It´s been a while, but I am back, a little earlier than planned. I stayed in Figueira, a spiritual center in the South of Brazil, for eight days. I originally planned two weeks, but I thought it would be stupid not to visit Mariana, here in Belo Horizonte, so I cut my stay a bit short. Moreover, I am also visiting another friend in another city, Riberao Preto, and give a talk for his local vegetarian group, tomorrow.

It is hard to give an idea of what Figueira is like, but it is surely a wonderful and special place, and I am almost hesitant to say anything about it. I will limit myself to a short description. Whoever wants to know more can ask me.
Figueira is a community of some 70 people, plus a few hundred short or long time visitors. The founder is Trigueirinho, a simple enough living and looking guy, who is without a doubt genuine, and very serious about what he is doing. He is the author of more than 70 spiritual books, and has a very interesting personal history, which I will not divulge here
The aim of a stay, or life, at Figueira is to work on one´s spiritual progress, in an environment of voluntary simplicity, serenity, far from the world and close to wonderful nature. Indeed, the scenery here is some of the most beautiful I have ever seen, mainly because of the incredibly beautiful sunlight, and wonderful skies.
People work the whole day (and the day starts at 5.45 and ends around 9.30), but the manual work they do is considered to be at the same time internal, spiritual work, wether it is cleaning dishes or working the land. Everything is done with great devotion, concentration and inner silence, and with a lot of order, almost bordering on the neurotic, to say it a bit disrespectfully.
I mainly worked together with a Dutch 55 year old guy, Paul, who has been living in Figueira, without leaving it, for 13 years - a wonderful person. I worked in the wood, cleaned toilets, took care of trash and compost, watered plants, loaded and unloaded firewood on trucks, dug holes, washed dishes, helped bake 250 breads from 4 am in the morning...
Apart from the work, there is opportunity for rest, relaxation, meditation and study. Three times in the week there is a so called ´sharing´ with Trigueirinho, during which he answers questions from the audience. There is also singing, other lectures (most of the time at 6 am). One of the best memories was the Figeira choir, which sings heavenly music once a month.

I guess what brought me to this community was to find an answer to the question wether other ways of living are possible. Ways of living that are more loving, more useful, more caring... Perhaps the important thing is not so much to find a better world, but to find people who believe in working towards that aim. In Figueira I certainly found that.
However, certainly at this stage in my life, there is no way i could live there. I would still miss too many things. The main thing, I guess, would be personal relationships, either friendships or romantic ones. These are not encouraged in the centre. Also, I would need to do mentally challenging work, rather than just manual labour, which, I found out, I don´t like much.

Some of the most wonderful things about this community:
One, it is entirely free. You can stay there (if your candidature is approved) for free (of course you have to work), and all the work done there (e.g. developing natural medicines and helping people) is done without cost. The place is huge, with a lot of buildings, beautifully designed, all with donations!
Two, the community is entirely vegan and organic, and their attitude towards animals is the most beautiful I have ever seen. The community is not about animal rights or whatever, but animals are considered to be like humans, and the task of humans is to help them. It is hard to express how this feels over there, but it is wonderful. It even looks like the birds are less afraid of people there.

These words don´t do much to convey the atmosphere, aims and organisation of the place, but like I said, I gladly tell about it to whoever would like to hear more.