Collective Life

Why collective life

We believe that collective life offers a favorable environment in which to develop one's potential while learning to cherish and consider one another as brothers and sisters. It leads to an expansion of one's consciousness, allowing one to access a broader dimension of the self.

The concept of community is present throughout the universe, where everything is organized in systems. With its cells, tissues and organs, our body is also a form of community. The spirit of the community is to re-connect us to the unity existing everywhere in nature; by expanding our consciousness our goal is to reflect and embody this unity in multiplicity.

Education, arts and leisure are means through which we strive to achieve our goals:

EDUCATION: in the community, it is to learn how to educate ourself. Then, how to pass on this knowledge through our example in order to embody what we learned.

The ARTS: because we are creative beings, we seek to express the beauty of our soul.

LEISURE: to cultivate virtues and qualities, appreciate the beauty of life and interaction with nature. To have the leisure of changing activities in order to relax certain centers in the brain and activate others.

In this spirit, community life offers countless opportunities for activities through which one can develop skills and different aspects of the self. Our educational model illustrates the branches of the self expressed through the seven colours of the prism.

Life at IDEAL

We practice methods and exercises in our daily life which we believe help us improve and transform ourselves in order to become useful to the larger community. By being our own topic of research and by striving to work consciously, we believe we can have an impact on our environment individually and collectively.

Our daily life includes the practice of various yogas. For example:

• the yoga of sound through singing

• the yoga of nutrition through the preparation and sharing of meals

• the yoga of light through meditation during sunrise

• breathing exercises, movements, dance (paneurhythmie) ...

These methods are presented to us in the philosophical and spiritual teaching of the Master Omraam Mikhaël Aïvanhov. He suggests numerous yogas adapted to the Western lifestyle and he dedicated his life to implementing simple methods of self-transformation.

Community life is an exercise that requires going beyond the differences dividing us to find what unites us. It is a lifestyle which encourages exchanges and the sharing of skills, talents and tasks. It also allows for shared living spaces, production and preparation of food, as well as joint resources and services resulting in a lighter environmental footprint. The goals we pursue and our experience over the past twenty years contribute to the search for solutions to current economic and environmental challenges we all face as a society.

A long-term perspective...

We perceive our mission to be of a humanitarian nature. This is a long-term experiment through which we see our role as useful in the wider perspective of the human family. Whether it be by offering our support to our brothers and sisters going through hard times in the world, or by creating fields of harmonious energy through meditations, music and other spiritual exercises.

We believe that one day all human beings will consider one another as brothers and sisters belonging to the same family. We believe that the role of women will be valued around the world. We believe that mothers have the right to an environment of beauty that nourishes their creative imagination during pregnancy. That education will be universally available. That parents will have the means to offer their children harmonious conditions in which to develop their full potential and become compassionate humans. This ideal is the motivation that drives our daily life.