Dear friends,

we have come to the end of our retreat season, and the centre will close until the end of December. This year about 400 people have joined our Satipatthana Vipassana and Metta retreats, and the places available in almost all our retreats were taken. We apologize with those of you who weren’t able to take part in a retreat because it was full.

We’d like to express our heartfelt gratitude to all of you who have supported Pian dei Ciliegi through the years (and are still supporting us), in manyfold ways; it is also thanks to your mindful presence and dedication that Pian dei Ciliegi has become such a valuable place for the practice of the Dhamma, and an important reference point for many yogis.

Our 2020 retreat schedule will be published around the middle on November, and communicated through our website www.piandeiciliegi.it, our mailing list and our facebook page (sangha di pian dei ciliegi). We will open our retreat bookings the second week of January 2020.

Dear Friends and Associates,

This message is directed to all those who feel that they belong to, or wish to participate in the Sangha that has developed around the meditation center Pian dei Ciliegi, and who share the center’s aims and goals.
As you know, in recent years Pian dei Ciliegi has played an important role in the diffusion of Satipatthana Vipassana Meditation in the West, a role which we wish to maintain and develop in the future, on the basis of experience accumulated over the years, both in terms of the teaching and in the management of retreats. The Gift of the Dhamma is greater than any other gift, and we would like to preserve and consign this precious gift to future generations.

We intend to continue to make improvements, and this includes the establishment that houses the retreats. When we began about twenty years ago, the building was quite a bit run-down, and had many problems. On the basis of a contract drawn up in 1996, in exchange for a very low rent (that has remained invariant since then), the Association promised to undertake works to improve the structure, and this agreement will remain in place for as long as the Association is active. Bit by bit, with the contribution from retreats and from members, we have continued to better the center, and now we come to the “last great work” we must carry out, namely, the renovation and expansion of the bathrooms in order to provide a more modern standard of comfort for future generations of practitioners.
So if you too feel a part of the great Sangha family, if you have benefitted from the teachings and from your encounters with great Teachers, if you have grasped the inestimable value of the Dhamma and the importance of Generosity (Dana), if you are moved by an altruistic spirit and a spirit of sharing, we invite you to participate in our project, for the benefit of all those who will come into contact with this magnificent practice. It is the most proficuous means for the purification of minds, and for overcoming the conflicts and ills that afflict human beings.
So dear friends and associates, dear Sangha at Pian dei Ciliegi, we encourage you to contribute to whatever degree you are able, with a donation or with a loan, which we absolutely require for the substantial renovations we are about to undertake (the details of which will be outlined in a follow up letter), for the betterment of the center.
We at the Directive Council are committed to continue with our work for as long as we are able, honoring your trust in us, and with the hope that new energies will always be available to keep the Wheel of the Dhamma turning at Pian dei Ciliegi.

With immense gratitude and Metta
Gianni Burgazzi, Center manager

The donation or loan may be sent via bank transfer to the
Association Pian dei Ciliegi
Bank: Banca Cariparma Credit Agricole
Address: Via Vittorio Veneto 88 29028 Ponte dell’ Olio (PC) – Italy
IBAN Code: IT47F0623065420000030714189
For Transfers from Abroad: SWIFT Code: CRPPIT2P027 (n.b. the 9th character is a zero)

At one of its recent meetings, the Board at Pian dei Ciliegi has decided to establish a fund that will permit its more motivated yogis to participate in extended retreats here at Pian dei Ciliegi itself, or at other related centers such as the Panditarama Lumbini International Vipassana Meditation Center, the Panditarama Shwe Taung Gon Sasana Yeiktha in Yangon, the Santisukkarama Centre in Malaysia, the Centres that followthe tradition of di U-Janaka).
It is the feeling of the Board that the fund be comprised of donations made by meditators or supporters, in such a way as to allow them to develop the virtue of Dana (generosity) which, alongside Sila (moral conduct) and Nekkhamma (renunciation), is a fundamental aspect of the practice, and which we will never tire of underlining.

Dana, or Generosity is one of the cornerstones of Buddhist teaching and of the practice of Vipassana meditation. Along with Sila, Morality, it is both a pre-requisite and grounds for training, in so far as we develop these during our practice. Without the support of these two factors it is not possible to develop right concentration, and hence the wisdom that leads to liberation; they go hand in hand with each other, and as we grow in wisdom and in our understanding of the Dhamma, so too does the wish to develop these qualities grow spontaneously in us. As with Metta and the other Brahma-Viharas, they are innate to human beings who have exercised right effort in the cultivation of mind, rather than abandoning themselves to their more basic instincts related to the mental defilements.

Let's go on a tour around the center

photos by Roby Morleo