intentional community in Manhattan

This idea of starting an intentional community came to me while I was filming a documentary at an ashram in California.

I am seeking to start one on a trial basis in Manhattan on February 1st, 2008

My long term goal is to have a community with multiple residences. To make this dream a reality, I was looking into buying this great house upstate and even built a website, but then the sub-prime mortgage thing hit, and it seemed to risky to undertake.

The structure here in New York would be determined by the participants needs, but yoga and meditation would be integral components. I practice meditation twice a day and do yoga several times a week. I've read many books on Buddhism and took classes for two years at the school of practical philosophy. My sisters have houses that would be available to us - one a beach house in Rhode Island, and the other a farm house in Tuscany, so holding yoga retreats in fun locations would also be part of the plan.

A warm, fun, compassionate group is important and I believe such a group setting can assist in the effort to live in the present moment and watch the ego. By having events, webcasting and blogging about the community, the ability to include a larger number of people, and perhaps figure out a way to make it self-sustaining financially.

If you want information about me as a filmmaker, my website is icewaterpictures.com.

Additionally, I have written many pages on how I see such a community functioning and this would be the rough draft which would be refined by the participants over several weeks in January so that by February 1st the participants would have a sort of “written manifesto” to guide our thinking and provide some structure. I put “manifesto” in quotes as I don't want us to take ourselves too seriously, but without a plan this could easily devolve - or be less constructive - than it could be if we have a document!

My philosophy is tied to Eckhart Tolle's notion of living in the present moment, Buddhism's ideas about watching the ego, and exploring philosophers like Ken Wilber to assess the value of their ideas.

Please let me know if you have further questions.

Jordan Schachter