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Vipassana in Canberra
The first
non-centre course in Canberra, the capital of Australia was held earlier this
year in April. The course had 38 participants. All students completed the
course. It marks a beginning in a region in Australia that shows encouraging
receptivity to Dhamma.
Since the late 1998 a group of old students requested that a 10-day course
be held in Canberra. An official group-sit had been held for 2 years in Canberra
since late 1996, and 1-day courses every few months from 1997.
Canberra is a city with a large number of “satellite” suburbs. The groundwork
for organizing a course began formally in 1997, with a series of video screenings
(using Hill of Dhamma, and the Short Introduction to Vipassana, filmed at
Igatpuri and Blackheath) held in central Canberra. Publicity for the course
included press kits being faxed to a number of local newspapers and radio
stations. An announcement also appeared once in the 'Canberra Times' community
announcements section; two community service announcements were made a week
prior to the course by a meditator on a local radio station. Also, an article
detailing the Canberra region's Chief Magistrate’s impressions of DTDV ('Doing
Time, Doing Vipassana' video) was printed in the Canberra Times in February.
This last piece of publicity was very valuable, as it gave some official support
when approaching other avenues for media attention, as well as putting up
posters, and generally talking to people about the technique.
The course site was a scout camp in the hills about 20 minutes south of Canberra.
It was well laid out, with minimum structural changes needing to be made apart
from erecting divisions (curtains draped over upright tables) in the kitchen/dining
room.
The cost of the site ($11 per person, per night – calculated on a daily basis)
was expensive, but was covered with dana given prior to and at the conclusion
of the course, with the surplus banked for future courses. In future it may
be possible to negotiate the site cost, should the same site be used. At this
stage a 10-day course during Christmas time is being considered, official
group-sits will continue in South Canberra (the current contacts for the ACT
are Upali and Chandini Dharmakirti - (02) 6290 1874), and a one-day course
is being planned for later this year.