The Venerable Ajahn Tong (1923 – 2019) devoted his life to the practice and
teaching of Satipatthana Vipassanā Kammatthana (insight meditation based on the four foundations of mindfulness). Starting with his ordination as a monk in 1934, at a temple close to his small village in North West Thailand, he ascended to reach the third highest rank in the Thai Sangha and become one of Thailand’s most respected and famous meditation teachers whose students included the King of Thailand. Despite his status, he was known for his sincere humbleness, loving-kindness and wisdom and was called Luang Phu or grandfather by his students. In the 1950‘s he
studied Vipassana with Mahasi Sayadaw and other Burmese teachers and together with Phra Phimolatham, from Wat Mahathat, established the Thai method of Vipassana. He taught meditation and performed ceremonies at his temple in Chom Tong or internationally everyday, unless he was sick, until his Paranibbana on the 13th December 2019 at the age of 96.
“We are not born to be slaves to this life.
We are not born only to grow old, become ill and die.
We are born to free ourselves from the chains that keep our minds in bondage.
We are born to stop birth, end suffering and reach Nibbāna.”
(Ajahn Tong)
Ajahn Tong invited Thanat and Kathryn Chindaporn to start an international Vipassana meditation center when he was Abbot of Wat Muang Mang in the late
1980‘s. They worked together to develop the centers in Thailand and later Vipassana centers in Mexico, Israel, Germany etc. and arranged and travelled with Ajahn Tong to support the centers.
The Tisarana center was founded by Libor Votruba and Vaclav Smilauer in 2014. Vaclav met Jonathan and Anna in May 2013 at a Vipassana retreat at the Villa Maria Elizabetta monastery in Italy. Later that year, he invited them to teach in Prague. At the same time, Libor completed his basic course at Wat Chom Tong, Thailand. Thanat arranged for them to be in contact and requested them to establish a Vipassana center in the Czech Republic the following year. They rented the center in Troja and invited Jonathan and Anna to start teaching. The center has been offering Vipassana meditation for more than 10 years. In 2016 Ajahn Tong officially named it ‘Tisarana Vipassananusorn Meditation Center’, which means dedicated to Vipassana through the three jewels (Buddha, Dhamma and
Sangha). In December 2018 Ven. Ajahn Tong, accompanied by monks, nuns and Thanat and Kate, visited and blessed the Tisarana Center.