Morning Sun Mindfulness Center and Community

  • Communities

About the Communities

  • Established
  • Ecological
  • Rural

Founding year

  • 2004

What we do

Morning Sun is a mindfulness center and residential community committed to bringing a spiritual dimension to family life and society.
With 240 acres of beautiful hills, forests, and ponds in Southern New Hampshire, Morning Sun is developing residential neighborhoods, a retreat center, and an organic farm and craft center.
Intent on engaging important social and environmental issues from the stability and clarity generated by a daily mindfulness practice, Morning Sun is working to create a wide range of programs for adults, families, and children.
The MorningSun Mindfulness Center is always striving to develop new paths for mindful and compassionate living. Our programs build skills founded on each participant’s capacity to live and work from a place of peace and clarity within themselves. We strive to send program participants out into the world as inspired and stable people; capable of offering effective, fulfilling and healing action to the world.
Through an active and caring relationship to people, animals, plants and soils in the region, we are examining our actual needs and our desire for comfort, and changing our patterns of consumption, in order to develop sustainable and even regenerative livelihoods and lifestyles. When we are truly happy, we need very little, and our time and energy can go towards serving others.
All of this comes together in the unique programming that MorningSun provides bringing a spiritual dimension to the work of developing a sustainable culture for people of all ages.
Our spiritual practice is grounded in the Plum Village tradition of Buddhism, founded by Vietnamese monk and peace activist Thich Nhat Hanh. However, we are all deeply influenced by many spiritual and secular traditions and there is a place for all forms of spiritual practice at Morning Sun.

Our Mission

A socially and ecologically engaged retreat center and residential community based in the tradition of Thich Nhat Hanh, we practice living mindfully, developing and sharing our capacity to live in peaceful and harmonious relationship with ourselves, other people, organizations, and with the Earth.

  • Purpose
  • Ecological
  • Community type
  • Cohousing
  • Ecovillage
  • Spiritual Retreat Centers
  • Sustainability practices
  • Regenerative agriculture or permaculture
  • Activities
  • Property management
  • Education
  • Experiences

Commemorative dates

  • January 1, 2004
  • Started planning
  • January 1, 2009
  • Started living together
  • 11 Total members
  • Open to new members
  • Open to visitors
Total
23

How to join

Attend programs, visit a lot, get to know each other and develop compatibility. Then through a formal letter of intention, the deeper process can begin to become a residential member or steward of MorningSun, which will involve a trial stay of 6 months or longer and consensus decision. So its good to get to know everyone at least a little bit.

Basic expectations or agreements for members

Please email us to arrange a visit. The best way is to come to one of our programs. Register online.

Primary decision-making authority

  • Small Leadership Group

A few people (not elected by the broader community) make the major decisions.

Decision-making process

  • Modified Consensus

Generally seek agreement, but have backup methods when consensus isn’t reached.

Governance structure

  • Collaborative/Horizontal

Power and responsibility are shared relatively equally among members.

Economic model

  • Independent Finances

Members maintain separate personal finances with minimal sharing.

Economic scenarios for this community

  • There is a one-time fee, investment, or share purchase to join the community separate from accessing housing
  • Members need to pay fees, dues, or similar to live there on a per month or per year basis
  • There is a labor obligation
  • Members typically need to have their own job or other personal source of income to cover their expenses while living in the community?

Additional economic information

Join fee: Yes
Regular fees: Yes
Labor: Encouraged or suggested

Frequency of communal meals

  • About once a week

Dietary type

  • Vegetarian Only

Dietary restriction

  • These restrictions are throughout the community

Community activities and engagement

  • School, Educational Institute or Experience
  • Volunteer, Internship, or Apprenticeship, or WWOOF’ing
  • Neighborhood, Community Housing, or Homeowner's Association
  • Festivals, Conferences, Events

Substance use culture

  • Substance use is prohibited in the community
  • Religions
  • Buddhist

Age demographics

  • Family-focused (many children and parents)

Property status

  • Privately owned

Property owner

  • By a Land Trust, Home Owners Association, or corporation

Setting

  • Rural

Countryside locations with significant distance from urban centers.

Community type

  • Cohousing

    Private homes with shared common facilities, designed for neighborly
    interaction while maintaining independence.

  • Ecovillage

    Integrated communities designed around ecological principles with sustainable living practices.

  • Spiritual Retreat Centers

    Residential communities focused on providing space for meditation, spiritual practice, and personal growth retreats.

Sustainability approach

  • Regenerative agriculture or permaculture

Self-produced energy

  • 33 - 66%

Energy sources used

  • Photovoltaic Solar

Self-produced food

  • Up to 33%

Local, organic, or fair trade food

  • 33 - 66%
  • Land area size
    243 acres

Guest Book

Written reviews are available for plus members. Click here to upgrade.

Location

  • New Hampshire, United States

Morning Sun Mindfulness Center and Community

Needs and Offers

Offer
  • Communities with Openings
2 months ago

Community House in SE Portland Seeks Membership!

Ellis Street Community House is seeking kind, present, and engaged new housemates with experience in community living. We are currently 3 adults, one baby, and two cats living in a 6 bedroom, 3 bath house on ÂĽ acre of land near Powell Butte nature park and the Springwater Corridor bike trail. We expect to be joined by a shy and sweet 2 year old in the next few months. For us, living in community is a collaborative process, one that helps improve our quality of life. We’re able to eat great food, keep the place clean, maintain a garden, and hold a space large enough to host guests and events by working together. We have an extensive community library and art/craft material collection, as well as a great tea selection, stocked pantry, and functional kitchens ready for feast-making, canning, and fermentation dreams. We make kombucha, ginger beer, sauerkraut, bone broth, natto, and apple/pear butter on a rotating basis. With two fridges and two deep freezers we can save blueberries and blackberries we harvested from close by and get meat directly from farmers. We hold potlucks and other events like bonfires and game nights about once a month, and make a house dinner together weekly. We maintain a home free from artificial fragrances and voice-activated technology. The larger downstairs room is available for $740 per month. The smaller downstairs room will be available for $600 per month starting on September 1rst. The main kitchen is on the second floor. We also have private outdoor space for someone sleeping in their home on wheels available for $200-500 per month depending on the size of the vehicle. This would include membership in the community and use of the common spaces. Guest space is available for friends and relatives of residents – upstairs there is an office/guest room for longer visits, and the couches/pads in the common areas are available for shorter stays. The home has heating and cooling through an efficient heat pump, and we ju

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A residential project: people live here as their primary home.

Organizations

An institution, business, network, or project that isn’t a residence (e.g. a learning center, farm, or network with no one living there full-time).

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