Thursday, March 24, 2016

The Practice of Sangha (2)

Read deeply the following Thay's teaching on "The Practice of Sangha". http://www.lionsroar.com/the-practice-of-sangha/
The followings are the excerpts.

Quote:
The presence of a sangha is a wonderful opportunity to allow the collective energy of the sangha to penetrate into our body and consciousness. We profit a lot from that collective energy. We can entrust ourselves to the sangha because the sangha is practicing, and the collective energy of mindfulness is strong. ... But if you know how to use that energy of mindfulness in order to receive the collective energy of the sangha, you will have a powerful source of energy for your transformation and healing.

Your body, your consciousness, and your environment are like a garden. ... When members of your sangha come into your garden, they can help you see that you still have a lot of beautiful trees and that you can enjoy the things that have not gone wrong within your landscape. That is the role that the sangha can play. ... When their energy of mindfulness is combined with yours, you will be able to touch beauty and happiness.

Nothing is more important than your peace and happiness in the here and now. ... Make good use of your time; practice touching the positive aspects of life in you and around you.

Don’t lock yourself behind your door and fight alone. If you think that by yourself you cannot go back to embrace strong feelings, you can ask one, two or three friends to sit next to you and to help you with their support. They can give you mindfulness energy so that you can go back home with strength. They can say, “My brother, I know that the pain in you is very deep, and I am here for you.

Abandoned, alone, you get lost, you get carried away. So taking refuge in the sangha is a very deep practice, especially for those of us who feel vulnerable, shaky, agitated and unstable. ... You allow the sangha to transport you like a boat so that you can cross the ocean of sorrow.

If we have a boat, we can carry our pain and sorrow, and we will not sink into the river of suffering. And what is that boat? That boat is, first of all, the energy of mindfulness that you generate by your practice. That boat is also the sangha—the community of practice consisting of brothers and sisters in the dharma.

But we have to walk on the path of joy with our suffering, we have to share joy with our brothers and sisters. ... Allow yourself to be supported, to be held by the sangha. When you allow yourself to be in a sangha the way a drop of water allows itself to be in a river, the energy of the sangha can penetrate into you, and transformation and healing will become possible.
:Unquote

(My commentary)
The collective energy of mindfulness is much stronger than individual energy of mindfulness. And the collective energy of mindfulness can be generated only in the sangha. So, it is much better to practice together with sangha brothers and sisters than to practice alone.

(Cf.) http://compassion5151.blogspot.jp/2015/10/notice-of-building-awakening-sangha.html
http://compassion5151.blogspot.jp/2016/01/notice-of-session-format-change-of.html

Sangha of Plum Village