Gentle World is an intentional community of sun-loving, country-living, Truth-seeking vegans who have come together for the intention of improving ourselves, and sharing our message of nonviolence and gentleness with others.
In our New Zealand location, our vegan educational center called Shangri-La is a model of vegan cooperative living. The food is grown veganically (marrying the principles of organic growing with the ethics of veganism), and the land is off-the-grid; powered by solar and hydro-electric.
This vegan sanctuary was once animal-harming land. The fences and ‘Not-Okay Corral’ (used for sheep shearing) were immediately taken down, and replaced with hundreds of assorted fruit trees, vegan-organic gardens, fields of flowers, and fragrant flowering trees. While the reminders of animal slavery were removed, the derelict house (that most people would have demolished) was restored and preserved.
Living communally means that we contribute less to environmental devastation caused by consumerism, because instead of each of us living separately and owning 10 washing machines, we live together and share 1 or 2 second-hand ones. It’s a way of living that we want everyone in the world to be following, in order to help save the planet.
Gentle Worlders agree on some very important things, and right up there at the top of that list is veganism. Because we are not willing to accept ‘the world as it is,’ we have agreed to join together from different walks of life in order to work towards the building of a new one; both as a sanctuary for ourselves and as a model of what human beings can achieve, when they are willing to sacrifice their personal desires in favor of doing what is right for the whole.
