Buddhist communities and institutions, even with the best of motivations, can often be harmful if led or dominated by people who have not directly realised emptiness and great compassion. As a community of fellow Dharma students, fine. As a genuine refuge, proceed with great care and discernment! :) When we take refuge, it is not in the sangha in general; it is in the Sangha Gem. The Sangha and the Sangha Gem are different. To go in that safe direction of the Sangha Gem, we obviously have to know what it is. That is the danger of calling a community of people in the Dharma center “sangha,” because if we don’t know clearly what the Sangha Gem is, we might think it refers to the people in our Dharma center. Then, if that community disappoints us, or acts improperly, we might lose our refuge thinking, “This is not at all something trustworthy. The same can happen if we think that the Sangha Gem refers just to monks and nuns, because there can be monks and nuns who are quite disturbed emotionally and we might think, “How can I take refuge in them?” So that is not what the Sangha Gem refers to either. That is why, in order to really take safe direction, it is very important to identify correctly what we actually mean by the “Sangha Gem.” berzinarchives/web/en/archives/approaching_buddhism/modern_adaptation/recommendations/buddhism_west/meaning_sangha_advice_dharma_centers.html
Posted on: Sun, 29 Jun 2014 11:08:35 +0000