The view from the balcony is breathtaking. Clouds are hanging low across the valley, almost touching the slopes of the mountains. Enveloped by the silence, I realise that I have arrived.
I first heard about Simply Happy at Rupert’s Vedanta retreat this past June. An emerging non-dual village in the mountains of Northern Portugal? The call was unmistakable. I knew I had to go.
The next day, the sky is clear, and the air as if washed clean by the rain. Sylvie, who had founded Simply Happy only a month earlier, invites me on a tour. Stone houses with walls made of solid rock are scattered around the village. Given that the village was run as an eco-hotel for fifteen years, most of the lodgings are ready for use. As we enter the houses, I can feel them eagerly awaiting their new purpose.
For a long time, Sylvie had dreamed of running an ecological project in Portugal. But no matter what steps she took, things just weren’t flowing. Meanwhile, the idea of building a centre for the non-dual community arose.
One day, Sylvie rented a holiday home in the rural north of the country. As it turned out, the landlord was a broker with solid connections in the surrounding villages. He immediately took her on a visit to Oucias to see the hotel that was up for sale. Only a few days later the contracts were signed.
Oucias means ‘listening’ in Portuguese – a fitting name for a place that emerged out of deep listening. Oucias came to Sylvie at a moment when she had given up any ideas of what should happen. Instead, she chose to listen to the silent intelligence of life that can unfold when we get out of its way.
Of course, a lot of work remains to be done: renovating the houses with natural materials, building a meditation hall and expanding the village to include neighbouring plots of land and other deserted houses.
‘With an undertaking as big as this, don’t you ever fall into doubt?’ I ask her.
‘If I had even one day of doubt, I could not build Simply Happy’, Sylvie responds with a playful smile. ‘I just need to let go. “Sylvie” wouldn’t be able to do any of this.’
As we make our way to the lower part of the village, which includes a restaurant, an array of cork bungalows and a swimming pool, I notice a few longish stone structures that look like little temples. The espigueiros – ancient storehouses for threshed grain and animal feed – were built on pillars to keep out rodents and water.
Using the old granaries for shade, sheep are dozing in the grass. As soon as they get up, the clangs of their bells mix with the sounds of a gushing river and the buzzing of bees in the lavender bushes. The simple beauty of nature’s symphony helps tune us whenever we fall out of tune.
‘We are spoiling our lives with such a complicated society’, says Sylvie. ‘Happiness is simple. Here I really wish people to be simply happy.’
The vision of Simply Happy is for people from around the world to have a space where they can experience the simplicity of resting in their being. Stays can last anywhere from one week to three months. Food is prepared in a restaurant with fresh ingredients from the region, and most of the houses have their own kitchens.
While Simply Happy won’t have a rigid ashram-like schedule, an organic structure with offerings such as group meditation, bodywork and healing sessions may appear. Apart from that, visitors are invited to spend time in silence, work on their creative projects, enjoy the library filled with books from the world’s non-dual and mystical traditions, or volunteer in one of the building projects.
Located on the southern edge of the Peneda-Gerês National Park that extends across the border into Spain, Oucias is surrounded by various trails with scenic views across the landscape where wild horses and cows with twisted horns roam freely.
Hiking up the trail leading out of Oucias, I set my feet on the rocks that have been smoothed by shepherds and pilgrims over the centuries. The hike reminds me of the path to Mount Arunachala in southern India, where Ramana Maharshi spent many years in meditation.
When the setting sun nears the crest of the mountains, the valley is flooded with rays of light. The stone houses, granaries and grapevines are immersed in a golden glow. A sense of aliveness fills my body, and a silent knowing enters my cells: This is what it feels to be simply happy.
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Simply Happy – Sharing Friendship: www.simplyhappy.pt
An interview with Sylvie about her vision of creating a non-dual village: www.youtube.com/watch?v=EevpjIDZK5g&t=35
