Sky writes: I am exploring moving to Fairfield. And I am interested in Ideal Life Assembly as cited in recent post.
Sky, I asked someone who lives out at the ILA campus about how it works out there. In the Fairfield area a lot of the business of the meditating community happens at the coffee shops in the mornings and during the lunch hour downtown or at the campus dining hall. I ran into someone downtown this morning who lives out at the ILcampus making a good life here with housing out there. This is an old movement person who retired from a career out in the world and moved in to a unit out there on the ILA campus a couple of years ago. It works great for this person. There are about 70 people living out there now. The word is that attendance in the group meditations in the facilities out there or at the Dome is not mandatory or followed. And yes, ™ meditators can live out there too. The campus out there is part of the movement’s educational non-profits so technically folks who do come there are on month to month ‘courses’ as like the Invincible America Assembly... https://www.invincibleamerica.org/ https://www.invincibleamerica.org/ Back in 2015 they began converting the dormitory accommodations that were for the pundit program in to nice modern accomodation to live in. There was originally a built campus infrastructure to house upwards of 1,500 or 2,000 pundits. There are over a hundred structures out there complete with streets, sewers, utilities and such. Back in the summer of 2006 when the IAAssembly was conceived as a reaction to outbreak of civil war in Lebanon that was looking like it was going in to a world war and also then Vlodrop realizing that the Fairfield Dome meditation numbers and the TM meditation movement in America had attrited so badly that they both were disappeared essentially. The IAAssembly was conceived to regenerate the Dome group meditation and the American TM teaching movement was re-initiated by putting Dr. Hagelin in charge of figuring out the teaching of TM in North America.. A call went out to old meditators of the worldwide movement and people from around the globe came to Fairfield to populate the Dome meditation then in 2006. The daily meditation programs morning and evening were large again. A lot of Canadians and people otherwise from the UK, Europeans and others from the world came. After some short few years a number of those people had to return home to their lives and the Dome numbers sagged back down. Then in a sequence the hiring in of pundits from India (outsourcing) was initiated as a way to bolster numbers meditating in Fairfield. Providing stipends to westerners also was conceived as a way to support meditators who could stay meditating in the Domes. These approaches all took a lot of altruistic capital to do. Now within the last down turn of the economy and with those earlier heady times of largess dried up the pundit and also the grant ($) program paying people to meditate in the Domes on the IAAssembly have shrunk to shells of what they were. The practical need now is for good low overhead accommodation for people to be meditating in Fairfield. They have this infrastructure out there so in larger thinking in the direction of facilitating numbers meditating in Fairfield they have been taking the dorm-like accommodations of the pundit campus and investing in re-making the physical plant there in to nice housing. In beginning this with what was experiment in conversion of the units the project has accelerated this last year. This is a large capital project. At this annual Jan 12 Dome community meeting one of the visions of a sankalpa was laid out for having nice affordable housing to meet needs of housing for the IAA, retirements of elders in the full time movement organizations, retreat facility for new meditators, expansion for University housing and the meditating community. The Fairfield area with its meditating communities can make a great place to live. The ILCampus is a smaller part of it. At this point there are still a hand full of pundits (15 additional to arrive shortly) in a part of the campus out there, people are living up there otherwise privately and then there is a use of the campus for meditator retreats. You will just have to come and try it. The price is right. Practically, you’ll need a car given its location. Webpage: https://sites.google.com/view/idealifeassembly/home https://sites.google.com/view/idealifeassembly/home To get a ballpark view, on google maps find the Fairfield Municipal airport a couple miles north of Fairfield just to the west of Highway One. From the Northwest end of the airport property scroll west on the hardtop road heading West a few miles. Along to the north side of that road you will find the campus to zoom in on. The campus there by google maps looks stark but it does work as home and community to some folks here. A number of people come to live in Fairfield for periods of time during the year and that works for them too. Fairfield makes a nice place to live in spiritual community. Kind Regards from Fairfield, .D ---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <skymtsea> wrote : Hello, In browsing posts on FFL, I came across a link to ILA. I have some questions and hope to engage in a conversation about ILA. The ILA site shows artist rendition of future campus. The "future campus" makes it sound like something planned. However, other material on the site make it sound like an active program. So my first question, what is the current status and size of the ILA program? Anyone on FFL participating? If so, how do you like it? What is the program? -- hours, general schedule / practices, etc. Site says acceptance in IAA and current Dome Badge is required for governors and sidhas -- though not meditators. What are the current requirements for Dome Badge? (and is IAA acceptance the same as having Dome Badge). I understand, at least in the past, (relatively strict) good standing in TMO is required, including not seeing other teachers. Is review of Dome Badge qualification dealt with on a case-by-case basis, a total situation appraisal, or is it a rigid checklist? (See background below.) Do original Governor courses still qualify one as a Governor? If not, what additional courses are needed? And it appears meditators can participate in ILA. If I don't still qualify for governor programs, can I participate simply as a meditator. What is the daily program for meditators? Are all the direct fees for ILA included in the housing fee (I understand food and transportation are participant's responsibility) Some background to help put my questions in context. I am a meditator, teacher (not recertified), governor (from original courses) but have not been active with TMO for a long time. The last TM center I visited was probably 1995 to see some visiting pundits and a week at (former) AV clinic in Pacific Palisades in late 90's before it was sold. I lived in FF for a few months when it first opened. I taught full time for several years in mid 70's and part-time for several years prior. I have done long programs. I participated in three TM courses lasting six months and various shorter ones. I lived with a group of Sidhas in first few years of the program doing group program regularly. I attended various large assemblies in the early years. I had good standing in TMO when I was active for over 10 years. I am not active with any other self-development / spiritual groups, though over the years I took a few courses here and there. My participation was quite limited and I am not currently active with any group or other practice. And I have read a number of posts on FLL. And participated in FFL somewhat in its early years. Thanks. Sky
