Dhamma Sacca Projects
"Vipassana time has arrived in many places in the world. For many years devoted students from diverse countries have worked restenly to make Dhamma available to others.
Now, many centers in the world have been established and their efforts are bearing fruit. The centers are schools teaching only one lesson: Dhamma, the art of living."
S. N. Goenka
Index
1) Video about the projects
2) Future projects
3) Projects in progress
- Construction of 12 individual rooms for servers.
- Closed irrigation circuit.
- Installation of a second organic shredder.
- Expansion of the solar garden.
4) Completed projects
+ Fourth Period (January 2023 – December 2024)
- Comprehensive irrigation and firefighting system.
- Female servers building.
- Construction of female and male servers dining room and bathrooms.
- Installation of rear garden pergola.
+ Third Period (October 2020 – December 2022)
- Construction of block with 18 single rooms for women and 18 for men.
- Installation of solar garden.
- Drilling of additional wells for geothermal energy.
- Construction of a room in the women's dining hall.
+ Second Period (July 2016 – October 2020)
- Improvements to the lighting and sound systems throughout the centre.
- Fitting out of a room in the dining hall for the installation of the library.
- Expansion of the dining rooms.
- Rooms for long term students.
+ First Period (May 2015 – July 2016)
1) Video about the proyects
Here is an inspiring video about the history and Master Plan of Dhamma Sacca.
We are all Dhamma Sacca at Dhamma Server on Vimeo.
2) Future projects
The Dhamma Sacca Foundation does not currently have the necessary funds to carry out these future projects. If you would like to contribute to this important project, you can do so with service by clicking on this link or with donations by clicking here. (User: oldstudent - password: behappy)
"Vipassana meditation centres are not clubs designed for the enjoyment of their members. They are not temples where religious ceremonies are held. They are not places for socialising. They are not communities where members of a sect can live isolated from the outside world, according to their own peculiar rules. The centres are, instead, schools that teach a single subject: Dhamma, the art of living." - S. N. Goenka
Construction of two 100m³ tanks
The services of an engineering firm specialising in water installations have been contracted to draw up a project for the construction of two 100m³ reservoirs and an adjoining installation hut to house the water pumping and distribution equipment. The purpose of these reservoirs will be to guarantee water consumption over ten-day courses and also to enable us to irrigate during periods of drought.
Estimated date: 2026
Cost: €350,000
Energy optimisation system
The installation of the new tanks will be accompanied by an electronic system for automatic water control and management throughout the centre. This will save energy costs when filling the tanks and allow us to study water level trends in the wells, enabling us to anticipate critical situations during periods of extreme drought.
Estimated date: 2026
Expansion of Dhamma Hall and 40 cells
A sketch has now been drawn up showing how the rooms for speeches in English and other languages would look, located right in the space between the entrances to the men's and women's halls. A floor below these rooms will house the 20 meditation cells for women and the same number for men that are planned, providing ideal conditions for practice for old students.
Estimated date: 2026
A unique opportunity to collaborate in spreading the Dhamma for the benefit of future meditators
Students who wish to share their merits with others by donating to these projects can do so by clicking on the following link.
For more information, you can also send an email to: tesoreria@sacca.dhamma.org
3) Ongoing projects
Construction of 12 individual rooms for servers
Phase 8 of the project includes the construction of 12 individual rooms for servers, an office and a geothermal hut, with a budget of €520,000. The documentation was submitted to the relevant municipal department, and work began in May 2025. Part of the budget is currently available, allowing construction to begin.
Date: from January 2025
Cost: €520,000
Closed irrigation circuit
Work has been carried out during 2024 on the installation of a closed loop with buried pipes for the irrigation system. All irrigation circuits will be connected to this loop to ensure water supply to our entire estate. This irrigation system will be fed from the water tanks that are currently under consideration. The main loop is almost complete.
Date: since 2024
Installation of a second organic shredder
The evacuation pump will be placed next to the existing one, working alternately, and will serve to ensure that in the event of a breakdown of either of them, the service they provide is not interrupted.
Date: since January 2025
Expansion of the solar garden
In total, 36 new panels will be installed in the same area as those already in place. This will increase the number of solar panels from 72 to 108. This will enable a 50% increase in production, from the current 30MWh to 45MWh, representing an increase in self-consumption from 33% to 52%, just over half of the centre's current total demand. In addition, the entire site has been covered with weed control fabric to prevent plant growth from shading the panels. The cost of the investment in the new installation amounts to €20,000. This investment will result in annual savings of €5,000 in consumption. Therefore, the investment is expected to be recouped within a period of four years. The Board of Trustees has also commissioned a study to assess the possible installation of a diesel generator that could cover the centre's electricity supply for an extended period of time, i.e. for exceptional cases such as the recent general ‘blackout’ that affected the entire peninsula.
Estimated date: 2026
Cost: €20,000
4) Completed projects
+ Fourth Period (January 2023 - December 2024)
Comprehensive irrigation and firefighting system
To alleviate the serious irrigation problem, especially in the summer, a comprehensive irrigation system has been installed to supply water to the entire centre. With a budget of €45,000, it is divided into three phases.
The first phase: With a budget of €15,000, a main artery is being buried with 500 m of pipe, which, in addition to irrigation, includes a fire-fighting system consisting of a ring covering the entire centre.
Date: from January 2023 to December 2024
Cost: €45,000
Female servers building
Construction of the female servers quarters, which has 12 individual rooms, each with its own bathroom, and the necessary furniture for normal use, as well as the installation of geothermal equipment to heat and cool the rooms, laundry room and servers dining rooms, had a budget of €400,000. Finally, the total cost of the building was €380,000, including furniture and accessories.
Date: from January 2023 to December 2024
Cost: €380,000
Construction of female and male servers dining room and bathrooms
Between May and December 2023, phase 6 was initiated and completed with a budget of €215,000. This phase consisted of the construction of the servers dining room, including its respective bathrooms. It has a usable area of 78.75 m² and a built area of 91.25 m².
As part of the same project, the center manager's reception office has been expanded to make it more operational. The office furniture was donated by a former student. An air conditioning system has also been installed in the laundry room and two pergolas have been installed to reduce solar radiation in the office and laundry room.
Date: from January 2023 to December 2024
Cost: €215,000
Installation of rear garden pergola
In October 2024, work began on installing a pergola to cover part of the garden behind the dining rooms, which was completed in November. This is an area for common use by students on the 10th and 11th days of the course. A slab has also been built for the installation of a metal shed to store the centre's tools and ensure greater care and control of them.
Date: from January 2023 to December 2024
+ Third Period (October 2020 - December 2022)
Construction of block with 18 single rooms for women and 18 for men
Construction of the block of 18 single rooms and women's bathroom, with a usable area of 260.05 m² and, like the men's building, two adapted rooms. The total cost of this phase was €473,986. Subsequently, the same symmetrical building was constructed for male old students.
Date: from October 2020 to December 2022
Cost: €473,986
Installation of solar garden
During the same construction process, a solar farm was installed to feed surplus energy into the electricity grid, with a peak power of 30 kW. Total cost of Phase 5: €543,000.
Date: from October 2020 to December 2022
Cost: €543,000
Drilling of additional wells for geothermal energy
Drilling of several additional wells for geothermal energy with the aim of optimising and improving air conditioning in the meditation room and bedrooms with new boreholes approximately 100 m deep at a cost of €24,000.
With the system installed in the server building, all the centre's needs have been covered, with a total of seven air conditioning installations (summer-winter), to which must be added the aerothermal system for the women's single rooms. The buildings equipped with this system are:
- Kitchen and student dining rooms.
- Meditation rooms and teachers' rooms.
- Men's common buildings.
- Women's common buildings. (Aerothermal energy).
- Men's individual building.
- Female servers individual building.
- Laundry and female servers dining rooms.
- Male servers individual building.
Date: from October 2020 to December 2022
Cost: €24,000
Construction of a room in the women's dining hall
This room, equipped with two beds and a bathroom, is used for special cases and emergencies, should it be necessary in the event of illness among students and servers.
Date: from October 2020 to December 2022
+ Second Period (January 2023 - December 2024)
Improvements to the lighting and sound systems throughout the centre
The lighting installations throughout the centre were improved, as was the audio equipment, which allowed the automatic gong, activated from the gong structure, to be brought into the rooms. This sound system has been updated as the different buildings have been constructed throughout the development of the overall project.
Date: from July 2016 to October 2020
Fitting out of a room in the dining hall for the installation of the library
Fitting out a room in the dining room to house the library and storage area for forms in different languages, posters and other materials needed for the 10th day of courses.
Date: from July 2016 to October 2020
Expansion of the dining rooms
In 2017, both the men's and women's dining halls were expanded, which prevented students from having to eat in two shifts during the school year. This project increased the usable floor space by 163 m².
Date: 2017
Rooms for long term students
At the end of 2018, construction will begin on eight single rooms for long-term servers, four at the end of the men's dormitory building and another four in the women's dormitory building. With a usable area of 90.80 m² and a budget of €74,000, these rooms represent a major improvement in comfort and privacy for these servers.
Date: end of 2018
Cost: €74,000€
+ First Period (January 2023 - December 2024)
Construction of the main buildings
The main and small meditation rooms, office, kitchen and dining rooms, common room buildings for male and female students, and staff accommodation comprise a budget of €1,600,000.
This first phase involved the construction of most of the centre's buildings to make it operational for the functional development of the courses that began to be taught at that time. It should be noted that some facilities, such as the dining rooms and office, were built with a view to expanding them at a later date when dana would allow.
Date: from January 2023 to December 2024
Geothermal building and technical rooms 1 and 2
Each room is equipped with a geothermal heat pump for heating, production and storage of domestic hot water.
The main technical room also houses the low-voltage switchboard and the water purification system.
The switchboard had to be replaced with a larger one to comply with regulations and to accommodate the electrical installations of the different buildings that have been constructed.
This extra purification system, as required by the applicable regulations, collects water from the three wells on the premises and, after chlorination, stores it in a small 12 m³ cistern where the two circulation pumps are submerged, sending the water to all points of consumption on the premises.
Similarly, all the pipes for the electricity and water systems throughout the centre were buried, as well as the sewage treatment system and the three ecological reed beds (phytoplants) that purify the sewage for subsequent discharge into the stream.
Date: from January 2023 to December 2024