News /Nouvelles
Dear Friends of Ekuthuleni!
Surprisingly, Ekuthuleni rolls on.
Changing.
Throwing out lots of old stuff hanging about the place, maybe a sign of change? So does this seemingly endless rainy winter: revealing leaks in my mind!
A big change : on the 5th January we held an AG for the assocation. The legal format has changed from a non profit to a self employed business.
We'll see how it flows, I somehow doubt the word business here equates with big.
The retreats for this summer will be less adventurous than the last few years,(sorry Anna), and more stay at home & sit in meditation. And nevertheless, always in the Ekuthuleni spirit of aspiring to liberation without taking ourselves too seriously!
Please find below the various retreats coming up, & see you here on the big outdoor platform
much love, Noon
It has been raining and raining, then raining again …. been pumping out the swampy greenhouse and fixing a leaking roof in the hut ….
News of the Association Ekuthuleni
The meeting on January 5th (EGM) agreed that the Association be put on hiatus as a legal entity for the next few years ( 'mise en sommeil' in French) or dissolved. The hiatus procedure turned out not to be possible and the Association has initiated the necessary administrative steps for formal dissolution.
As many of us involved in social or collective projects know, the dream of building a lasting community doesn’t always work out. As the now 15 year experiment in community creation comes to a close, doors open for the next chapter.
Ekuthuleni Centre will continue offering retreats and be run by Noon as a solo venture. The website will soon be updated to reflect this. The change in the legal framework does not change the ethos of the project. It remains a rustic, off-grid, close to nature meditation place rooted in buddhist teachings and ethics, that cares for the land along regenerative principles.
With gratitude - Miriam
Reflection By Noon
The space of practice that is Ekuthuleni is made available with a heart of practice and integrity.
All of what is here has been offered in one way or another - through, energy, time, in meditation or money. This is the spirit of dana or generosity. Through the years, people have come & meditated, some have done activity as well: all of these are offerings, all are dana.
People are unique in what is challenging to them, & even this changes from year to year for those who have returned again & again.
Coming here with a heart of acceptance opens up the potencial for fruits of practice... and...expressing needs, (especially medical dietary needs are so important), is also part of caring for ourselves & others...
Knowing when we are tipping over into consumerist habits of needing all our needs to be met instantly can be a healthy part of practice too!
There is a dance, a balance to be found between accepting the structure of the place, like "the only washing up at lunchtime" to not need to pump water too much, or on activity retreat, taking a turn to cook when we're not used to cooking, or emptying the toilets only when they're fulll …. a balance with flowing with the structure, and also allowing trust in our common sense, or compassion, like helping someone who is struggling to finish the washing up, or bringing more kindling if the firelighting seems difficult...so also trusting our own authority......to know when a walk in the hills maybe more helpful than more talking, or more meditation.
This place is offered with a sense of us all being travellers, open to the adventure... maybe you could learn how to use a saw, or a drill, chop wood, clean a chimney, do some clay walls! We are non perfectionist: this place has helped us learn this, sometimes we have too many things to do or don't really know how so just get on with things...sometimes we do things carefully & slowly, & sometimes we scramble, throwing all notions of zen attitudes to the wind because that is alive & appropriate for this moment.
It's lovely when people bring their crafts & ideas to improve things, & also are willing to do some of the non creative jobs needed.
Being at Ekuthuleni often brings attention to how we can overcome ingrained roles due to sexism & classism, by asking all to be part of domestic daily life, & offering people the chance to try things out they wouldn’t usually try....( building,cooking, inventing ) this can be challenging, & bring up feelings of not good enough, not knowing how. Within this is the possiblity to be aware of these grains of non belonging, or self critic, & work with these.
The practice of letting go of ideas of ourself & ideas of how things should be is part of how living together in this transient community can be so fertile...& then back to the meditation cushion...
Ekuthuleni and it’s teachers (including myself) depend on donations, dana to offer what we do and you by participating create what there is to offer.
It is this way of participation and generosity that really keeps the Dharma rolling, as in dharma centres all over the world!
Reflections Retreat in Berlin, December 2025
A meditator’s reflection after a retreat
When Noon started talking about Dana, openly and transparently, my spine straightened. The term was new to me, but the practice felt surprisingly aligned to how I’ve been learning to live, beyond money as an organizing force.
To illustrate how dana works differently, he first spoke of expensive, luxury retreat centers. Imagine spending $2000 for a week of silence where, each morning, you might wake to a fresh juice waiting on your private balcony table, your towels fluffed and refreshed and ready for your morning swim - wherever this retreat is - it’s warm year round and you most likely flew there to escape the European winters along with the noise. Instead, at the retreat I attended, the costs were kept as low as possible to keep it accessible.
There was no staff. Each participant had a daily task, responsibilities to keep the whole space running. The facilitators were among us, joining in the meditations when they had a free moment to do so. We shared bunk bed rooms, there was no pool; it was Eastern Germany in December, it was cold.