Ways to Engage

The Summer Stewardship Program provides an opportunity to spend an extended time at Lama during the summer months as a member of Lama Foundation’s core summer community.

We’re grateful for your interest in the Stewardship Program!

Many have experienced Lama as a place of profound transformation; a unique opportunity to explore other ways of being and to experience everything and everyone as “Teacher.” Many have left the Mountain with unforgettable experiences, new friends, and greater self-awareness. Their energetic imprints, their love remains here at Lama – at the Spring House and the Maqbara, in the Prayer Room and Dome, in Flag Mountain Studio, at building sites and in the gardens. We are happy to provide this opportunity for you to begin exploring the gifts that Lama stewardship and possibly residency can offer.

Since the late 60’s, people have come every summer to participate in Lama community life: volunteering energy, playing, experiencing and caring for the Mountain, growing, and tasting the magic and personal growth of life in spiritual community. Summer Stewards include all ages and backgrounds, families and individuals. What draws us together, year after year, is a heart-to-heart connection that deepens as we create and re-create community together. Many leave the Mountain with unforgettable experiences, new friends, and greater self-awareness. Some stay and become residents. Summer Stewards leave their energetic imprint and their love at Lama – at the Spring House and the Maqbara, in the Prayer Room and Dome, in Flag Mountain Studio, at building sites and in the gardens. We eagerly await this year’s Summer Stewards.

Stewards stay in a dedicated and beautiful campground surrounded by ponderosa pine and gamble oak. Although we hold the intention of providing accessibility, Lama is both rugged and remote and is unfortunately not accessible to individuals with some types of physical limitations. Please discuss this with a Summer Steward Guardian if you have a concern.

Tuition

The tuition for Stewardships is offered on a sliding scale of $300-500 per month or $75-125 per week based on your ability to pay. This includes all your meals, a campsite, access to showers and communal toiletries, and other needs on the mountain. Our sliding scale is there to allow those with fewer financial resources the opportunity to join the Stewardship program. We ask if you are able, to pay near the top of the scale.

Your Stewardship tuition payments go toward a lifetime tuition amount of $2,700. Once this amount has been paid, you will never need to pay Stewardship or visitor’s fees to Lama again.

If you have been accepted to the Stewardship program, you can pay for your tuition by clicking the button below.

Duration

The minimum enrollment is one month (4 weeks), but stewards may stay for any period of time beyond that, up to the entire summer.

What to Expect

As a Summer Steward you will get to…

• Immerse yourself in the rich tradition of intentional community living at Lama
• Learn to speak and listen from the heart
• Explore the intersection of spiritual practice and service 
• Experience regular community spiritual practices like meditation, Zhikr, Shabbat, and many more
• Have ample time to rest, reflect, and connect with fellow community members
• Spend time jamming in the music room with any one of our many communal instruments, or cozy up with a book from our extensive library
• Explore the 100+ acres of beautiful land Lama is situated on and the numerous trails through the surrounding Carson National Forest and Sangre de Cristo mountain range
• Learn about natural building, screenprinting, gardening, and cooking for large groups
• Enjoy delicious vegetarian meals and drink spring water from the land
• Watch the spectacle of glorious sunsets and dramatic thunderstorms from the Portal
• Sing and sweat in our woodfired sauna 

Stewards get two days off each week to go adventuring in the surrounding area, or rest and rejuvenate on the land. In addition, Stewards who stay longer than a month are encouraged to find time to take a complimentary two-day hermitage, availability permitting. One day off is granted each month specifically intended to be spent on the land (called a Sun or Moon Day). Additionally, for each month of service offered to Lama, Stewards are afforded 1 vacation day to use as they please.

Agreements

Being part of a thriving and functional community requires agreements and commitments on the part of each participant. We ask that Summer Steward participate fully in the summer curriculum, which includes:

• Being present for the 30 minute morning silent meditation, at least 5 days per week
• Attending our daily community meeting, Practice and Tuning (P&T), at least 5 days per week
• Going to Heart Club every Sunday night. This is a deep practice of authentic sharing and listening.
• And Steward Circle, once per week, which is an opportunity for fellow Stewards to meet together, share, and reflect on their experience.

Stewards contribute 30 hours of seva, or selfless-service, per week, which includes things like preparing meals, washing dishes, baking bread, doing laundry, gardening, cleaning spaces, and other various land and building projects. At the beginning of each week a fresh list of all seva opportunities is provided and Stewards sign up for tasks that they are interested in or whatever may be needed for the day.

Stewards commit to helping out with nightly community cleans following dinner at least 5 times a week. This is when the whole community comes together to help clean the kitchen after the final meal of the day. It’s often quite lively and fun.

Everyone in our community has a commitment to practice non-violence in thought, speech and action.

We ask that all members of our community invest fully in the healing of interpersonal conflict should it arise..

We are each expected to treat the land and infrastructure of Lama Foundation with respect.

Lama strives to be a substance-free community, hence we ask Stewards to refrain from using any intoxicants while on Lama land (alcohol is permitted only during weekly Shabbat ceremonies).

And finally we encourage everyone to remain in self-reflective relationship to these commitments by treating them honestly and fairly, acknowledging that we may stray from one or more of them at times, but rather than abandoning them entirely, returning and reorienting to them again and again as best as we are able. It is our intention that these commitments and each community member be held in love.

Arrival

To ensure that we can greet and orient you to the fullest extent we’re able, we ask that you plan to arrive on one of our Steward arrival dates. Dates for this year are as follows:

The Stewardship program closes on September 20th–this is the final day for Stewards to be on the land before Lama closes for the winter.

Stewardship and Residency

For those interested in the possibility of becoming a year-long resident at Lama Foundation, Stewardship is the first step. If you are considering residency, we strongly encourage you to arrive as early in the summer as you are able. This will allow you and the existing community time to become familiar with each other and gauge whether or not a yearlong commitment at Lama could be a good fit.

Please note that Stewards arriving after August 1st will not be considered for residency that year.

Visit our page on Residency for more information.