About

Between 1994 and 2003 Vipassana courses were held in different parts of Brazil – Minas Gerais, São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Santa Catarina – at rented sites: Catholic retreat facilities, borrowed farm, rented guesthouse etc.

Until at last a group of old students, with the support of assistant teachers, bought land with a few buildings that would be adapted, the Dhamma Hall was built and Dhamma Santi meditation center, close to Miguel Pereira in the state of Rio de Janeiro, opened in May 2003.
The first Satipatthana courses had 21 students, many coming from neighboring countries. Today the center receives over 100 students and since 2012 offers 21 cells for individual meditation to both male and female students.  Long courses began being held in 2005.

To allow students to go deeper in their practice, suítes were built, first on the female side, and a year later on the male, to allow students to go deeper in their pratice.  And now the center holds a 20 or 30 day course every year.

The original tight-squeeze dining areas were expanded but, until 2017, still had no walls. That year major work was done to build a new kitchen, dining hall and office complex which substituted the original small house that for the first 14 years was still is use as kitchen/dining area/office.