About the Hub
The Praxis Hub space offers a conscious community experience exploring the “in-between” of the intentional community concept and the monastic way of life, in a secular frame. We engage as a community whilst still protecting our individuals needs.
The Bergerac Praxis Hub is a space where individuals can come together to explore, practice, and embody new ways of being and relating to each other and the world. We see this space as a place for experimentation, exploration, and learning, where people can engage in self-work, creative work, and spiritual practices within a supportive and structured framework. We believe that this framework, which combines elements of monastic and secular practices, can facilitate the development of a new paradigm of living and being, one that is more connected, embodied, and expansive.
We are running and hosting a series of residencies and retreats that are a spiritual cooking together of various ingredients: people, practices, workshops, art, community life and actual cooking. The residences open a space, a vacuum filled by people and practices too spiritual for politics, too “political” for the monasteries, where we sit with our trouble without giving into the narrowing impulse to “save the world”.
Residencies combine both an activating frame of collective practices (sitting meditation, cooking, cleaning and circling) with the space for you to continue your daily work – a key aspect is learning how we can integrate community and practice, collective and private, absolute and relative in our daily life. If you are interested, please let us know .
Key info
What is it? The residencies are an invitation to focus on one's own inquiries, food, and deep adaptative process while engaging in collective subject within conscious community practices held by a lightweight developmental frame. We run and host conscious community Praxis residencies and specific practice residencies.
How much? The monthly cost ranges between 350 to 850 euros/ month depending on the room, plus 12 euros / day for food and amenities.
For whom? We welcome all system-thinkers, researchers, cooks, spiritual ecologists, bodhisattvas, peace makers, symbiotic entrepreneurs, poets, painters, eco-dharmists - anyone who is ready to just be with what comes and welcomes dancing within complexity.
How do we do it? We propose a Praxis ecology that provides a frame combining a regenerative engagement for the collective and the space for you to continue your daily work. A key aspect is learning how we can integrate daily practices (sitting, cooking, cleaning, connecting) as an activation rather than an obligation (a service you give to your Self).
Where is it? In Bergerac, France (South West, in the Bordeaux wine region, 20 minutes from the Plum Village Buddhist monastery)
How can I participate? Apply online to one of our residencies using the application form.
More questions? Contact praxis@lifeitself.org.
About the Praxis Hub
Created in 2020 the concept of this space was developed by Valérie Duvauchelle and Liam Kavanagh as a metamodern secular monastery to explore the concept of post secularity within Praxis. During this time several kind of residencies happened at the Hub:
Praxis residencies (with or without a theme)
Training residencies (resiliency circles, emergent dialogues)
Retreats (tenzo)
Life Itself gatherings
Located just a few steps from the river and a serene park, this space is a one-of-a-kind setting comprising three small buildings. An old French palazzo, where traces of the past engage us in a heteroclite manner, adds to the unique atmosphere. It is the perfect place for deep exploration amidst its atmospheric surroundings.
The dynamic structure of our residencies:
In our mid-term residency (3 months), participants arrive with a project or a question and explore it while being part of a systemic collective body. Every day, residents are supported by an invisible framework based on Minimum Viable Practices (MVPs): shared cooking, silent meditation, housecleaning, and garden care, all of which help us navigate our emotions in a dynamic way. During the evenings, participants can share, test their practices within the group, and explore new ones. Evenings are a blend of circling or simply unwinding, with a core circle where we can engage in deeper check-ins.
Instead of following a strict program of knowledge, it creates space to listen to what collectively wants to emerge. On the way, feeling the rythm of a community and observing how the system adapts to what unfolds, light or shadow.
There is space for each to do their own remote work within a lightweight developmental "frame".
Building upon previous residencies, where themes like contemplative activism, eco-spirituality, interbeing, collective intelligence were explored, the practices we engage in are designed to inspire a compassionate lifestyle, ecological balance, and a shift from individual isolation to a sense of supportive community.
Schedule (indicative and will change in August with one hour later start):
7-8 am: just sitting in Dojo
8-9 am: buffet breakfast
9-10 am: collective care for cooking, cleaning, gardening
10 am-1 pm: own time
1-2 pm: buffet lunch and dishes
2-6:30pm: own time
6:30-7:30 pm: sitting dinner and dishes
8pm: optional evening activity with 1 mandatory heart core circle per week
Besides the daily structure, we have evening sesions where participants may offer their own sessions to other residents.
Regarding cooking we are on a plant based diet during the week cooked by the group with a head chef changing every day. We also have a weekly heart core circle and a weekly organisational Friday lunch to plan weekly roles and sessions.
Weekends don't have a frame. During that time spontanous cooking and eating organisation happens. This is a time that gives opportunity to discover surroundings such as Plum Village or prehistorical caves.
Ideal candidates are those who resonate with these principles and practices, have a project to work on and are ready to explore being community.
The Life Itself Bergerac Praxis Hub is a space where individuals can come together to explore, practice, and embody new ways of being and relating to each other and the world.
It is a space for experimentation, exploration, and learning, where people can engage in self-work, creative work, and spiritual practices within a supportive and structured framework.
This framework combines elements of monastic and secular practices. We believe it can facilitate the development of a new paradigm of living and being, one that is more connected, embodied, and expansive.
Learn more about the Hub
Sense below our flavor and see some photos of this very unique space in the South of France.
Bedrooms
There are currently 11 rooms available at the Hub, from basic to premium. More information (photos and descriptions) about the rooms is available here.
Amenities
Internet: there is high speed wifi access throughout the house.
Washing facilities: there is a dedicated laundry room with washing machine available for common use.
Parking: ample parking both on the square directly outside the Hub, and in the surrounding streets when the square is used for a market on Fridays.
Kitchen: suitable to cook for 10-20 people. Includes dishwasher, microwave, oven, induction hobs and extensive other utensils.
Crockery: a full store of all the crockery you might need, with enough plates, cutlery, glasses and cups for up to 25 people.
How to Reach Us
Location
The address of the Hub is 11 Place Barbacane, Bergerac, 24100, France.
You can view the location on the map here.
By train 🚆
Bergerac has a train station. We're a 20 minute walk from it through the heart of the beautiful medieval part of the town.
There are regular services from Bergerac to and from Bordeaux Saint-Jean, taking just over 1 hour. From there it is easy to reach much of the rest of France, for example, it is a couple of hours to Paris.
By air ✈️
We are only an 8 minute drive from Bergerac Dordogne Périgord Airport, or alternatively it is easy to fly into Bordeaux and then travel by rail or car from there.
By car 🚗
The Hub is a little over 1 hour 30 minutes from Bordeaux by car, around 2 hours 40 minutes from Toulouse, and a little under 5 hours from Lyon.
There is free parking right in front of the hub at Place Barbacane and alongside the riverside next to the house.
🚩 If you park in Place Barbacane you need to move your car on Thursday nights (by ~11pm) until Friday afternoon because of the market that takes place on Place Barbacane.
Alternative free parking can be found in the riverside and the public parking lot named “Jean Barthé” (Google Maps), 3 min. walk from the hub.
Why subscribe?
Subscribe to stay connected with us, even when you are not physically present to be part of the second Renaissance movement. Be part of a network of people interested in discovering what constitutes the “ good life” ( la bonne vie) in a complex world.
Stay up-to-date
Once a month with the newsletter you can see the inquiries we will explore in the Hub, read about contemplative activism (our roots) and read insights about what we have experienced in the previous month.
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