Unlearning everything that we have learned, been taught and accumulated throughout our lives that does not support connection, is a process that needs time, space and a safe container. For the learned to be unlearned, we need it to be really seen, felt, and integrated. When living in the community center, you don’t get to escape after you finished your workshop. It is a living, embodied experience in the mystery school.
We are all students of life. Nobody has arrived. Nobody has the answers. It is a mystery. Life is a mystery. We are all teachers to each other. We need each other to see what we can’t see and to receive the support needed in order to unlearn everything that is not real, everything that is in the way of true connection.
We use daily work as meditation to integrate our experience of the curriculum. We share the responsibilities of the household together, no one excluded. We are all equally committed to take care of the safe container we create and hold together.
Pema Chodron
Living in a community is an enriching, yet challenging experience. We are all different and have our own way of relating, processing and expressing. We may get triggered, mirrored and challenged by each other. At DIMA we realise that these challenges are pointers to where we are stuck and can actually accelerate our personal growth. We therefore created five guiding principles on how to relate to ourselves and each other whilst living in the community center.
When living in the community center, you will become an integral part of the community through service. You will have the responsibility and commitment to participate in a weekly practical meeting and to do a 2-hour community shift per day. Community shifts consist of cooking, gardening or cleaning and will be divided based on preference and experience.
We will see the work in the community center as an essential part of the unlearning process. Besides using these two hours as meditation and integration of the curriculum, it is also an opportunity to experience work from another perspective; as an inherent, enjoyable and creative part of daily life, getting to know yourself in the context of a group of people jointly collaborating in the effort of bringing more awareness to our inner and outer environment.
Rumi