An odd but captivating story sent in by reader Tix, about a Buddhist couple living in a yurt in the Arizona desert who have taken vows to never separate from each other for more than 15…feet.

If they cannot be seated near each other on a plane, they do not get on. When she uses an airport restroom, he stands outside the door. And when they are here at home in their yurt in the Arizona desert, which has neither running water nor electricity, and he is inspired by an idea in the middle of the night, she rises from their bed and follows him to their office 100 yards down the road, so he can work.

Oh, and they’re also celibate.

The couple believes their partnership is a high level of Buddhist practice that “involves confronting their own imperfections and thereby learning to better serve the world.”

I always admire this sort of idea. I often see monks on the subways and buses and I contemplate how peaceful their existences must be. For one, I would imagine they are relatively unafraid of death. And often times, I think disconnecting yourself from the material world, at least in part, isn’t a bad practice.

But 15 m-f*ing feet?

But their practice — which even they admit is radical by the standards of the religious community whose ideas they aim to further — has sent shock waves through the Tibetan Buddhist community as far as the Dalai Lama himself, whose office indicated its disapproval of the living arrangement by rebuffing Mr. Roach’s attempt to teach at Dharamsala, India, in 2006. (In a letter, the office said his “unconventional behavior does not accord with His Holiness’s teachings and practices.”)

The story also notes that the man, Michael Roach, who is a full-fledged monk, and has attained the level of geshe, is also a Princeton graduate and built a personal fortune by helping Andin International, a designer, manufacturer and distributor of fine jewelry, grow into a $100 million-a-year business.

I’d like to see an update on this in about 15 years. Anyone ready to try this?