At Home Days for the Adhisthana Community

by liv

Twice a year, the Adhisthana Community traditionally has At Home Days. This is a space to come together and spend some time building and strengthening the network of friendships that is the Adhisthana residential Sangha. At the start of June, we gathered together for four days to get into conversation, study and discuss the topic of team-based right livelihood. 

As a new member of the Adhisthana Community, it was the perfect way to get an introduction to the depth and breadth of spiritual practice that life at Adhisthana cultivates. The programme started with a conversation between Aryajaya and Sanghadeva on A Whole Dharma Life. This generated an excited and enthusiastic energy in the room, which aptly set the tone for the next few days. Later, Ratnaghosha led us in study around the Windhorse Trading Chapter on Right Livelihood. This material sparked an interesting conversation around whether Right Livelihood is enough in itself to facilitate a full spiritual life. Across the evenings we also heard personal stories from seven community members, getting a rich and honest insight into their Dharma lives. I particularly enjoyed hearing from newer members of the Adhisthana Community as it gave me a good idea of what my first six months might be like. We spent the third day with our respective single-sex communities, as a chance to deepen the connection with those we were living with. On the final day, we heard from many different members of the community who gave updates from their areas of work. 

I found the programme to be very rich and full of inspiration. More still, in between the scheduled activities, including a very special birthday afternoon tea-break, there were lots of moments of connection and friendship. And all in the glorious summer sun which accentuated the already astounding beauty of the gardens and wider landscape. As a first introduction to Adhisthana, I felt a lot of gratitude to be joining such a welcoming Community with conditions so conducive to the spiritual life.