Matrimandir, Auroville

DSCN0049, originally uploaded by Lisa Tripp.

Since Dec. 11, Bruce and I have been staying in the community of Auroville. Bruce has been here often in the 1990's bringing young college students here who were interested in seeing intentional communities with a commitment to developing sustainable relationship to the environment and to the local community.

The Matrimandir, the large gold ball in this photo, is the physical and spiritual center of the community. It is so strange in many ways, and it is also quite wonderful. The intention is what is most striking to me. It has been very thought-provoking to see a public effort to be this intentional, and it requires major buy-in from the whole community. It is part of the effort to have an intentional community...and to have this focus be constantly realized in everything that unfolds here.

The ideas are loftly, and the practice is happening everywhere around the whole place. Solar panels abound, composting toilets, sewage treatment plants, organic gardening, recycling efforts, reforestation efforts, community outreach and village involvement...and on and on...

In some ways it is clear to me that I ;have my own projects that need my attention...or intention...so I can relate to the concepts easily.