Dhammakaya Open University is a private Buddhist university that offers long-distance learning based on the Higher Education Act of California, U.S.A. DOU emphasizes the combination of education and lifestyle. DOU enables its students to have a good understanding of both the theoretical part and the practical part of the Buddha’s Teachings. At DOU, students learn about the reality of life and the different realms of existence. The Dhamma knowledge gained benefits them as well as everyone around them. DOU gives people the opportunity to gain a college education on the topic of Buddhism regardless of their gender, age, religious belief, and ethnicity.

DOU: The Dhammakaya Open University

We’re the only educational institution that offers you knowledge which can be practiced in your daily life to help you avoid the hell Realm and to go to the celestial Realm.

We are the leader in Buddhist education at an international level which offers courses that teach you the fulfillment of a human life based on practical knowledge for people of every gender, age, race, and creed.

The Dhammakaya Open University California is the first Buddhist University in the world to offer long-distance learning.

We teach you the truth about life. We use a teaching and learning method which fosters understanding. You can take courses at home or via the Internet. We offer you course materials on the Lord Buddha’s Teachings described in detail along with creative audio-visual learning aid. We offer five categories of course materials to help create sages for life in the real world.

Category 1: Meditation Practice
The courses in this category teach you to gain the concentration needed in your daily life, to improve your mind and temperament, to be more effective in everything, and to know the principles involved in meditation practice both in the theoretical and practical parts as taught by the Lord Buddha from the beginning until attaining the Dhammakaya where true happiness in life, which everyone searches for, can be found.

Category 2: Life’s Objective
Life in the round of rebirth is dictated by the Law of Kamma. You’ll learn about the birth of our earth, the universe, and everything as taught by the Lord Buddha and still impenetrable by scientific means. You’ll learn the truth about why we are born and where we’ll go after we die. These are things which everyone must learn so that they can plan and live their lives accordingly in order to fulfill the objective of a human life. This category also includes the Lord Buddha’s biography and information about the Masters of Vijja Dhammakaya.


Category 3: General Knowledge on Buddhism
You’ll learn about the history and the propagation of Buddhism to different countries from the past until the present as well as the Dhamma principles. Which can help you develop yourself economically and socially by using Life’s 38 Blessings, The Six Directions, and Buddhist Economics. You’ll gain the correct understanding about life and the world based on the truth about reality.


Category 4: Personal Development 
The courses will teach you to change your way of life and help you to become a better Buddhist by practicing the Lord Buddha’s Teachings. You’ll learn about the pursuit of perfections based on the practices of alms-giving, Precepts ,meditation, and the way to train yourself according to the Buddhist Way for the improvement of your habits and your personality so that you can endear yourself to human and celestial beings and attain the highest goal of destroying all defilements.


Category 5: Being a Virtuous Friend
No one can deny the benefit of having a virtuous friend. These courses deal with the ways to create an ideal society, a network of decent individuals, and finally peace on earth. You’ll learn and understand how to be virtuous friend by making friends and by handling every problem from all types of people. You’ll learn that creating the ideal society is not beyond your ability.


It is the first university in the world to offer long-distance learning in Buddhism. The Most Venerable Luang Por Dhammajayo, President and Founder of Dhammakaya Open University (DOU) wishes the university to teach Buddhism by way of the humanities in that the learning can lead to the fulfillment of human life. The courses offered at DOU are geared toward real life applications. One advantage is that people who work full time can become a student of DOU by taking courses at home. Children as well as adults who work for a living can all take courses wherever they are in the world; on the mountain or in an island. They can all take courses because it involves long-distance learning. Being a DOU student, you’ll discover the way which leads to incredible happiness and success in life. You’ll discover that problems which occur at work, in the family, in relationships can be solved. You’ll find it incredible how the Lord Buddha has provided excellent solutions to every one of our life problems. As a student of DOU, you will take steps which lead to the fulfillment of human life. You’ll be called a true Buddhist not just a Buddhist in the census. Therefore, you’re all invited to become a student of DOU.


Today the university is poised to be the center for Buddhist education at an international level to produce sages for life in the real world. The Dhammakaya Open University California, the Buddhist University which makes available universal knowledge for the fulfillment of a human life.