| | I have been considering organizing the buying of a house in the New Haven CT area with other practitioners, and am curious to hear if anyone has any feedback here on DhO regarding my ideas.
The basic idea is for 3-4 people to buy a house together, and create a supportive environment in which to go deeply into practice, while still having our regular jobs. One way to frame it, in terms of a reachable goal, could be something like the 5 year plan: we buy the house, pay the mortgage, practice practice practice, make a wonderful space with gardens and whatnot, have a place to host sittings, short retreats perhaps, all kinds of dhamma driven things like potlaches or bbq's or full moon gatherings. Anyway after 5 years we each have a path or two to show for it as well as some equity. I think normally, among uninstructed worldlings, this would be highly unlikely, having 4 random people live together in any sustainable or harmonious way. But as meditators I believe we have an advantage, as our practice asks us to relinquish egos. Many good things spring forth from dhamma: wisdom, clarity, tranquility, joy, humor, appreciation, goodwill - all very positive qualities for housemates to have.
Basically, I envision a place to live where one can practice every waking moment, where on days off one can go into retreat mode, and where this won't be considered strange or weird in any way, but rather will be totally supported on every level. Currently my living environment has been an obstacle for going deeper into practice, and I want to change this. Plus - I don't really care to be a hermit, do this alone, though I certainly will if need be, but having a sangha, having others who are on the path can certainly make things more fulfilling and more fun, for the sangha as we know is one of the 3 precious gems (buddha dhamma sangha). Further, I think it would be cool if this dhamma house (where we are getting enlightened and creating equity) contained an extra room or two, for someone who really needs a space to practice, where they can come and do 5 or 10 or 90 days of retreat. Or perhaps for a teacher to stay for a few days. Like Jud Brewer said when I ran the idea by him, it could be dhamma 24/7. Not for everyone, but for those of us who are forever hooked, it could be a real blessing.
Financially it makes a lot of sense, especially around here where a crappy studio costs minimum $750/mo, while you can buy a decent house for $240,000. In this scenario each person, if there were 4, would pay about $600/month, and this includes everything (mortgage taxes insurance utilities internet heat maintenance). After 5 years, even without any appreciation of value, each person would have about $5000 in equity. This might not sound like much, but it's a lot more than if you were renting and ended up with nothing. And if you factor in say 10% appreciation it would be $11,000 in equity, and so on. With some wise home improvements, potentially even more. I have spoken with a number of mortgage brokers, including one who went on a 12 year world wide meditation quest, and have been told this idea is very doable, from a mortgage standpoint, providing a few people have at least modest financial strength.
One way to structure it would be to form an LLC, with each person being a member/owner. The common spaces - living areas, outside, kitchen, etc would be owned by the LLC, and their primary function would be the furthering of dhamma, space for members of the sangha to practice and awaken. So we would basically give up the idea of "owning" a house, of having the house as personal space (other than our rooms) - rather, we would be hosting a sort of meditation/retreat center (and getting enlightened and creating equity). Also with an LLC we could write into the agreement how it will work if someone wanted to leave, or if someone new wanted to join.
One reason I'm a little obsessed with equity has to do with Daniel's warning in MCTB, that when you take on this path full bore, it's wise to consider the situation into which you might awaken. You can reach a level of awakening and find that you're totally broke, and living with people who don't really understand what you're doing, or worse, are even a little hostile towards it, and so further progress is quite a bit more challenging, or you can wake up and actually have saved some money, and be in a supportive environment.
So maybe I'm being a little dreamy here, and I realize that pulling this off won't be easy, but I envision gardens, a patio or two, a super silent meditation cell somewhere, maybe even a hot tub - things that are more possible if resources are pooled together. Personally I can do without a formal dining room. How about a dhamma library? Or a yoga room? And how much living actually goes on in a normal living room? With some innovative use of space, there could be areas for privacy, as well as an area for sangha things, like jhana groups, or 1/2 day retreats, or regular sittings. Bottom line is, I can do without all these things I have proposed, but why not create something wonderful? Why not organize, pool resources and intelligence, and create a positive force on this planet, provide a space in which dhamma can grow?
Any comments? |