The Ananda Community in Mountain View--
island of contentment in the megalopolis.

Mother Teresa once told a reporter that she felt America was the poorest country she had ever visited. When the reporter expressed surprise, she explained: poor in human qualities, because she had found a level of loneliness and isolation in this country that she had observed nowhere else.

"Cohousing" is increasingly being adopted as a way to lessen that loneliness. Cohousing may even be good for your health. In the 1997 bestseller, Love and Survival, Dr. Dean Ornish, M.D. summarized a substantial body of research indicating that people who have a sense of community in their lives are much less likely to suffer from heart disease.

An Oasis in the City

As you enter the Mountain View Ananda community, the first thing you'll notice is a central garden surrounded by trees, shrubs, and flowers. (Click photo for larger view.) The next thing you may notice is an  aura of peace. If the garden seems a world away from Silicon Valley , that's because the residents planned it that way. Ananda's members view the community as a nucleus for a spiritually nurturing meditative lifestyle.

One hundred adults and 26 children live in the community, which occupies a 72-unit, five-acre apartment complex on Monroe Drive near the busy corner of San Antonio and El Camino Real. In most ways, Ananda operates like any other urban apartment complex. The main differences arise out of the residents' spiritual beliefs, and their dedication to a life that's balanced between work, play, and inner growth.

Physically, the community meets the technical definition of cohousing as set forth in the authoritative book, Cohousing: A Contemporary Approach to Housing Ourselves. Authors Kathryn McCamant and Charles Durrett, both architects, chronicle the steady rise of cohousing in Denmark during the 1970s and '80s. By 1994, more than 140 cohousing developments had sprung up in that country. McCamant, who works for the CoHousing Company, a Berkeley consulting and architectural firm, says the 72-unit Ananda apartment complex is the largest cohousing development in the US. (The second-largest, ANyland@ in Lafayette, Colorado, has 42 units.)

In cohousing, a group of similarly inclined friends share an apartment building, house, or housing cluster. While that may evoke images of college dorms or the Haight-Ashbury , today's version of home-sharing is a far cry from the typical 1960s commune. In cohousing, the residents live in their own apartments, with separate kitchens, baths, etc., but share facilities where sharing makes good sense. Consider: wouldn't it be great to cook dinner only once every two weeks? Find childcare without a commute? Raise fresh organic vegetables with friends who'll share the gardening chores? In cohousing, you choose your neighbors.

But that=s just the practical side. When you ask cohousers to explain the benefits, they tend to veer off in the direction of quality of life, rather than convenience, emphasizing the small-town atmosphere that cohousing engenders. They say it takes them back to a time when people knew their neighbors, shared their hand tools, raised barns together, and were there for each other in times of joy and sorrow.

AWe love the feeling of family, of sharing our lives with so many others,@ say Karen and David Gamow, corporate trainers who teach stress-reduction and meditation at companies like NASA, Sun Microsystems, and Yahoo!. David and Karen have lived in the Ananda Community for about eight years. AWe had a wedding recently where everyone brought a favorite dish," says Karen. "Many of the residents sang and danced for the bride and groom. Why hire musicians, when your friends can play and sing the music you love best?@

The Ananda Community is an independent affiliate of Ananda Village , a yoga-based community that was started in 1967 in the foothills of the Sierra near Nevada City , California , by J. Donald Walters (Swami Kriyananda). Other Ananda communities are located in Seattle , Portland , Sacramento , Rhode Island , and Assisi , Italy . The Mountain View community=s residents are disciples or students of Paramhansa Yogananda, the author of Autobiography of a Yogi. Yogananda, who came to this country in 1920, urged people to consider starting "world-brotherhood colonies," for Asimple living and high thinking,@ where they could enjoy "happiness, freedom, job, home, and church all in one place."

Cohousing got its start when a group of young Danish professionals, single mothers, and retirees joined hands to look for a way to house themselves cooperatively and supportively. They ended up building small, individual houses with their own kitchens and bathrooms, clustered around a common walkway and a sharing a central group house where the residents could share meals and gather socially.

The first cohousing efforts in Denmark met with firm resistance from local planners, as well as from neighbors who feared it might attract "alternate lifestyles" and degrade property values. But those fears proved unfounded; in each case, cohousing became a source of civic pride.

Cohousing faced similar obstacles when it came to the US, and eventually garnered equal praise. Time magazine wrote:

"As families change, so will the look of new communities. Is this the suburb of the future? On Bainbridge Island, Washington, 30 families dwell in a five-acre pedestrial village where doors are seldom locked, townspeople share cooking duties.... The concept shows signs of catching on."

Architecture magazine praised cohousing as a promising solution to economic pressures:

"Americans are working...to narrow the gap between inflation and earning power. the next logical step in proposing contemporary approaches to housing is to reestablish a badly eroded sense of community. Cohousing makes that possible."

And an article in Progressive Architecture was equally enthusiastic:

"The result for Americans [of cohousing], seen in the nation's first five collaborative developments, is a harder road to travel, but ultimately a more comfortable and satisfying way of life."

The "harder road" includes the requirements to gather members, raise money, plan, obtain building permits, and build from the ground up. But cohousing's adherents are finding their away around legal requirements, by moving into existing apartments and houses and renovating them for the special requirements of group living. That's what the Mountain View Ananda community has done.

When Ananda moved in, the buildings and grounds were dilapidated. The members pitched in during numerous community workdays, carpentering, painting, and landscaping. In stark contrast with Ananda's time-saving "move-and-renew" approach, it took the residents of Liberty Village , a cohousing group that was built from scratch, nearly seven years just to plan their community, and when they finally broke ground, permits for water, sewer, and other infrastructure requirements were still pending.

McCamant and Durrett list the common features of cohousing, none of which requires that new housing be built. Any group may apply these principles to create a more satisfying way of life.

! Participatory Process. Residents participate in planning and are responsible as a group for decisions that affect the apartment complex as a whole.

! Intentional Neighborhood Design. The physical design encourages a strong sense of community. In the Ananda community, walkways, benches, shrines, a shared patio, and common facilities contribute to a sense of neighborhood..

! Extensive Common Facilities. Common areas are designed for daily use to supplement private living areas. At Ananda, the common facilities include an organic garden, a central community dining room where residents can have cooked dinners, a meditation temple, and a swimming pool and volleyball court. In the dining room, vegetarian dinners are offered on weekday evenings; diners pay a modest fee, which is reduced if they help cook or clean 1-2 times per month. The organic garden supplies the kitchen with produce during the warmer months, and the excess is sold to the members. The community temple hosts group meditations twice daily and is open all the time.

! Complete Resident Management. Residents manage the development, making decisions of common concern at community meetings. As of this writing, residents of Ananda were holding meetings to discuss construction of a new building.

The Friends Next Door

Living among neighbors who are also friends tends to create a homey feeling. At Ananda, the feeling extends to the physical grounds. The swimming pool, central lawn, volleyball court, and organic vegetable garden serve as informal gathering, hobby, and play spaces. Social life is spontaneous and casual. Conversations between residents can occur anytime and anywhere, in the dining room, garden, walkways, or parking lot.

Children also benefit from living in an intentional community. They enjoy greater freedom, because their parents know that every adult in the community will look out for them and serve as a willing source of assistance. Mothers with 70 neighbor-friends are blessed when it comes to finding childcare. Help is also close at hand for loading a van on moving day, getting groceries during an illness, discussing personal problems, or finding someone to go to a Giants game at Pac Bell Park .

In the Ananda community, the residents' shared spiritual beliefs add to the feeling of connectedness. A reporter once remarked to Swami Kriyananda, "Life here seems pretty much like anywhere else." Kriyananda replied, "Yes, but we put God first." The reporter was unaware of the large difference that simple fact makes in the members' lives.

Influences that run counter to spiritual practice, such as drugs and alcohol, are strictly forbidden; otherwise, the community is remarkably rule-free. Decisions regarding the physical facilities tend to be made by the people involved, which usually means the two-person maintenance staff. Larger decisions tend to be handled by ad-hoc communities that dissolve once the projects are completed.

Practical Matters

Some of the community's residents work for two local Ananda-owned businesses, East-West Bookshop on Castro Street , the largest metaphysical bookstore and gift boutique on the West Coast, and Bookbuyers just across the street, the biggest used-book store in the Bay Area. Some of the members work for the community's church, Ananda Sangha, or for Living Wisdom School , an Ananda-founded nondenominational private school (K-8) in Palo Alto  (www.livingwisdomschool.org). Members with construction skills operate the Ananda Builders Guild. Most residents pursue careers outside the Ananda organization.

Ananda members pay rent, plus a $50 "community fee" to support the maintenance staff, improve shared spaces, and fund special projects, such as building a meditation garden. The average age of the residents is the mid-40s, with a range from the early 20s to the 70s.

Downsides?

Like most good things, cohousing's advantages come at a price. An Ananda member who works at East West Bookshop appreciates AKnowing my neighbors, and knowing they care: some are my dear friends. We share a spiritual focus and are trying to get along better and better.@ But she's mildly bothered by Aa seeming lack of privacy. It=s like a small town--if you=re not careful, everyone knows your business.@ Overall, though, she isn't complaining. "It=s wonderful to live in close proximity to like-minded friends and neighbors.@

Another member, a dance instructor, also holds mixed views. On the positive side, she welcomes Aa life full of wonderful moments of exchange, friendliness, inspiration, and support. It feels normal to me, yet it's so rare in our society.@ Less appreciated are Athe expensive rent, though average for Silicon Valley , and the sterile apartment buildings.@

Another gripe is noise, thanks to the commuter trains that run by one side of the complex. Noise is a special challenge for this community of meditators.

The Ananda complex was purchased in 1989 by a group of investors that included non-members who expect a good return on their money; hence the high rents. (A small one-bedroom apartment costs $1400.) When an apartment becomes vacant with no Ananda members in sight, it may be rented to non-members who feel in harmony with the community's lifestyle.

The residents are free to participate in group activities as much or little as they like; there's no requirement for involvement. In fact, the members are quick to note the disadvantages of overly idealistic, commune-style living arrangements, where rules and forced togetherness often cause more bickering than harmony.

How to Create Your Own Community

John Novak, co-director of Ananda Village , the 35-year-old Ananda community in Nevada City , lists seven factors that help make a happy cohousing group:

1. A comfortable balance between togetherness and privacy. Too much "group-think" and "group-do" spoils the fun. Let people contribute as they feel to!

2. The biggest problem areas in a cohome are the kitchen, bathroom, and laundry. Novak warns: ADon=t share bathrooms unless it=s absolutely unavoidable!@ For several years in the early 1980s, seventeen Ananda members shared an aging summer home in Atherton, where the single bathroom and tiny kitchen with a corner sink caused continual aggravation. ("Excuuuuse me!") When renting a house to share, be sure the floor plan accommodates a free flow for living and working together.

3. Avoid rigid systems, particularly when it comes to food--and spiritual practices. The "tyranny of lists" can quickly sap all the joy out of shared living: "Please write down every single piece of food consumed, and remember sign your name!" At Villa Gioia, an extremely successful eight-unit co-house at Ananda Village, the residents contribute an equal amount for food every month, secure in the knowledge that even if one resident likes expensive cheeses, the costs will tend to to balance out over time.

4. The most important ingredient for living together is tolerance for other people's ways. If you expect everyone to do your bidding, your chances for finding happiness in a co-house will be slim or nonexistent. Diversity is freedom!

5. Establish a clear division between public and private space. People (especially children) are more inclined to share willingly when they know there are things they don=t have to share.

6. Emphasize inner bonds, and don't sweat the small stuff. Let's imagine that you're living with housemates who hold strong views on decorating. Fine! You may have to let your own preferences slide for the sake of preserving harmony. Jyotish Novak says this can be very liberating, as people begin to realize, over time, that the joys of friendship are much more rewarding than getting their own way.

7. Larger groups tend to be more successful. In a small group, when one person leaves or creates tensions, it has a bigger effect. A good size to aim for is 12-15 adults.

Do these Arules@ sound like a catechism in old-time values? A refresher course in simple living? If so, perhaps that=s because cohousing means learning to live together. And that's a skill we've pretty much neglected for the last hundred years.

Visitors Welcome

The Ananda community welcomes visitors. To arrange a tour, call the community office at (650) 941-9507.

Sidebar:

COMMUNITIES FOR INNER HEALTH

(from The Path by Swami Kriyananda)

"People today who recognize the need in society, and in themselves, for a more spiritual way of life need hardly have pointed out to them the difficulties involved in such development. For every affirmation of spiritual values, the world cries out a thousand times from all sides that opulence is the answer to all human needs. The result is spiritual confusion.

"Cooperative spiritual communities...provide a vital solution to one of the most pressing needs of our times--an opportunity for those who want to develop spiritually to do so in a supportive environment, and a dynamic example to the rest of the world that spiritual principles really work."