While I was on retreat recently, one of the teachers reflected back to me how important the three Buddhist refuges are: refuge in the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. She mentioned that the sangha wasn’t just everyone that I practiced with, but was really those people who knew something about the path or who were sincerely committed. This point really resonated with me, as I have been seeing sangha in this light for some time now.
Sangha is a really interesting phenomona, because it doesn’t just apply to contemplative communities, but to pretty much any endeavor where there is a path of mastery. One of the most striking examples, of where I’ve seen sangha make an incredible difference in my life, was during my teen years when I was an avid bowler. Every weekend, for many years, I would go bowl for several hours as part of a teen league. Over the years I progressively got better, learned new things, and eventually averaged around 170/game. This was fairly good for my age group, but my bowling game went to a whole new level when I met a young fellow named Ted.
Ted was several years older than me, and he was one of the best bowlers in the region. His average was probably around 210-220 and he was on the regional PBA tour. In other words, he was a pro. I started hanging out with Ted a lot, watching him bowl, bowling with him, and going to tournaments where he’d compete with a bunch of other professionals. I did that for a couple of months, and then he encouraged me to join the single men’s league at the bowling alley we hung out at. This was the cream of the crop league, and I was pretty scared to join, as I thought I wouldn’t be up for the challenge. But since I’d started hanging out with him my game had increased dramatically, and I was now regularly bowling 200+ games. In fact, my average, in the teen league, had jumped at least 10 points since I started hanging out with him. I decided I’d take the risk and join the men’s league, and with his recommendation, I was accepted. Amazingly during that season my average jumped above 200, meaning that of all the games that I bowled I was consistently bowling at least 200 a game! Looking back I am in utter awe of how powerful sangha, and the appropriate challenge, was to my game.
When I apply this insight to meditation practice, the correlations are somewhat startling. I realize now that by speaking, studying, and practicing with the “meditation pros” I have had a similar jump in my practice. I’ve been able to master certain states and stages of the path, have been able to recognize and overcome subtle obstacles, and have quickly come to understand many aspects of the dharma that seemed completely shrouded to me only a few years ago. I owe almost all of the credit for that to the fantastic people with whom I’ve associated, who have encouraged me with extremely high standards, and who have challenged me to really put these things into practice, and who have shared the results of their own journeys with me. Teachers like Daniel Ingram and Jack Kornfield have supported me in so many ways, as have the numerous other teachers and practitioners I’ve spoken with.
Had I not met these people, and had I not associated with the most competent sangha I could find, I’m sure that things would not have been the way they have. I suspect I would have made progress, and learned things about practice, but I very much doubt it would have been at the same rate. And at some point I may have actually stumbled off of the path, accepted way less from myself than I was capable of and plateaued, or simply lost interest in the path. This is what happens if we don’t have uncompromising aspirations, don’t spend time in the time chamber, and discover what the mystics throughout all the ages have been pointing to. Of course, we don’t have to have this as an aspiration, but for those that do, let’s not forget the power of real sangha.
