Vipassana course online: the free options
People who search for a Vipassana course online usually want one of three things: to understand the practice, to try it, or to practise every day at home. Each has a free option. This page lists them plainly, including the one this site offers, so you can choose.
On this page
If you can go on a residential course
The ten-day residential courses in the tradition of S. N. Goenka, listed on dhamma.org, are where most people first learn Vipassana. There is no charge, not even for food and accommodation; the courses are paid for by donations from people who have already sat one. They run at more than 300 locations in over 80 countries.
The course is ten days of silence under a code of discipline, and it is serious work. If you can arrange the time, this is the place to start.
Free introductions from the same tradition
Mini-Ānāpāna is a short introductory session given with Mr Goenka's own recorded instructions. It is free, and it is an introduction: it does not count as a course.
The free Dhamma.org app lets you apply for courses and listen to introductory material, including the Mini-Ānāpāna recording. People who have completed a course get more inside it: group sittings, extra recordings and guides.
The Vipassana Research Institute in India runs Introduction to Vipassana Meditation, a free three-month online course affiliated with the University of Mumbai, open to people who have never meditated.
A guided course at home
Vipassana.Life is a free course you follow at home, in English, Spanish and Russian. Part 1 is five days and open now. Each day brings guided audio sittings, starting with the breath, as the tradition does, and a short reflection. You can begin without an account; the course is sustained by donations.
It is the independent course of Ocean DYNN, who has practised since 2012 and sat more than twenty residential retreats in the Goenka and Pa-Auk traditions. It is not run by dhamma.org, and it says so. It is a good way to build a daily practice and a good preparation for a ten-day course.
How to choose
If you can take ten days, go on a residential course. If you want to understand the practice first, the Mini-Ānāpāna session or the VRI course is a calm start. If you want to sit every day from tomorrow, at home, with guidance, start Part 1 here.
The options work together. Many people practise at home for a while, then go on a course, then come home and need a daily structure again.
Start the course
The Vipassana.Life course is free, self-paced, and supported by dāna. No account is needed to begin.