buddhism / thai forest tradition

We are KPY USA


A dedicated Theravada Buddhist group who strive to train our wisdom in comprehensive understanding of the truth.

We are a religious organization dedicated to preserving and practicing the teachings of Buddha, as taught by a contemporary Thai enlightened monk, Acariya Thoon Khippapanyo. KPY is an acronym for Acariya Thoon’s Buddhist name, Khippapanyo, meaning “quick, sharp wisdom.” KPY USA is a group of dedicated Buddhist practitioners striving to improve ourselves, as well as practicing dhamma with the ultimate goal of final emancipation, in the footsteps of the enlightened individuals before us.

At the KPYUSA Reterat Center, we have over 260 acres of pure forestland spread over three beautiful mountaintops. Founded under the guidance of Acariya Thoon Khippapanyo, dhamma retreats have been held at this center since 2000. Over 15 years later, the retreats still hold true to Acariya Thoon’s dhamma teachings which emphasized the importance of seeing both sides of the coin, the necessity of both feeling and understanding a truth, and the threefold process of analyzing the suffering, harmful consequences, and perils in every issue.

Our Line of Practice


Wisdom is understanding and realizing the world’s conventions in a manner that is both encompassing and comprehensive. It is a whole and complete understanding of the world’s conventions, whether they are internal or external, basic or complex, or related to the past, present, and future. All the world’s conventions that we are
infatuated with are understood in a comprehensive manner.

They are dug up, spread out in order to be viewed more clearly, and analyzed to the point doubt is extinguished. The absence of doubt or wondering about the world’s conventions occurs at dif fering degrees. At times it stems from an understanding of the world’s conventions that is basic, other times, intermediate or advanced.

To train our wisdom, we have to pretend. We have to mentally build up situations in order to use the hammer of truth to quash them. In other words, it is the game of using thought to eliminate thought. In one corner is imagination, in the other is wisdom. If imagination has its way, an object can be pleasing, beautiful, and adorable. If wisdom has control, it can say the very same object’s physical form is filthy, undesirable, causes suf fering, ever-changing, and unable to be sustained.

It is a fight over the same object or issue, a tug of war in our minds. Imaginative thoughts are cooked up for the sake of accumulation; add a touch of love, a dash of lust, a pinch of desire. If wisdom is at the helm, the game is elimination; nothing is truly ours, they cease to exist. Both aspects exist in the same mind.