The Abode of the Message is a Universal Sufi community founded in 1975 by Vilayat Inayat Khan. The Abode is the central residential community of the Inayati order, a conference and retreat center, and a center of esoteric study. The Abode is located in the eastern heights of the Taconic Mountains in New Lebanon, New York, and housed in historic Shaker buildings built between 1834 and 1870. The described intent of the Abode as a community is to "collectively embody spiritual awakening," through "mutual commitment to practicing...the Sufi teachings," "shared devotion to the ideals of Love, Harmony and Beauty, and to the specific transformational work whereby these ideals are progressively realized," for "mutual dedication and visionary collaboration."
History of the site
Most of the Abode's Main Campus structures were built in the mid-19th century by the Mount Lebanon Shaker Village community as housing and workspaces for their South Family group. Formally established in 1787, the New Lebanon Shaker Society was the second major Shaker society formed in the recently created United States of America. The society established its home at the Mount Lebanon Shaker Village, which became the primary Shaker spiritual residential community. The Mount Lebanon Shaker Village was organized into Family groups living in clustered buildings sited around the property. Three main groups of buildings survive as of 2010. The Church Family property is occupied by the Darrow School, a private residential high school. The North Family property is occupied and being restored by the Shaker Museum, Mount Lebanon. The South Family property was owned by the Shaker Village Work Group until it was purchased in 1975 for the Sufi Order International, which established it as a new residential spiritual community—The Abode of the Message.
Community
Today the Abode continues as one of the few enduring intentional communities among those that arose by the thousands from North America's new spirituality movement and the 1960s counterculture. The Abode community meets for common meals in the Rezak Hall dining room, also used for that purpose by the South Family Shakers. There are also regular classes and events associated with the activities of the Sufi Order International. The Abode’s revenue sources include fees from residents, leasing space on the Main Campus to the Flying Deer Nature Center, operating a meditation Retreat Center, and event facility rentals of meeting and housing space on the Main Campus and the Mountain Camp. The Abode community in 2010 included approximately 40 adults and 10 to 12 children living in houses along Chair Factory Road and apartments in Main Campus buildings, as well as off-site members living in the area. In 2016, the residential population was approximately 24 adults and 6 children. The population expands with temporary staff and students during the summer. The Abode’s extended community includes past residents and the many Inayati Order members who regularly or occasionally attend events at the Abode, numbering several thousand.
Activities
The Abode Programs Office administers event scheduling and oversees operations and services for the Abode. The Office operates the Main Campus and the Mountain Camp, and other Abode facilities that are available to rent for public events. Overnight accommodations are also available for individual visitors staying overnight. The Office manages programs for volunteer interns, work-exchange residents, as well as Khidmat, the Abode’s combined work service-study program. The Abode Retreat Center arranges individual, spiritual meditative retreats of three to forty days, either in a private retreat hut or cabin, or a room in the Meditation Hall. A certified retreat guide meets at least once daily with the retreatant to suggest the day's schedule of practices and to offer feedback on the retreatant's experience. The Inayati Order Secretariat is the headquarters for The Inayati Order, which founded the Abode of the Message. Suluk Academy is a school of esoteric studies that holds classes at the Abode as part of a program of two-year courses of intensive study, training and practice in the Sufi path. The Abode Farm includes of organic vegetable gardens with 35 landscaped beds, a greenhouse, and flower and herb gardens. Some additional activities based at the Abode are listed below under External links.
Facilities
The Abode occupies approximately of forest that spans the border between New York State and Massachusetts. Most of its shared community facilities are grouped within two areas, the Main Campus and the Mountain Conference Center.
Main Campus
The Main Campus is a cluster of buildings at the south end of Darrow Road, most of which are the original South Family structures of the Mount Lebanon Shaker Village, demonstrating "preservation through use." Many of the buildings are named for spiritual qualities that Sufis value, drawn from the 99 Names of God in Islam. Rezak was the South Family's main communal building and now contains the library and community dining room. Vakil houses the Abode Programs Office, and served as the Shaker chair-caning shop. Mughni is the former Shaker trustees building. Fatah holds men's and women's dorms. Recently renovated, the Shaker Barn was built in 1850 as a horse barn, but now hosts offices and art studios. The Meditation Hall was built in 1975 by Abode community members, and is used as a sacred space used for public events. Three personal retreat huts are located in the Retreat Hut Field on the hill behind the Meditation Hall, and several retreat huts and cabins are situated beside a stream south of the Shaker Barn.
Mountain Camp
The Mountain Camp hosts large group events for the Abode and The Inayati Order as well as being available as a woodland conference center. The Mountain Camp comprises dining pavilions and meeting spaces, along with shared bathroom and shower facilities for those staying on the mountain overnight. Meals are prepared in the distinctive octagonal Kitchen building. Housing on the mountain is provided by two shared cabins that hold a total of twenty two-person rooms, sixteen private huts that are simple, rustic retreat huts without electricity, and extensive space for tenting along the mountain's walking paths.
