The main structures of the center are planned as followed:

• Meditation Hall of approximately 5,000 square fee to seat 100, with covered, paved terraces for walking meditation

• Residence Buildings that will provide housing for 60 participants, twelve residential retreat staff and teachers and guests

• Kitchen/dining Hall which will be used for meal service for retreat participants and will include facilities rooms for staff

• Multipurpose Community Building which will be used for community gatherings, office and administration, a library, and for individual meetings between teachers and students

• Parking lot, Maintenance and Storage Buildings

• Individual Cottages for long-term retreatants and/or teachers-in-residence

Residential retreats scheduled year-round will include: up to 10 ten-day courses; one 30 day course; retreats held in conjunction with the Center for Contemplative Mind in Society; and family, youth and weekend retreats. Seminars and day-long retreats will be held in response to local community needs. To satisfy the special need for long-term practice facilities, HIMC will offer two and three-month retreats for experience students as well as provide a hermitage-like setting for extended individual retreats of even longer durations.

Sayadaw U Pandita, Abbott of Panditarama Monastery and Meditation Center in Rangoon, and Sayadaw U Lakkhana of Kyaswa Monastery, renowned Burmese meditation masters with international followings, have indicated their willingness to lead retreats at the new Hawai'i Insight Meditation Center. The rich mixture of cultures in Hawai'i, the temperate tropical climate, and opportunity to offer traditional-style instruction make it a place in which they feel quite at home. Sayadaw U Pandita has long advocated a thorough training of Western teachers to transmit the Buddha's wisdom to Westerners ("cooking a fish in its own oils," he would say) and he has encouraged the establishment of a retreat center in Hawai'i since he first visited in 1986.