At the end of a quiet rural road in Kaufman, Texas stands the Southwest Vipassana Meditation Center—or, in Pāli, Dhamma Sirī, “The Prosperity of Dhamma.” It started off in 1990 as a single-family house on 20 acres of land. Today the center has a campus of 186 acres, and it is fully equipped to welcome more than 125 meditators and servers.
Dhamma Sirī is just 60 miles east of Dallas–Fort Worth. The “Metroplex,” as residents call it, is at the geographic and transportation crossroads of the United States, boasting two major airports as well as extensive road and rail infrastructure. Its accessibility is one of the main reasons why meditators from around the world keep coming to rural Texas to sit and serve.
When the property was purchased in 1990, the center consisted of one large six-bedroom house and an open parking structure. That single building housed everything: meditation hall, kitchen, dining rooms, student and server accommodations, and the assistant teachers’ area. Some of the furnishings might not have been what you’d expect to find in a meditation center: a marble-lined entryway, ornate fixtures, and two large Jacuzzi tubs. But appearances were unimportant. What mattered was that everything functioned well enough for courses to begin immediately.
Over the decades, Dhamma Sirī has expanded steadily. Today the campus includes nine buildings, comfortable residences, a large meditation hall, a pagoda with 96 meditation cells, and long-term plans for accommodating up to 150 meditators. All this is in fulfillment of the effort of two remarkable people: Thomas and Tina Crisman.
To serve the Dhamma all his life
When Vipassana first began to spread in North America, most activity was concentrated on the East and West coasts. Meditation was comparatively unknown in Texas, and very few old students lived there. What the region lacked in meditator density, however, it made up for in the steady commitment of Thomas and Tina Crisman.
Thomas had a degree in electrical engineering from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, and later studied law at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. He became a highly successful intellectual property lawyer and a partner in major firms in Dallas. He was known for his sharp mind, reliability and wide-ranging curiosity, including a long-standing interest in meditation.
In August 1980, Thomas attended a 10-day Vipassana course in Chicago, the first that Goenkaji conducted in the United States. Thomas had been exposed to similar teachings before. But the experience profoundly reshaped his understanding of meditation and himself.
A few months later, a neatly typed letter arrived at Dhamma Giri in India. Bill Hart from Canada then happened to be helping Goenkaji with his English correspondence. He recalls seeing a letter written on thick letterhead paper, offering Thomas’s skills in service to Goenkaji. This was clearly a letter that Goenkaji would handle personally, Bill thought.
That winter, Thomas traveled to India to explore Vipassana further and meet Goenkaji again. He felt ready to step away from his legal career and devote himself fully to meditation. To his surprise, Goenkaji gently discouraged this idea. “No, you mustn’t do that,” he told Thomas. “People whose rights are being violated need your help. And people drawn to Vipassana also need someone from their own background to guide them.”
Thomas returned to Dallas, determined to practice law while serving Vipassana as fully as possible. Over the next three decades, he spent months each year sitting and serving long courses in India, as well as helping with Goenkaji’s projects and the practical needs of the wider work.
Thomas and Tina met in spring 1981. In those early years, Vipassana was still new to many. Thomas spoke often—sometimes enthusiastically—about his meditation experience and encouraged friends to explore the practice for themselves.
When he mentioned an upcoming summer course in California, Tina decided, almost on a whim, to join him. What began as a spur-of-the-moment idea soon became a memorable road trip west. Joining Thomas and Tina were his law partner Jack Holder and Jack’s young daughter Laura (now Laura Mills). This was the beginning of Thomas’s and Tina’s Dhamma journey together.
First challenge: The tape project
In those days, Texas was the locus for a monumental effort: recording and standardizing Goenkaji’s complete 10-day course instructions, chanting and discourses.
At the time, assistant teachers used sets of cassette tapes that they had collected or been given, which they kept in improvised bags or cardboard boxes. At one course, Thomas watched, slightly shocked, as the cassettes spilled onto the floor. To him, the need for consistency and higher standards was evident. Thomas proposed recording all the teaching professionally, with himself leading the effort.
This was a surprising but very sensible proposal. Thomas had studied electrical engineering, and the new technology fascinated him. At the same time, he was a serious meditator devoted to Goenkaji. He could be counted on to follow Goenkaji’s directions in every respect.
From 1982 to 1985, five complete 10-day courses were recorded at locations in India and the United States. Each attempt was a determined step toward creating a stable master set.
Peter Martin, from the Seattle area, recalls: “I served with Thomas in India, video and audio taping at three different centers there in the 1980s. Thomas would ship blue steamer trunks from Dallas to Mumbai, full of recording equipment, lights and other apparatus. Then he used all this for doing the recording during numerous courses. The main hall at Dhamma Giri looked like a recording studio, with battery backup when the power failed (as it often did). The many students at these courses were fascinated, but Goenkaji was not worried that the recording work would disturb their meditation.”
Conditions, however, were rarely ideal. In Massachusetts, a sudden rainstorm hammered on the canvas roof of the meditation tent so loudly that Goenkaji had to shout to be heard. On another course, the steady drone of a tractor circling a nearby field crept into the Metta instructions, and a low mechanical hum underlay the chanting.
Electricity failed, sometimes in the middle of a discourse, and Thomas had to rely on hastily assembled battery backups. On occasion, a cold strained Goenkaji’s voice; it was barely noticeable in person but evident through sensitive microphones. Equipment malfunctioned, cables came loose at exactly the wrong moment, and more than once the “recording studio” was nothing more than a corner of a meditation hall, temporarily transformed with duct-taped wires and improvised lighting.
Each time something went wrong, the work simply began again—and again, and again—guided by Thomas’s persistence and resolve. Over time, the recordings became the consistent audio foundation for 10-day courses offered around the world.
Dhamma service central
In Dallas, Thomas’s and Tina’s home gradually became a working hub for audio and video production. Steamer trunks packed with equipment were stacked in hallways or waited by the door for the next trip to India or for a course to be recorded in the United States. At almost any hour, someone might be helping with the project.
Karen and Tim Donovan were among the earliest and most dedicated helpers. Karen had worked as Thomas’s legal assistant, and she supported not only his law practice but also the growing old-student community in Texas. She and Tim helped manage non-center courses during those early years, and Tim spent many hours assisting with the tapes.
But the Donovans were not by any means the only ones involved. Local meditators dropped by after work and visiting old students were recruited on the spot. Together they spent countless evenings duplicating tapes, labeling cassettes, troubleshooting equipment issues, and preparing sets to be shipped to assistant teachers around the world. The atmosphere was part workshop, part community hub at this early Texas outpost of global Dhamma service.
Initiatives with a global impact
Beyond recordings, Thomas served Goenkaji’s mission in ways that reached far beyond Texas. For more than 30 years, he and Tina spent extended periods in India, staying in Goenkaji’s and Mataji’s home and assisting with projects both practical and long-term. They became close friends of the family.
Thomas helped establish legal frameworks intended to protect the tradition and safeguard Goenkaji’s writings and recordings. At Goenkaji’s direction, in 1995 he obtained trademark protections for the phrase “Vipassana meditation as taught by S.N. Goenka” in the United States and India. This was later extended internationally, and the trademark protection project continues in various forms to this day.
Thomas also remained alert to new technologies. In the early days of email, he set up worldwide distribution lists to support broad communications. When the Internet emerged, he recognized its potential and in October 1995 secured the “Dhamma.org” domain. With Goenkaji’s approval, he created a website to help people learn about Vipassana and connect with courses.
The website’s reach was felt almost at once. In April 1996, John Luxford wrote to Thomas and Tina from a course at Dhamma Dīpa in England: a Russian businessman from Moscow had found out about Vipassana on the Internet, downloaded the application form and arrived to join the course on time. “Sādhu, sādhu, sādhu,” John wrote.
Thomas also helped develop a model that local trusts could apply to organize as legal entities. When Jack Holder approached Goenkaji and received his approval to establish the Vipassana Community Foundation, Thomas developed the legal backbone for the new non-profit organization. This has assisted meditators to make donations for Dhamma purposes in their wills as well as in their lifetimes.
After Goenkaji passed away, Thomas helped establish the International Vipassana Technology Association, a body of teachers representing regions around the world for the purpose of continuing to guide work on technology and trademarks.
With all these initiatives, Thomas’s top priority was to follow Goenkaji’s wishes and ensure results that would further the Dhamma mission. At times, people might have preferred a different approach. But they all knew that Thomas was fully committed to safeguarding Goenkaji’s teaching long into the future, for the good of all.
A lasting legacy
For many years, Thomas had lived uncomplainingly with kidney disease. Then, in his late 70s, after a successful kidney transplant, he was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor. He faced this latest challenge with determination and a deep interest in emerging treatments. He successfully underwent surgery and chemotherapy, but ultimately succumbed to Parkinson’s disease.
On August 3, 2020, Thomas passed away at his home in Dallas, surrounded by the love and support of Tina and the Vipassana community he had served for decades. The systems he helped build, the protections he helped put in place, and the spirit of service he embodied continue to support meditators around the world.
First courses in Texas, 1987–90
Travel back again with us to the 1980s, when Thomas Crisman’s visionary projects were making Dallas an important destination for Vipassana meditators eager to serve. Toward the end of that decade, Vipassana was still little known in the region but a committed community was forming.
In April 1987, this informal network organized itself as the Southwest Vipassana Association, the trust that would support Vipassana activities in the region. The group’s first objective was to hold a 10-day course in Texas.
The trust rented a Camp Fire Girls camp in Big Sandy, east Texas, for a non-center course in May 1987. The setting was rustic but workable. What it lacked in creature comforts, it made up for in quiet and seclusion—top priorities for Vipassana meditators.
There were few old students then living in Texas. But when the organizers made the need known, meditators from out of state responded generously. For example, after helping on a course with Goenkaji in California, Van and Suzanne Shafer came to serve as cooks on the first course at Dhamma Sirī. It soon became a pattern repeated many times in following years: When Texas needed help, servers arrived.
The servers also were prepared to take on just about any task. On one course, for example, a new student arrived with a broken ankle that limited his mobility. Throughout the course the student manager, Parker Mills, carried the man back and forth between the residences and the meditation hall. On another occasion, there were no male servers at all. During the Day 0 orientation, student manager Renee Cerchie put it plainly: “We don’t have a student manager for the men, so there better not be any problems on the men’s side!” There weren’t. The course ran smoothly.
The trust organized a second course at the Big Sandy camp in March 1989. It confirmed that there was a demand for Vipassana in the region and that meditators were willing to support it. A third course took place at a YMCA facility in March 1990. By then, what had begun as an experiment was clearly becoming a sustained effort.
Vipassana was taking root in Texas.
A new center comes to town, 1990
By the end of the decade, the momentum gained from non-center courses plus growing regional interest pointed toward a larger possibility. During a long course in India in winter 1989, Thomas Crisman later recalled, he had a moment of unusual clarity:
“It was the late Eighties. That little voice inside me, when I was very still at one course, said we needed a meditation center in the middle of the country or someplace between the two coasts. And the little voice told me, ‘Well, why don’t we have one in Texas? That’s a great place for it.’”
After the course, Thomas brought the idea to Goenkaji. He listened carefully and gave permission for a new center to be established in the state.
Returning to Dallas in early 1990, Thomas and Tina moved quickly. With the same decisiveness that had guided earlier efforts, they began searching for suitable land. As Karen Donovan later recalled, she and her husband Tim were preparing to leave Dallas for California that spring, and Thomas and Tina had only recently returned from India.
“Thomas said, ‘Let’s go find a site,’” Karen remembers. “We got into Thomas’s gold-colored Mercedes Benz with the license plate ANICCA and went to look at properties. He’d already reviewed many possibilities on paper and crossed most of them off.”
Two sites remained. At the first, Thomas stepped out of the car, looked around briefly, and said simply, “No.” At the second, they walked the land together. After a short time, Thomas stopped and said, “This is it. We’re going to get this property.” He made the decision with characteristic clarity and speed.
The timing proved favorable. The United States was in the midst of a financial downturn, and banks had repossessed many properties in Texas. The parcel was currently owned by a bank eager to recover its losses. Through careful negotiation, the trust purchased the property for $200,000. The bank agreed to finance the full amount at 10 percent annual interest with no down payment, based on the trust’s financial record and experience running non-center courses.
With land secured and approval received from Goenkaji, Vipassana in Texas entered a new phase.
Stretching every dollar
Over the years, a perception somehow arose that Dhamma Sirī had been established through the support of wealthy donors. In reality, from the beginning the center operated with a strong emphasis on financial discipline and self-reliance.
The trust resolved to avoid additional debt and to pay down the initial loan as quickly as possible. Just as important was a shared understanding that no renovation or expansion should interfere with conducting courses. The primary objective remained unchanged: to offer the teaching of Vipassana.
The existing house made this possible. Though unconventional as a meditation center, it could immediately support all essential functions. The six-bedroom home was adapted carefully and with restraint. The large open car-tractor port provided sheltered space that would later play a central role in the center’s development.
To keep expenses low, the trust relied heavily on second-hand equipment and volunteer labor. Used kitchen appliances were purchased where possible, including a double oven, a washer and dryer, and a large commercial ice-storage unit that was used as a refrigerator.
Tina recalls, “It was one of those big, square ice storage machines. It served as our refrigerator for the first year. But you had to remember to turn it on and off manually. If someone left it running too long, the food would freeze solid. We bought it because it was incredibly cheap, and a refrigerator big enough for course needs was far too expensive.”
For sleeping arrangements too, the team improvised. Local volunteers built bunk beds for 35 people, using plywood, two-by-fours, and foam blocks for mattresses. Curtains were hung around the beds (and even around the two open toilets in the master bathroom) to provide whatever privacy was possible. It wasn’t ideal, but it worked.
The only modification made during that first year addressed a practical necessity. After consulting a sound engineer, the trust added a second wall with an air gap between the kitchen and the meditation hall. This reduced noise in the hall during sittings. Beyond that, the guiding principle remained unchanged: use what was available, spend as little as possible and keep the focus firmly on offering courses.
With these foundations in place, Dhamma Sirī was ready to begin operating—not as a finished center but as a functioning one, shaped by necessity, care and a shared commitment to making the teaching available.
First courses at the new center
With the property secured and the house adapted for use, events moved quickly. Within just one month of closing on the purchase, Dhamma Sirī was ready to host its first course. This was a remarkable pace of development that reflected both urgency and dedication.
The inaugural event was a three-day course for old students. It took place from August 2 to 5, 1990, with Thomas and Tina conducting. For many who attended, it felt less like the opening of a new facility and more like a collective act of faith. The accommodations were simple, the systems improvised and the routines still in development, but the essential conditions for meditation were firmly in place.
Only days later, the center hosted its first 10-day course, from August 8 to 19, 1990. It was conducted by Drs. Bhogilal and Kamala Gandhi, assistant teachers visiting from the United Kingdom. They returned each summer for several years, as did other visiting assistant teachers. The combined support of all of them provided continuity during a time when local experience was still limited. These assistants ensured a dependable course schedule. They also helped guide a growing pool of servers and managers, many of whom were new in the job.
In those days, servers mostly learned by doing. Schedules were adjusted on the fly. Equipment failed and was fixed. Meals were prepared under tight constraints. But the courses ran smoothly. And the key factors behind the success were good will, adaptability and a shared understanding that something important was taking shape.
By the end of that first summer, Dhamma Sirī was no longer an experiment. Courses were happening. Students were arriving. Servers were returning. The center was on a modest scale but it had begun to function as a living part of the Vipassana tradition.
The first visit of Goenkaji and Mataji
In summer 1991, just one year after the first courses were held, Goenkaji and Mataji made their first visit to Dhamma Sirī. For the small community of servers and local old students, the visit offered confirmation and encouragement. The work underway in Texas was an integral and important part of the worldwide Vipassana tradition.
During their stay, Goenkaji and Mataji conducted a 10-day course from August 5 to 16. Assisting them were Norm and Colleen Schmitz, who had been living at the center for five months and had conducted one 10-day course each month during their stay. Their presence had provided continuity and practical stability during the center’s second year of operation.
In addition to the course, Goenkaji gave talks in the area. He and Mataji also met with old students and took time to understand the conditions under which the center was operating. For many local meditators, this was the first opportunity to meditate with Goenkaji without traveling long distances.
Everything was still at a rudimentary stage, systems were evolving and expectations were high. Yet the visit gave a sense of reassurance. Dhamma Sirī was still largely housed within a single building but it was functioning as a genuine Vipassana center.
It was inspiring simply to see Goenkaji and Mataji walking the grounds, eating meals prepared in the modest kitchen and adapting easily to the conditions. Their presence conveyed an important message: the strength of a center lay not in its facilities but in the discipline, sincerity and service of the people gathered there.
Eventually they departed for the next stop on their journey, but their encouragement remained with everyone at Dhamma Sirī. Now they had a clearer sense of purpose and renewed confidence that the Dhamma would prosper in Texas.
The 1990s, years of growth
After that first visit of Goenkaji and Mataji, Dhamma Sirī entered a decade of steady and sustained growth. Word of the center spread quietly but steadily. Course applications increased, servers returned repeatedly to help, and the rhythm of offering courses in rural Texas became more established with each passing year.
Throughout the 1990s, the center was able to offer between 13 and 18 courses annually. This was an ambitious schedule for a young organization still relying on a small local base. What made it possible was a steady stream of visiting assistant teachers who traveled to Texas to support the work.
One of these was Arthur Nichols, from Atlanta, Georgia. He sat his first courses with Goenkaji when Dhamma Giri was in its infancy, so he knew the challenges of building a center from the ground up. He had already conducted more than 90 courses by the time Dhamma Sirī opened.
Other assistant teachers included Dr. Sneh Jindal and Dhanuben Roel, both of them originally from India. Like Arthur, they became familiar and welcome faces at the center. Together, these three conducted more than half of the 77 courses held at Dhamma Sirī between August 1990 and December 1995. Their willingness to serve helped the center establish a reliable course schedule. They also provided invaluable guidance to a growing pool of servers who were learning on the job.
As courses continued, the community slowly changed and matured. People who initially arrived curious about Vipassana began returning as old students and then as servers. Some stayed for weeks, some for months, and a few found themselves taking on responsibilities they had never anticipated. By the middle of the decade, a core group of committed servers had emerged. They were small in number but increasingly capable of supporting the expanding demands of the center.
The facilities, however, remained modest. Most functions were still based in the original building, and course sizes were limited by available space. Yet rather than slowing growth, these constraints sharpened the collective focus. The emphasis remained firmly on offering courses and supporting meditation practice above all else.
Tina Crisman at the helm
As activity increased, Tina Crisman provided the organization, continuity and care needed to keep the center functioning.
She was working as a pediatric nurse at the time. But in addition to this, Tina took on responsibilities ranging from center management and registration to kitchen oversight, maintenance and grounds care. If something needed attention, she made sure it was attended to.
Throughout the 1990s, Tina was involved in nearly every aspect of daily operations. Day 0 of a course often found her shopping in town and returning with a car full of groceries. Later that day, she might be mowing the lawn, preparing residences, organizing the meditation hall or coordinating meals as students and servers arrived.
Tina also guided the trust through decisions both large and small. As always, the aim was to ensure that expenditures were prudent, projects were timed carefully and nothing interfered with the center’s ability to offer courses. Tina also paid attention to the longer term, making sure that decisions taken now would not tie the trust’s hands in the future.
It was a demanding decade for Dhamma Sirī, but the center successfully fulfilled its role.
1996: A dedicated meditation hall
By the mid-1990s, Dhamma Sirī was starting to outgrow the original house. Having meditation, meals, interviews and living spaces all under one roof had become problematic.
In 1996, the trust undertook its first purpose-built construction project: a meditation hall. At the time, the course size averaged around 16 students. Creating a stand-alone meditation space would free rooms in the house and improve circulation. It would also allow better separation between different activities. Once the hall was completed, average course size increased by roughly 12 percent. This was a modest but meaningful step forward.
Building in rural Texas was an uncomplicated process in those years. There was no need for elaborate drawings, no lengthy process for issuing permits. If something was needed, it was designed simply and built directly. Rather than starting from scratch, the trust chose to adapt the large open car-tractor port attached to the house. With its tall posts and wide roof span, the structure already had the basic form required for a meditation hall.
Local old students Dick and Brenda White found a contractor to pour a concrete pad around the existing structure. They themselves then did the framing and roofing, while the contractor built the brick exterior—typical Texas style. Next came installing electrical lines and drywall, and then painting and carpeting—all jobs that Dick and Brenda handled. Last, two Bradford pear trees were planted at the entrance.
Within roughly 12 weeks, the center acquired a functional meditation hall, including six small individual meditation cells at the rear. This extraordinary transformation was achieved thanks to volunteer labor and careful use of resources.
Once construction was completed, though, the trust learned some unexpected lessons. One was the importance of a generous-sized entrance lobby where people could leave shoes and outerwear. The narrow entryways soon proved inadequate—especially during Texas rainstorms, when meditators would line up outside and wait for space to clear. Fortunately, it was a problem easy to solve. Not long after the hall opened, the trust added lobbies to the front, built in Austin stone—naturally colored limestone from the Texas hill country.
From expansion to pressure
The construction of a dedicated hall was a significant upgrade. There was less crowding in the original house, and courses flowed more smoothly. Meditation, meals, interviews and residential areas no longer competed for space. At the same time, the demand for courses continued to grow.
As numbers increased, the point of friction became the limited residential capacity. By the late 1990s, the center’s physical limits were being tested with each full course.
At the same time, the operational burden remained on the shoulders of a small group of local old students. The fact was that once more, growth was outpacing the infrastructure that supported it.
A residence for men
As the decade drew to a close, the original house—still serving as the primary residence for both students and servers—had reached its practical limits. In response, the trust undertook its next major building project: a dedicated residence for men.
With its 35 rooms, the new building significantly increased capacity and eased pressure on the original house. It also offered a level of comfort and functionality not previously possible. On the upper floor were eight private rooms, each with attached bathroom. Downstairs were 27 single rooms plus a large and efficient shower and toilet block. For long-term servers or a resident center manager, there were also larger rooms with generously sized closets. A second wing, added in 2010, later brought the residence to 75 rooms.
Thomas himself did most of the design for the new residence, with substantial input from Surendra Naik and old student Viran Nana, a general contractor specializing in hotel construction. Viran’s drafting team prepared the basic plans, and he coordinated the tradespeople required to bring the building to completion. Compared with the rapid construction of the meditation hall, this project unfolded at a more measured pace.
Once the structure was finished, old students again stepped in to complete the work. They built simple wooden bed frames, and the trust topped them with foam mattresses. That done, the men moved out of the original house and into what the women (only half-joking) called “the palace.”
The impact on course capacity was immediate. In December 2001, the center hosted its largest course to date, with 112 people on site, including students, servers and a single assistant teacher. Even with the new residence, space was at a premium. Single rooms became doubles, some students slept on the floor, all women’s bunk beds were filled, and additional servers were housed in aging trailers parked near the course boundaries.
Dhamma Sirī was operating at full capacity.
A pause to rethink (2001–02)
Despite this growth, day-to-day operations continued to rest on the shoulders of a small group of local old students. Their numbers shifted often. By the end of the 1990s, most regularly involved old students lived in Dallas, and Tina and this small team were working extremely hard to keep courses running smoothly.
By late 2001, the pace was no longer sustainable. Course sizes were large, local support was inconsistent, and only two long-term servers were living on site. Managing courses with more than a hundred people had stretched the team to its limit.
In early 2002, the trust made the difficult decision in favor of a temporary hiatus in operations. Everyone needed time to reset, reorganize and rebuild a stable service foundation.
Reinvigoration—The 2002 Meditation Now tour
The pause in early 2002 coincided with an unexpected and timely opportunity: Goenkaji’s Meditation Now road tour of North America. Dhamma Sirī was to be one of the tour stops. The trust began preparing the center for what would be a pivotal moment in its history.
On May 18, 2002, Goenkaji and Mataji arrived in Kaufman with members of the tour entourage for a stay of two days. Old students traveled from across the region and beyond, eager to meet the teacher whom they had known only from course recordings. In many cases, they brought family members and friends. For many local meditators, it was the first opportunity in years to sit with Goenkaji.
During the brief visit, Goenkaji gave talks for both old and new students. There were question-and-answer sessions, interviews and group sittings, along with quieter moments of conversation and shared reflection. For example, Goenkaji and Mataji enjoyed meeting the children and grandchildren of meditators who had been supporting the center since its earliest days.
The Teachers’ presence was inspiring. Old students who had stepped back during the previous years re-engaged. Others who had never served before came forward.
By the end of the visit, several meditators had committed to serve on-site. Together, they would form the nucleus of a renewed service team. With this team in place, the trust felt confident that the center could reopen and function in a more sustainable way.
Dhamma Sirī resumed operations in June 2002. Despite a five-month break earlier in the year, the center went on to offer 11 courses between June and December. That was only two courses below the number for all of 2001. More important was that responsibilities were more broadly shared, and stronger support systems were in place. The center entered its next phase with a renewed sense of purpose.
A residence for women
The next major development began in late 2004, as plans formed for a dedicated women’s residence. Earlier expansions had focused on increasing overall capacity. This project instead focused on improving functionality and comfort.
Until it was built, women students and servers had been housed entirely in the original main building. Fifty women slept in bunk beds in four large rooms, and they shared four bathrooms. Especially during full courses, the center had to provide portable outdoor toilets.
The new residence was on the north side of the property, near the pond. The design provided for 50 private rooms, each with attached bath. It also included a laundry room with two washing machines and two dryers. Another feature was a student supply closet, where course participants could find extra pillows and blankets, and other items they might happen to need. It did not increase total course capacity, but it transformed living conditions. As some joked at the time, women now had their own “palace.”
With the residence completed, student circulation patterns around the campus improved. Dining arrangements became more workable. Men continued using the dining space they had long occupied, but women were now able to spread out across four rooms. This project also made it possible to improve accommodations for assistant teachers. They moved from a small space next to the kitchen into the largest room of the main house, the one farthest from the bustle of the kitchen.
A Texas-style pagoda
While construction of the women’s residence was still underway, the trust decided to prepare for a meditation pagoda. From a practical standpoint, it would save money to undertake excavation and pour concrete for both projects at the same time. From a longer-term viewpoint, this was a deliberate step toward supporting long courses and deeper practice at Dhamma Sirī.
This period also coincided with a transition in on-site management. As major construction began, no one was living full-time at the center, and oversight of a complex project could easily have suffered. As had often happened before, the needs of the work drew new support.
Doug and Mary Marick were new meditators who had just sat their first course. Doug was a physicist by training and an engineer in practice. He brought deep experience with large-scale construction and industrial facilities. Together, Doug and Mary began making regular trips to the center, often every week. They stayed overnight and longer, helping as needed.
The pagoda design process followed the simple, practical, Texas-style approach now familiar at Dhamma Sirī. There was a drawing showing basic dimensions, and most decisions were made on site. Doug helped guide the work through countless construction details. From concrete to brickwork to the final installation of the crystal lotus atop the structure, he was involved every step of the way.
The pagoda changed Dhamma Sirī significantly. Before, the center had just six individual meditation cells, tucked into the back of the meditation hall. Now there were cells for all. The pagoda follows the model of Dhamma Giri. It has two levels, and each features a central teachers’ cell surrounded by eight student cells. From that core, the layout extends outward in concentric rings that allow for future expansion. With private cells now available, Dhamma Sirī could finally support longer courses for a growing community of old students wishing to deepen their practice.
To express gratitude for India’s role in bringing Vipassana to Texas, some old students donated marble that was sourced directly from India. During one of Thomas's and Tina’s annual visits to India, they selected green and white marble for the pagoda. The green marble was used on floors and entryway walls, with four gold-colored Dhamma wheels set into those walls. The central teachers’ cells on the ground and middle floors were lined with white marble. The uppermost cell, dedicated to Goenkaji and Mataji, is inspired by their cell at Dhamma Giri. Set into the walls are bronze plaques inscribed with some of the key passages from the Pali-language Tipitaka, rendered in Roman script. They include the Discourse Setting in Motion the Wheel of Dhamma, the Discourse on Relations, and the Chain of Dependent Origination—the same texts found on the walls of the central cell of the pagoda at Dhamma Giri as well as at the meditation center of Sayagyi U Ba Khin in Myanmar.
In Myanmar and India, cell buildings for Vipassana meditation are often crowned with a bell-shaped zedi (the Burmese word for pagoda) tapering upward to a metal hti (umbrella), topped with a crystal that catches the first light of dawn. The Dhamma Sirī pagoda, clad in brick, shows no sign of a zedi or hti, but at the summit is a lotus-shaped crystal, donated by a meditator in India. Carefully selected and carved from a single piece of pure quartz in Jaipur, the crystal is mounted above a light controlled by a photocell. At dusk, it is illuminated from below. At dawn, the light switches off, allowing the crystal to catch the first rays of the rising sun. It is a quiet representation of the light of Dhamma spreading over the world.
When the building reached completion, everyone at Dhamma Sirī was eager to open the pagoda to the community. The inaugural course began on June 6, 2006. This was a 20-day course attended by 20 students, conducted by Van Shafer and with Surendra and Urmila Naik assisting. It was probably a dusty affair, with unfinished floors and signs of construction still evident. But the significance was clear, and no one could have been happier than the people who had worked so hard to make Dhamma Sirī’s pagoda a reality.
Manager’s residence
By the mid-2000s, Dhamma Sirī could accommodate up to 93 students. The increased capacity was the outcome of nearly two decades of steady investment in facilities for course participants. Long-term servers, however, still faced challenging living conditions. They found themselves accommodated in the same buildings as course participants and entirely within course boundaries. Over time, this arrangement could feel like a pressure cooker.
In mid-2006, the couple serving as resident managers moved on. As had happened many times before, the center continued operating through the shared efforts of a small group of committed old students, supported by the trust. Responsibilities shifted and adapted from course to course, with no single person carrying the work alone.
Helping to coordinate operations during this transitional period was Dawn Branam, an old student living in Dallas. Her work and family commitments meant that she could not live on site, but she provided unfailing support from a distance and was there in person for key moments of nearly every course for years: Day 0, Metta Day and Day 11. She helped arriving students, servers and assistant teachers settle in and get the course started. On the last day of a course, she made sure that everything was properly shut down and the center secured. Other volunteers helped alongside her, stepping in wherever needed.
One of those volunteers was Dawn’s mother, Maude Hutchinson. After sitting her first course in 2002, Maude became a familiar presence at Dhamma Sirī. Many remember her wide smile and her unmistakable “white toaster of a car,” always ready for a drive. If supplies were needed or someone required a ride—especially for an early departure—Maude was often the one who stepped in. She good-humoredly served in this way for more than a decade, until age and health gradually curtailed the long drives she loved.
By mid-2008, Dhamma Sirī had been without a resident management team for nearly two years. With an active trust and a rotating group of volunteers, courses continued. At the same time, it was clear that a permanent on-site presence was essential for sustainable operations and consistently full courses.
The trust set a new priority: providing housing that would support long-term service. The builders soon started work, and by mid-2009 the center had a small residence with two living units. This was intended to provide a stable base for resident managers and a viable path for extended service.
Not long after, in the summer of 2009, Hien Lam, from Houston, sat a course. At the end, he learned that the center was seeking a resident manager. He expressed interest but mentioned that he had a family and his wife had not yet sat a course. Tina suggested postponing the discussion until after his wife had some experience of Vipassana.
Six weeks later, Hien served while his wife Binh sat her first course. In the following months, Hien worked on convincing his family to move. Binh was skeptical at first but said she would agree to move if he could sell their existing house and everything in it within 30 days. She might have assumed that wouldn’t be possible. But 30 days later, the house and contents had been sold. By the end of 2009, Hien and Binh had relocated to Kaufman with their nine-year-old son Leon.
Reflecting later, Dawn Branam remarked that it felt “like a Dhamma freight train pulling into the station: this was going to happen.” Never mind their limited experience. Hien and Binh stepped into residential service just when the center needed stability.
With appropriate housing in place, long-term service became viable in a way it had not been before. Over the past 15 years, Hien and Binh have served in residence, with several long breaks.
This underscores a lesson: When the trust puts in place conditions that support ongoing service, the people needed to carry the work forward are more likely to turn up.
A new meditation hall and Teachers’ residence (2012)
By the early 2010s, Dhamma Sirī had outgrown the meditation hall built in 1996. Courses were larger, long courses were more frequent, and the overall rhythm of the center had become more complex. The need was no longer simply for space; it was for better flow patterns, separation of functions, and a setting that could support the next phase of growth.
In 2012, the trust completed both a new meditation hall and a new teachers’ residence. Planning for the new meditation hall had begun several years earlier. As discussions got underway, the idea came up of addressing another long-standing need at the same time: a dedicated residence for assistant teachers.
Thomas and Dawn collaborated extensively during the planning process. He insisted that the main meditation space should measure at least 45 by 90 feet. It would have a high ceiling and recessed lighting running around the ceiling perimeter. Generous entrance lobbies would prevent the crowding experienced in earlier years. There would also be rooms for teachers to meditate with small groups or meet privately with students, and a smaller meditation hall at the back. To minimize disturbance, there would be separate entrances for students, servers and assistant teachers.
The Dhamma seat would be raised on an eight-inch marble dais. As they had done before, Thomas and Tina selected marble in India and arranged for it to be shipped to Texas.
The result was a hall that was unmistakably Texan in scale, and at the same time connected to India in the details of design.
Thomas also had a hand in planning the assistant teachers’ residence next door to the new hall. The building would have two separate wings. Each wing would include two bedrooms with attached bathrooms, a full kitchen, and an office or sitting room where students could meet privately with the conducting teachers. The design drew on the model of Goenkaji’s residence at Dhamma Giri; this had separate living quarters for men and women, with a small meditation space between them.
The design also called for an exercise room—an important feature that would help teachers maintain their health.
Like the meditation hall, the residence was finished with marble accents, chosen for their durability.
A center serving Latin America
Over the years, Dhamma Sirī made a very significant contribution to the spread of Vipassana in Latin America.
The first full 10-day course in that part of the world took place in 1994, in Venezuela. It was the outcome of years of effort by Daniel Mayer, who had sat his first courses with Goenkaji in the 1970s and later became an assistant teacher. Originally from Argentina, Daniel saw the course in Venezuela as only the beginning. Soon teachers Arthur Nichols as well as Parker and Laura Mills were devoting themselves full-time to serving in Latin America, and the demand for courses kept growing.
Dhamma Sirī played a part by welcoming Latin American students to 10-day and long courses in the early years. Schedulers particularly made sure that any long course at the center was a bilingual English–Spanish course whenever possible. That enabled Spanish-speaking students to deepen their practice and, eventually, start training to become assistant teachers.
An important part of the training has always been the annual meetings where assistant teachers can learn from their seniors. Starting in 2011 and every two years from then on, Dhamma Sirī offered a bilingual English–Spanish course of 30 days or longer. It also blocked off the week before the course for a meeting of Latin American assistant teachers. It became an “honorary” Latin American center, and this continued through 2019. According to Arthur, “Dhamma Sirī was a warm and welcoming home-away-from-home for Latin American assistants.”
Today, Latin America is a powerhouse of Dhamma. As of 2026, it has 71 assistant teachers and 18 trainees, serving in 13 centers and at 35 non-center locations in 23 countries ... plus Dhamma Sirī!
Dhamma Sukha (“Happiness of Dhamma”), Central Texas
During the Meditation Now road tour in May 2002, more than 800 people attended a public talk by Goenkaji in Houston. The numbers were a strong indication of the local interest in Vipassana meditation. Goenkaji responded by encouraging local meditators to establish a Vipassana center in the area. It took some years but in 2014, the Central Texas Vipassana Association was formed, and in 2018 the Association purchased a property in New Ulm, a convenient drive from Houston, Austin and San Antonio.
Surrounding the 32-acre site is a forest of live oaks, pecan trees and American sycamores, with trees as tall as 85 feet. Dhamma Sukha held its first 10-day course in June 2023 and now has a full year-round course program. The center currently can accommodate up to 60 students plus servers. The longer-range plan is to double that number.
Weather, pandemic and resilience
Dhamma Sirī is located on the edge of what is called “Tornado Alley”—a region that frequently experiences high winds and torrential rains.
In 2014, severe storms caused significant damage across Kaufman County. At Dhamma Sirī, nearly every roof on the campus had to be replaced; the one exception was the assistant teachers’ residence. The work was a major unplanned expense. Yet courses continued and, once repairs were completed, the center was better equipped for extreme weather events.
A different kind of storm arrived in March 2020. As the COVID pandemic spread, Dhamma Sirī—like centers around the world—made the difficult decision to suspend the course program. For many meditators, this was disappointing. At the same time, many expressed gratitude that the trust had acted decisively for the benefit and protection of students and servers.
The doors were closed to regular courses, but the trust used the time to tackle long-postponed maintenance and improvement projects. And in the absence of human activity, deer, birds and other wildlife moved more freely across the campus.
During the shutdown, the center still hosted work periods and one-day courses. There were also several unannounced 10-day courses for assistant teachers and experienced old students. The lower number of participants allowed the center to develop practical procedures for the eventual reopening.
February 2021 was the target date for resuming courses, initially for reduced numbers. But just as the date for reopening approached, an unprecedented winter storm struck Texas. The February deep freeze brought power outages that lasted days in many areas, and more than a week in some. At Dhamma Sirī, freezing temperatures caused extensive damage. The fire suppression system in the men’s residence cracked, sending water cascading through portions of the building. Burst pipes affected all but two structures on campus. The reopening had to be postponed by three months while water damage was addressed and systems were restored.
At last, in May 2021 the center reopened with a Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta course conducted by Arthur Nichols and Benelle Reeble for 40 participants. The number of people accepted per course increased gradually as the pandemic waned. By January 2023, Dhamma Sirī had returned to full capacity of 125 participants and set aside all COVID-related protocols.
These emergencies tested the center in unexpected ways. Each time, the trust responded carefully. When buildings suffered damage, it undertook the needed repairs. When the course program had to be suspended, without fuss it started preparing for reopening. Through every challenge, the work continued.
A professional support team for the center
Over the years, the center has learned the importance of cultivating strong relationships with the local community, and especially with the contractors and tradespeople to whom we often have to turn for help.
Managing multiple buildings, infrastructure systems and construction projects requires dependable professional support. To operate smoothly, Dhamma Sirī relies on good relationships with local contractors.
One such relationship began almost by accident during construction of the new meditation hall. A meeting had been scheduled with the electrical contractor. Unable to attend, he sent his brother, Rodney Gardner, to represent the company. During the discussion, Rodney expressed genuine interest in what the center was building and the broader purpose behind the project. Before leaving, he mentioned that his own company would be glad to help if needed. Their specialty was acting as a general contractor, bringing dependable tradespeople for the different aspects of a project.
From that chance meeting, a long-standing partnership developed. Over the years, Dhamma Sirī has depended on Rodney and his team of professionals on many occasions.
A strong working relationship with a trusted local contractor has been more than a convenience. It has become a key support for the center’s continued growth. Through such partnerships, the practical care of the campus remains steady, allowing the primary focus to remain on offering courses and sustaining meditation practice.
Continuity of service
Over the years, Dhamma Sirī has depended on a small but dedicated group of individuals who have returned frequently to help. Their numbers were never large and their roles often shifted from course to course. But together they provided the continuity that made growth possible.
Judy Barta was the center’s first on-site manager, shouldering the day-to-day work of keeping courses running. She was later appointed an assistant teacher. Benelle Reeble settled in Tulsa, Oklahoma. She came for many years to serve—and later, to conduct courses as an assistant teacher.
Surendra and Urmila Naik went on to become Teachers, sharing the job of supporting Dhamma Sirī with the Crismans. In the early years Surendraji was affectionately known as ‘the paparazzi’ because he was rarely without a camera to document each new development at the center. Urmilaben taught Gujarati cooking to many servers, and on Metta Day evenings she would recruit helpers to stir a pot of kheer (sweet milk rice, mentioned in one of Goenkaji’s discourses) for the next morning’s breakfast.
Bharath Sundararaman became active with the trust during the 2002 Meditation Now tour and has stayed close ever since—serving as trust president twice, running the center’s transportation program for arriving students, and for years keeping the community informed with regular emails about local sittings and activities.
May Dean, Bharati Chheda and Lee Acres have served the center for many years. All three became assistant teachers, and all remain active today. Bharati coordinated the region’s children’s courses, devising a steady stream of activities for the program. May has been a mainstay of the Mandarin–English courses held around the United States and has served on every one held at Dhamma Sirī. Lee has worked closely with the Thai community and its Thai–English courses, and she continues to serve on courses.
Nilendu Jani worked closely with Thomas, eventually taking over the Dhamma Sirī website and going on to support Thomas’s broader international work with Dhamma.org. Nilendu’s wife Radha served in the kitchen, and as the center’s accountant and later treasurer. They are now Teachers, working alongside center teacher Dawn Branam.
Usha Mehta is among the longest-serving people at the center, second only to the Naiks. Active since the 1990s, she has become a fixture at the end of every course, setting up and managing the donations table with a warm, welcoming presence — and, drawing on her career as an accountant, taking exceptional care that every donation is recorded correctly.
Expanding the boundaries
When Dhamma Sirī was first established in the early 1990s, Kaufman was a quiet rural community. The center was surrounded primarily by pastureland. If we heard some noise, it usually came from cows on an adjoining property or from a piece of farm equipment moving along the road.
Half a lifetime later, things have changed. Housing developments have multiplied, traffic has increased, and land once considered remote has become increasingly desirable.
Thomas foresaw this shift. He knew that development would eventually reach the center’s edges, and so he approached the neighbors to the north and asked about purchasing some of their land to provide a buffer. In 2014, the trust acquired 14 acres on the north side, expanding the campus to a total of 34 acres.
Before the expansion, the northern boundary of Dhamma Sirī had run close to the women’s residence, passing directly through the middle of the pond and about 60 feet from the residence. Securing the additional acreage created a substantial protective buffer and eased concerns that future development might disrupt courses.
The southern boundary, however, remained vulnerable. The men’s residence stood close to the property line. The neighboring land had long remained open pasture, but there was always the possibility that a future sale would result in construction immediately adjacent to the center.
Over the course of a decade, Dawn followed Thomas’s example and talked regularly with the southern neighbor, David Siar. They met several times each year for neighborly dialogue, and Dawn reiterated the center’s interest in the property. Eventually, Mr. Siar agreed with a handshake—in true Texas style—that Dhamma Sirī would be second in line to purchase the land should he decide to sell.
In 2023, he honored that understanding. He first offered the 152-acre property to a local couple. But when they were unable to complete the purchase, he contacted Dawn. By that time, the trust had accumulated substantial funds for a future rebuild of the kitchen. The opportunity to secure the southern buffer, however, took precedence.
The trust convened and agreed to move forward. Dawn and Mr. Siar worked through the details directly, without real estate agents. Their agreement was shaped through conversation and handshake commitments, followed by a simple contract.
In January 2024, Dhamma Sirī purchased the full 152 acres to the south. As part of the arrangement, it granted Mr. Siar a lifetime lease, allowing him to remain on the property for as long as he wished, at a symbolic cost of one dollar per year.
With 186 acres now under its care, Dhamma Sirī gained protection from encroaching development. And it also could start planning for long-term sustainability.
Preparing for the future
The additional land opens new possibilities. A top priority is housing for long-term servers and assistant teachers, along with infrastructure improvements, such as a redesigned septic system, improved water retention and management, and enhanced fire protection capacity. Another possibility is a solar field, which some day could make the center self-sufficient in meeting its electricity needs.
Over the decades there have been huge changes at Dhamma Sirī, and there will be still more in the coming years. But the center’s purpose remains unchanged: to create and maintain the conditions for practicing Vipassana, to safeguard the environment so that it remains conducive for meditation, and to keep the Dhamma prospering here for this and many future generations.
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