Want to join a co-living community? I'm not sure if posting this here is appropriate...but I'm going to err towards using this space as I would Facebook, only for non-promotional things (aka only things I want to post instead of things my company wants me to ;). Admins, take it down if not welcome!

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Hi friends. Would you like to live with me?

I and my friends are starting a big new endeavor. For the past several years, 7 of us have lived together on a lovely piece of land in Bastrop, Texas (just outside of Austin). Now - joined by a few friends from California - we are moving en mass to Asheville, North Carolina. We've bought 28 acres of land in Marshall NC, just outside of Asheville, and we plan to build a neighborhood.

THE REASONING:
ONE: Texas is hot, and we like working outside.
TWO: Austin has gotten big, and we're homebodies.
THREE: Asheville is awesome.

We are looking for others who would like to join our project.
Primarily, we’re searching for landmates.
But we’re also open to investors.

We have space for 6 more households to join the project. We're also interested in extended community members who want to support, with the benefit of visiting, attending events, and helping get the project off the ground.

Here's what it looks like:

The land comprises two hills and a valley. It has a stream and springs. It's 10 minutes from Marshall, 30 from Asheville, and feels very private and peaceful.

Each hill is divided into plots for residents. 6 plots are still available, each of about 1 acre in size. 10 acres will be retained for farm, orchard, and green space. We also plan to install a community / event space in the valley.

We have pending contracts for grading, roadwork, well, electric, fiber internet, and soil testing. This work will start as soon as county permitting is complete (likely Dec/Jan), with an estimated completion of spring to summer 2026. Then home construction can begin. If all goes well, move in can begin by fall or winter of next year.

About the residents: we are a group of therapists, mediators, entrepreneurs, programmers, producers, artists, and farmers. We are multigenerational (no kids yet, but we have the grandparents if you bring them!), multicultural, and multifunctional. We are not the hippies your mother warned you about...well, we are a bit, but we also like running companies and getting shit done. 

We envision something that is partway between cohousing and a neighborhood, where everyone pitches in for the projects they care about and we keep meetings to a minimum. We envision optional weekly dinners and recommended bi-yearly retreats. We envision co-working, co-tending the garden, inviting each other on walks, and introvert time alone in our homes. We are high contribution, low ideology.

If this sounds up your alley, message me and I'll send you more information. Then, if it's a fit, we can set up a call.

Will you be my neighbor? 🙂

More about the project: https://tinyurl.com/wncllc

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P.S. If you want a ready-built community, we will also be selling our land in Austin-area, which has several buildings and a farm on it already. LMK if interested or you know people who are.

Micro-transformation: unitive practice from Russian Orthodoxy ☦︎. Fun fact: Ceaselessly, inwardly repeating the Jesus prayer “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me” from your heart has consistently led to stabilized unitive state-stages (Theosis) for more than a millennium. 

This practice is called the Hesychasm. It’s been officially recognized by the Eastern Orthodox Church since the fourth century. I’ve been playing with it as much as possible for the past few weeks, and I am loving it. It is very powerful. 

Then! In the early 1900s, hesychast monks on Mt. Athos took it a step further. Their results were so radical that in 1913, the Russian government sent troops to stop them! 

What was the shift? Their actions were the same—they aimed to engage the Jesus Prayer every moment of every day. But my (very limited) understanding is that their attitude reframed prayer from a practice that petitions for union with God one day that isn’t now — to an expression of divine essence (nonduality) right now. Prayer is not a behavior you do; prayer is God happening. Faithfully seeking IS participation as found-ness.

What’s so beautiful is that seeing it this way resolves the seeming duality between “no where to get, no one to get enlightened” and “but I’m not yet aware that I’m enlightened.” That thought itself expresses the divine. As does practicing.* We can see this parallel in every mystical tradition I’ve studied.

Variations on Imiaslavie 

Here’s a way I’ve been playing with this practice.

I shift the “me” that I’m asking mercy for (from my heart), when I say “have mercy on me” to be wildly more inclusive than my particular body-mind-character-Jordanness. Eg:

• “me” including whoever I’m judging or mad at
• “me” including whoever I’m speaking with or looking at
• “me” including all of humanity, or a people, or a country, or a world leader (especially one I judge)
• “me” including all plants, animals, and living creatures—a bug in my house for example

I think the “including” part is really important. I’m not praying for these beings as separate from me, but rather as extensions of me, or expansions of who I identify with. If this doesn’t make sense, a place you might want to start is with your family, especially if you’re a parent of young children.

I want to honor the lineage and centuries of practice by noting that I may be totally butchering the practice and theology. Although I believe it reflects the view of Gregory Palamas, a 13th century saint famous for defending hesychast spirituality, I haven’t run this by any practitioners or been advised by anyone else doing this practice. Nevertheless I share it because I believe it’ll be asymmetrically positive, and, especially with this caveat, I believe in the value of our civilization experimenting and adapting practices from a variety of ancient and time-prove lineages that are good for all.

(h/t Sean Esbjörn-Hargens for turning me onto this practice),  #TTT 

Current Session "instructions" (Feb 26): Converse, and see if nudges happen. nudges 

We launched a system where the AI bots can automatically detect intervention points. We need you to make a bunch of comments and new posts to see if they'll engage. So this week we're asking you to engage a bunch, if you can!

It's a little rudimentary at the moment so sometimes you'll get multiple bots responding on multiple posts. We'd love your feedback on which ones you like, don't, when it seemed to miss the spot, anything else you notice. 

Thanks and love yall

J (and the UpTrust team)
p.s. this week I'm at an investor meeting so dara will be with you

# [Optional Zoom](https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86795216050?pwd=TllxSzYrTFFXTW5LRmg3WUQrT04vdz09) with Jordan and Dara at least, for faces, questions, help, etc: