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Why Do We Seek Out Spiritual Community?

DakiniDakini Veteran
edited March 2012 in Sanghas
I've come across references and statements by people who say their teacher believes that the only reason people come to sangha and seek out the Dharma is to solve problems in their lives, to address discontent. I think that's a very limited view of why people attend church or sangha. I don't think it's accurate to label all sangha members as troubled.

What about seeking spiritual community for its own sake? To be around like-minded people with common values, to enjoy a weekly inspiring teaching, to bask in the energy of group devotion and upliftment, and to share one's own inspired energy and kindness? Is weekly group Dharma practice really little more than a regular visit to the psychiatrist's couch? Do only the troubled and wounded attend sangha, or is there room for the quietly contented, as well, with their own cheer, comfort and compassion to share? What about the social aspect of attending teachings?

Why do you practice the Dharma, and attend sangha (those of you who do so)?

Comments

  • personperson Don't believe everything you think The liminal space Veteran
    edited March 2012
    For myself, I do attend as a weekly visit to the psychiatrist's couch and to share in the energy and kindness of mainly the teacher but also other students, there are other people there though who seem to be there more because they love the Dharma and like to share it with others or enjoy community.
  • Hmm, the one sangha I have been going to for 5 years I purposefully do NOT treat as a therapy support. I enjoy the community and what we talk about, plus that others come up with ideas I do not have myself. It is a place where I don't have to dodge all the conversations I really do not want to have like purse designers and weight loss schemes. I am a place where I very much need some social time, being a single parent and a loner tends to do that. So simply not sitting alone even more often is a huge reason. We do not have a person who does a talk, sometimes we work through a book chapter by chapter and sometimes we bring things that interest us.
  • DakiniDakini Veteran
    Your sangha sounds interesting. Sort of a do-it-yourself sangha. Sounds like fun, really.
  • I admit that suffering has a way of either pushing us toward more madness or we become seekers of inner meaning through religion and philosophy to explain the WHYS.

    I have been there and quite enjoyed the ride grappling the tight rope between suicide and insanity... religion and philosophy sort of saved me.

    Now, a healthier and more or less, less insane Alison, I am happy and I try to share it. I enjoy church and Bible class for the talks and watching life everyday reminds me of what I would have missed out on.
  • genkakugenkaku Northampton, Mass. U.S.A. Veteran
    @Dakini -- I think it behooves all serious students to concede forthrightly that no one ever signed on to Buddhist practice because s/he was so damned happy. I don't mean that wandering around with a frown is some sort of requirement. Things are simply unsatisfactory to one degree or another.

    That said, I think the meaning of sangha grows or reinvents itself even as practice gains some footing. It's nice to regard it as one of the three treasures -- Buddha, Dharma, Sangha -- but let's be honest: Sangha is not a credible jewel until we make it one. Still, even without having created a jewel, sangha serves many fine purposes ... the group activity that has a strange power; the hinky-shrinky stand-in for what might better be time on a psychologist's couch; the tea and cookies get-together ... or, as my daughter used to say in teen-aged exasperation, what-EVER.

    My feeling is that, for all the wild praises that sangha may receive, it's probably better just to leave it alone, keep up a determined practice, and see what happens. With practice, sangha grows all by itself, I think.
  • Same reason we seek any community- we're social animals.
  • Lady_AlisonLady_Alison Veteran
    edited March 2012
    I never understood that term "social animals"...can you elaborate since you are an experienced behaviorist.
    Same reason we seek any community- we're social animals.
  • We do best in a pack.
  • You just repeated what you said!
    :angry:
  • DakiniDakini Veteran
    Humans thrive psychologically and physically/medically when they have friends to hang out with. They weren't designed to be loners.
  • Want me to say it again? :)
  • even the most loner-type human still is around and has a need to be around other humans. My doggie (rest in peace) was a big doggie, a lab shepherd mix. So often people would think what she needed was a large yard. Actually she was a pack dog, that means the more important than the space to run was the connection with her family.

    I avoided, so I thought, a lot of human interaction when I was younger but it turns out I was just very selective about my tribe. I like the idea of tribes and how we find each other. It may be hair or tattooes or clothing, but there are signals we give off to find our tribe. We have had discussions about amulets and tattooes and other articles to identify ourselves as buddhists, and it makes sense that not only do we want and need human companionship but we also want that with our tribe.

    My dad is seeking his tribe of khaki slacks in retirement, I think Iowa has plenty.
  • A blog of one ain't much fun- it's called a document.
  • YishaiYishai Veteran
    Just watched a TED talk that is relevant to the discussion.

    http://www.ted.com/talks/jonathan_haidt_humanity_s_stairway_to_self_transcendence.html

    It's a good talk. At the end he sums everything up in ~3 minutes. If you want to just get the gist of it, just watch from 14:55.
  • patbbpatbb Veteran

    - To be around like-minded people with common values
    - to enjoy a weekly inspiring teaching,
    - to bask in the energy of group devotion and upliftment,
    - and to share one's own inspired energy and kindness?
    I think it could be a question of point of view.

    why do we do anything at all??

    - To be around like-minded people with common values
    do you have an unfulfilled need/urge to do so?
    Why would we do this otherwise?
    couldn't we call this discontent? and to address it would be to address discontent

    - to enjoy a weekly inspiring teaching,
    do you have an unfulfilled need/urge to do so?
    Why would we do this otherwise?
    couldn't we call this discontent? and to address it would be to address discontent

    - to bask in the energy of group devotion and upliftment,
    ... same
    - and to share one's own inspired energy and kindness?
    ...same

    etc...
    Do only the troubled and wounded attend sangha
    everyone who is not enlighten is troubled and wounded in my opinion.

    why would you attend a shanga if you were enlighten? unless it is to teach.

    Why would you hang out in the physic department at the university after you've graduated? unless you are the professor.. ?
  • patbbpatbb Veteran
    I just remembered, Ajahn Brahm once was talking about the people who has been coming to his Sangha for 20 years or more.

    Complaining/joking that he wish they would never come back, or would have stopped coming back years ago.

    Meaning they would have nothing to learn anymore so no point to visit ..
  • patbbpatbb Veteran
    Humans thrive psychologically and physically/medically when they have friends to hang out with. They weren't designed to be loners.
    we weren't design to live past 30 something either.

    IMHO, A big part of Buddhism is to overcome our primitive urges/programming that keeps us enslaved.
    (to realize whats going on and to then realize we do not need to bend over backward to please random instinctively conditioned urges like animals...)

  • Humans thrive psychologically and physically/medically when they have friends to hang out with. They weren't designed to be loners.
    we weren't design to live past 30 something either.

    IMHO, A big part of Buddhism is to overcome our primitive urges/programming that keeps us enslaved.
    (to realize whats going on and to then realize we do not need to bend over backward to please random instinctively conditioned urges like animals...)

    I don't know about that- the Buddha didn't talk about the "double gem". Community was included.
  • DakiniDakini Veteran
    Why would you hang out in the physic department at the university after you've graduated? unless you are the professor.. ?
    To enjoy the company of your colleagues, to partake in interesting conversations.

  • patbbpatbb Veteran
    Why would you hang out in the physic department at the university after you've graduated? unless you are the professor.. ?
    To enjoy the company of your colleagues, to partake in interesting conversations.
    well i don't think so, and i think you'll agree with me.

    the main appeal of something like physics is that we are still trying to figure it out.
    to understand it.

    so you have people from all over the world who come up with new theories and improved ones trying to describe nature.

    So the appeal is to try to understand the theories, put them in practice, understand the implications etc...

    So you might have a bunch of people in a universities talking about new theories, or someone working on whatever theories etc...

    You might also have a whole bunch of people working on the physical applications of the new physics understandings, things like microwaves to cook food...


    But for something like meditation, it's pretty much figured out.

    Get the meditation stages and realize what it is you can realize.


    i think in this context, it is more akin to learning the alphabet. (just requires alot more work to get it done).
    Once you learn the alphabet, you usually don't stick around having interesting conversations about it, or listening to interesting talks about it, you just move on with your life using this skill that you now have.


    unless of course you are the person teaching the alphabet, or you want to teach the alphabet and you want to learn from other teachers, how they teach it...

    you may as well remain involved in the process, although not necessarily in the school, if you are interested in doing research about what is the best way to teach the alphabet to people, or what is happening in their mind when someone learn the alphabet etc...


    yet, i think nothing's wrong with simply hanging out at the sangha and using it as a community like people do with church or local community centers... making things happen, setting up charity work etc...
  • DakiniDakini Veteran
    Yet, i think nothing's wrong with simply hanging out at the sangha and using it as a community like people do with church or local community centers... making things happen, setting up charity work etc...
    That's what this means.
    To enjoy the company of your colleagues, to partake in interesting conversations.
    Some people enjoy group meditation, group ritual, sharing spiritual experience with others, and simply having a group devotional aspect to their lives. Practicing at home is one thing, but for some people, entering the sacred space of a temple to practice, and sharing that sacred space with others, is an intrinsically rewarding experience.


  • personperson Don't believe everything you think The liminal space Veteran
    But for something like meditation, it's pretty much figured out.

    Get the meditation stages and realize what it is you can realize.

    Meditation is a tool for personal introspection. The theories and practices are all laid out but since the point is to directly understand them yourself I don't think we can say that they are all figured out. Nearly everyone still needs some proper guidance into figuring out a direct realization of the teachings.

    Or aside from meditation just understanding the teachings. Mere intellectual understanding can be attained somewhat easily, if they remain that way then you might as well have learnt how to cook or dance or some other practical skill that could help you out. The process of integrating the knowledge into our minds is the real practice and is the effort of an entire life, if not many lives.
  • wait who says, we aren't suppose to live past 30?

    HUH! i just turned 29!!! i'm not even freaking grown up yet!
  • patbbpatbb Veteran
    But for something like meditation, it's pretty much figured out.

    Get the meditation stages and realize what it is you can realize.

    Meditation is a tool for personal introspection. The theories and practices are all laid out but since the point is to directly understand them yourself I don't think we can say that they are all figured out. Nearly everyone still needs some proper guidance into figuring out a direct realization of the teachings.
    we're saying the same thing.

    ;)
  • personperson Don't believe everything you think The liminal space Veteran
    @patbb I guess my point was that we still need some guidance even after we have the knowledge in terms of application.
  • patbbpatbb Veteran
    @patbb I guess my point was that we still need some guidance even after we have the knowledge in terms of application.
    yes, a teacher. ;)
  • DavidDavid A human residing in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. Ancestral territory of the Erie, Haudenosaunee, Huron-Wendat, Mississauga and Neutral First Nations Veteran
    I only seem to go once in a blue moon and it's to recharge. I enjoy hearing new and different perspectives on the dharma and to be around the energy I only can get when Buddhists gather.

    Many people go to Sanghas and churches for a sense of belonging. It's really rather odd because we want to belong but we miss the obvious and split into these little groups where notions are shared. Then we see that within these groups are also differences of opinion and new sects of differing religions emerge. It's the nature of being unique.

    In reality there is only one group and we can't not belong. The universe is my sangha but since there are not too many Buddhists on my daily path, I like to hear dharma talks and recharge with new insight to share.
  • SileSile Veteran
    I go because I believe the best way to receive teachings is directly from a teacher, in person. I love other ways of learning, but for me, there's no substitute for cellphones-off, human-to-human instruction.

    As far as the sangha aspect of that, some of it's just practical--multiple people want to hear teachings, so they're given at a specific time and place to accommodate that fact. Some days the sangha is two people, some days it's 102.

    There isn't conversation during the teachings, so the "social" aspect doesn't apply in the sense of chatting amongst ourselves; but I do love the synchronistic energy of group listening, group chanting, etc. I consider it a social and physical component to receiving the teachings which isn't imperative, but is enjoyable.

    It's not dissimilar to the question, "Why make music with others?" There is something about shared experience that we find nurturing. Maybe it's in our DNA, or maybe (as I believe) there really is a different state of mind or consciousness that is achieved by sharing experiences.
  • I need sangha because I can't do it alone... I can do it alone alone.. like in a kuti in the woods with only this suffering ass to unbind and no care in the world.. But not alone being the son of old people, the father of a young person, husband of someone who needs support... and needing to get out there and dance for dinner every day... I need a community of people to share wordless sitting with... for regular practice and communion... and retreats when possible... the more the better.
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