Sanghas transcend human experience
Need refuge? Find it in Sanghas, branches of the root of the Buddhist way of life, give solace and connection. Approximately 15 are in the Pikes Peak region of the Colorado Springs, CO area.
The branch of Shambala warriors believe compassion and intellect will dismantle the mental weapons made by humans to heal the world.
”Part of the way that humans are is self-importance. I am still working on it,” said Sister Ayya Dhammadhira (picture above at Buddha Day June 2, 2018), alms mendicant bhikkhuni of Web of Connection, a nonprofit organization with a sangha. “Buddha praised spiritual friendship. It is about half, Buddha said do not say that it is all of it.”
Sangha is group meditation and discussion is dharma, translated as the way of nature, Buddha nature. Buddha listened to many stories in the manner of a counselor or therapist.
On the interface of Buddhism and psychotherapy: “Buddha is the world first psychologist. He encompassed trauma in the Four noble truths,” said Mark Epstine, M.D., author of Going to Pieces Without Falling Apart: A Buddhist Perspective on Wholeness. “Duka is his diagnosis of the human condition. Duka is suffering and pervasive un-satisfactoriness. Life is unsatisfactory, because it is fleeting and unpredictable. His description protects the ego from unbearable conditions.”
Sitting in sangha and engaging in dharma, simply being a gift of light, often bringing experiences, similar to water sitting in a glass:
“For me the glass is already broken. I enjoy drinking out of it and it holds the water. It reflects the water,” Epstine says. “If I put it on a shelf and it is knocked, it shatters and breaks. When I understand that this glass is already broken, every minute with it is precious. Facing the brokenness of life, allows to appreciate it’s preciousness.”