The Guhyaloka Community

A small community of Buddhist men live permanently in the valley, dividing their time between personal practice, caring for the land and servicing the needs of retreatants who come to stay.

The first community at Guhyaloka which was established in 1986, came to renovate Bhante's Bungalow and build the various huts and facilities for the first Ordination Course.  There were many people who lived and worked on a very minimal budget in that highly demanding first phase of the development of Guhyaloka. Those of us who reap the fruits of their struggle are very grateful for their efforts.  After the initial work was done a smaller semi-permanent community - the Support Community - stayed on to support the retreats and gradually develop the facilties.  In the mid 1990's a second community - the Vihara - was started by a handful of men who wanted to live a full-time renunciant, celibate life, devoted to meditation and study.

So, two communities developed, one of men devoted to the renunciant life, and the other made up of men who maintained and supported the activites in the Valley.  In 2005 the two communities were combined with the hope that we could all engage in more meditation and study, but also work to support the retreats and maintain the facilities.  The current community is still functioning with those aims. 

We follow three principles:

• To deepen our direct spiritual practice;
• To do this in a communal context; 
• To serve each other and those who make use of the facilities at Guhyaloka.

The present facilities and the development of Guhyaloka has been the work of many dedicated men who gave freely of their time, their enthusiasm, and their skills.  But, other than Sangharakshita who provided the funds for the initial purchase, and Subhuti who found the property and led the initial development, Yashodeva stands out as one who dedicated himself fully for twelve years to the development of the facilites and the community. We all stand on the shoulders of those who went before us.

The current community - pictured above - is Saccanama, Vajrabandhu, Achaladeva, Maniraja, Bodhidaka and Manjuvajra (although Manjuvajra is presently on an extended absence in the UK for family reasons.)

If you contact us you will probably meet Maniraja first - he mans the office and looks after the finances and acts a guest master; Bodhidaka maintains and develops the facilities with help from Saccanama and Achaladeva; Achaladeva looks after the forest and orchards although his building skills are frequently called on; and crucially, Vajrabandhu is responsible for making sure that everyone is well sustained with hearty vegetarian food; Manjuvarja is the Chairman and generally helps out where he can.  We are all responsible for the development of the Centre (with the support and guidance of the council of the OBO.) We help each other out at various times, share community jobs and take turns in the weekly shopping run to the coast to buy food and other items, or to pick up visitors.

It is a simple, renunciant lifestyle - but the rewards are great.