About

Vipassana.sk is a non-profit project. Its aim is to facilitate access to the Vipassana meditation for interested people in Slovakia and central/eastern Europe: by inviting teachers & organizing accessible courses (including translators), fund-raising,  networking meditators and supporters, and later (perhaps) founding a continuously available meditation center in Slovakia.

We are a group of meditators who see their life becoming better through this practice; better in a human and down-to-earth sense. This particular style of Vipassana is taught in Thailand by Ajahn Tong (Chom Tong monastery, Chaing Mai province) and has about a dozen of international centers around the world. We were trained in those centers and encouraged to make meditation available to people in/around Slovakia.

Katarína Bírešová was born in Slovakia and has lived most of her adult life in the UK, with her professional background being neuroscience care. She started practising Vipassana in 2012 and was trained as a teacher by Thanat Chindaporn in Chom Tong. She started the vipassana.sk project in 2016 and invited Thanat and Kathryn Chindaporn to Slovakia for the first course. She was officially recognized for her activities in Thailand and Slovakia by the Chiang Mai province government.

Václav Šmilauer was born in Prague (Czech Republic) and works as freelancer in the domain of numerical physics. He first met Vipassana in 2011, started the Tisarana center in Prague in 2013. In 2016, he received recognition of Chiang Mai province government for helping Thanat Chindaporn establishing the center in Prague. He completed the teacher’s training under Thanat in 2017.

Peter Szaszak