“You don’t have to live at a monastery to do deep practice.”
Milo (North) Burn and Zev Benjamin are starting a 3-month communal living experiment for 4–8 wonderful souls, October 1, 2025 through January 6, 2026. We imagine a home that uses the foundation of deep spiritual practice to harmoniously live together, support each other in our personal lives, and explore the non-duality of the sacred and life energy.
We have been deeply inspired by monastic life, but this is not a traditional or formal practice period. Rather, it is an unfolding experiment in authentic and joyful living in the world, grounded in loving awareness rather than specific practices. moral precepts, or tradition. We will not have an abiding teacher and will instead be relating as peers. We will find our way.
We're looking for people who are excited about taking everything as practice. We will have a light schedule to ground our minds and bodies, practice agreements to ensure a strong group field, and explicit intentions woven into our days to support living our best lives. We intend to host workshops, day-long sittings, dinner parties, spontaneous play, medicine ceremonies, and wild nights imbued with intention. And all of this while maintaining a stable foundation for the residents. Our intention is for residents of Living Mandala to feel deeply seen, understood, and supported towards their flourishing.
Tucked at the end of a secluded street in the peaceful Panoramic Hills, our 5-bedroom, 3.5 bathroom house with an additional office offers a rare blend of privacy, nature, and connection. It’s adjacent to a serene Vajrayana Buddhist temple, with birdsong and the gentle buzz of bees filling the air. It is walking distance to Claremont Canyon & Clark Kerr Fire Trail and there is quick access to College Avenue cafés, markets, and amenities. The house includes a 6-foot fire table, hot tub, and a private forest path.
We intend to roughly split the cost of rent, food, and other expenses unless there is a special financial need for someone who is otherwise a perfect fit. Rent is a sliding scale of $1000–$3000, depending on means.
If you would like to help fund this project or know people who might, please reach out.
All residents will contribute to shared work, with two of our core residents taking up larger work-trade roles managing the kitchen and overseeing household operations to promote ease and joy.
We intend to live and play together with shared meals, practices, and activities, with generous room for individual pursuits outside the group container.
From our experiences of monastic life, we have found a daily schedule to be incredibly supportive for establishing individual and group rhythms and providing an element of the strong foundation that allows us to live our lives more fully. Given that this is a housing experiment rather than a monastery, the schedule will be relatively light and flexible. It will also be subject to change given the needs of the group. We’ll start with something like: