Sangha
Sangha
The word more or less means community — a supporting group to help each other live according to their meditation practice — to encourage and assist each other in deepening understanding and practice. For some, like myself now, it is a no brainer to continue their practice over time but for others it is not that simple and they do need encouragement — as I did in my early days — it is too easy to slip back into old ways that might not be so stable or helpful.
Both the Buddha and Thich Nhat Hanh suggest that it will be Sangha through which the next Buddha will manifest — i.e. it will be many people saying ‘this is how to live in peace with each other and our home planet’ — so anybody attending a Sangha is helping to support this vision for the future.
When we practice as a Sangha the collective energy is very powerful and can create a wonderful boost of positivity and love for the universe, helping to counterbalance the negatives that are so eminent in the present moment.
Sangha works because enough people commit to it, attend as often as they can, and are active participants. It should never depend on one person. It must never become a cult or a led community, but must always be a whole community creation, no one person is more important than any other within that community.
In the way that the international community of Plum Village / Community of Interbeing has continued since Thich Nhat Hanh’s stroke a few years ago, supported and managed by the Plum village monastic Sanghas across the planet, local Sanghas need active participation and attendance for them to flourish and thrive. They are just as important.
In Britain we also have a wonderful national sangha which runs retreats and organises all sorts of wonderful opportunities for members as well as supporting the ongoing outreach work of the COI into the more vulnerable areas of our community . You can find out more information on this link https://coiuk.org/support-us/join-us/ to help fund our outreach work and publicity for our wonderful courses and retreats.
So do treasure your local sangha, and recognise it can only exist and survive for everyone to attend if enough people make it part of their regular practice. Some Sanghas fall away due to a lack of this support and I feel strongly that, in this turbulent time, we should all be Sangha building towards a more peaceful and more compassionate world for all.
