| Our community vision is informed by the following perspective. The vast majority of suffering on earth is directly attributable to a fundamental perceptual error. Humanity has lost sight of the Garden of Eden our Creator intended. Rather than sharing the abundance that naturally accompanies a life in harmony with the earth, humanity has become ensnared by the delusion that life can only be sustained by competing with others and that society must be structured on the principles of control and domination rather than cooperation and sharing.
As a result of this deluded need to control the "resources" of the earth, immeasurably massive violence has been inflicted on both people and planet. That which is true wealth - clean water, clean air, healthy soil and ecosystems - is being sacrificed in the name of the artificial wealth called money. To protect this control, ever more devastating forms of weaponry have been created. The vicious cycle of violence is now culminating in a vast karmic recoil which threatens all of humanity with weapons of mass destruction and a breakdown of our most basic life-supporting ecosystems.
We believe that the most meaningful way to respond to this planetary crisis is to withdraw our participation from this system, seek to embody the ideal of nonviolence in all aspects of our lives, and become a center for the sharing of this ideal. Gandhi once said: "Nonviolence to be a creed has to be all-pervasive. I cannot be nonviolent about one activity of mine and violent about others." We are measuring our lives in order to seek consistency and wholeness in our practice of nonviolence - both in the ways we relate to one another and in the ways we relate to the planet.
36 acres have been liberated to serve as a sanctuary for those who resonate with this vision. The location is a beautiful, secluded, and sacred valley with a year-round stream located in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains in southeast Ohio, near the university town of Athens.
One part of this land will be dedicated to the creation of a small ecovillage, with a community center to hold gatherings and occasional
communal meals. The other part of the land will have a more public interface. The plan for this area includes a solar-powered resource center which will house all kinds of educational materials that promote nonviolent social change, a small retreat cabin in a remote section for
solitary prayer and meditation, a "peace path" along the stream with benches for contemplation and plaques bearing quotations from the great messengers of nonviolence, and a camping area for group retreats.
For more information, please send a SASE for a pamphlet which describes more fully the community vision of Tree of Life (and also includes the poem "The Calling"): Tree of Life, P.O. Box 204, Athens, Ohio 45701
- PEACE BE WITH YOU - | Contact: Tree of Life Ecovillage & Nonviolence Resource Center
PO Box 204
Athens, Ohio 45701 United States
Community location is placed at the center of the zip/postal code, city/state, or city/country (not based on street addresses) |
