Life Purpose = Self-sustainable spiritual community/retreat....advice?

[Matt23]

Hey. 

I'm wondering if anyone has had any experience living in or running any type of self-sustainable community or monastery type life.

I'm looking for more information and advice on what it takes to run this type of community, as well as what it would take to teach spirituality in such a setting.

 

Thanks, in advance, for any and all suggestions, advice, and info.

[okulele]

Best to join one and see for yourself. Oh and make sure to watch Leo's Culte series. Very good and relevant.

[non_nothing]

Life purpose is to understand the only thing matters in life is "you" and "being yourself". This is the purpose of the term when they say "life purpose"

[Leo Gura]

@Matt23 Such a thing should not be attempted unless you have significant spiritual experience.

So if you're really serious about it, start by building your spiritual experience.

[Moreira]

Most spiritual communities wants something from you: money, time, you work for them. This is not necessarily bad, but the problem is they set strong limiting rules that anulates yourself as an individual by force, For example you have to cut contact from your family, give to the community your ownings, do what they tell you, which in my opinion is moro a cult/sect than a spiritual community.

Spirituality is different in every person, and have its own pace and rythm. Pretending to accelerate it by imposing rules in people is complete bullshit.

[bejapuskas]

Leo is right, you really have to become a master. Also be careful about choosing your life purpose before trying many things. This can also be an ego trap of wanting to tell everyone what to do and control them. Consider these.

[Spence94]

From my experiences so far in such communities, I have noticed that they require seriously developed and thought out leadership roles. One self sustaining spiritual/addiction recovery community in Thailand was very well run but one thing I could not help but notice was the sheer variety of people that were attending for allkinds of different reasons. It became a strange mix at times and their was nothing that could be done about it.  The "leaders"/those in charge definitely had difficulties managing the place with people coming and going all the time and some people living their from anywhere between 4 days- 2 years.

There was one dude who kind of founded the place but their was no one leader, and I can't see how it would have worked that way if it was. There were 2 meditation teachers, 2 yoga teacher, 4 different life coaches,  and different spiritual teachers teaching different workshops etc. I can't see how it would of worked without this collaborate effort and designating different people to fulfil different roles while having that tight nit group run the whole place and maintain a stable collective energy as a whole community. Personally, it seemed like a big task to pull off, but they seemed to do it well. Power to em.

That said, it definitely can work and it was very inspiring, but I agree with others here. Personal self transformation has to happen way before you even consider building your own.

I would recommend visiting some around the world yourself for your own personal growth first.

Edited February 17, 2019 by Spence94

[Matt23]

 

@Leo Gura I definitely feel like I do not have nearly enough experience with this whole spiritual thing, or even life experience or consciousness to help form such a community.  I thought living in a monastery would be a good tester to see how it goes, then go from there.  

@Moreira I wouldn't want it so people have to cut ties with family or friends or give all of their belongings.  That seems too extreme.  I think I'd want it to be more of a retreat center with some people or employees who live on the grounds.  I'm not too sure yet.  But I'm thinking of some sort of co-owned land.  I dunno yet.  I think it's the lifestyle that attracts me, and being able to live in a ecologically healthy way (community + nature + health + life purpose and spirituality = sounds good to me  )

Thanks everyone else for the advice.  

 

[Leo Gura]

@Matt23 You would enjoy the Big Island of Hawaii, where there is a meditation retreat center every few miles and hippies living happily with their chickens and goats in the rain forest.

Land on the Big Island can be surprisingly affordable. But construction costs and food costs, not so much.

[Cocolove]

let us know if you figure this out Ill come with

[Matt23]

@Leo GuraHow difficult is it to live in the states as a Canadian? 

@Cocolove I live in BC, which has lots of hippie-green type of people and communities already, so I'll probably create a community here if I do.

I also thought of going over to Asia (India or Nepal) to create one.  Do you think that Asia could use a westernized version of spirituality?  Or do you think that it would be redundant or wouldn't work?