> Two adjacent questions raised in the same breath as the Tesla > stewardship onboarding: would an e-bike in Ubud serve the network's > health, and would renting a property in Ubud serve the body well > enough to commit cooperative resources? Both held here as proposals > for the body to weigh.
Question 1 — an e-bike in Ubud
What's already true
Ubud already runs on bikes. Pedal bikes for grandmothers and short errands; motorbikes (Honda PCX, NMAX, Vario) for longer trips and the Bali default. The network's witness fabric in Ubud is dense enough that an e-bike at the corner rack would be coherent with the place's existing pattern — the same shepherding model that would hold a pedal bike works for an e-bike with a small extension (charging, battery care).
What an e-bike would add
- Hill range: Ubud sits in the Bali highlands; pedal bikes manage the lanes but struggle on the climbs to Tegallalang, Penestanan ridge, the Campuhan walks. An e-bike opens those rides to bodies that wouldn't otherwise reach them — older members, recovering bodies, anyone who wants the meditation of a long ride without the exertion of a long climb. - Independence from petrol: motorbikes here run on petrol; an e-bike charged from solar (which Bali has plenty of) closes the energy loop in a way the motorbike doesn't. - Network demonstration: an e-bike that the network shepherds visibly — under primary shepherd care, available to other members in coherent state, charging from a known source — is a small living proof of the substrate the body has been describing.
What it costs
A reasonable e-bike (Tern, RadPower, Cube, or local Indonesian brand with enough range and reliability) is in the range of $1,500–$3,000. Ongoing care: charge, maintain tires and brakes per the cooperative's practice, reasonable annual costs.
The body's discernment question
Is the network's Ubud witness fabric ready to hold a shared e-bike coherently? At present, two members are visible (Ilena, Vasudev via his Tuesday/Wednesday rhythm) plus visiting members. That is fabric enough for one person's primary shepherding (most likely the proposer during their time in Ubud) but not yet dense enough for the truly shared model where any cell can pick up the bike at the rack.
Recommendation: hold the e-bike as a proposal for now. If the proposer is in Ubud for a stretch, the body can acquire one under their primary shepherding with the explicit term that it joins the shared fleet as the local fabric thickens. This makes it real without overcommitting the network to a sharing pattern the present density does not yet support.
Question 2 — renting a property in Ubud
What's being asked
Whether the network commits cooperative resources to lease a property in Ubud — for the proposer's stay, for hosting visiting members, for gatherings, or for some combination — and whether that lease should flow through the network's wrapper rather than as the proposer's personal lease.
What a network-held property would do
- Ground for gatherings: a property the network shepherds is a place where members visiting Ubud have a coherent stay, where the weekly satsangs and circles can meet in alignment with the body's field, where the Ubud presence has somewhere recognizably its own. - Long-term investment in place: a year-or-more lease, treated as a covenant with the land and the village rather than as a short-term Airbnb arrangement, deepens the network's relationship with Ubud as a location. - Hosting capacity: members who travel can stay there as part of the network's body rather than as guests of an external platform. CC flows for that hosting back into the property's running ledger.
What it costs
A villa in Ubud suitable for the body's purposes (3-4 bedrooms, open living space, garden, near Penestanan or Sayan or Pengosekan) leases for somewhere in $1,500–$5,000 per month, depending on location, size, and amenities. Annual leases reduce per-month rates; multi-year covenants more so. Add utilities, internet, periodic deep cleaning, and a small reserve for repairs.
The body's discernment question
This is the larger commitment. Three things would need to be true for the network to take the lease coherently:
1. A primary shepherd in Ubud — someone resident enough to be the day-to-day relationship with the property and the village. The proposer's actual presence pattern matters here. 2. A coherent use case beyond the shepherd's residence — gatherings that recur, visitors who would benefit, an actual body-shape that justifies the cooperative resource. 3. Cooperative pool capacity — the body can sustain the monthly flow without straining other parts of itself.
Recommendation: hold the property as a proposal for now. If the proposer's pattern stabilizes (e.g., 3+ months per year in Ubud over multiple years) and the gathering pattern crystallizes (e.g., the Wednesday Satsang at Ranakami plus an additional weekly gathering becomes the body's anchored rhythm in Ubud), then the lease becomes coherent. Until then, the cleaner shape is short-stay rentals through existing channels (Airbnb, direct villa arrangements) for visits, with gatherings hosted at Ranakami and Svarga Loka where the relationships already exist.
What this proposal accomplishes by being held
By recording these as held proposals rather than unilateral acquisitions, the body practices the discernment the rest of the substrate is built for: not every stewardship opportunity should be seized, even when the resources exist; some should ripen before the ceremony. The Tesla onboarding (in flight, now) is the body's first vehicle and is therefore ceremonially significant; the e-bike and property are the body's tenth and twentieth and hundredth assets if the trajectory continues, and the discernment muscle the body builds on the first few will determine the body's health on the rest.