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The Izgrev Centre


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The Izgrev Centre

Between themselves, the disciples started to refer to the glade where they used to gather as Izgrev ("sunrise"). This place had a special force of attraction. It quickly became the sole site of daily meetings and discussions. There, the disciples would greet the sun and do physical exercises in the early morning, and then each would go about his own business in town. Peter Dunov would also go back to his home in 66 Opalchenska St. where he received visitors during the day.

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The first wooden cabins at Izgrev.

The pure air and the beautiful surroundings attracted so many young people to Izgrev that on the 22nd of March 1922, the day of the Brotherhood, they pitched the first tent there.

The first enthusiastic settlers planted pines and fruit trees with the evident intention to live there permanently. Two winters passed in hardships but they did not give up. These were the first enthusiasts who after 1924 erected with their own hands a small wooden cabin and covered its walls with paper. They lived an ascetic life that was part of the School.

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The idea of communal life was attractive. Before long, there were a dozen similar houses in the glade. The Master recommended wood as more hygienic than bricks and cement. Good for the young followers - wood was cheaper... Most of them were university students, many came from well-to-do families but their idealism was so pure that they gave up their parents' support and worked in their spare time to earn their living.

Every Sunday, after the morning exercises at Izgrev, the Master went back to 66 Opalchenska St. This was extremely inconvenient but as usual, he accepted it quietly and humbly. The Sunday lectures were attended by many and it was his duty to continue this educational activity. In the meantime, the disciples deliberated a construction project at Izgrev. They only waited for the right conditions and for the Master's go-ahead. Dunov also had ideas about the houses and their arrangement but he deliberately allowed his disciples freedom of action, Boris Nikolov, one of the first settlers at Izgrev, recalls: "Izgrev was not magnificent, nor grand, only clean and full of light. Izgrev is, above all things, life, not the place itself. Later on, it would acquire a special significance in Dunov's activity, "a living centre on which the thought of Sublime Intelligent Beings is focused."

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