Hildegard Huber
Hildegard has been a student of Ven. Ajahn Tong Sirimangalo (Phra Dhammamangalajarn) since 1992. During the first eight months of intensive practice of Vipassana meditation in Thailand, she recognized the wealth of the Dhamma which opened up a new view on life for her. She assisted Luang Poh Banyat as well as Kuhn Kathryn and Kuhn Thanat Chindaporn with the instruction of the international students who came to practice Vipassana at Wat Rampoeng.
In 1993 Hildegard Huber returned to her native Germany and started to teach Vipassana in addition to running her health food store. She organized meditation courses taught by Ven. Ajahn Tong, Kuhn Thanat and Kuhn Kathryn Chindaporn in Germany, France, Slovenia and Sweden from 1994 onwards and assisted the teacher during those courses.
Several long stays in the Thai monastery gave her the opportunity to meditate under the guidance of Ven. Ajahn Tong as well as teach students. In 1998 Ven. Ajahn Tong authorised her as a Vipassana teacher, giving her the name “Dhammacari”. Hildegard has been teaching Vipassana consistently since that time. In 2004 she gave up her professional life in order to dedicate herself fully to teaching.
At the suggestion of Ven. Ajahn Tong, the Dhammacari Vipassana Meditation Centre Association was founded in September 2004 with the aim of establishing a permanent meditation centre in Germany. The centre was opened in February 2006 in Allgramsdorf near Munich and Hildegard has been residing there ever since. Based on her own extensive meditation practice, she has been able to pass on her knowledge and her insights into the teachings in a comprehensible way. Her kind nature allows her to guide her students in an empathetic manner through their practice. To some degree, this is already reflected by her name Dhammacari: a Dhammacari is a person who practices the Dhamma – or is in the Dhamma – a person who grows in the Dhamma. A Dhammacari is not necessarily someone who studies a lot, obtains a lot of knowledge about the different types of scientific works, has a perfect memory, can recite whole scriptures and chants, has great ideas, or has written beautiful stories, poems and books about the teaching. A Dhammacari is someone who has reached knowledge through the practice of Vipassana meditation, who receives wisdom from inside and thus recognises all things as they truly are.
She was awarded the “Annual Benefactor of Buddhism Award” for her service to the Dhamma twice by the Sangha, once in May 2011 and a second time in May 2012. That same year she additionally received the award of the “Sao Sema Dhammacakka” (also known as the Golden Pillar of the Dhamma) for benefactors of Buddhism by HRH Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn of Thailand, awarded for introducing and spreading the Dhamma abroad.