Brian McNamara gathered to help build the supporting structure on which it would stand. When all the preparations were completed, a crane came on site, and in a single day it carefully lifted all the components of the design into place atop the pagoda building. At last, all that remained was to put in place the nine-foot-tall hti-daw, the ornamental umbrella with a crystal above it in the shape of a lotus bud, representing enlightenment. As it rose skyward and settled into position, all who were present for the occasion felt a sense of awe and triumph. This marked not just the completion of a construction project but the fulfillment of a vision—the completion of a bridge between ancient Myanmar and modern California, uniting both in the spread of Dhamma.
Once more amending the conditional use permit
By 2009, it became clear to the trust that the total square footage allowed under the 1996 conditional use permit wouldn’t be enough to meet the long-term needs of the center.
The trust set to work, envisioning a fully built-out center where every student would have a private room, in most cases with an attached bathroom. The planners also paid close attention to all the needs of operating the center on an ongoing basis. This included the needs for office space, maintenance facilities, laundry, storage, and a hall where old students coming from outside could meditate for an hour at the center without disturbing course participants. The planners then translated this list into plans for new buildings and the additional square footage that would be required.
The information thus gathered enabled the trust to submit a realistic application for amending the conditional use permit. After thorough review, the county approved it. However, there was a catch: the land involved was subject to state legislation intended to protect farmland, and changing its legal status could take as much as a decade. Fortunately, the county agreed for the center to expand up to the limits of the 1996 conditional use permit. This allowed the construction of additional student accommodations. But beyond that, any further construction would have to wait until the status of the land could officially be changed in 2020.
Designing and building quads
With the pagoda completed and the amended conditional use permit approved, the trust again focused on improving student accommodations. The goal was for every new room to have an attached bath.
The Development Committee explored various design options, and eventually settled on what they called the “quad”—a design featuring four rooms per building. Each room would have a small entryway with an exterior entrance, providing privacy while maintaining an efficient layout.
With the plans in hand, the trust obtained permits and proceeded to build nine quads—four on the men’s side and five on the women’s side. The quads marked a major upgrade in the quality of student accommodations. Feedback from both 10-day and long-course students was overwhelmingly positive.
However, after these new student residences were built, any further construction would need to wait until 2020 or later.
The time at last came. Construction of the new quarters for women servers began in spring 2024 and was completed in summer 2025. The new building is a two-story structure with six rooms on each floor, each room having an attached bath. One of the rooms is fully accessible, and a laundry room for servers is located at one end of the building.
Relations with the local community
Building trust and good will with neighbors has always been a priority for Dhamma Mahāvana.
North Fork has a diverse population, ready to welcome anyone who will contribute to the community. By the time the center had been open for nearly a decade, it was broadly accepted. Our neighbors noted and appreciated the fact that Dhamma Mahāvana regularly patronized local businesses, especially the hardware and grocery stores.
Some individual meditators took on roles that had a significant impact in the community. For example, Elissa Brown, who moved to North Fork in 2000, worked as a grant-writing consultant for the county, helped the Fire Safe Council, and secured funding for community projects. Josh Freeman opened a Montessori school with his wife, played in a local band, helped organize an annual music festival, and helped start a local community center. He also pioneered a local currency, called “North Fork Shares,” printed in three denominations: quarter share, half share and full share. This was a way to facilitate barter exchanges and encourage people to buy locally.
Dan Rosenberg moved to North Fork intending to stay six months, and it’s now been 27 years since he arrived. He served as president of the Community Development Council, while Elissa helped obtain grants to clean up the site of an abandoned lumber mill, enabling it to be used for various commercial and residential purposes. They and others like them quietly contributed to town life, and they and the center were welcomed as part of the town’s fabric.
Meditators living in North Fork established the habit of holding weekend work parties once a month. They would gather at someone’s home to help with yard work, repairs or gardening, and the day would end with a potluck meal. These gatherings eventually provided the impetus for establishing Standing Stone Village, a community where meditators have their own homes but live in close proximity, with some shared facilities to foster mutual support for themselves and the center. By the winter of 2024, the first four homes were complete. When fully built, the village will have 26 homes, and the residents will be a significant support to Dhamma Mahāvana and a welcome addition to the old student community in North Fork.
Whether helping in local government initiatives, redeveloping land, or baking loaves of olive bread for a library fundraiser, the efforts of meditators have quietly fostered good will and strengthened the ties between the center and the surrounding community.
Pandemic
In March 2020, the COVID pandemic struck, forcing the suspension of all scheduled courses. Instead, the center offered a few courses open to around a dozen old students. In the face of so much uncertainty, the trust prudently decided to halt all major expenditures.
Thanks to careful financial management, the center weathered the pandemic remarkably well. The trust negotiated lower mortgage payments, secured an emergency loan from the government with very favorable terms, and received generous donations from old students. These steps, plus a cautious approach to spending, left the center with a strong balance sheet by the time we could restart courses.
Wildfire alert!
Dhamma Mahāvana is surrounded by acres and acres of dense forest. But especially in California, heavily forested land faces the serious risk of wildfires.
In the past decade, four major wildfires threatened the North Fork area, coming dangerously close to the center: the Mission Fire in 2017, the Creek Fire in 2020, the Smalley Fire in 2021 and the Fork Fire in 2022. Of these, the most severe was the Creek Fire, which burned 379,895 acres and destroyed 856 structures.
Each of these fires forced the evacuation of the center, and in some cases led to the cancellation or early termination of courses. The Fork Fire was especially devastating, destroying the homes of several meditators. Fortunately, despite the destruction, there were no fatalities.
Given the gravity of this threat, wildfire preparedness is a top priority at Dhamma Mahāvana. The center allocates an annual budget for clearing brush, maintaining firebreaks across its 109-acre property, and ensuring that evacuation plans are ready to be executed at a moment’s notice. These proactive measures help protect the center, the students and servers on courses. They also protect the surrounding community and ensure that the Great Forest of Dhamma remains a safe haven for meditation.
Completion of the center
Work continues toward the goal of completing the center campus. The vision is to accommodate 120 students, each in a private room. Of these, 98 rooms will have attached baths, while 23 rooms will be in residences with shared baths. Every new room will feature an exterior entrance, and rooms will be grouped in quads or “eight-plexes” (two quads side by side). In addition, one of the existing shared-bath buildings will be remodeled to create rooms with attached baths and exterior entrances.
Once the new residences are completed, attention will shift to building a state-of-the-art kitchen and dining facility, designed to prepare meals for 120 students plus up to 30 servers and on-site staff, and to seat them comfortably. To make space for this new facility, the center’s maintenance buildings will be upgraded and relocated.
Plans also include new residences for solo assistant teachers and trainees, housing for long-term servers who dedicate extended periods of time to supporting the center, and conversion of an existing building to provide a reception and indoor Metta Day area. The building will also feature a small meditation hall, where meditators who live nearby or are passing through can sit without interfering with an ongoing course.
Friendships in service
California is a place of great diversity, yet in daily life it’s not always easy to step outside one’s own circle. At Dhamma Mahāvana, however, friendships have often grown despite differences of language, culture and background. One example is the friendship between an artist from San Francisco and a Cambodian meditator who ran a donut shop in Sacramento. They first met while serving together on a bilingual Khmer–English course. From that point on, they always arranged to rideshare to North Fork and made a point of serving the annual Khmer course side by side. Without Dhamma service, their paths would never have crossed.
The composition of the trust itself reflects this same diversity. Meditators from many different walks of life work together in harmony, guided by their shared commitment to the Dhamma. In the process, they have built not only a center but also friendships, some of which have lasted for decades.
Training coming generations of teachers
John and Gail Beary came to North Fork in 2001 to serve as the center teachers. By that time, there were already dozens of assistant teachers based in California, Oregon, Washington state and British Columbia.
Goenkaji asked John to ensure that the assistant teachers in this region received proper training. Out of this request, an annual workshop at Dhamma Mahāvana was born. Each year, assistant teachers from all over the West Coast gather for four days of training, joined by others from across North America. The program includes sessions reviewing guidelines and training materials, but it also offers something less tangible yet equally valuable: the opportunity to meditate together, to share experiences and to strengthen the shared bond of selfless service.
Dhamma servers, too, benefit from the gatherings. They meditate alongside the assistant teachers, attend some of the sessions, and meet individually with teachers to ask questions about their practice.
John has often guided the workshops by posing questions to the group. One year he asked, “What is the one most important thing an assistant teacher does on a course?” Many answers were suggested: providing guidance, offering encouragement, practicing mettā, answering questions about the practice. John acknowledged all these as important. Then he gave his own perspective: “The one most important thing an assistant teacher does is press the play button on Goenkaji’s instructions and discourse videos.”
For those present, this was a reminder that, above all, the role of the assistant teacher is to support the students, while ensuring that the Dhamma as taught by Goenkaji is passed on intact and unchanged.
Seeding more centers
Back in 1990, North Fork was not an obvious choice for a Vipassana center, especially because many meditators in California lived far away. Despite that, those meditators did their utmost to support Dhamma Mahāvana. As the center matured and the demand for courses increased, the time came to establish centers in other parts of the state. As Goenkaji had envisioned, the success of the first center seeded other centers:
- Dhamma Maṇḍa (“Essence of Dhamma”), Northern California. Meditators in the counties north of San Francisco never gave up hope of establishing a center near where they lived. In 1998, with Goenkaji’s approval, they formed a new trust and began looking for a suitable site in their area. After a long search, the trust purchased a property near the town of Kelseyville, a little over two hours by car north of the Bay Area. The site had long functioned as a resort, and this background eased the way for the trust to obtain the appropriate approvals. Three-day courses began in 2008. Local authorities granted a conditional use permit in May 2009, making 10-day courses possible. They started in late 2009, after construction of a meditation hall and commercial kitchen, plus remodeling of the existing buildings. Today, the center hosts 10-day, Satipaṭṭhāna and 20-day courses for up to 65 students.
- Dhamma Vaddhana (“Growth in Dhamma”), Southern California. In 2001, a year-end holiday course in a rented facility at Joshua Tree, in California’s Mojave Desert, attracted 285 students. This was the largest course in the United States since Goenkaji’s first visits in the 1980s. The site hosted two more large courses in the following years, and the momentum led to the purchase of 160 acres of land in nearby Twenty-Nine Palms. The center is a 2.5-hour drive from Los Angeles and San Diego. It opened for courses in 2011, and currently can accommodate up to 80 students in custom-designed, air-conditioned buildings.
- Dhamma Santosa (“Contentment of Dhamma”), San Francisco Bay Area. In 2014, a trust was formed to establish a center in the San Francisco Bay Area, close to Silicon Valley. An extensive search led to the purchase of a property in Gilroy, south of the city of San Jose, in 2018. The trust has been patiently working to obtain a conditional use permit for the property, and this effort was still ongoing at the time of publication. In the meantime, the trust continues to offer an annual course for 240 students during the end-of-year holidays near the town of Occidental.
The quiet strength of the Dhamma
Over the years, thousands of people have come to Dhamma Mahāvana to learn Vipassana and deepen their practice. With each course, they not only benefited personally but also contributed to the meditative atmosphere of the center. Their collective effort has created a meditation environment that has strengthened with time.
On an early visit, Goenkaji explained that the Dhamma atmosphere at the center would gradually grow, and that after 25 years the results would be evident. His words have proven to be true. Dhamma Mahāvana has become more than a place in the forest. It is a sanctuary infused with the quiet strength of the Dhamma itself.
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