The Yellow Springs Dharma Center
By Lauren Heaton

When the hand bell chimes in the morning and the stirring of people makes the floorboards creek, you know the early meditation at the Yellow Springs Dharma Center is over. A few local residents and a student from the College abandon their floor cushions and exchange quiet greetings as they scatter to start their jobs and fulfill their responsibilities for the day. The Dharma Center is always open as a place for contemplation and the discovery of Buddhism.

In a brown, wood-frame house on the corner of East Davis and Livermore Streets between Antioch and the downtown area, the Dharma Center was established to satisfy the needs of both the College and the Village. Ten years ago, a group of villagers who met regularly to meditate decided they wanted a permanent space for their gatherings. Then, some of the Antioch students returning from the meditative environments of Antioch Education Abroad’s Buddhist Studies programs in India and Japan expressed a desire to maintain a spiritual practice as they eased back into college life.

The house became available for rent, and, with the help of Robert Pryor, Associate Professor and Director of AEA Buddhist Studies Program, and Donna Denman, villager and wife of Professor of Philosophy Emeritus Al Denman, a committee of students and other villagers was formed. The Dharma Center came alive.

Summer evening passersby will often find several students sitting on the front porch conversing with villagers. The students or recent Antioch graduates who live in the upper level of the house every semester get to know the 50 to 100 villagers using the space for regular meditation, spiritual study, family activities and other events. They often form lasting friendships.

“I’ve developed a deep appreciation of the role the Dharma Center plays as a bridge between the town and the school,” recent graduate and former Dharma Center resident Amanda Bolecki ’01 said. “The more I got to know the community at the Dharma Center the more I wanted to stay in town. It’s the reason I stayed here in Yellow Springs.”

When Bolecki came to Antioch from the Chicago suburbs, she was impressed by the small signs of community she noticed during her first visit to downtown Yellow Springs. “I felt like this was an established town culture where everyone acknowledged you by smiling and waving, which for me was a high degree of participation,” she said. “It was this intense town experience, and I felt included.”

She then participated in Buddhist Studies India in 2000 and moved into the Dharma Center when she returned. The community experience she had at the Dharma Center affected her profoundly, she said, because it was the first time she was able to relate to adults as friends and equals. The experience of decision making by consensus with her housemates gave her insight into a whole new range of communication skills, she said. The Yellow Springs community members became her mentors, which integrated with her spiritual practice, giving her a wealth of knowledge and a sense of belonging. “They are this varied group of people who are all really rad,” she said. “Why would I leave that?”

For villagers, the Dharma Center is a quiet haven to retreat to at the beginning and end of a busy day, and also a place to explore spiritual ideas with people who have lived in Buddhist communities and practiced meditation.

At the beginning of the summer, the Dharma Center board launched a capital campaign to raise $200,000 to purchase and repair the house, which recently came up for sale. Within two months the Center had raised half the necessary funds and was able to purchase the house in July, Pryor said. Jane Baker, who owned the house, is donating all of the proceeds from the sale of the house to the Yellow Springs Community Foundation. Contributions from the residents and the Center’s events constitute half of the non-profit organization’s operating funds. The other 50 percent comes from community donations, which the Center will continue to collect until the campaign goal is met.

Current Dharma Center resident Leisa Schaim ’01 came to the Dharma Center to continue her meditation practice and to be part of a larger community. She was struck by the keen sense of community she found in Yellow Springs, and she wanted to validate it by living at the Center. “I value that multi-age perspective,” Schaim said.

Since it started a decade ago, the Center has expanded significantly. In addition to daily meditation, the Center organizes Buddhist dinners, family potlucks, children’s and adult yoga, and guided Vispassana, Tibetan, and Zen sessions.

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