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In its twenty-year history, Ananda Seattle has weathered many of the challenges typically faced by intentional groups that choose to create their own space in the world, apart from the values and expectations of mainstream culture. As such, Ananda has become a model for those who seek a similar path to personal fulfillment and mutual responsibility. Dedicated to such values as service, inner peace, cooperative living and higher consciousness, Ananda is now widely recognized as one of the most successful such communities in the world. Yet Ananda’s beginnings in Seattle were humble. In 1982, recalls founding member David Betts, "several of us rented adjacent homes in a cul-de-sac just off of 65th Street, near the former PCC in Ravenna. Back then, we met on Friday nights in a large basement room for group meditation and chanting (spiritual singing). About 4-6 times a year, we’d invite Ananda teachers and ministers from California to lead programs around Seattle, and even a couple of retreats at Doe Bay on Orcas Island." From the start, there were challenges – among them, creating structure in the budding community. "Leadership in such a setting was something new to us," Betts explains. "There was a tendency to fall back on hierarchical patterns rather than the cooperative spirit Swami Kriyananda offered us. We also had to clarify whether we were spiritually eclectic as a group or committed to being part of Ananda." Yet just a year later, in 1983, Ananda was already expanding. Suzanne Betts remembers the move to Wallingford Avenue, near Greenlake, where "we had weekly meditation classes, yoga postures, and Sunday evening meditation and dessert potluck. Our ad hoc community of regular attendees was so close knit that when David and I decided to move to Ananda Village in California, another couple moved right into our rental home (the ‘Center’ of operations), and the Ananda Seattle group just continued right on!" The next major turning point came in the mid-80s, says Ananda minister and teacher Nivritti (Cathy) Steenstra. "That was when a bunch of us returned, inspired and refreshed, from our annual retreat to Ananda in California. We were determined to raise the bar of our energy and service level in the Seattle area. We wanted to get serious about establishing an ashram where some of us could live together to deepen our spiritual practices, so we asked Swami Kriyanada to send us a minister from California. "Instead of sending us one, he sent us four – two couples! He clearly knew just how much commitment and energy the new venture would take. But at the time, we took a deep breath (because we had committed to support them while they were here). We rented a house on 65th; then, after some searching, we found a public space for the teaching center on Aurora, not far from Green Lake." It was a leap of faith for the small, still struggling group. And it paid off – "though not without its challenges," says Steenstra. "In those first years, we all worked very hard. For one or two years, we had a food booth at the Whole Life Expo at Seattle Center. We also had our annual auction, which was very successful. But meeting the expenses (wasn’t easy), even though the ministers received little more than room and board. Our faith was tested around the first of each month, if you know what I mean!" But the community was still committed to growth. Carole Bartoo, manager of the Ananda Community property in Lynnwood, explains how "around 1990, we felt it was time to create a community based on the co-owned apartment complex model that other Ananda groups had developed. (Previously, we had) rented a large house (where) about a dozen of us lived together. There was much to learn about how to get along with one another! We had to learn how to balance privacy with time together. There were times for fun, for tears, for meditation, and for service. Although we were different from each other in many ways, each of us was trying to tune into God’s will. It was very inspiring." Was the group ready for this next step? "Well, says Bartoo, "let’s say we took a big bite! After two years, many of us pooled our funds (some by selling their homes) and purchased a 32-unit apartment complex near I-5 and I-405. The sellers were so generous that they threw in the ‘deferred maintenance’ for nothing! (In other words, the place was a ‘fixer-upper.’) Three of our members had a construction company, and they, with volunteer help from friends, members and residents, made substantial improvements to the units. "But it was very costly. Over time, the strain of the debt incurred by the initial improvement costs took its toll. Things were looking grim by late 1995 and early 1996. With but a few months’ cash reserves left, we prayed and chanted as we calmly invited the local Ananda Sangha to invest in the ideals of spiritual community. Then, one by one, friends came forward to help. It was an almost miraculous turnaround." Just a few years earlier, the community had decided to expand in another important way. In 1989 Ananda opened East West Bookshop, arguably the community’s most visible venture in the Seattle area. Recalls Steenstra, "We had a deep desire to serve together as devotees and to serve others spiritually. Ananda in California had the first East West Bookshop in Menlo Park. Since, at that time, there were few places like East West, I thought, why not start an East West in Seattle? With some funds I had and some we borrowed, and with the help and encouragement of Ananda friends both far and near, we opened our doors in 1989 in the little commercial center at the southwest corner of 65th and Roosevelt." It was the perfect idea at the perfect time. As the store’s success grew, it moved twice – once in 1992 and again in 2000 – though it has remained within a block of its original location. As both a sustaining focus for the local Ananda community and a venue for spiritual service to the larger Seattle-area culture, the popular metaphysical center has been an unqualified success. East West’s current manager, Susan McGinnis, reflects on the evolution of Ananda Seattle’s public role: "Back in the 80s, our classes and other activities were pretty low-key. Being new to it ourselves, we were more inwardly focused. As we matured spiritually, we began to see the importance to our own spiritual growth of serving others. In this respect, establishing East West Bookshop was a turning point for us personally and in bringing Ananda to the attention of thousands. By sharing spiritual traditions from all over the world, customers got to know us and trust us, and to think of the store as their own. Becoming friends, and seeing us making the effort to bring spiritual principles to work, it was natural for many to want to learn more about our specific spiritual practices. "It hasn’t hurt, either, that yoga and meditation have swept the nation in the last ten years. The New Thought and yoga-practicing public have also matured and have come to appreciate Ananda’s down-to-earth idealism. Now we are finding an increasingly broader interest as we reach out to connect with people at community events, health fairs and even in business." Ananda’s role in the larger Seattle community continues to expand. Currently, plans to build a church in the Bothell area are being developed. Padma McGilloway, one of Ananda’s local directors, describes this latest effort: "It started with a generous donation of stock in 1999 from one of the Ananda families here in Seattle, with the hope that we could build our own church. The search for property began in Seattle, mostly north of the ship canal. But it was soon obvious that affordable land was not to be found in the city limits. By happy coincidence, both our (Lynnwood) Community and tracts of available land were further north." The group’s first effort to identify a site was disappointing. "We were offered a learning experience," McGilloway explains. "Early in our search, we had secured a temporary hold on five acres on a residential arterial street in the tiny ‘bedroom’ town of Brier. At first, we were encouraged because everyone we met there seemed friendly and open to our proposal. But once public hearings commenced, the atmosphere changed. In month after month of hearings, a small but vocal group expressed irrational fears and suspicions, while we offered obvious solutions to any reasonable and legitimate concerns. Finally, an official told us privately that although we technically met the criteria for permission, we could expect years of legal wrangling. "But the issue for us wasn’t that there was opposition or obstacles. Instead, it was a spiritual question: How to know whether the intensity of the opposition was a sign that we should withdraw from the project, or whether it was a Divine test of our commitment? In the end, however, we took the apparent certainty of the need to initiate lawsuits as our sign to let the property go. This is not our way. We learned a lot and are grateful!" McGilloway says Ananda is "much happier with the location and characteristics of the Bothell site that we ended up purchasing last year. Swami Kriyananda is coming this summer both to help us launch the first building phase and to celebrate our twenty-year anniversary here in Seattle. While the church (mandir) that we plan to build is actually quite modest in size, its design is beautiful and inspiring. More than that, its significance is that it offers us the opportunity to share with others, in gratitude, the spiritual blessing we’ve received." Ananda director Terry McGilloway sums up that blessing, and the corresponding mission of service, in this way: "On the surface, Ananda might look like ‘that yoga center on Roosevelt’ or ‘a place that teaches the raja and kriya yoga of Paramhansa Yogananda’ or ‘that spiritual community in Lynnwood’ or ‘the people who run East West Bookshop.’ Ananda is all of these things and more. The spirit that illuminates these forms is affirmed in the name Ananda, which means joy – the joy of our higher Self." |
This year, Seattle’s
Ananda community celebrates its twentieth year in the Emerald
City. One of six such communities throughout the United States
and Europe, Ananda Seattle is dedicated to the fulfillment of
Yogananda’s vision of "self-sustaining world-brotherhood
colonies for plain living and high thinking." Founded in
1968 by Swami Kriyananda (J. Donald Walters, a disciple of Paramhansa
Yogananda), Ananda communities are home to more than 800 spiritual
seekers worldwide.