Re: Means and end
From: Michael D (ohanamdearthlink.net)
Date: Tue, 13 Mar 2001 14:34:04 -0700 (MST)
> Through Pinakarri - deep listening - we learn to love more completely.
Our
> cohousing style co-op is one means to that end.

I'm happy to hear about Pinkarri, Robyn.  I'll look at your web site this
evening.  It sounds like we're doing some similar things.

And Australia is the place I'd most like to visit one day.  Maybe I'll be
able to visit you.

> I talked to a group in NH that was heavily spiritual.

Do you recall their name, Catya?  (Provided it's a spiritual community as
opposed to a religious community.  I know of lots of religious communities.)

> There are a ton of them in the intentional
> communities directory and on the ic.org site.  I imagine that many of them
> use cohousing style architecture, but don't label themselves as cohousing.

Yes, I'm also on the IC e-mail list and am quite familiar with their web
site.

> What you have is an intentional community that shares some
> features with cohousing as it is generally understood.

Exactly.

> However, beyond "The Golden Rule" we don't ask or expect community
> members to practice or participate in any faith-based or spiritual
> activities.

We won't either.  We're focused on spirituality, not religion.  We are
non-dogmatic and interfaith.  We put out the beliefs and principles that
many of us accept and practice and invite anyone who feels comfortable in
that atmosphere to join.  As the Dalai Lama has said, our spiritual path is
love.  So far we have members who identify with a variety of religions.  We
may discuss our differences, but the rule is that no one denigrates any
religion or spiritual path, whether any of our members practices it or not.

In our community we will celebrate Christian, Jewish, Buddhist, pagan, and
other ceremonies and holidays.  Some of us will participate in all of them.

An important part of our spiritual philosophy is mysticism - practicing our
personal relationship with God/Spirit and that being of more importance than
rules, regulations, forms, and dogma that go with religions.

> IMO joining a group (whether a residential or a non-residential
> one) is pretty much always a means to an end.  The issue is
> whether there is one *cohesive and explicitly articulated* end
> which the group as a whole shares, or whether people join
> and participate with somewhat-varying types and degrees of
> expectations.  Most cohousing groups in the US, as far as I
> know, are of the latter kind.

I agree with this perception.  That's why we don't say we're a cohousing
community, but rather an intentional community that uses cohousing
principles.  My perception is that cohousers, for the most part, are focused
on the living together and sharing lives and not on spiritual, political,
ecological, or other principles.  Those of us focused on the principles
foremost call ourselves intentional communities.

The Heart Song Community would exist as an intentional community even if we
never developed a residential community.  Then we would still have an online
community and at least one NeighborNet in Santa Fe.  The residential
community isn't NECESSARY to our purpose; it's one means to accomplish our
intentions.

With cohousing, the residential community is the community.

> Their group is called Mustard Seed Associates.  He's written quite alot
> about practical ways to reinvent our lives, increase celebration and
> community, and how the "American Dream" is unsustainable and ultimately >
empty.  Mustard Seed vs. McWorld is, I believe, his latest book.

Thanks for this, Jason.  While we aren't specifically a Christian group
(some of us are and some of us aren't), it sounds as if Tom has a lot in
common with our perceptions of things.

> There are some folks who have in the past objected to religious groups
> calling themselves cohousing because non-ideology was one of the ways that
> they defined cohousing.

So, their ideology is secular.  They aren't non-ideological.  I find it
fascinating how some people try to define things in such a way as to exclude
people they don't agree with.

Michael


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