The Vipassana Meditation Center at Dumbrava de Sus was founded in 1997 by Ardelean Farcas, who is also the founder of the cultural organization “Copiii Soarelui” (Children of the Sun). Together with the founding members of the organization, the guide, Ardelean Farcas, laid the foundations of the center around which a community of young and enthusiastic people has grown. This place in the mountains with its rolling hills and pure vibration was already discovered in 1984 by the very young Ardelean Farcas.
The place in which the center is located is part of Dumbrava de Sus village, Ribita commune, Hunedoara County, and has a long story. It is situated on top of a mountain at 700 m altitude, and used to be called in olden days La Junc (At the Cows), because here the villagers let their cows graze during the summer. The scenery is just a dream and all four seasons take place with such beauty every single year.
When the center started, the place was almost abandoned, out of six existing households only one was lived in. Step by step, we bought all the houses in the hamlet Plesa (that is the name of the part of the village where the center is) and the community began to take shape. The houses became again habitable, the land cultivated, and meditation took flight.
With the enthusiasm of new beginnings, from an old, straw-roofed barn, through which you could spot sky blue and twinkling stars, we made our first meditation hall.
Over time, conditions have evolved. At the beginning we carried water in buckets from a spring near the houses, after a few years we began pumping water, but the most important change came in 2005 when, by our own hands, we installed piping (buried) bringing water from the foot of Stramba Mountain, 8.4 km from the center. This significantly improved everything: we started farming goats, we developed an ingenious irrigation system, and our daily life became much easier.
And so, putting in practice the art of living day by day, our community grew. From a handful of people who lived here at the very beginning, today 70 people live in our community, adults and children alike. Of course, everything gravitates around meditation, which sustains us in all we do in our life as smallholders on top of a mountain. Because we are active people, and the smooth running of our community is largely based on our own work in agriculture, construction, breeding goats and other things.
Although our community is far away from society, we are not cut off from it, we know what people have to deal with nowadays, but we have chosen to be in the middle of nature, so we can offer those who come from the tumult of contemporary life, the peace and harmony they need.
Alongside meditation, which helps us to be positive and keep our minds balanced, we maintain our physical health through different natural practices – plant treatments, clay, zeolite, plasmatic technology.
Over time, thousands of people have passed through here, each one with their own search for change and evolution and their own need to know and rediscover the peace and harmony with which they were built. Meditating sincerely and devotedly, they rediscover and develop beneficial qualities, gain self-confidence, and therefore, unintendedly, help all those with whom they come in contact, through the beautiful and luminous vibration they transmit.
Any sincere student makes sure that meditation becomes part of their daily life, even if that takes place in society. Their activities become much easier. Some students join the community for certain periods of time, longer or shorter.
There are also people who just come out of curiosity, but even they can discover beautiful things inside them thanks to their sincere effort when meditating.
Each year we offer around 6 to 8 ten-day Vipassana meditation courses for beginners, and a varying number of short, 3 to 5-day courses for advanced students (according to request).
May you all learn the art of living in peace and harmony with yourselves and with all beings in the Universe!