Sangha...or, Another Wonderful Google

One more wonderful use for Google - you can use it to find like-minded people and groups in your own back yard. Driving, trying to tell a friend on the phone about my meditation group, I couldn't recall the exact address and instead told him to just Google it

Been going to my sangha more regularly for the past couple of months. Last night I was pleasantly surprised to see an old professional acquaintance, and to learn during the dharma talk that another person there was also a new mom. I loved this, as I often worked for years in non-profits, have struggled with how to reconcile my desire for social change with the buddhist admonition to look deeply and not judge. And I've written a bit here about the natural tension between the daily demands of parenting conflicting with the ideal practice.

I have a wonderful sangha, in the tradition of Thich Nhat Hahn, in which we meditate for a half hour and then have a structured dharma discussion. I have been going for about five years, off and on, and always enjoy the dharma talks. (Since I've been back lately I've remembered what I think of as the "performance anxiety" of meditating with other people. I never have to swallow this much at home...) It is very structured, with each person taking a turn to speak about their practice or their life, in turn. It is not a conversation - one person talks; everyone else listens. Everyone has their different pace, and style, and content. Sometimes I feel I am off stride, sometimes it is easy and fluid. I've often been deeply impressed by the things other people are going through, things you would never guess.

In a way it's like dating was, for me, after my divorce: something you had to go through in order to experience it; to experience yourself in relation to other people. You gain an insight from being there that's not possible by simply reading or studying, however deeply.

Sometimes I circle back to thinking about how important the sangha is in many traditions - the need for the support of community of like-minded people. It makes sense, completely, to recognize the need for eyes and minds other than your own.