Buy a plot of land to own something

Jen Bradford, Ananda (Dharma Buddhist Meditation), Wisdom Quarterly

VIDEO: I bought a $200 plot of land in the high desert of Joshua Tree, California, because my generation 'literally owns nothing'

Best structure in the desert? Pyramid

What can one do with 1,000 square feet of land? It's enough for this solar powered shelter that can keep warm and cool in spite of the weather. It makes for an excellent place to meditate, to withdrawn from the din and noise of human companionship.

Withdrawing in this way, one will eventually gain concentration. On the other hand, Joshua Tree is the perfect place for exploring nature, preserving plants and trees, hiking, attending concerts, visiting sites of spiritual significance like Dhamma Dena (dhammadena.org) and the Goenka Vipassana Center (dhamma.org).

No building materials? Use the earth itself.

It's no coincidence that they are so close to one another and that both teach the same thing at the core, expressed radically differently. Why? Both founders had the same teacher, Burmese meditation master U Ba Khin, both attained the meditative states and progressed to the stages of enlightenment, but they both had a different view about how their (Ruth Denison and S. N. Goenka) students would best progress.