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What Is the Sangha: The Nature of Spiritual Community
The usual image of the Buddha is of a man seated alone, deep in meditation. So it can be a surprise to find that Buddhism gives great importance to the Sangha, the spiritual community. Some may feel that their guru or teacher is all that they need. To others, the idea of sharing their inner and outer lives, triumphs and disappointments, with others can seem a challenge or even a threat. But the spiritual community is not about unthinking conformity or belonging to a comfortable group. Rather, it is the free association of developing individuals choosing to help each other along the path. To explore the nature of the spiritual community is also to examine what makes us true individuals. This exploration ranges from our relationships with spiritual teachers through our friends, family and fellow workers to the benefits the spiritual community can offer to the wider world.
- GenresBuddhismNonfiction
288 pages, Paperback
First published August 1, 2004
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About the author
Sangharakshita
205 books76 followersSangharakshita was born Dennis Lingwood in South London, in 1925. Largely self-educated, he developed an interest in the cultures and philosophies of the East early on, and realized that he was a Buddhist at the age of sixteen.
The Second World War took him, as a conscript, to India, where he stayed on to become the Buddhist monk Sangharakshita. After studying for some years under leading teachers from the major Buddhist traditions, he went on to teach and write extensively. He also played a key part in the revival of Buddhism in India, particularly through his work among followers of Dr B.R. Ambedkar.
After twenty years in the East, he returned to England to establish the Friends of the Western Buddhist Order in 1967, and the Western Buddhist Order in 1968 (now known as the Triratna Buddhist Community and the Triratna Buddhist Order respectively).
Sangharakshita has always particularly emphasized the decisive significance of commitment in the spiritual life, the paramount value of spiritual friendship and community, the link between religion and art, and the need for a ‘new society’ supportive of spiritual aspirations and ideas.
In recent years Sangharakshita has been handing on most of his responsibilities to his senior disciples in the Order. Based at the Adhisthana retreat centre in Herefordshire UK, he is now focusing on personal contact with people. For more, go to www.sangharakshita.org.
A collection of 27 volumes will represent the definitive edition of his life’s work as a Buddhist writer and teacher. Find out more about The Complete Works of Sangharakshita
A series of talks by Sangharakshita: ‘Launch of The Essential Sangharakshita and Living Ethically’.
The Second World War took him, as a conscript, to India, where he stayed on to become the Buddhist monk Sangharakshita. After studying for some years under leading teachers from the major Buddhist traditions, he went on to teach and write extensively. He also played a key part in the revival of Buddhism in India, particularly through his work among followers of Dr B.R. Ambedkar.
After twenty years in the East, he returned to England to establish the Friends of the Western Buddhist Order in 1967, and the Western Buddhist Order in 1968 (now known as the Triratna Buddhist Community and the Triratna Buddhist Order respectively).
Sangharakshita has always particularly emphasized the decisive significance of commitment in the spiritual life, the paramount value of spiritual friendship and community, the link between religion and art, and the need for a ‘new society’ supportive of spiritual aspirations and ideas.
In recent years Sangharakshita has been handing on most of his responsibilities to his senior disciples in the Order. Based at the Adhisthana retreat centre in Herefordshire UK, he is now focusing on personal contact with people. For more, go to www.sangharakshita.org.
A collection of 27 volumes will represent the definitive edition of his life’s work as a Buddhist writer and teacher. Find out more about The Complete Works of Sangharakshita
A series of talks by Sangharakshita: ‘Launch of The Essential Sangharakshita and Living Ethically’.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
September 5, 2020
This is a significant, ambitious and strange book which was never meant to be a book in the first place. It is, in fact, a transcription of different talks Sangharakshita gave over more than twenty years, arranged in a loosely coherent way by the original editor.
The reason I believe it is of historical significance lies in the role Sangharakshita himself had in spreading Buddhism to the West. The last century has seen a steady stream of Westerners coming back from the East keen to share what they learned during their stay. When it comes to Buddhism, most of them “simply” (although obviously it’s not simple at all) exported their favorite strand of Buddhism back home just as they absorbed it in the East; that’s how you end up having Thai Forest Tradition monasteries in the outskirts of London — which is great, though I find it a bit funny.
Sangharakshita, on the other hand, took it upon himself to do something immensely more ambitious when he started no less than a new Western (Buddhist) Tradition; and regardless of what you think of the order he founded, the man deserves praise if only for the courage he showed by even thinking of doing something like that.
Incidentally, this is historically in line with how Buddhism evolved and spread ever since its early days in India: far from being a static tradition, Buddhism has always been sort of "translated” according to the particular Weltanschauung of the country of adoption. For example, when Buddhism first arrived to China it found a tradition that was already 2,000 years old, and what eventually became Zen Buddhism in Japan was heavily influenced by Taoism and the Chinese tradition in its broadest sense. Sangharakshita’s attempt can be seen, at its best, as a way of pushing forward the evolution of Buddhism by tailoring it to a new landscape.
And here we come to the focal point of this book, which revolves around the question: how do you even start a new Tradition?
Sangharakshita’s answer is: you begin by building a Sangha, a Spiritual Community. And being a community of Westerners, in the West, it needs to draw (also) from Western Culture if it wants to be meaningful to the locals.
This way, for example, the traditional Buddhist concept of breaking the Ten Fetters is explained in terms of “horizontal integration”, a process that clearly echoes Jung’s Individuation; the Arya Sangha becomes the Spiritual Community of the True Individuals, with a touch of Nietzsche to it — Sangharakshita actually goes as far as to draw comparisons between the Will to Power with the Bodhicitta; and throughout the chapters what shines through is Sangharakshita the thinker, his appreciation for the arts as a fundamental aid to the spiritual life, his ideas on the role the Spiritual Community could play in changing the World, some interesting historical digressions, and much more that is not, strictly speaking, found anywhere in traditional Eastern Buddhism.
The key fact to bare in mind is that this isn't an intellectual exercise in bridging different cultures. The emphasis throughout the book is practical rather than theoretical: how do we start a Spiritual Community in the modern West? How do we avoid its degeneration into organized religion? What is the nature of authority within the Spiritual Community? — these are the questions underpinning the various chapters, and as we are largely in uncharted territories there is just as much of Sangharakshita’s own thinking as there is Buddhism.
To sum up, this was never meant to be a polished, academic work. The man was literally trying to change the world, and to an extent he did. In a sense, this can be read as a transcript of that attempt; how long his legacy will last for, only time will tell.
The reason I believe it is of historical significance lies in the role Sangharakshita himself had in spreading Buddhism to the West. The last century has seen a steady stream of Westerners coming back from the East keen to share what they learned during their stay. When it comes to Buddhism, most of them “simply” (although obviously it’s not simple at all) exported their favorite strand of Buddhism back home just as they absorbed it in the East; that’s how you end up having Thai Forest Tradition monasteries in the outskirts of London — which is great, though I find it a bit funny.
Sangharakshita, on the other hand, took it upon himself to do something immensely more ambitious when he started no less than a new Western (Buddhist) Tradition; and regardless of what you think of the order he founded, the man deserves praise if only for the courage he showed by even thinking of doing something like that.
Incidentally, this is historically in line with how Buddhism evolved and spread ever since its early days in India: far from being a static tradition, Buddhism has always been sort of "translated” according to the particular Weltanschauung of the country of adoption. For example, when Buddhism first arrived to China it found a tradition that was already 2,000 years old, and what eventually became Zen Buddhism in Japan was heavily influenced by Taoism and the Chinese tradition in its broadest sense. Sangharakshita’s attempt can be seen, at its best, as a way of pushing forward the evolution of Buddhism by tailoring it to a new landscape.
And here we come to the focal point of this book, which revolves around the question: how do you even start a new Tradition?
Sangharakshita’s answer is: you begin by building a Sangha, a Spiritual Community. And being a community of Westerners, in the West, it needs to draw (also) from Western Culture if it wants to be meaningful to the locals.
This way, for example, the traditional Buddhist concept of breaking the Ten Fetters is explained in terms of “horizontal integration”, a process that clearly echoes Jung’s Individuation; the Arya Sangha becomes the Spiritual Community of the True Individuals, with a touch of Nietzsche to it — Sangharakshita actually goes as far as to draw comparisons between the Will to Power with the Bodhicitta; and throughout the chapters what shines through is Sangharakshita the thinker, his appreciation for the arts as a fundamental aid to the spiritual life, his ideas on the role the Spiritual Community could play in changing the World, some interesting historical digressions, and much more that is not, strictly speaking, found anywhere in traditional Eastern Buddhism.
The key fact to bare in mind is that this isn't an intellectual exercise in bridging different cultures. The emphasis throughout the book is practical rather than theoretical: how do we start a Spiritual Community in the modern West? How do we avoid its degeneration into organized religion? What is the nature of authority within the Spiritual Community? — these are the questions underpinning the various chapters, and as we are largely in uncharted territories there is just as much of Sangharakshita’s own thinking as there is Buddhism.
To sum up, this was never meant to be a polished, academic work. The man was literally trying to change the world, and to an extent he did. In a sense, this can be read as a transcript of that attempt; how long his legacy will last for, only time will tell.
May 26, 2025
A Title to Read and Reread
I have read this several times as I continue my spiritual journey and the content is so rich and profound there is always a new teaching to be acquired. Although this is often the case with Sangharakshita’s work, it is particularly so for me with this title. Although with such a huge volume of writings, there is likely to be another delight yet discovered!
I have read this several times as I continue my spiritual journey and the content is so rich and profound there is always a new teaching to be acquired. Although this is often the case with Sangharakshita’s work, it is particularly so for me with this title. Although with such a huge volume of writings, there is likely to be another delight yet discovered!
November 4, 2017
Especially brilliant material on Gratitude, and A Buddhist Response to World Problems
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews