While living in Tacoma, Washington, Reverend Tim Schubert had the idea of starting a Center for Spiritual Living in Ajijic. Along with his wife Arlene, he wanted to create a community for people who didn’t feel comfortable in their traditional religions yet had a desire to affiliate and pursue spirituality in a context that was untraditional.
Six years later, their Science of Mind-based center continues to evolve, offering an array of classes, workshops, potlucks and monthly “celebration” services.
“Many people who come to Lakeside were brought up in traditional religious teachings and simply don’t find that satisfying,” says Schubert. “I consider myself part a group whom I call modernists, rationalists – people who generally believe in the scientific method. If we observe our universe carefully enough and probe the universe, we will see it as how it really is and, from that observation, we will get guidance as to what we should do and how we should manage our affairs.”
Schubert continues. “There’s something called a post-modern thought and my understanding of it is basically that our way of thinking and our beliefs create our reality. Within this thought are the seeds of a more peaceful existence. As long as there are more traditional belief systems where our system is right and yours is wrong, or there is a belief that I understand things better than you do, there’s an inherent conflictual state.”
Before moving from Tacoma to Ajijic six years ago, Schubert was a gastroenterologist. He became involved in Science of Mind in the last 20 years, spending eight of them taking courses to become a reverend.
Going from being a doctor to a reverend seemed like a natural progression for Schubert. It was his love of ideas and his enjoyment of self exploration and psychological subjects that got him interested in Science of Mind.
“The way I see it,” he says, “we live the first part of our life doing and making choices and deciding what to do, basically according to where we came from. A lot of it is, how do I get by in life?
This includes jobs, marriage, our role in society, and who we are. Our choices may have been in revolt against our parents or to please our parents or teachers. I like the idea of self-actualization; that there are parts of us that are born to express, but we didn’t necessarily know it or perhaps, because of our culture or because what it took to get along in life, we ignored those parts of us. Much of what I see as the exploration here for retirees is to find those unexpressed places and do those things and be that person in some way that was not expressed by their initial choices – the chance to choose again.”
Upon arriving in Ajijic, Schubert didn’t want a new job or to spend his time managing an institution. “I didn’t want to have the building be the major importance, or worry about finances or the politics of all that.”
Instead, they bought a house in the village, which serves as their home and the center. “The design of our house was to make it basically a community but not a group that was worried about the things that normal churches usually spend a lot of their energy on.
“I think community is a highly valuable asset that I didn’t appreciate as a ‘lone ranger’ kind of a person in the first half of my life. I did it all on my own.”
Each month, the center holds a celebration service/potluck.
“If I look at and focus on the positive and good aspects of life, they tend to expand and I experience more of that goodness. A celebration service is not saying that there isn’t difficulty in life; it’s saying that life is basically good and there’s a lot of joy and beauty in it.”
Each celebration service has a different theme, such as gratitude and forgiveness. “The next one will probably be in keeping with the December theme of Christmas, Hanukkah and solstice – bringing in the light, allowing in that which lifts us up and allows us a greater creativity and aliveness.”
Schubert’s goal for the center is to be more involved with the Spanish-speaking community and create a greater bridge at a different level than is normally available. They currently host two classes per week geared toward Spanish speakers. One such group centers around reading and discussing a spiritual book, such as The “Power of Now” by Eckart Tolle.
“Reading and discussing that book in Spanish was a very rich experience for me, linguistically and culturally; to talk about those issues and perspective with these folks,” he says.
The Center for Spiritual Living’s upcoming events include a dream workshop on November 20; and a Thanksgiving potluck on November 24. For more information, visit cslchapala.com or contact Schubert at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., (376) 766-0920.