No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it.
-- Albert Einstein
While not all may agree, we believe that we live in no ordinary times.
The global financial system we have known is fast decaying. What passes for serious political discussion is reduced to dishonest ersatz. Nature, in all her manifest forms, is being destroyed before our eyes… and in our lifetimes. Families and individuals are falling apart, unable to cope with the conflicting demands and messages we're daily subjected to. Today we're nearly 7 billion people, all trying to maximize our insatiable pleasures and material comforts. As a species we have lost our center and have chosen to pursue material progress at the expense of all else. Love, trust and legitimate authority, the underlying lynchpins of any healthy society are scarcer today than petroleum and water. Science and the markets, upon which we believe we depend for our continued survival, have seemingly become our new religions. Ironically, the breathtaking march of progress we’ve come to take for granted in recent centuries has only exasperated our plight. The intractable crises we face are mounting and seemingly insoluble. Certainly, the solutions that we so desperately require will not come from above (the heads of governments, corporations and the media) but rather the convictions and beliefs put into motion by numerous individuals.
Understanding that our life-threatening crises are caused as much by who we are (which is the same as to say what we think) as much as what we do, the imperative of human transformation and the rising of consciousness is the metaphysical challenge of our day. It’s in this context that Costa Rica Entomological Supply, together with the Sat Yoga Institute, are together co-founding a self-sustaining and permaculture based ashram and eco-village, a model for sustainable living, in the southern region of Costa Rica. Acquired in September 2009, the 180 acre ashram, or monastery, provides a community for serious seekers of all backgrounds and faiths to transcend the ego and find union with the Divine. Residents of the eco-village will be involved in numerous endeavors including the growing of food crops through permaculture, biodynamics and other wholly-organic means. An intensive 7 year program for rebuilding the land’s depleted soils is well underway, drawing upon an industrial scale worm farm, the planting of nitrogen-fixing trees and shrubs and the weekly application of micro-organisms.
An extensive reforestation project, undertaken in conjunction with the local agricultural cooperative, CoopeAgri, has involved the planting of dozens of varieties of species (endangered species, species beneficial for mammals, birds & insects, the preservation of aquifers, beautiful flowering trees, bamboo for future construction and many other species for food production). In addition to being one of the few ecologically harmonious intentional communities in the world, the ashram is a meditation and retreat center. The ashram offers a free university for those interested in their spiritual growth. A hospice program for the aged and chronically ill is planned, as well as a food bank of nutritious, locally-grown produce for the needy of the area. The ashram is a knowledge bank in sustainable and organic agriculture for the region.
For ongoing updates on the ashram’s progress and offerings, please feel free to visit the Sat Yoga website.