Hi all,
We are in yet another busy, hectic, even chaotic period, with several retreats and working events running at the same time. Alongside that, we’ve finally done some much-needed refurbishment of the living quarters where I and the rest of the Suryavana “team” (my wife Jesu and the kids) live. It’s been over a year since we built the downstairs shrine room, the Puja room as some call it, and now the upstairs flat is free. We’ve insulated the roof and added a bit more furniture, so it feels less like a workshop/storeroom and more like a home. Given the pace of life here, it matters to me to have a quiet, warm place to crawl into from time to time.
Since coming back from the heady days of summer and travelling across the seas to the Mediterranean isles, I’ve been thinking again about our life here and what could come next. I really do love the project, and in many ways it satisfies and challenges me. Life here is so immediately engaging, off-grid and in the middle of the beautiful nature and arable highlands of Alta Palancia. For now it is working, moving forward and growing.
These last few days we’ve been enjoying the late autumn sun of the last days of October, exploring the Five Buddha Mandala and the Five Consorts with a group of Bodhiyoga practitioners. It’s been fascinating to ask how Buddhist I need to be to practise Buddhism, and to take that question to its limits through puja, mantra and the Buddha archetypes and symbols. What a joy.
So, what is the next phase? Life is always king, of course, but with the reminders of sickness, old age and death in close friends and my ageing parents, I’m starting to conceive of another five-year plan. Ironically! I seem to work in five-year plans. Our kids will soon be heading to university (in theory): Ruben in three years’ time and Satya in six. How time flies! That feels like a natural juncture in how we live.
I’m also aware of my responsibility, as Chair, for managing Suryavana and its debt. There are still ten years left on the repayment schedule, which seems so far ahead. Five years feels more reasonable to me, so by 2031 I’d like us to be free of it. In the interests of easing the pressure now, and making life easier for the next Chair and team, I want to launch Suryavana Libre!, a crowdfunding campaign to pay off the remaining loans of €153,000. “Libre” here means free of debt. Keep a look out!
Suryavana is currently “business as usual” and sustainable, and this would give us more freedom to do what we’re here for: offering affordable events for Order and Mitra gatherings and work retreats, with less wear on us from running a hospitality business.
All the best, and love to you all,
Sudaka