Who would be willing to move to south dakota united states for a commune?

[mewtwo]

So over the last couple of days I have been giving the idea of a commune some thought. I was wondering who would seriously move out to south dakota to live in one? It would be a commune for cultivators, we would have a daily schedule like do taichi at a certain time and meditate at another time. The people staying there may need to pay around 500 dollars a month may go down may go up, I am guessing here cause I have not asked how much the property with the building would be.

 

Now I also need some feedback from you guys on other things I would need to do in order to start a commune. I am basically new to all this, so I need your guyses help. Right now i have the following on a to do list

 

1 buy property

 

2 get people together

 

3 hash out rules

 

 

Now I know that it has to be more compicated than that to start a commune so like I said I need your help.

 

Thanks, hopefully something will come of this.

Edited April 30, 2009 by mewtwo

[Taomeow]

..

Edited April 30, 2009 by Taomeow

[mewtwo]

Alright I have been brainstorming and in the town I live in there are alot of hotels and I was thinking about using one of them, wether buying one or just renting rooms in one. The hotel I am thinking of useing is a holiday inn and it has a restruant so we would be set for food. I have yet to talk to anyone in the hotel about this so this may be a dead end.

 

 

If this does work out we may be able to have retreats on my friends land.

 

 

Some basic rules I have hashed out may change

 

People must have private medical insurance.

No alchol tobacco or illegal drugs.

During the week of the sturgis rally would be a week off.

All in all try and be polite.

 

Basic daily schedule again may change.

 

7-8 am get up

8-9 am breakfast

9-10 am private meditation

10-1030 am group taichi

1030-11 private martial art/yoga/exercise of your choice

11-12 "open for right now not sure what to do here"

12-1pm lunch

1-4 pm work around place

4-445 meditation group

5-6 dinner

6-7 group disscution

7-10 free time

10 bed

[Easynow]

A commune is one thing, institutionalisation is another!!

[Taoist81]

Perhaps you should visit a "normal" commune first? Someone will have to be working to pay for the place, or manufacture goods to sell (edit: and 4 hours is not a lot of time for that). Time for cleaning, cooking etc.

 

Maybe see about visiting somewhere like: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twin_Oaks_Community before trying to start from scratch. Lots of hippies tried to do the like in the 60's and failed because they had no idea what they were doing.

Edited April 30, 2009 by Taoist81

[awake]

I think you should further your own practice before gathering others under your leadership, fiscal or otherwise, because you will attract people with similar degrees of cultivation, or perhaps less, as most masters would not join a community of such that has a low level of conscious awareness to teach them.

 

Why, is your life so bad alone? Can you not function in the societal world anymore?

 

Why do yo want to join/make a commune? I remember when I was lost I wanted to make/join various forums seeking answers or some sort of external factor to help me along my way, (forums were my conditioning, comunes are yours perhaps) and then I realized that, no, this is not the way. It is something that can be perfectly cultivated by one's self, and most of this "desire for change" is last-result ego mind control stuff to occupy your time.

 

Just this moment, mate.

[CarsonZi]

[mYTHmAKER]

I'll join but i have to be in charge

[Taiji Bum]

I think your on the right track but $500 is way too much and so is a regimented schedule. In the spiritual communes I have lived at there was a work-exhange for living free and that is what attracted newbies. People who can afford $500 can choose a place that gives them total freedom to do anything they want. A regimented schedule is monastic and will scare away most.

 

I am not trying to discourage you but people who are into this stuff usually arent into making money to the point of having $500 in passive income a month. I love the idea and someday I want my own private taijiquan retreat with a commune setting. Keep your ideas coming!

[contrivedname!]

a good idea but i think there is too much regiment and rules in what you propose(no drinking or drugs... bye bye any ikkyu's or trungpa's ). many who may like to join a commune would probably want to get out of societal structure and move into a place where individuals are mutually responsible for their own actions (though as darin pointed out, if you are looking for a monastic setting, the individuals you are trying to attract may be of a different grain). in some areas you can get realitively remote land for pretty cheap; i think it would be a good idea to get the individuals interested to pool some money and just buy the land outright then you would simply have to pay property taxes, or find someone willing to take on a commune who still has land in the family from the homestead act. also i would encourage a open type of spiritual practice setting where individuals from different "paths" could congregate and thereby compliment each others practices. i would also suggest a "leaderless" commune where all have say in decisions effecting the group as a whole.

 

that said i think, if it is what you want, that a commune is a great idea

[jai64]

Why would you want to wrap yourself in a cocoon of Shangri-La? How will you learn?

 

It is easy to be a monk when your alone on the top of a mountain!

 

~joe

[Aasin]

I don't think joining a commune will help anyone spiritually or physically in ways that one cannot do on his own.

 

A lot of times people feel dependent on things and others when the ability to get stuff done is right in front of them. It just isn't in the way they expected.

[gendao]

I think your on the right track but $500 is way too much and so is a regimented schedule. In the spiritual communes I have lived at there was a work-exhange for living free and that is what attracted newbies.

Agreed. Most spiritual hippies are attracted to communes in part because they are low-cost and they are ass-broke.

 

But who knows, I've never even been to a commune...

[Taiji Bum]

Been looking in Michigan and you can pick up 10 remote acres for 10 grand. Dome homes are pretty cheap.... about 5 grand a piece. All told 20 grand to start and have your newbies bring their own structure to leave there as a "gift" such as those cool teepee things or a yurt. This could seriously be done on the cheap. You would need only one structure to start and as the newbies come just build more. I saw a website for something called an earthworks home made of sandbags that was partially underground that was really cozy and cost 2 grand.

 

The hardest part is a reason newbies would come. Back in the day there was the Tai Chi Farm that was a live in place with a famous Tai Chi author acting as the mentor for the place. It attracted thousands but it definately wasn't a commune! It was more of a Tai Chi Retreat with full time people acting as staff members who lived on site and ran a sort of Bread and Breakfast, plus seminars and a yearly festival. The guy died in a car accident at 80+ years old and the Farm was sold.

 

mewtwo, dont give up on the dream and its my dream too! You've fired my imagination again! Thanks!

[CarsonZi]

You might want to consider having a look through this website (if you haven't already) if you are serious about starting a commune/intentional community. http://www.ic.org/

 

Love,

Carson

[Thunder_Gooch]

I'd move if there was already a stable community, self sufficiency would be key, I would want to be surrounded by serious individuals, not by bongo drum firewalking hippies. I guess it would depend on the community.

[JBliss]

also if you want to build a communal living situation you might want to choose a location that is mildly inhabitable instead the wasteland that is south dakota. Better off in the south...or the Bahamas. I mean if youre going to get all hippy dippy and withdraw from society you might as well do it right.

[Wayfarer64]

Back in the 70's I lived on a few different communes, in Wisconsin, Vermont, New Hampshire, & Washington State... Each was different - but the common ground was keeping a sustainable economic structure to keep us alive and warm/cool and healthy. Mostly we farmed - or created items to wear - - silk screening T-shirts with various designs was a good $ maker... Being self sustaining for food is tricky and needs to be organized by folks who know what they are doing...

 

The political structure was important - chores needed doing and kids needed everything... etc...

 

Creating a monastic retreat may be more viable for what you have spelled out...

 

 

I for one would not enjoy -nor want to be part of any regimented situation, offering the opportunity for group activity is one thing schedualing it is another...

 

good luck with this idea tho- it may be a good beginning.-

 

love to all-Pat

[thelerner]

I notice there are 3 hours of actual work to be done each day on the schedule. You might have to multiply that by 3 or 4 times to be economically viable and self sustaining. Life, even in communes can get expensive. Monasteries are sustained through long hours of daily of often grueling daily work.

 

On commune farms (kibbutz's) I've visited, 10 hours days were expected. Great sense of community, but hard work.

 

 

Michael

[Yoda]

I'll join but i have to be in charge

 

 

If I can be "#2" and walk around with an assault rifle, I'm in!!

 

Nice thread topic... I've pipe dreamed about this on and off but not really kicked it around recently. My thinking on the matter is to bring in modern capitalistic concepts in all their brutal glory: There needs to be clear, contractually established lines of ownership so if people have had it at some point, everyone is very clear on who owns what and where so all you have to do is to run the paternity tests and settle up.

 

It's interesting to charge rent... that's a cool angle... someone like webmaster Sean can do his business from anywhere on the planet, so he could do something like that. Of course, if you are charging rent then you have to allow time for people to work on their business.

 

From what I understand, in many Catholic monasteries in the USA they run your credit and you have to prepay your health insurance and appear sincere to go on a month to month type arrangement to see if the lifestyle agrees with you. You are expected to work 4 (?) hours a day, do collective meals, and do 2 (?) hours a day of collective prayer and follow all the rules pretty closely. Also, you are required to "agree" with Catholic doctrine, but there are a minority of people there who are closet Buddhists, etc. I have a pal who has knowledge on this type of situation if anyone is interested, but that's the gist. They might do a background check too. I know that they don't want bad credit scores in their ranks.

 

Maybe at some point, I'll buy some country land and have free retreats for a week or two at a time just to see if this sort of thing is for me. We have kicked this around a couple of times here in the past.

 

Yoda

[Pietro]

[Smile]

Get the money together and buy your own island. Grow and gather your own food.

http://www.privateislandsonline.com/

[Yoda]

150k scores me an island!!!

 

Dang... I still might make it as a cult leader yet!!!

[TheObserver]

Hey man, I think this is a great idea. I'm not sure about the location and regiment, but communes like this are totally do-able.. I've been looking thru intentional community listings for weeks now, but many of them are pretty extreme in their views. I would hope starting a commune wouldnt be to hard with a few decent cultivators.

 

I'll tell you right now that if the right oppritunity arose I would pack my bags a.s.a.p. and help build it from the ground up. Some places that i think would be really worth checking out would be Minnesota, Oregon, or Alaska.. There would be many things to take into consideration, but I do know land can be pretty cheap in those areas.

 

that ic.org is a great resource..

heres an example of a successful, thriving community like this:

http://www.dancingrabbit.org/

 

If your really interested in this PM me or E-mail me or something.