Living In A Community Based Around Consciousness And Sustainability?

[Lauritz]

A couple of weeks ago I had this thought of how nice it could be to live in a community that is based around advancing consciousness. I have visited several "eco"-communal living projects before. But the amount of interpersonal drama and the level of consciousness was still surprisingly low. Egos acting out their supposedly good environmental and spiritual values without a real core of true understanding.

I thought a community of highly conscious people who are also interested in sustainable, self-sufficient and simple living could be a good place live. And asking the members of this forum might be my best chance at reaching such a group of people. Such a community would be different from existing monasteries of the various religions in so far that it has no one particular teaching and the members are free to choose the path they follow.

 

Who is interested in living in a such community?

This is a list of possible framing guidelines:

- members would need to be first and foremost interested in truth and self discovery through direct experience
- free of any dogma and attachment to any one teaching
- living simply and with as little negative impact on the earth as possible
- growing food for high self-sufficiency
- located outside of cities in an area of lower property costs

- the community provides several services to humanity at large to advance the development of highly conscious people (guided entheogenic sessions, meditation retreats, seminars, dark room retreats,...)

 

These would just be my starting ideas and are of course open for discussion.

Please share your opinion on the idea whether you are interested or not. 

Edited October 21, 2017 by Lauritz

[vizual]

The answer to your question is in your first paragraph. Any group that secludes itself from society because of some kind of "transcendental ideological philosophy" is just a cult. And every cult has the best of intentions initially and they all are going to exhibit unhealthy cultish behavior in the long run. It's just a matter of time.

If you are truly interested in living truthfully, why would you feel the need to look away from the society that is responsible for you being here? The society that raised you, took care of you, educated you. The only reason is ego, ego, ego. You feel hurt by society and wish to rebel, like an angry teenager. 

[Girzo]

All the problems would be still there and amplified, because most of the people who want to escape society struggles with living in it, so a new society created by them would be dysfunctional as well.

And you already pointed it out. I guess there is not much to talk about. Solitude is the way.

[Leo Gura]

@Lauritz I have been to such a community. They do exist, and are quite amazing.

You're not going to be able to create such a community without extensive self-actualization, enlightenments, consciousness work, and education.

[electroBeam]

@Leo Gura do you mind giving an example? Or further information? 

[AlwaysBeNice]

You can search for 'ashram' on helpx and you get a few results of one's in Europe.

I agree, such a community needs spiritual practice as a high value, else the community really won't be so different from how regular people act (I've been to a big one as well).

Growing some of your own food is good of course, it's creates value, it's exercise, it's connecting with nature, but it really shouldn't be a main priority to become mainly self sufficient if you want to have a spiritual community.

Trying to become almost completely self-sufficient is quite hard since you need a lot of land for that and a lot of time, like working full time(!) and having to deal with a lot of challenges. Whereas farmers have the equipment to work much much more efficient.

The money should and could probably easily indeed just be made by having guests, giving retreats, workshops, services etc.

 

[Lauritz]

11 hours ago, vizual said:

If you are truly interested in living truthfully, why would you feel the need to look away from the society that is responsible for you being here? The society that raised you, took care of you, educated you. The only reason is ego, ego, ego. You feel hurt by society and wish to rebel, like an angry teenager. 

I do not quite understand your point here. How is wanting to live together with like-minded people any different from living together in a family? The community would still have connections to the larger society. As I mentioned, I would like the community to offer services to humanity and be open and accessible to outside people. It is not about turning society down. It is rather a matter of who you choose to be your direct neighbors.

 

5 hours ago, Leo Gura said:

@Lauritz I have been to such a community. They do exist, and are quite amazing.

You're not going to be able to create such a community without extensive self-actualization, enlightenments, consciousness work, and education.

That might be the tricky point... to choose the people wisely and being able to judge their degree of enlightenment. And not get side-tracked by ego-games and false believe-systems which are not based on direct experience.

Can you share which communities you have visited?

 

4 hours ago, AlwaysBeNice said:

You can search for 'ashram' on helpx and you get a few results of one's in Europe.

I agree, such a community needs spiritual practice as a high value, else the community really won't be so different from how regular people act (I've been to a big one as well).

Growing some of your own food is good of course, it's creates value, it's exercise, it's connecting with nature, but it really shouldn't be a main priority to become mainly self sufficient if you want to have a spiritual community.

Trying to become almost completely self-sufficient is quite hard since you need a lot of land for that and a lot of time, like working full time(!) and having to deal with a lot of challenges. Whereas farmers have the equipment to work much much more efficient.

The money should and could probably easily indeed just be made by having guests, giving retreats, workshops, services etc.

 

Thanks for the tip on searching on helpx.

 

Regarding the self-sufficiency, I would also not try to become 100% self-sufficient. There are today just many products which are available at such low cost that it does not make sense to grow or produce them by oneself. Regarding food that means only growing vegetable and fruit and buying things like potatoes, grains and beans. In my experience that is attainable with remarkably little effort if you get the basics right. 

 

 

[zunnyman]

@Leo Gura Yes leo, do you have any examples?

Honestly even just an upgrade from my current environment would be nice. I can really see the 30 ways society fucks you in the ass over here where Im living. 

For over a year now I have been researching for an "optimal" environment

I am a westerner, and trying to move to a location anywhere in USA, and if anyone has any suggestions I'm open to that as well. Even out of USA if it is really worth it. 

@Lauritz I really like what you are looking for in a highly conscious environment, Id like to throw in some ideas as well and what my research suggests:

1. Beautiful scenery, living out in nature - I remember sadhguru was talking how amazingly beautiful the himalayas is in that regard 

2. Good weather, not too hot not too cold, so I can be out in nature a lot. Snow, rain, breezey weather are all amazing. California has one of the best climates in USA

3. A great learning environment for growing consciousness - Himalayas is also great for this sadhguru suggest. One of The highest concentration of enlightened beings, and that too highly enlightened beings 

4. Valuing nutrition, and life purpose - LA

5. PUA, breaking social conditioning - NYC which is also highly divserse 

6. Salt lake city seems to be very outdoorsy, adventurous, and conscious, not sure exactly though 

7. Quiet and peaceful environment, this would obviously mean not a city. 

8. Cheap, the cheaper it is, the less people would be focusing on making money and survival and more time on higher ideals on maslows hierarchy and consciousness. Maybe. 

 

[Geromekevin]

@Leo Gura Where is this community and what is it's name?

[HII]

@Lauritz I hope you don't get discouraged by these baseless objections that were posted here so far. To me, your idea sounds like a great thing to pursue. If the potential of all kinds of communities is held back by personal drama and self agenda, it seems reasonable to try to reduce it as much as possible from the start. Humanity as a whole could benefit greatly from people figuring out how to pull off an intentional community properly. Same goes for a community which puts their main focus on advancing consciousness.

So, if you're gonna do this, I'd definitely be interested in visiting at some point.

 

[AleksM]

@Lauritz @vizual @Girzo @Leo Gura @electroBeam @AlwaysBeNice @zunnyman @Geromekevin @HII

It's already happening. Check out the The new Earth project https://newearthproject.org/

https://newearthnation.org/communities/

 

Edited October 30, 2017 by AleksM

[Principium Nexus]

@Lauritz Auroville or Sadhana forest are two examples