Ondřej Landa

The place was established in 2012 by Ondřej and his Japanese ex-partner Fukiko in a remote mountain areain Romania as a basement for their anthropological studies of the traditional local Czech farming community. Soon Kolíba developed into an organic family farm focusing on self-sufficiency and aiming the independency and “off the grid” way of living.

Video: Ashram song and panoramas 

The ashram itself is a modest natural place with two small buildings and basic living and farming equipment. It was made out of a shepherd cottage, built from cob and wood in 1933.

Visitors stays in caravan (2-4 people) and tents (6-12 people) which are provided. It is also possible to bring one’s own tent or a van (there are many possibilities to park the car on the meadows surrounding the ashram).

Drinking water comes from a mountain spring 200m far from the main house where is also installed a basic cold shower system. At the same place washing clothes by hand is done. For washing body, clothes and dishes ONLY BIO-DEGRADABLE and NATURAL SOAPS and SHAMPOOS are used (please, don’t use anything else). For watering the garden and for personal refreshment one can find 5m wide second-hand swimming pool. Available is also wood-stove-heated sauna.

Basic solar system provides the possibility to charge a phone or tablet through USB. The place itself is (surprisingly) reached by very good 4G signal.

The pillar of the daily schedule is the ZEN MEDITATION (Zazen or Kinhin) and HATHA-YOGA (or dance-based) exercise.
Zen is practiced 3 times a day in 50 minutes (morning), 30 minutes (midday) and 40  minutes (evening) long sessions.

The rest of the day is filled with farming, maintenance and cooking work, or with art (music, dance, juggling, theatre, painting, carving etc.) and specific outdoor activities (rockclimbing, trekking, slack-lining etc.)

Evenings are often spent outside by a fire place. Saturdays, especially late afternoon, evening and night, are reserved to art performances and presentations, games and party.
Sunday is completely off. No work, no practice. The food is prepared the day before.
Ashram is open for 4 month of a year from middle May to middle September.

An important image of how zen and yoga are related and deeply connected with gardening and other outdoor activities you can get from Ondrej's gardening zen-yoga workshop in Sicily in 2020 - click to watch the video (English with Italian and French subtitles)

Respect

When visiting neighboring villages, please, respect the traditional character of the place including the religion and specific mindset of the local people (the rural Czechs are usually Catholic and Romanians Orthodox Christians). Also, please, respect the nature environment and all forms of life around.
In ashram, please, respect each other as equal human beings. The ashram is not a place of dogmatism and preconceptions. All religions, races and nations are welcome.
And eventually, respect the space of the ashram itself and how things are done here.

Closest settlement to Kolíba Ashram is the Czech village Sumita (or “Šumice” in Czech language). There is no public transport going there

Closest bus station is in Bozovici. From there you can walk or hitch to the village Putna. From Putna walk through meadows following blue marks 5,5 km north and north-east to Sumita (see the blue line on the sketch). Or go through forest following unmarked path by a stream, directly from Putna to Kolíba Ashram, north-east about 4 km (see the red line on the sketch).

• Zazen is a way home. It is a process (as well as a state) of calming down and emptying one’s mind. It is discovering one’s own true identity
• Zazen is the main pillar of ashram’s life. It is practiced 3 times a day, 6 days a week, in 30, 40 and 50 minutes long sessions. Occasionally Zazen is replaced by Kinhin (walking meditation) or Ohm singing
• When good conditions gather, a day long zen retreat is held

Bring your attention to the tip of your nose and observe how the air is passing through your nostrils. Do not control or manipulate your breath, just observe it. Concentrate on the sensation of the air touching your nose and lungs. For better concentration you can count the breath. Say inside “one”, when inhaling, and “one”, when exhaling. Then say “two”, then “three”... all the way up to ten. Then start again from one. Whenever you loose concentration and loose the counting, start again from one. Instead of counting you can also say inside: “I know I am inhaling”, when inhaling, and: “I know I am exhaling”, when exhaling. Or you can say only: “(I am) inhaling”, and: “(I am) exhaling”. Use English or your native language as you feel. Be with your breath fully. Here and now. Do not control it. Just observe. Be awake and aware and enjoy every second and every minute of your breath. Enjoy it as it was your dearest friend who is soon leaving for a long trip. Stay with him, fully attentive, fully open. Breath is life.

• Hatha-yoga, as practiced in the ashram, is not a mere physical exercise. It traces its roots to the original and deeper purpose of work with body and breath as practiced in Indian yoga tradition. Contrary to modern approach to yoga, in the ashram sessions the body is not used as an instrument to achieve certain asana (yoga position). In opposite the asāna is used as an aid to achieve the state of connection of body and mind. More important is the process rather than the final form.
• Getting strong, flexible and healthy is also very important element of yoga but it is rather its side effect. The main aim is to unite the mind and to identify the self with one’s own body and get in touch with the root of human’s earth identity. Yoga grounds the mind, generates deep and positive feelings and removes physical and mental blockades. Like this it helps to create fruitful and solid basement for meditation practice as well as for the life itself

• Farming and related physical work is great way to keep in touch with one’s own body and senses and to grow the connection with nature. Therefore it is important part of the life in ashram and valuable support of zen and yoga practice. And, of course, it carries important and necessary practical benefit in maintenance the ashram and in contribution to basic needs of the community (food, water, shelter, warmth, waste policy, transport etc.).
• Despite the self-sufficiency is not the aim of ashram lifestyle anymore, the mere character of the place still requires self-sufficient attitude in many ways. The spirit of independence and practical ecology is always present here and it feeds the effort of choosing creative solutions, physical work and local and natural materials over the consume way of thinking and the goods and services offered by modern economic and industrial system

• Art work and research is an important part of ashram daily activities supporting and supplementing the spiritual practice. But of course, as most of other activities in ashram, it is voluntary
• The purpose of the art practiced in the ashram is to search and nourish the source of creativity within each individual as well as to inspire, amuse and uplift each other. Art feeds the space and community with soft and sophisticated energies and helps to create rich and satisfying atmosphere for all

• Cooking is important part of ashram activity and practice. Relation to food reflects the relation to body and nature. And body and nature are important elements of zen and yoga practice, same as art, farming and outdoor activities practiced in ashram. Cooking team tries to prepare the food with respect, concentration and good energy for nourishing all the community
• The size and the frequency of exchange of cooking teams depends on the amount of visitors in ashram
• Meals are vegan or vegetarian (eggs and milk products are added occasionally)

• We collect local fruits and edible wild plants and try to grow as much vegetable in the ashram garden as possible. The rest of food is in majority purchased from local farmers and is usually in bio quality. The last part comes from other sources including supermarkets

• The richness of meals often depends on what is found in a donation box