SURRY, Maine — By some accounts, Maine may be the least religious state in the nation, but don’t tell that to the Buddhists who worship and meditate quietly together at the Morgan Bay Zendo, located in a serene clearing near the sea in Surry.
And don’t tell it to the 26 or so members of the Hridaya Hermitage in Industry, who live, work, play, study and worship together in a traditional Yogic hermitage set amid the hardwood forests, rushing streams and mountains of western Maine.
In midwinter, when the long northern nights are brightened by Christmas carols, Hanukkah candles and special holiday traditions, members of these two East-meets-West religious groups in Maine intertwine their faith with their everyday lives. Religion is not something for Sundays or special times of the year, but for every day.
“It’s thriving, to say the least,” Bhagavan Das Lescault, 38, said of the Hridaya Hermitage, where practitioners follow Hindu traditions. “The ashram grew slowly over the years. Now there are temples, shrines, walking meditation trails. It’s a whole village. It is amazing.”
In Surry, things are a little different at the zendo, where the busiest days came before founder and Rinzai Zen teacher Walter Nowick retired from formal teaching in the mid-1980s. Back then, the practitioners also were homesteaders. One of those early students, Charles Guilford, came from San Francisco nearly 40 years ago to study under Nowick. He lived in a small cabin on the property, and in addition to his religious studies, he spent a lot of time working on Nowick’s farm. He spoke after a recent Sunday meditation practice, at which he was one of just a handful of attendees.
When he came to Nowick and told him he wanted to be his student, the Zen teacher told him, “I promise you nothing and trouble,” Guilford recalled.
“He pushed people in unusual ways,” he said of Nowick, who died in 2013. “You had the zendo, and the formal training, and then you had the work on the farm. … He was a good teacher. There’s a Zen saying — walk through the mist, and all of a sudden you’re soaking wet without even realizing how you got wet,” he said.
Studying under Nowick was like that. Guilford kept working with the teacher until Nowick’s 1985 retirement. Guilford also met another student, Susan, who lived in another cabin on the property. The two got married in the zendo, its uncluttered, spacious wooden interior proving to be an auspicious place to start a life together, and while they no longer live in the cabins, they didn’t move very far away and remain in Surry.
Nowadays, fewer people come to the zendo for Buddhist practices including Sunday sitting meditation from April to early December or, in the warmer months, Tuesday evening tea, chanting, walking meditation and a talk in the Kwan Um School of Zen tradition. On New Year’s Day, those numbers swell, Susan Guilford said. As many as 60 people come and begin the year in the zendo. There’s something special about meditating in the company of others, she said.
“I think it’s a grounding kind of experience,” she said just after a recent Sunday morning meditation had concluded. “It’s tapping into something that’s deeper than myself. It’s doing something in community.”
Since Nowick retired, the zendo has not had a formal teacher, which has affected the numbers of people who walk down the tranquil path through the woods to get there. Still, those who remain are striving to take care of it. A recent capital campaign raised $25,000 to repair the structure’s foundation and replace its weathered entryway. The zendo sponsors and arranges retreats with teachers from various traditions that take place from May to December. Also, seekers and travelers are still welcome to stay in the cabins, one of which is available to rent on Airbnb.com during the warmer months.
Susan and Charles Guilford have practiced at the zendo for many years, and it is important to them that it remains viable.
“I don’t know what the future is,” Susan Guilford said. “I do know it’s a place that’s worth preserving. When there isn’t a teacher, it’s like maintaining a possibility.”
Her husband agrees.
“It’s been a deep part of my life for the last 40 years,” Charles Guilford said. “It should be used. People should know it’s there. It’s an extraordinary place.”
Over in Industry, the ashram was founded in 1988 by its guru, also named Bhagavan, but who formerly was known as Mark Lescault and who had a healing practice in Farmington. The guru, or spiritual teacher in the Hindi tradition, was searching for land all over the East Coast and found what he was looking for in Franklin County.
“He pretty much stumbled upon this pristine plot of property. He felt drawn to it,” Bhagavan Das Lescault said. “It fit the requirements for a hermitage.”
As the guru built the first buildings on the land, he also attracted students, including Bhagavan Das Lescault. In the late 1990s, the 19-year-old was studying at the University of Maine at Farmington, and his mother introduced him to the healer.
“She knew I was searching for a deeper meaning and said, ‘You should meet this guy.’ I did. We hit it off. We became very good friends,” Bhagavan Das Lescault said. “He was very sincere and true. I started to visit with him, talk to him about the state of the world.”
The college student struggled with what he wanted to do with his life, and when he began learning about yogic philosophy, it resonated. He left school and joined the ashram, where his life is now firmly rooted. There, he raises his children, practices yoga, meditates, builds and supports the guru.
“An ashram is very disciplined. People who live in ashrams are disciples,” Bhagavan Das Lescault said.
In the early morning, the adult disciples head to the straw-bale yoga building for morning practice. After the grownups leave, the children come in and do their own yoga practice. Then the youngsters are homeschooled together at the ashram.
“The unique thing about the children is that most of them were born into the community with home births,” he said. “This is the only thing they’ve known.”
Although some in the Farmington area don’t know what to make of the ashram community, it is “very open” to the public, Bhagavan Das Lescault said. Grandparents come to visit their grandchildren, and some members work outside the ashram, like him.
An upcoming Winter Solstice Yoga Festival, held 10 a.m.-7 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 20, will feature a yoga intensive, vegetarian food, children’s events, a tour of the grounds and a 5,000-year-old traditional Yogi fire ceremony.
“We highly encourage people to come find out about it,” he said. “In Farmington, there’s tons of rumors about us. There’s just a fear, a stigma. We want our neighbors to know who we are. It’s not like we sit in the woods and don’t want people to come. It’s very interactive.”