www.dhamma.org

for all your sitting needs.

metta,

david

Hi Maguerite,

usually there is always demand for old students at Vipassana centers, who are willing to give their spare time to serve. And the longer the better. So best you search out the centers of your area with Dave's suggestion, and ask there by phone.

However, in the west - other than the east - courses are always booked out long in advance. So your wish to alternate sitting with serving possibly might not become fulfilled - since students who haven't got an opportunity yet to sit even their first course, will most of the time be given precedence.

kind regards..

Marguerite, for sure you can give long-term service at a Center; in fact I know that the California center (in North Fork) is very much in need of long-term servers right now. While there are no long courses there of 20 days or more, usually you can work with a schedule of serve two 10-days, sit one. Sometimes it might arise that you will need to serve three before sitting another, but it depends on how you're doing.

You can sign up to serve or sit a 10-day and include in your application that you are interested in giving long-term service. Whatever assistant teacher is present at the end of the course will meet with you and see if you're still interested and if it would be good for the center. In this way, there is no obligation on the part of you or the center, so if and when something changes you will be free to respond properly to it.

You could also come up here to the Washington center, 1.5 hours north of Portland near the town of Onalaska. We almost always need help! In fact, we need female servers for the next course beginning January 30th. If you can get to the Centralia bus/train station, we can get you to the center; just make sure to fill out an application and wait to be accepted first.

Wishing you well on your path :)

Against the Stream Buddhist Meditation Society is Noah Levine's new organization. We have a dharma center in Los Angeles at 4300 Melrose Ave. (near Vermont).

www.againstthestream.org