Visit Karma Guen

With the completion of the Kalachakra Stupa in October 1994 and the Thaye Dorje Gompa in 2004, Karma Guen has become an even more auspicious place for meditation practice. Many friends from Spain, Central Europe, Australia, North and South America have already had the opportunity to do intensive practice here.

The favorable climate allows practice all year round; temperatures in winter range from lows around 5 degrees Celsius at night to about 15 to 20 degrees Celsius during the day. Needless to say that summers are nice and warm. An average of 330 days of sunshine a year is another advantage which is especially appreciated by people from more cloudy and overcast regions in Central and Northern Europe. At present, we have about 15 guest rooms at Karma Guen and we are continuously working on building more smaller rooms. If possible, we try to give each couple or individual person visiting Karma Guen their private room, and only on rare occasions do rooms need to be shared for short periods of time.

It has been said that "in Karma Guen one only works and cannot meditate". This is not true! However, as we try to keep costs as low as possible, there is no paid staff for the services offered at Karma Guen. Instead, all people present try to share jobs like cooking and cleaning, tasks necessary to run and maintain the center. But this is not at all time consuming - you may consider a couple of hours of work a day as your contribution to the center. This applies equally if you are just staying here in order to study and practice or if you are doing an open retreat. If you have finished the Preliminaries (Ngöndro) and wish to do Yidam meditation or another practice that requires a closed retreat, please contact us first. We are eager to make this possible, too. However, we need to check whether there are enough residents available for the desired period of time so that services may be maintained.

Last but not least, you might be interested in the costs of your stay. From the 1st of January 2006, the daily rate including food and accommodation is 18€ per person per day. Supporters pay 15€ per day. We can also pick you up from the airport for 20€ per person. Although this is considered to be a really moderate price, we can also talk about a discount if you wish to stay for several months. No drugs, alcohol or private pets are allowed at Karma Guen.