Judy from China, one of our recent New Life participants, shares a series of writings and reflections on her experience of Damanhur and living in a spiritual community. Here is the first.

We’re excited to feature our first bilingual English-Chinese Damanhur blog article! Thanks Judy! We’re glad you are back.

If you ask me how I spent most of my adult time, I would say, apart from being a workaholic, I numbed myself in endless TV and movies. Meanwhile, I found real life becoming more like the movie “The Matrix.” Why do I always have different standards for valuing what is important, compared with most people?

Damanhur is located in the very northern mountain region almost at the border of Italy, right by the cities of Torino and Milano. I was already here last year in September for some months. However, I couldn’t start to write about it until now because it was too overwhelming for me. It still is. I felt the more I tried to understand, the less I know. Therefore, I decided to let go… I am still quite confused on what it is all about here, but I was just simply touched by many people even without any language communication (most of the people can only speak in Italian). This is enough for me to come back.

I felt like this a few times before when I was traveling in some places that are poor, material-wise, yet rich spiritual-wise. For example, in Laos, Nepal, Cambodia, Sri Lanka, Myamar and Tibet. And in many places in China, some decades ago. It doesn’t matter to me how much a person is willing to share, it matters much more what percentage this person is willing to share, compared with what this person owns in total.

I question, do we have to be material-wise poor to be spiritual-wise rich? It is almost like a circle of humankind, starting from starving and very poor for material belongings, but very rich in a spiritual sense. People often like to share all or more of what they have. They realize a group is much stronger for survival than one individual. Slowly, one after another, people are getting richer material-wise, and at the same time, falling into the feeling of confusion and depression. The more we have, the more we fear losing it and the more we want to have more, isn’t it? Either it’s money, love or other things.

You might say, why bother with these questions? For me, I have let go of a lot of material belongings and lots of relationships (love/friendship/business) with different kinds of people since last year, not making money only spending, but surprisingly, I am so much happier and so much more free.

There are many (maybe 20) spiritual communities in the world mostly in more developed countries. I feel that it is because they are in the circle of being already rich material-wise, and the black holes of their hearts are coming out to ask for spiritual development. Maybe it is a spiritual return. Go back to the source, the one, the starting point.

Damanhur is one of them, starting from about 1970s by a man named Oberto Airaudi. The people here call him Falco Tarassaco, which means Falcon Dandelion. There are of course many theories in these places, just like how lots of different religions have their own version of what the universe / humankind is all about or should be. Each of us also has the right to ‘translate’ what is real or fake, right or wrong. Spiritual community, however, is not a religion. It is a group of people who get together to work in the same direction. The easiest way to understand it is probably like a special club 🙂

What I’m about to introduce here is only something that I have experienced / am experiencing through my eyes / heart in Damanhur. All the experiences and judgements or conclusions could possibly change over time, even within myself, because we are constantly changing. (The only thing that doesn’t change is change.). This is more like a journey to explore the inner self than outer happenings.

To be continued…




如果你问我，我长大以后大部分的时间都去哪儿了？我会说，除了我是个认真的工作狂以外，我大多在看电视看电影。我甚至觉得我的现实生活 更 像活在电影中，那 就是”骇客帝国”。虽然我不一定是尼奥，但我保准也是吞下了一颗红色小药丸儿。为啥我总是跟我身边的人对什么是重要的标准那么不同？在我 脑袋爆炸，三观尽 毁之前，我最好找到我的组织，告诉我我心中的世界是真的。

“达曼胡尔”，这地方坐落在意大利都灵和米兰旁边的北部山区，几乎到了边境。其实去年9月开始我已经在这里住了一段时间。可是我一直无 从 写起，因为我的脑 子一直处于过度消耗中，我发现我越努力想理解我越不明白。其实现在也一样。后来我决定不去试图理解了，不想了，去感受吧，其实我仍然对这 里的一切懵懵懂 懂，但是我发现即使在语言不通的情况下（这里大部分人只说意大利语），我还是被无数人感动了。这也是为啥我现在又回来了。这种感觉以前我 也感受过，比如在 老挝，尼泊尔，柬埔寨，斯里兰卡，缅甸还有西藏，其实包括几十年前的中国。对我来说，一个人愿意奉献多少不太重要，而是对于此人拥有的一 切他乐意付出的比 例。

说到这，我不得不问自己一个问题，我们难道一定要物质贫乏才能精神富有吗？这也有点像人的一个轮回，在饥饿贫穷物质低靡之时精神极其富 有，理想都很高尚， 大家都更乐意分享，因为意识到分享更宜于整个团体的存活而一个人很快就会灭亡；但是当人们前仆后继的富裕起来， 一个一个的也渐渐陷入不同种类的黑洞，困惑，没有方向，抑郁。拥有得越多越担心失去，越想拥有更多，不是吗？不管是金钱还是情感或是其他。

也许你会说我总是想太多。如果你已经达到无时无刻幸福快乐毫无恐惧，那么恭喜你，你不是跟我一样还在路上寻找的那种人。我嘛，自从去年 初 以来，放弃了很多物质的东西，很多情感关系（感情／友情／商务）的瓜葛，只花钱不赚钱，很惊喜的是，我变得更加开心幸福和自由了。

现在地球上大概有20多个灵修社区，多数在发达国家。我感觉这也是那个轮回的圈子，身体舒服了可是心灵都是黑洞，所以又开始追求心灵上 的 富足，精神上的发展，或者说是回归更贴切。回到源头，归一，回到原点。

达曼胡尔是其中之一，大概起始于70年代。一个叫做Oberto Airaudi 的意大利男人创立的，这里的人喜欢叫他Falco，鹰的意思，以后我再解释为什么。这些地方都有自己一套思维理念（不要说我被一遍遍刷三观了，我的三观已 经不存在了，黑洞，呵呵呵）。就好像不同的宗教有不同的教义，不同信徒也有不同的”解释”。灵修社区不是宗教，是一群志同道合的人聚集在 一起做些修炼或活 动，最容易理解的就是这是一个很特别的”俱乐部”。

接下来我要介绍的不过是通过我自己的眼睛／心感受到的达曼胡尔。我这些评论，总结和想法很有可能过段时间又会有变化，因为我们一直都在 变 （无常啊，变化是唯一不变滴）。这更像是我的一段内观之旅，而非外在之行。



The New Life project has been transformed,
click and see the new
Lab of Life program!