November 11, 2017

Living in community feels like a gentle hug by a guy with a scratchy beard.  There is a certain comfort knowing that you are supported in a safe space amongst 40-60 strangers (shifting into friends) who inhabit the mountain at any given time, a large majority going by their beautiful ‘but thanks for making it extra hard to remember your’ Sanskrit names given by their Guru.

There is also an underlying hunch that there are some strange intertwinglings and under workings.  Personality conflicts and clashing egos I’m sure.  The looming passing of the Guru, definitely.  My hunch is that while the Guru, Babi Hari Dass (turns out was Ram Dass’s teacher while Maharaji was his Guru), has made everlasting impressions of love, discipline, practice and contemplation, there may be a certain level of Guru dependency that has lay hidden in the nooks and crannies over the last 40+ years.  Imagine living under the direction of your beloved and upon his departing, your community is left to it’s own devises to assume the community, organizational and spiritual leadership.     

The last handful of years there has been an undercurrent of conversations amongst my peers; murmurings of wanting to create intentional community, closer to nature, with shared values, cultivating a more peaceful, harmonious, collaborative and integrated human experience.  While the notion of buying rural property and manifesting one’s highest creative expression to create community and living off the land is a romantic one, I know the reality that logistically it would be hella hard.     

I also know the truth that in any shared experience, individual experiences can vary drastically. In community heads will butt harder.  But magic can be made more real and life can be more juicy.  I’m told most intentional communities established in the 70’s have disintegrated but this one in particular has realized it's longevity due to it’s development on strict ashtanga and karma yoga principals with very little drugs, sex and rock n’ roll monkey business.  There is a lack, however, on a specific process for dealing with relational challenges, especially now that their Guru is no longer present to direct those inter workings.  These insights are helping to shake out what might be important on my community exploration, as I’m fairly certain that as I’ve stepped away from the unsettling feeling of trying to keep up with an increasingly frenetic urban life, I need to cultivate at least a part time, if not full time life in a residential community.