Tag Archives: sangha

Daily Buddhism

Is A Sangha Necessary?

A reader writes:

Just found your website. Thank you for putting such great content available for all to see. I got into Buddhism because of a friend. She is part of the NKT and that’s all the Buddhism that I know. Due to their dispute and protests, I no longer want to be involved with the NKT. I would like to continue my studies. How do I pick a buddhist lineage to follow? How can you learn about Buddhism without a sangha?

My Response:

I discussed the debate over the NKT (Lamas, Geshes and Cults… It’s the NKT!) last year, and nothing has really changed there. The organization has some problems with its image, to say the least.

I did a brief overview of most of the major denominations back in 2008. Here are the links:

Denominations of Buddhism: Theravada & Mahayana

Denominations of Buddhism: Pure Land

Denominations of Buddhism: Vajrayana / Tantric

Denominations of Buddhism: Tibetan

Zen, Part one and Zen, Part two as well as Zen, Part three and Zen, part four

Just from the number of links above, you can probably guess where I’m coming from. If you are seriously looking for a local church/sanga, you are most likely going to find many that follow the Pure Land or Tibetan traditions; at least those are the ones I see most commonly in the Midwestern USA.

One of the three Jewels (The Buddha, The Sangha, and the Dharma) is obviously the “Sangha.” This has traditionally meant the local Buddhist community. In our Western minds, this often translates to “Church,” but this is not really correct. Any gathering, grouping, or community (in the real-world OR online) of Buddhists can be considered a Sangha.

Your best bet if you cannot find a local sangha, or don’t like the teachings of the ones that are nearby, is to go it alone. This is completely possible, since we have the greatest method of learning and teaching ever created right in front of our faces. The Internet is your friend. Watch Youtube videos. Listen to podcasts. Buy/Borrow books. Join forums. You can be as interactive or as isolated as you desire.

Back in ancient times (like pre–2000), it was necessary to have a local sangha or teacher to advance, since there was very little in the way of non-face-to-face interaction between Buddhists, and the material that was out there was poorly translated or difficult to understand. You could order books and pamphlets, but nothing like it is now. You want a live, real, face-to-face teacher? Facetime and Hangouts make that easily possible.

Can you teach yourself Buddhism? Up to a point, yes. Can you advance a long ways using just the Internet? I believe you can. Can you reach Enlightenment on Facebook? OK, that last one might be stretching it, but I believe that it’s entirely possible to do it from home.

Daily Buddhism

Buddhist Temples

7 Comments

Question:

Hello, I am a teenager who was raised a Catholic and now looks towards Buddhism. My question is, is there a specific day to go to temple? Much like the Christian Sunday masses? Also, can you please tell me what goes on at a temple? If I visit one, what goes on during a ceremony? Thank you for the podcasts and the daily emails- they’ve helped me understand a lot!

Answer:

Buddhist Sabbath Day:

From my own experience, most temples are open for services on Sunday. Here in the West, that’s probably just due to tradition; the majority of people are Christians and have always gone to church on Sunday, and that’s spilled over into Buddhism as well. I noticed the same thing while I was in Japan; most people went on Sunday morning. This may simply be because that’s when they have time off from work. There is no particular “Sabbath Day” in Buddhism.

What does a small Buddhist church/temple do?

I’ve been to some of the oldest temples in Japan, and things are quite different over there, but I assume you want to know about local American/Western temples and churches. So I’ll talk about the local Dayton area sangha:

Here in Dayton, Ohio, the only temple is a very small Tibetan place. On Saturday they offer beginning meditation lessons and on Sunday, they have regular services. They are closed the rest of the week unless they have something special planned.

  • On Sunday morning. people arrive and some do prostrations to the statues and pictures, while others just go sit on a cushion.
  • Then there is a short dharma discussion, led by a member of the sangha; there is no priest, monk, guru, or any kind of leader at this place. Although they regularly host guest teachers, they are mostly just a group of laypeople.
  • After the dharma talk, there is about 25 minutes of silent group meditation.
  • Then they read from a little booklet, The 37 Practices of Bodhisattvas and they read all 37 of them in unison which takes about ten minutes. Some people read from the little booklet, while others have memorized it.
  • After this, they do Green Tara, which is a form of chanting meditation. They recite in English and Tibetan. After several pages of simply reading the text, they come to a point where the Tibetan is ‚ÄúOm Tare Tutare Ture Svaha‚Äù which they repeatedly chant for nearly twenty minutes. I believe it’s 108 repetitions, once for every bead on a set of mala beads.
  • Then they pray for the Dalai Lama and the Rinpoche who originally set up the sangha years ago, and then they all go home.

And that’s pretty much it. They vary the Dharma talk every week, but it’s mostly something along those lines. That’s the local group here, although I suspect Tibetan groups do something pretty similar everywhere. Obviously, I have been to this temple, but I personally don’t embrace the Tibetan route. I prefer Zen, but that’s not really an option around here.

Perhaps others could describe what goes on in their local sanghas in the comment section.

Daily Buddhism

The Sangha Situation: Nowhere to Go

4 Comments

————————————————————————————————————
A Reader recently wrote:
————————————————————————————————————

I’ve been wondering, since I’m in a non-buddhist area, what could I substitute?

So I’ve started going to church, Christian church, so that I can get involved in a religious society and serve for the better.

I haven’t told anyone at the church yet that I’m actually a Buddhist, and I’m deciding the best way to do this.

It’s a non-denominational church so I think they would be more open.

It just seems I need to have sangha to complete the 3 jewels. Any suggestions?

Thank you

————————————————————————————————————
My Response:
————————————————————————————————————

Many Christian churches wouldn’t support that; some might even outright condemn you. Some churches may accept it, but only you are in a position to judge. If you do tell them, don’t be surprised if they give you the cold shoulder. They may not, but you have to consider that they might. If they do accept you, then you have to work on reconciling the two systems (Christianity/Buddhism) in your own mind, but that’s a post for another time.

This “Sangha Situation” seems to come up a lot here in the West. There just isn’t anywhere for a lot of Buddhists to go. The wide availability of books, broadcasting, and the Internet are causing Buddhism to grow in places where the tradition Buddhist support structures just don’t exist.

“Taking refuge in the sangha” does not necessarily mean you have to go to church every week.

Technically, the word “sangha” translates to “community,” not necessarily “church,” although it’s often interpreted that way. You can do your service in nearly any capacity that serves other people. There are almost certainly many opportunities to volunteer in your area that don’t have anything to do with a church. If you are helping remove suffering in some way, there is nothing more Buddhist than that.

It would be nice if you had a regular Buddhist group to meet with, but that’s simply not possible in many areas in the West. For Buddhist discussions and community, many people turn to the Internet. It’s not a perfect substitute for “live” contact, but you can learn and teach and support others, and that’s really what a “sangha” is all about.

Good luck, and let me know if I can help further. If anyone reading this has further suggestions, please post them below.

.

Want to learn to ease the suffering in this world while improving your overall health? http://www.veganbulletin.com
.