Spiritually-oriented communities for SRF devotees
All these community types are good. Type number 2 is probably most like our existing SRF ashrams. Number 1 is an ideal, where the devotees trust one another to an extent where no sense of individual possessions is necessary--each treats the other as self.
Renunciation is an ideal prerequisite. For community purposes, that means giving up some of your personal desires in order to make things work for everyone. The optimum required attitude is that we are doing everything for Guru and for each other. It is an expansion of self into a larger Self. It works best if everyone buys into this principle.
In Master’s monastic ashrams everything is shared--food, lodging, transportation, chores, work responsibilities, and fun. The ashrams are excellent models upon which to pattern devotee communities.
The third prime ingredient of communities is location. In some ways this is the simplest, in other ways the most difficult. There are a number of different ways that properties can be made available. One way is to simply acquire property and make it available. I once had property in Canada, but that was very far away from most of the temples and ashrams. It was a beautiful location on a river.
So far in California I have acquired some desert property. It has its good and not so good qualities. It is available for devotees who want to come and contribute to community development. Perhaps you know of other property that we can use.
I have heard of various methods that people come up with--shared ownership, rentals, retreat fees, contribution of so many hours of work.
My way is simple and close to the ashram model. The property is simply available and we work together to make the community successful. I have developed a pattern of generally not asking anything from anyone. Yet we are all encouraged to contribute how we can--to work for all rather than for our individual selves. There is no rule about that, but that is the ideal we work toward.
There may be much nicer properties than the one where I live.
Our policy at Wonder Valley is to accept and encourage any established SRF devotees, particularly kriyabans. Hidden Valley started that way. Though for decades Hidden Valley has been a men’s ashram, we actually had a few women in the beginning, one of whom stayed for two years. Men and women devotees used to come out every Saturday to help with cooking, cleaning, and repairing.
To be personally striving for self-realization through Master’s teachings as disseminated by SRF. To want to help other devotees through sharing and mutual support. To be 100 percent loyal to SRF. To have some skills to contribute to devotee communities. To be willing to do whatever will best contribute.
All the SRF ashrams have businesses of some sort. Most of the ashrams are financed through retreat donations. They also receive income through sales of books and gift shop items. Hidden Valley developed a number of different businesses, some more successful than others. Over the years they grew tomatoes, sprouts, herbs, and flowers. They manufactured armrests and small altars, They had a software business in the field of agronomy. In the beginning a number of us worked outside the ashram. I was involved in constructing rooms in banks that housed some of the first automatic teller machines. I also refurbished automobiles.
Current businesses either active or under development are website design, astronomy presentations, and making sundials and other astronomical instruments. These are all fledgling businesses. Most of our income is from astronomy and miscellaneous handyman jobs. Maybe you have a business or business idea to contribute. Something that others can eventually be a part of. Business of some sort is necessary to cover basic expenses of any community.
Depending on financial resources and contributions, we will be able to improve our community facilities and expand to additional communities. If you are so inclined, you can start your own community; you don’t have to be a part of this one. Ideally the various devotee communities will be highly cooperative, sharing surpluses of resources with each other. There may be many suggestions about how to run these communities, but each one will be independent. And the more communities we have, the more varied the options. So, for example, you can move to a community that is involved in agriculture, or software development, or some other enterprise. We hope to eventually have some communities located close to ashrams and temples, so that our community members will be able to voluntarily serve Master at those locations.
Ideally the community members will have a broad range of devotees of various ages and experience. We want to have schools and also facilities for devotees who may need physical assistance. The interaction between young and old can be a valuable experience for all. Families will be a part of the make-up, with the community as a sort of extended family. We had this experience at Hidden Valley with one five-year-old resident who had the benefit of many “older brothers”.
Some communities may wish to focus on men or women only, but I think that since we already live in mixed gender “communities” in the world, it would be an improvement to have in effect, large ashram families with lots of mothers, fathers, brothers, and sisters.
In our communities we can really focus on SRF-oriented education for young and old--Master’s how-to-live schools. The current world environment is a restless place, making it difficult to slow down enough to really turn the mind within in meditation. In our communities we hope to create balanced peaceful environments that free us from worldly restlessness and distractions. Master felt that a peaceful outdoor environment is conducive to a quality and spiritual education.
Many jobs in the world are not really actually productive. Our needs are really very few--food, clothing, and shelter. And some other almost necessities nowadays such as books, recreational facilities and Internet connection. However many jobs in the world have to do with financial or legal manipulations, often promoting or producing products or services that are not only of no practical value but are actually destructive to one’s health or spiritual development. In our communities we can bypass most of those worldly endeavors and focus primarily on necessary necessities--with time left over for self-improvement physically, mentally, and spiritually.
Yeah, yeah, I heard this before, from just about every second person I talk to. But some things in life are worth the challenge, and this is one of them. Master got us started with communites, eventually focusing on the monastic ashrams, in order to form a core for the SRF work. It is up to us to expand what he started. We can do it. I have attempted difficult things in life before and this is certainly one of them. But if we keep on trying, just like the little frog swimming in the bucket of cream, eventually we will find that we have churned a lump of butter, from which we can launch ourselves forward to success. I think it is worth the effort. There is a great deal to gain by forming supporting environments of spiritually aspiring devotees of Guruji.