Welcome home! Please contact lincoln@icrontic.com if you have any difficulty logging in or using the site. New registrations must be manually approved which may take several days. Can't log in? Try clearing your browser's cookies.
Looking
Dawn and I both would really like to find a local Sangha. So far we have had no luck. Most of the people we have been in touch with don't seem open for new members. Is this common? Do we really need a Sangha? Does anyone know of a Sangha in North Carolina?
0
Comments
I personally don't believe you 'need' to find one. I have found that buddhist temples are more places to feel a part of something and be a part of a culture than to provide any real advancement along the path. The true advancement along the path comes from within. I'm not discounting the sangha by any means - it is one of the three refuges, and it is very important for us to have that support, but I think you can define a sangha outside the 'box' of the temple.
Like this site, for example
Although finding a sangha to be a part of would be great - but along with a sangha comes all the other "human" baggage of an organization.
Being that Buddhism is relatively new to you - I think I would research various forms of Buddhism. I believe you will have to find a sangha in town that teaches what you believe. The form of Buddhism that you're following may all of a sudden contradict the form of Buddhism you're "joining" and then what do you do? Tell these people that you think they're wrong?
And if you join the only "sangha" in town - then are you going to be spending your time listening to the teachings and thinking, "oh yeah, I agree with that" or "nope... don't agree with that" - and then where does that get you? You're really not learning anything at all - just spending your time accepting "this" or rejecting "that. And we all know that is not how your learn. Imagine doing that in school when we were learning to read or learning math.
So... what have I told you? I've just given you two views that don't amount to a hill of beans.
There are very simply teachings of Buddha that can be learned by the most unlearned person. The Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path have given me years of things to work on all by myself.
Good luck in your quest.
-bf
I live in an extremely remote and isolated corner of France. There are very few Sanghas in this part of the world, but further down south there is Plum Village, courtesy of Thich Naht Hanh, and a Tibetan Buddhist Monastery about three hours from there. 'Down South' for me entails a seven-hour drive, or a tortuous journey by train involving four changes....
So I'm kind of limited too, But what BF says goes for me too. Life is a Sangha. And a far more instructive, real and stimulating one than I could ever imagine.
Sure, it would be wonderful to be cloaked in a spiritual atmosphere, and to participate, and 'partake of the Essence of what it is I seek'.... But I can evoke this for myself, if I just release my heart and accept the Bliss of the Moment....
And then I realised that I sometimes yearn for the companionship of community, the sense of being with people of like mind and heart. It doesn't last for long: it is a mental formation arising out of other feelings which I can name and which are, themselves, made up of components.
Truth is, I like and value this community of pilgrims, searchers, meditators, loonies, cooks, artists, stranger/friends above any pious bunch of "co-religionaries".
Would I be considered one of the "loonies"?
I agree with everyone else...although it would be nice to find a local temple, and I will probably do so in the near future, I don't feel that is is necessary. But if that's what feels right to you, then go for it!
Well thanks once again for all the support.