Ensō Verde: Considering a Zen Inspired Retirement Community
Yesterday, Jan & I attended one of the inaugural orientation sessions for Ensō Verde in Simi Valley.
And we are excited. Beyond excited. We think we may have seen our future…
We have been exploring the possibilities for Continuing Care Residential Communities, increasingly called Life Plan communities for the past several years.
Over the past thirty or so years Jan & I have been of assistance to my mother and my auntie. Auntie lived with us for almost a quarter of a century. And now we’re spending four nights a week at Jan’s mom’s, and almost certainly will move in with her within a year. Both my mother and auntie were able to die at home. Our hope is the same for Jan’s mom.
And. We’re acutely aware that there is no one behind us to do what we’ve been able to do for them.
With that realization some time ago I launched on a grand tour of retirement possibilities. We explored mobile home parks (can be a great idea, although generally it might be wise to look at resident owned parks), we looked at co-housing, we even considered some international possibilities. Shove came to push we realized what would be best for us is Life Plan. One buys in, think the price of a house, and then there’s a monthly fee. These rates vary quite a bit depending on accommodations and geography. We found one we can afford and could genuinely enjoy living in, in North Carolina and another in Ohio. We found another in New Mexico and one in Washington State that maybe we could afford, but it would be tight.
But the one that I’ve thought most about for the longest time was a collaboration between the San Francisco Zen Center and Kendal, a Quaker rooted nonprofit that starts up and manages Life Plan communities. A dream community for me. Ensō Village is in Healdsburg, about an hour and a half north of San Francisco. It is nearly fully enrolled, and will actually open later this year.
The vision for Ensō is meeting a need for a significant segment of the aging population that up until now has not been met. Ensō is a Zen image, a circle. Sometimes closed. Often made with a brush where the ends don’t quite meet, or slightly overlaps. It speaks to the grand unity, and for the connections between life and death. A perfect image for a conscious retirement community.
“Zen Inspired” is the shorthand for the vision.
And Zen is the direct inspiration. But the broader intention is meeting that part of our aging population that has been informed by the spiritual revolutions beginning in the middle of the twentieth century. Ensō is aimed at serving the spiritually aligned and especially meditators. People whose spirituality is rooted in practices of presence. Buddhists, Christians, Jews, Muslims, the earth-centered. People who’ve never found a particular religion, but are called to a sense of the sacred in life. In short, it is aimed at the spiritually curious; people who move in those circles whatever formal affiliations they may or may not have.
This impulse often has consequences. Contemplation often leads to action. This has been a feature of my life. So, for many of us a need to serve in some way follows like a kiss and a hug. Perhaps engaging in politics, perhaps in other projects. Small and large. The idea is to be among people who see connections and want to be of some use in tangible ways for as long as possible. Without, of course, any hard requirements. One way or another. Old is, after all, old. And part of the deal is to be done with the things one feels done with.
That crowd. My people.
The initial impulse was to serve Zen, and Insight, and Vajrayana practitioners. But the cohort for this really is much larger. “Meeting Quakers” are obvious fellow travelers. Christians and Jews who have embraced contemplative practices as part of their lives are a significant part of this cohort, as well. Many Yoga practitioners embrace the spiritual aspects of that tradition, and they could easily fit. I believe the majority of Unitarian Universalists would find this a very attractive option.
Actually with “Zen inspired” at the beginning, the possibilities are expansive and inclusive. And absolutely, those who have not been able to devote themselves to the practices of contemplation, but who have found inspiration in the writings of contemplatives of the world’s faiths.
Now. A harsh fact. Life Plan is expensive. Period. The price of a house and a monthly fee. It does not, and cannot serve everyone. I am glad there are people thinking about these things. And there are lots of experiments and small scale gatherings. Life Plan assumes a solid middle class financial base. That house and that income stream.
However, Ensō Village reserved spaces for twenty senior Zen Center teachers, priests and householders. The Zen Center picking up the cost for their continuing care. For Ensō they become a spiritual core in a non-sectarian, but contemplative friendly environment. I see this sub set of the community as a spiritual leaven in the larger retirement community. And it means there is a place for at least some who’ve given a significant part of their lives to the spiritual quest. In this case people who’ve come to be seen as senior members of that crowd, teachers of the contemplative ways. A few.
I watched from afar and wished there were something like that, but maybe a little broader based than the San Francisco Zen Center focus. Lovely people at SFZC. Some of my dearest beloveds are members and practitioners within that community. But we are in Los Angeles where we have extended family and Jan’s and my Zen is related to theirs, but in a different lineage and with somewhat different focus.
And so we continued to look.
Then a while back we were informed that there was going to be a second Ensō. It would be near Los Angeles. And, for me especially interesting was that they want a similar leaven of “senior meditation teachers.” But this time from other Zen, and even other meditation disciplines. Think insight. Think yoga as a meditation discipline. Think Tibetan practices. The reserved spaces, those twenty units, would be partially supported by the community.
Taken together, the intention is to create something kind of wonderful.
Pricing for the community has not yet been worked out. They expect to announce all that by the beginning of 2024. At the latest. Ensō Verde is accepting refundable deposits for those interested in the larger community right now. Senior meditation teachers who hope for the underwritten slots will be invited to fill out an application form. The document has not yet been composed. As they say, follow this space. In either case that deposit, a (refundable) thousand dollars cements your serious interest.
So, where is all this happening?
Simi Valley is a bedroom community just above the San Fernando Valley, an easy train ride into downtown Los Angeles.
A major feature of Ensō Verde is its easy access into Los Angeles to the south and to all that California’s central coast offers to the north. The site is nestled at the northeastern foot of the Simi Hills, next to the Brandeis-Bardin campus, retreat, and conference center of the American Jewish University. Ensō is twenty acres, the AJU campus is 2,700 acres, riddled with hiking trails. And it all opens to the north into a nice little city. While in Ventura county, Simi Valley is considered part of greater Los Angeles.
Ensō Verde is much closer to city possibilities than Ensō Village, while still feeling rural, that opening into the Verde Hills.
Ensō Verde is scheduled to open its doors in 2027, four years out.
So. It isn’t too soon to start learning more.
And, maybe it’s time to sign up.
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