About

The Ashokan Meditation Center (AMC) is a non-profit 501(c)(3) corporation whose mission is to help people discover, learn, and live meditation. Founded in May, 2025, the Center specializes in the traditional Theravada Buddhist meditation of Thailand. Located in the beautiful foothills of the Catskill Mountains in upstate New York, USA, we welcome all people to join in this wonderful art.

         Our director of teaching, Ajahn Wade Bhuripanyo, currently offers free online meditation instruction. Ajahn Wade is a Buddhist monk of 12 vassa (rains residences) who ordained in the lineage of Ajahn Chah of the Thai forest tradition. We hope in the spring to begin offering in-person meditation programs at the Center and other venues in the Hudson Valley. 

        The Center is also a residence for monastics who follow the ancient training of the Buddha in discipline, meditation, and wisdom.

        The Center's founding is the fulfilment of an aspiration of Ms. Preanphan Bhitiyakul to repay her debt of gratitude to the monastic sangha. As such, she and her husband, Somsak Bhitiyakul, M.D., offered the six acres of land and the buildings on it to Phra Ratchasitthachan (Luang Pu Thongbai), abbot of Wat Na Luang (Apinya Thesittham) in Udon Thani Province, Thailand. He is the center's spiritual head.