Yasodhara Ashram is deeply committed to participating in sustainable environmental practices. Sustainable environmental action is an important part of our social responsibility and ecological integrity is essential to our practice of yoga.
The Yasodhara Ashram Land Ethic states our commitment “to honour the sacred unity of life and to live in relationship with the natural world through this land, in a spirit of reverence and joy.”
To do this, we are actively engaged in responding to the reality of climate change—through research and development focusing on conservation, mitigation and renewable energy generation. We want to ensure that the Ashram is environmentally resilient and an inspiration to others for generations to come.
Conservation
Ways the Ashram is responding to climate change include:
- our forest restoration and FireSmart work
- water management
- climate-smart buildings such as the Temple of Light
- working with what we have by retrofitting guest and other buildings
Mitigation of Carbon Emissions
Ways the Ashram maintains a low carbon footprint include:
- seasonal menu planning
- local food procurement
- low impact housekeeping
- geothermal heating and cooling systems
- reducing guest travel emissions via on-line offerings
- electric and other vehicle usage
Timeless Books, our publishing house, prints on 100% PCW paper at a carbon neutral facility and our Ashram Giftstore stocks items from companies committed to sustainable, humane practices.
Renewable Energy Generation
The Ashram operates three geothermal heating and cooling systems, solar tubes and hot water installations, a photovoltaic solar installation and air source heat pumps. Our consultants in the renewable energy field keep the Ashram up-to-date with the changes in technology and approaches to climate change.
The enthusiasm and encouragement of our guests, residents and community inspire us to continue onwards with these efforts. Generosity expressed through donations help us continue to plan and respond to climate change for generations to come.
Garden - Kitchen - Preserving
At the Ashram, we nurture over 2.5 acres of organic gardens and orchards. The garden is a place of beauty, nourishment, devotion and learning.
The wealth of fertile soil, flowers, bees, trees, birds, vegetables and fruit is a direct result the loving attention and hard work of many garden Karma Yogis over the years. Many look forward to spending their summers in the garden, picking fruits and vegetables, weeding and caring for the earth. Everyone who works in the garden or has spent time at the Ashram has come away with a greater appreciation of local, seasonal and organic.
Our garden produces 20% of the food we eat, 11,000 meals out of the 55,000 we serve annually. Ashram menus are based on what is available seasonally from our garden. We also winter store, freeze, dry and preserve as much produce as possible.
In an aim to reduce our carbon footprint and support the local economy, the Ashram purchases vegetables, fruit, honey, eggs and cheese from local farmers and orchardists. We support many local growers through CSA programs (community supported agriculture) and work trade.
The kitchen-garden team keeps updated on food sustainability initiatives that are happening locally and globally. We are actively engaged in seed saving, companion planting, composting and permaculture principles. Our guiding ideal behind the garden is a reverence for life.
Land Stewardship
The land comprising Yasodhara Ashram is a sacred trust, both a thriving natural community and a flourishing spiritual community. The yogic teachings offered at Yasodhara aim to develop awareness and bring quality to the lives of all who come here.
This includes developing an expanded awareness of our relationship to the land, and bringing our highest ideals into that relationship.
Set on 115 acres of land in the Purcell mountain range of southwestern BC, Yasodhara Ashram is located on the shores of Kootenay Lake. Kootenay Lake is a widening of the Kootenay River and is one of the largest natural lakes in British Columbia. Wildlife is abundant. Bear, deer, elk, moose, coyote, cougar, streams, wildflowers, mosses, mature and old-growth forests are just some of the diverse living elements of this land.
As a community, we are asking, How can this land serve the teachings that were the purpose for the Ashram coming here? How can the land itself be served?
While we garden organically and function as a carbon neutral community, we are also placing importance on increasing our conscious knowledge of the land we occupy. We are currently creating a detailed land-map and recording all flora and fauna that we share our home with.
In our role as caretakers for this land, the Ashram is committed to exploring questions such as: How can we contribute to biodiversity protection? Minimize destruction and fragmentation of our forests? Protect and preserve healthy soils? Reduce water use at the Ashram and prepare for climate change?
We look to offer a viable model of living harmoniously with the land, demonstrating how humans can live with the natural environment in ways that support all parts of the system: people, plants, animals, water, soil and air.
Working Together: Resilience for Now and Future Generations
Yasodhara Ashram Land Ethic
Yasodhara Ashram is comprised of 115 acres on the east shore of Kootenay Lake, in the interior rain forest of the Purcell Mountains of British Columbia.
Our Commitment
We commit to honour the sacred unity of life and to live in relationship with the natural world through this land, in a spirit of reverence and joy.
The Yasodhara Context
The land of Yasodhara Ashram is a sacred trust. The teachings offered here develop awareness and bring quality to life, which includes expanding awareness of our relationship with the land and bringing quality into that relationship.
Purpose of Our Land Ethic
Our land ethic is a reminder that:
- we agree to take responsibility for our actions on the basis of consciously chosen guidelines
- we recognize our membership in a community of interdependent parts, human and non-human
- we acknowledge the intrinsic right to life and being of all components of that community
- we recognize the earth as a complex interacting living ecosystem whose inhabitants co-evolve together in a web of relationships
What We Offer
- A viable model: Healthy land becomes a good model in the same way that healthy people living purposeful lives model a different way to live.
- Connection: We want to demonstrate how humans can live with the natural environment in ways that support all parts of the system—people, plants, animals, water, soil and air.
- Happy Listening: We offer the opportunity to commune and to listen deeply, to hear the still small voice within and the subtle voice of the natural world.
- Wholeness: In tending to the work and to our relationship with the land in reverence and gratitude, we serve the essential unity and sacredness of all life.
Ideals that Guide Our Action
- Reverence/Respect for life; Ahimsa – non-injury.We honour the intrinsic right to life of all beings and respect the integrity of all aspects of the land community—the animals, water, soil and air.
- Service – Karma Yoga – Yasodhara Ashram is a Karma Yoga ashram where the efforts of our work are based on giving our best without consideration of reward. We are exploring how our service to the land can expand, while also recognizing how the land serves us.
- Gratitude – We understand our role as stewards of these teachings and of the land. We are grateful for the privilege of living in this beautiful refuge.
Ideals in Action
- Learning: We recognize that our relationship with the land is a process of learning. We want to keep making wiser decisions. We are committed to reflecting on our actions, learning from them and engaging in a cycle of action-reflection-response.
- Relationship: Knowledge and understanding of the land is acquired through a long period of observation and interaction. We are committed to striving toward a more mature understanding.
- Heart and Mind: We acknowledge the need for knowledge based on experience and understanding of both heart and mind. The practices offered at the Ashram contribute to bringing awareness and quality to life, which includes building our capacity to respond to the land with both intuition and reason.
- Choices: Putting ideals into action requires us to make conscious choices to:
- Use what supports health of land, air, water, soil; avoid what does not. We garden organically using agriculture that is sustainable for the ecosystem and for human communities. We use cleaning products that are ecologically sustainable.
- Reduce waste. We compost, recycle, re-use and restrain from consuming products with excess packaging. We hold to an ideal of zero waste and work towards this.
- Practice energy sustainability. The Ashram is now certified carbon neutral! We are working toward zero net use by replacing fossil fuel vehicles with electric ones and seeking ways to supplement energy use with wind, turbine and other sustainable sources. Geothermal and solar energy are well established.
- Education: We create and offer ongoing programs that educate others in the power of choice. Through active involvement, participants also experience how sustainable practices can be applied and lived.