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, remain here at Lama – at the Spring House and the Dargah, 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.

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. 

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.

Opportunities Available this Summer

A school aspiring to provide for the harmonious development of the whole human being. 

This is a time of reconnecting, repairing, and remembering. We intend to simplify. We are thus regenerating our stewardship program. We are inviting a select group of members to join us in our rebirth & renewal. An intimate container for participants to add their medicine to the prayer.

FIND OUT ABOUT THIS YEAR’S PRAYER/VISION  

Container & Prerequisites

As this summer is a restorative time for our community, we are intentionally calling in stewards who are grounded, self-reliant, team-oriented, and deeply committed to seva(service). Ideally, stewards will have prior community living experience, as well as a spiritual practice they can share with the community. This position will require a certain level of flexibility as each day/week/month may offer different projects and focuses. 

We are looking for people who already feel devoted, or have the spark within them towards the commitment to remembrance of meaning, stewardship & relations to land as kin. We are calling in people with their internal compass set towards these skills and deep aspirations: forest stewardship and fire mitigation, spending lots of time in the forest, co-creating structures in the land for the earth to drink, working with plaster and learning about repairing Adobe structures, exploring the relationship and belonging to our mother earth & our relations, crafting intentional healing foods for community, understanding and embodying the importance of cleanliness and sacred space.  Some qualities that particularly are helpful to this year’s prayer are: able bodies, discipline, receptive minds, soft hearts, self motivation, ability to focus on one-two projects over a long period of time, positive mindset, not quick to judgments, purpose driven and not reliant on another to provide purpose for them, deeply interested and already committed to spiritual practice, able to care for themselves and others. 

This year, as a Summer Steward, you will get to:

• Immerse yourself in the rich tradition of intentional community living at Lama
• Practice sitting in a circle, showing up, speaking and listening from the heart
• Explore spiritual practice and service 
• Experience regular community practices, from many spiritual traditions like meditation, Zikr, and Shabbat.
• 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
• 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 

We ask that Summer Stewards participate fully in the summer container, which includes:

• Being present for the 30-minute morning silent meditation, at least 5 days per week 
• Attending our community meetings, Practice and Tuning (P&T) 
• Going to Heart Club each week. This is a deep practice of authentic sharing and listening.
• Attend Steward Circle, once per week, which provides an opportunity for fellow 
• Stewards to meet together, share, and reflect on their experience.
• Stewards commit to helping out with community cleans following lunch at least 5 times a week. This is when the whole community comes together to help clean the kitchen after a meal. It’s often quite lively and fun.
• Stewards contribute 25 hours of seva, or selfless service, per week, which may include  preparing meals, washing dishes, baking bread, doing laundry, gardening, cleaning spaces, and other various land and building projects.

Karma Yoga (selfless service)

Traditionally Lama has held a sign-up sheet ( wheel ) for Karma yoga ( seva ), this year you can expect to find yourself focusing primarily on one or two aspects of community life  in a form of organized teams. The programs will begin mid to late spring & continue into September. Students may choose to work full-time in one area of concentration, or work in two areas, devoting half a day/week to each. Students will also participate in general community needs by means of a simple wheel, or through team structure. We will ask members to devote themselves to one or two of the following areas:

Karma yoga- Foundations of community living. 

• Sacred Kitchen: mindfulness of food as healing medicine.
• Sacred Spaces:  mindfulness of La illaha Ill Allah, seeing the divine in matter & space. 
• Sacred Care: General care for lama Life. 

Each team container is an opportunity to deepen awakening consciousness, build a relationship with the practice of mindfulness, and belonging. Having a consistent clear focus allows one to drink deeply from the soul container that evolves through commitment and focus. We ask that you choose a team that fits your soul’s dharma.

Projects and devotions with the Land

Alongside the foundational aspects of lama we hope to find committed individuals to participate in..

• Forest care, fire mitigation, water stewardship. Late May-June & June- July
• Dryland farming exploration, indigenous remembrance of relation. Late May-June & June-July
• Repair- working with adobe, plaster, and natural buildings. Mid June-July & July-Aug 

Project calendar and details coming soon. Please indicate in your interview: 1. Level of interest 2. Skill and experience 3. Desire of Commitment 4. Max Duration of Stay

Individual self-fulfillment is seen to contribute to the evolution of the whole. Humans are part of the Earth, and are part of its ongoing creative evolutionary process. Towards the closing of the season, we intend to hold space for sacred crafts and prayerful arts. 

A few of the specific seva positions may include: childcare( forest school ), herbalist/ first aid, compost master, fire marshal.  Opportunities may open up in the cottage industry: flag-making and small business.

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.

Tuition

The tuition for Stewardships is offered on a sliding scale of $250-$450 a month based on your ability to pay. This fee includes all your meals, a campsite, access to showers and communal toiletries, and other needs on the mountain. We ask if you are able to please pay near the top of the scale. No member will be turned away for lack of funds. BIPOC encouraged to apply regardless of financial ability.

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