By: Gil Fronsdal
Buddhist practice is supported, nourished, and protected by a community of fellow practitioners, i.e., the Sangha…
Practicing alone can be difficult. Buddhist practice often changes our values and priorities. The values of virtue, contentment, peace, generosity, love and compassion that grow out of the practice can be in conflict with the values of consumerism, ambition, selfishness and insensitivity found in much of our popular culture. A community of practitioners offers mutual support for living by alternative values that may be undermined or overshadowed in some areas of our society.
Also, a Buddhist community, especially one with mature and experienced practitioners, can function as a mirror allowing a person to see themselves more clearly. This works well when compassionate members of the Sangha don’t support or participate in the many conceits or fear-based attempts for approval-seeking and personal delusions we may bring to our interactions. When such Sangha members respond with kindness, wisdom, pauses and wise silence, we may be able to see more clearly the attachments we have. While this type of mirroring may come with feelings of discomfort, the self-understanding it brings is invaluable.
In addition, a Sangha may be the home of people with personal maturity, compassion, and peace who inspire us in our own practice. They can function as encouragement to continue practicing when practicing the Dharma is difficult. Their behavior can provide practical lessons in how to express the values and teachings of Buddhism in life. We might learn more from watching some of these exemplars than from reading books on Buddhism. Importantly, it might be in the example of other practitioners that we gain confidence in how worthwhile and transformative the path of liberation is.
Of course, other communities besides Buddhist ones can provide helpful mirroring and modeling. However, there is a dedication that a Buddhist community tries to live by that may well be different than most other groups. A Sangha is a place where anyone can come and practice. Everyone interested in the practice is welcome. There is no need to be.a Buddhist. If we end up in conflict with someone or we don’t like what they have said or done, we don’t banish that person from the community. Rather we bring mindful investigation to the conflict. We look for opportunities for healing, reconciliation and for wise ways of respecting one another and making room for differences. We try to notice an attachments, fears, projections and confusions that unnecessarily complicate a conflict. This all expresses a dedication of inclusion in a Sangha that aims to be a community safe for everyone to continue along a path of spiritual maturation.
For the same reason, a Sangha is also a safe place to experiment with new ways of being. As practice relaxes our insecurities and unhelpful habits of behavior, a Sangha can be, for example, a place for compulsive speakers to explore speaking less, or inhibited speakers to explore new ways of speaking up…
Full article: https://www.insightmeditationcenter.org/community-as-a-jewel/
Note: The full article from the website of the Insight Meditation Center can be found here. Gil Fronsdal is the founder and co-guiding teacher of the Insight Meditation Center in Redwood City, California. He has practiced Zen and Vipassana since 1975 and has a PhD in Buddhist Studies from Stanford. Fronsdal has a unique perspective as a result of his rigorous training in both the Soto Zen and Theravadan traditions. He was a Theravada monk in Burma and also received Dharma transmission from Mel Weitsman in the Soto Zen lineage of Suzuki Roshi.