A report on Tamera and EDE Course:
I find it really difficult to write about Tamera because the place has so many extremes. And some of the extremes I like and some not. It is a challange for me to stay balanced and thus I am once very happy and than dissatisfied.
I will start with my happiness experiences from appreciating the … weather. The combination of sun, lakes and hills is the ideal place on earth to live for me. At night and in the morning it is a bit chilly and at 9 am it starts to be warmer and than hot if there are no clouds. It is nice to work in the garden in the morning and than go to lectures or to swim.
I am here for EDE – Ecovillage Design Education Course where the participants gain fundamental knowledge needed for the creation and construction of Eco-Villages and PeaceVillages. It was exactly what I was looking for as I am about to finalise the purchasing 17 hectars farm in Sieczka near Sulejow (145 km south of Warsaw). I was ready to learn about the community, solar solutions, ecological houses, permaculture, economical issues, EU funding and so on.
So I got 50% discount which is 600 Eu including food and board and paid 120 Eu for the flight from Berlin to Lisbon.
When I came to Lisbon there was no train to Tamera anymore. So I went to what I thought was a Hare Krsna temple. It was a restaurant however which was closed on Sunday. It was used instead as a meeting place for Hare Krsna people and their friends. There were maybe eight people only including an enthusiastic brahmacari Rupa Vilasa dasa. I have also met a couple Yogashakti and Anadir from Majorca. And I spent a night at the house of mother of Rupa Vilasa. On the next day I went to Tamera with my new Hare Krsna friends from Majorca. I missed the first half of the day (introduction of the participants). My friends were not very much introduced or toured around about the place and I couldn’t understand why. Later I found out that you just cannot visit such places as Tamera or Findhorn unless you sign up for the course like Introductory week and pay for it. The income from such workshops and trainings is one of the main sources of maintenance.
You are also not allowed to walk around the place freely. The property has 156ha but you can walk on 1 or 2 hektars as a visitor. Even I as a member of the course could not get to workshop and will not be allowed to some areas like Political Ashram, Place of Art or Temple of Love. For that they need more trust and time they said.
At 1pm we took vegan lunch and went a little bit around. My friends left and I went to the meeting where the group of 35 were finishing introducing themselves. We finished unexpectedly quickly so the rest of time we played voleyball.
The most dramatic difference for me was that at Tamera there is no ownership, no possession: and I like the idea. People generally don’t have their own private houses. People can choose to sleep communally in big spaces with 10-20 beds (both in buildings as well as in big tents) or alone (in caravans or tents) and the spaces are not fixed, people learn to live with change to accommodate what is needed. I found the community quite learning-orientated.
They are supposed to be spiritually neutral and it is true that different people have different ideas on spirituality. They treat however Dieter Duhm’s Sacred Matrix book as a bible, they speak a lot about the Goddess, they have a catedral which is a stone circle and they have the community Sunday gathering called Mantee. They have idea that before the cult of male God there was a worship of Goddess (in line with The Chalice and the Blades book by Raisner). Their real spiritual ground is however the notion of free love which for them is particularly the free sexuality idea. That means that there is no privacy in love relationships and the children do not belong to the parents as much as they belong to the community.
Their real social glue according to them is a forum. And it really helps to clarify some problems among people. It serves as a tool for conflict resolution, sometimes for taking decisions but mainly for love issues among people. Sometimes they use gestalt but mainly it is 2-5 minutes speach in front of a group up to 40-50 people and the facilitator focuses especially on love or rather sex issues. It was developed by Wilhelm Reich, philosophical model for D. Duhm.
What I have learned?
My focus on building a ecovillage so far was around acquiring land and learning about passive houses, eco architecture, green technology, ecology and permaculture, EU funding. What I found here is 90% focus on spirituality and community building. And that was the part of my life which was really neglected. Here I have understood fully that I need to write on my vision of ecovillage, connect with the spiritual energy which means both God and nature. Being a city-boy I was raised with the technology and even mantra meditation didn’t help me to connect with the world, with nature and Earth. I got understanding now that it is crucial for me to make an additional effort in this direction.
The consequence of this would be a process which connects the community: regular meetings which help to clarify any issues among the members.
I also understood that it is true that the love is a key issue in the community. I was reading “Getting the Love You want” by Ph.D. Harville Hendrix and it gave me idea that you can satisfy your need for love by expressing your love to others with the spirit: What can I do for you? How can I serve you?
Economy: This also includes the idea of gift economy – which means community where valuable goods and services are regularly given without any explicit agreement for immediate or future rewards. So far I was mainly focused on the idea of complementary currency which is smart but is not so connecting.
Ownership: In Tamera I got vision of living on a common land. Why ownership? I understand the issue about safety and trust but I believe that they can be met in another way. Lets be the owners together.
Structure: Community My last trip to Sociocratic seminar in Holland helped me to get clarity in this regard very much. What they proposed was to establish foundation and the same advice I got from my lawyer. Association is not the best entity for owning a property because it is not stable. In sociocracy they also do not agree with the idea of general meeting’s being over the board and supervisory board. They have a structure of double link’s connection which gives the possibility of influence and ultimately blocking decisions of the Management Board.
Strawbale houses: They are cooperating with one of the most experienced architects from Germany Gernot Minke. He helped them to design a big aula, small load bearing arch houses as well as many others. I met also an experienced craftsman Michael from Germany who likes to build from strawbales and he travels all over Europe to such construction’s sites. This is my first choice for the buildings in my ecovillage.
Architecture: The next are the architecture. So far I had idea of separate families living in some distance on their own land. Now I am inspired by the concept of Architecture of Trust which stimulates trust in the community. One of such examples may be non-hierarchical urban design of Harrappa town.
Seeds: One of the ex-members of Tamera have started a Association for Seed Exchange. And Tamera is recognizing that seeds are gold which is again in control of government and corpocracy. The sale of seeds is prohibited unless you have special licence. They take part <!– /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:”"; margin:0cm; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”Times New Roman”;} @page Section1 {size:612.0pt 792.0pt; margin:70.85pt 70.85pt 70.85pt 70.85pt; mso-header-margin:35.4pt; mso-footer-margin:35.4pt; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} –>
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in networks of free exchange in Portugal, Spain and with Sepp Holzer too.
I will continue with more details soon.
A report on Tamera and EDE Course:
I find it really difficult to write about Tamera because the place has so many extremes. And some of the extremes I like and some not. It is a challange for me to stay balanced and thus I am once very happy and than dissatisfied.
I will start with my happiness experiences from appreciating the … weather. The combination of sun, lakes and hills is the ideal place on earth to live for me. At night and in the morning it is a bit chilly and at 9 am it starts to be warmer and than hot if there are no clouds. It is nice to work in the garden in the morning and than go to lectures or to swim.
I am here for EDE – Ecovillage Design Education Course where the participants gain fundamental knowledge needed for the creation and construction of Eco-Villages and PeaceVillages. It was exactly what I was looking for as I am about to finalise the purchasing 17 hectars farm in Sieczka near Sulejow (145 km south of Warsaw). I was ready to learn about the community, solar solutions, ecological houses, permaculture, economical issues, EU funding and so on.
So I got 50% discount which is 600 Eu including food and board and paid 120 Eu for the flight from Berlin to Lisbon.
When I came to Lisbon there was no train to Tamera anymore. So I went to what I thought was a Hare Krsna temple. It was a restaurant however which was closed on Sunday. It was used instead as a meeting place for Hare Krsna people and their friends. There were maybe eight people only including an enthusiastic brahmacari Rupa Vilasa dasa. I have also met a couple Yogashakti and Anadir from Majorka. And I spent a night at the house of mother of Rupa Vilasa. On the next day I went to Tamera with my new Hare Krsna friends from Majorka. I missed the first half of the day (introduction of the participants). My friends were not very much introduced or toured around about the place and I couldn’t understand why. Later I found out that you just cannot visit such places as Tamera or Findhorn unless you sign up for the course like Introductory week.
You are also not allowed to walk around the place freely. The property has 156ha but you can walk on 1 or 2 hektars as a visitor. Even I as a member of the course could not get to workshop and will not be allowed to some areas like Political Ashram, Place of Art or Temple of Love. For that they need more trust and time they said.
At 1pm we took vegan lunch and went a little bit around. My friends left and I went to the meeting where the group of 35 were finishing introducing themselves. We finished unexpectedly quickly so the rest of time we played voleyball.
The most dramatic difference for me was that at Tamera there is no ownership, no possession: and I like the idea. People generally don’t have their own private houses. People can choose to sleep communally in big spaces with 10-20 beds (both in buildings as well as in big tents) or alone (in caravans or tents) and the spaces are not fixed, people learn to live with change to accommodate what is needed. I found the community quite learning-orientated.
They are supposed to be spiritually neutral and it is true that different people have different ideas on spirituality. They treat however Dieter Duhm’s Sacred Matrix book as a bible, they speak a lot about the Goddess, they have a catedral which is a stone circle and they have the community Sunday gathering called Mantee. They have idea that before the cult of male God there was a worship of Goddess (in line with The Chalice and the Blades book by Raisner). Their real spiritual ground is however the notion of free love which for them is particularly the free sexuality idea. That means that there is no privacy in love relationships and the children do not belong to the parents as much as they belong to the community.
Their real social glue according to them is a forum. And it really helps to clarify some problems among people. It serves as a tool for conflict resolution, sometimes for taking decisions but mainly for love issues among people. Sometimes they use gestalt but mainly it is 2-5 minutes speach in front of a group up to 40-50 people and the facilitator focuses especially on love or rather sex issues. It was developed by Wilhelm Reich, philosophical model for D. Duhm.
What I have learned?
My focus on building a ecovillage so far was around acquiring land and learning about passive houses, eco architecture, green technology, ecology and permaculture, EU funding. What I found here is 90% focus on spirituality and community building. And that was the part of my life which was really neglected. Here I have understood fully that I need to write on my vision of ecovillage, connect with the spiritual energy which means both God and nature. Being a city-boy I was raised with the technology and even mantra meditation didn’t help me to connect with the world, with nature and Earth. I got understanding now that it is crucial for me to make an additional effort in this direction.
The consequence of this would be a process which connects the community: regular meetings which help to clarify any issues among the members.
I also understood that it is true that the love is a key issue in the community. I was reading “Getting the Love You want” by Ph.D. Harville Hendrix and it gave me idea that you can satisfy your need for love by expressing your love to others with the spirit: What can I do for you? How can I serve you?
Economy: This also includes the idea of gift economy – which means community where valuable goods and services are regularly given without any explicit agreement for immediate or future rewards. So far I was mainly focused on the idea of complementary currency which is smart but is not so connecting.
Ownership: In Tamera I got vision of living on a common land. Why ownership? I understand the issue about safety and trust but I believe that they can be met in another way. Lets be the owners together.
Structure: Community My last trip to Sociocratic seminar in Holland helped me to get clarity in this regard very much. What they proposed was to establish foundation and the same advice I got from my lawyer. Association is not the best entity for owning a property because it is not stable. In sociocracy they also do not agree with the idea of general meeting’s being over the board and supervisory board. They have a structure of double link’s connection which gives the possibility of influence and ultimately blocking decisions of the Management Board.
Strawbale houses: They are cooperating with one of the most experienced architects from Germany Gernot Minke. He helped them to design a big aula, small load bearing arch houses as well as many others. I met also an experienced craftsman Michael from Germany who likes to build from strawbales and he travels all over Europe to such construction’s sites. This is my first choice for the buildings in my ecovillage.
Architecture: The next are the architecture. So far I had idea of separate families living in some distance on their own land. Now I am inspired by the concept of Architecture of Trust which stimulates trust in the community. One of such examples may be non-hierarchical urban design of Harrappa town.
Seeds: One of the ex-members of Tamera have started a Association for Seed Exchange. And Tamera is recognizing that seeds are gold which is again in control of government and corpocracy. The sale of seeds is prohibited unless you have special licence. So they take part
