• Table of Contents
  • Kalyana Mitra Lecture #1 by Swami Veda Bharati
  • Svadhyaya by Swami Rama
  • Cultural Activities by SRSG Children by Chandramani
  • Yoga and Science Retreat by Rajah Indran
  • TTP Students' Sangha by Beatrix Dekkers and Jim Fraser
  • The Hazel Diaries V by Roxanne Currie
  • A Labour of Love by Michael Smith
  • Musing by Jyoti Gerlitz
  • The Gifts of Silence by Aditi M Gaur
  • Gayatri Marx, a Dear Friend Moves On by Randall Krause
  • Go-Shala at SRSG Campus by Swami Veda Bharati
  • 2014 Events and Beyond
  • Full Moon Meditation Dates
  • Location of our SRSG ashram
• AHYMSIN Newsletter Archive

TTP Students' Sangha

by Beatrix Dekkers and Jim Fraser

In TTP level 2, it is required to form a Sangha group and maintain it for at least 20 hours.  A group of Level 2 students have maintained a Sangha well beyond the time span prescribed in the curriculum and it was suggested that it would make an interesting article for the AHYMSIN newsletter. Two of the Sangha members volunteered to write an article suggesting why their Sangha has continued in the hope that the article may help other students in setting up and maintaining a Sangha.

What is a Sangha? – Beatrix

When being asked together with Jim to write an article about our Sangha group, I was inspired to investigate the origin of the Sangha. Here are a few things I found.

In Wikipedia ‘sangha’ is explained as ‘satsanga’ (sat = true, sanga = company).

The term ‘sangha’ was originally introduced by Buddha but it is unlikely that the congregation of people with a like mind and sharing a spiritual goal was new in Buddha’s time.  In Buddhism the Sangha is regarded as one of the Three Jewels: Buddha, Dharma and Sangha.

The term refers to an assembly of persons who listen to, talk about and assimilate the truth.  This typically involves listening to or reading scriptures, reflecting on, discussing and assimilating their meaning, meditating on the source of these words, and bringing their meaning into one’s daily life. It is mainly in this last meaning that we participate in a Sangha group.

Wikipedia also states that the idea of satsanga was first spread by ancient rishis such as Vedavyasa and Valmiki.

The Christian mission thinks in similar terms as we find in the Bible: “Where two or three are gathered in my name, I shall be present” Matthew 18:20.

In India it is the Guru mind which is present.

Generally in every spiritual tradition there are three main components: the underlying philosophy, the methodology which opens the mind to the spirit of the philosophy and  the community of like minded associates who maintain the living tradition and its relevance amongst the community and more widely in society.

In discussions of what a Sangha is, the importance of choosing one’s company carefully is emphasised. H.H. Swami Shantananda Saraswati, former Shankaracharya of Jyotir Math, named it ‘good company’. Good company being persons who are going in the same direction, who inspire you and help you to reach your spiritual goal.  In the Maharamayana it is stated that ‘A wise man avoids the company of unknowing persons in the early stages of the path.’  One is influenced by persons around you in gross and subtle ways so the Sangha in all likelihood will consist of people who can bring greater harmony into their lives by sharing.  What is very interesting within the inner life of the Sangha is the realisation of what is called “harmonic resonance”. It has to do with the fact that everything is vibration and we human beings have our own frequency. In the book The Whole Elephant Revealed by Marja de Vries, the example is given of two violins which are tuned in the same way. If one violin string is struck, the other one responds and picks up the same sound.  In the same way where there are different vibrations one vibration can gradually change the other so there is harmony.

Swami Veda in describing the role of teacher and student differentiates it from the typical relationship between teacher and student in a yoga class. This qualitative difference you find too in the Sangha.

“In the Tradition which I come from we don't teach these things to a class; we teach them to a group of devotees.  Do you know the difference between the two?  In teaching to a group of devotees there is an emotional relationship.  It is not what goes on the blackboard or is copied in a notebook.  It is a group of people who are seeking, longing for Truth, not longing for facts. 

A class is taught at the level of perception and mental experience.  A group of devotees meets on the level of mental experience and realization.  They are to be moved to the goal they are seeking.  ‘Goal’ is the wrong word, but there is no other word. 

It is, first of all, a relationship.  The wisdom is not in facts written on the blackboard.  It is a mobilizing of consciousness which is not done through a method in the head, but through emotion in the heart.”

• Swami Veda Bharati in the lecture series Understanding Human Personality (1976)

Swami Veda in Sadhana in Applied Spirituality emphasises the role of Ahimsa and the Brahma Viharas in the Sangha.  It is particularly important for yogis and yoginis within the Tradition to understand their importance so they know what is an acceptable outlook to share.

“Ahimsa – non-violence                                                            

Maitri (Buddhist metta), amity towards all beings, based on the principles of Karuna, compassion, seeing the difficulties of others as one’s own and helping them out with that attitude,

Mudita, joyfulness at others’ progress in virtue (such as developing positive sentiments that replace the negative ones),

Upeksha, indifference to the weaknesses or failures of others, so that one encourages them to discover their own stronger areas of character, capacity and genius.”                                                                                 

From http://ahymsin.org/main/swami-veda-bharati/sadhana-in-applied-spirituality.html

We TTP students are concerned first of all with the sharing of our learning experiences within the Tradition; however that may become a model for the further realisation of the underlying Sangha principles in other areas of one’s life in due course.

In this way human beings can influence each other and in a Sangha where we are tuned in, we gradually create a common mind-field.  We come back to the computer each week and dial up on Skype but the sense of the common mind-field will come to subsist in our life more generally.

The practical Sangha - Jim

The TTP course is very well thought out with an emphasis on learning to develop sensitivity to the inward perspective, antar mukha.  If you are stuck on your own with at least twelve months of work and with no yoga contact of a similar kind except with your mentor, then to be able to share experiences and discuss aspects of the Tradition with other like minded people has to be a big big advantage.  It is an additional reason for supporting a Sangha that this method is a historically proven method for bringing like minded people together as we learn from Beatrix above.  The Sangha is a central activity for learning and support and as such it is a means for keeping to the path.

At the ashram in Rishikesh Maryon [Maass] didn’t waste any time in enthusing the class,  and we were divided into geographical groups: Europe, the Americas and Asia.  It’s quite a thought that the students’ Sanghas would together span the world.  Our Sangha has people in Russia, Turkey, Hungary, Holland, England and Scotland.  It clearly ignores conventional borders as Turkey and Russia are included in Europe.

In places where the Tradition is well established, as in Budapest, people are able to meet face to face.  Where this is not possible, the other means of meeting is by Skype. For some groups, the practical success of the Sangha will depend on Skype unless the group has perfected the power to communicate otherwise across space.  Technology permits cross border collaboration thus providing the opportunity to meet, to share and thereby host a meeting of minds.  It is tempting to speculate that the development of Western technology has permitted the propagation of a greater wisdom than it is in itself capable.  Our Sangha uses Skype so the following discussion may not be wholly applicable to all groups.

Gradually participation in the Sangha develops closer friendship and fellowship.  Not everybody is interested in the profound teachings of yoga and it may be that the Sangha is the only place where you feel able to share your deepest thoughts about yoga and what it means to you.  The willingness to participate is of primary importance.  Don’t be shy.  And there are some other practical considerations which we have learned as we proceeded and which may be of help to others starting up.

• A collection of everybody’s emails should be made and everybody should be sure of knowing each other’s names.  One person should be nominated or volunteered or coerced to be the secretary with responsibility to contact everybody once back home. 
• Agree a day and time for each Sangha meeting.  Once a week is probably sufficient.  This can take a bit of negotiating as there are different time zones to take into account and people’s availability.  It may be the case that people can’t make the Sangha meeting each time. 
• The nominated secretary should take minutes of the Sangha business.  A simple list of headings of topics discussed is sufficient together with any remarks.  Perhaps the secretary should be someone who finds it easy to write in the English language.  The role of secretary can be rotated if that is preferred.  The secretary’s tasks would include:
• Making initial contact with everybody by email
• Encouraging members to join Skype and to distribute their Skype identities
• Making a short record of each meeting and distributing these
• Arranging a date for each subsequent meeting
• The Sangha will thrive provided there is a core of committed members.  As with most meetings it is best if there is a quorum, say of three people.  On some occasions only two may dial up, it’s still a Sangha to them.  I have had several pleasant conversations in this way.
• To get Skype to work, each member of the Sangha should make up a Call Group with the other Skype identities.  If you call up an individual who is already talking on Skype as an individual rather than as part of the Sangha group, then your contact will replace the original.  That might not make you popular.  Once a Call Group is created on Skype when you click the ‘group,’ Skype then calls each member in rotation and any member who has already logged in will get a notice that a new member has asked to join and one click allows permission.  It is very simple.  A webcam takes up too much bandwidth, so it is best to cancel it on the Sangha.
• Don’t concentrate on doing the hours to meet the course requirements.  You are not prisoners doing time.  If you are positive, then the Sangha will flourish beyond any required hours because you will enjoy it and benefit from it.

Conclusion

Swami Veda states that the Sangha is a community of spiritual seekers. Members operate as a unit and are called ‘kalyana mitras,’ or ‘spirituals friends’. As our Sangha has developed over the months, it is clear that a strong commitment and sympathy is growing between the members. Each Sangha will develop its own chemistry.  Swami Veda describes the genesis and consummation of the Sangha:

“A community is a single mind-field in which the stabilized personal minds, the stabilized lives of individuals, are as soft, gentle ripples in a calm lake.

If the individual minds are not stabilized, the individual lives do not become stabilized.  If there are instabilities in life, they are so, not because your circumstances are unstable, but because your minds are unstable. With a stable mind, you can stabilize all external circumstances.

So the chain is as follows:

• When you stabilize your personal mind,
• Your personal lives become stabilized.
• People thus stabilized become part of a larger mind-field,
• A mind-field thus stabilized is called an organization or a sangha.

Let us use the word sangha, for it is a term used for a spiritually-oriented community. You are all aspiring and part of this global network of spirituality in the Tradition”’

From ‘The Spiritual Festival Guidelines’ (2009) by Swami Veda Bharati

Editor’s Note:

TTP refers to the “Himalayan Yoga Tradition – Teacher Training Program” (HYT-TTP). The HYT-TTP website: http://www.himalayanyogatradition.com/