Community Mindfulness Meditation

Śānti Sangha, our community of meditation practitioners, meets Sunday Mornings (except first Sunday of the month) by donation ($5 and up).

Doors open, 8:15 am. Practice period, 8:30 to 9:20 am.
Please, no late entrance to the meditation studio.

Proceeds from all donations benefit the Practice for a Cure Foundation (www.practiceforacure.org)

Our community of practitioners (the Śānti Sangha) practices mindfulness in the tradition of Thich Nhat Hanh and Plum Village. Each week, we begin by reciting one of the Five Mindfulness Trainings together, followed by two formal practice periods—the first, with light instruction, the second, in silence. Between the two periods of sitting, we engage in either walking meditation or the 10 Mindful Movements. Following the second practice period, the leader provides a reading related to the weekly topic, followed by dharma discussion.

Our intention is the cultivation of the energy of mindfulness, in order that we might bring awareness and peace not only to our own lives, but to the world. We ask that any merits arising from our practice together be of benefit to all beings.

For more information, email or call Chris at santisangha@yahoo.com or at (978) 352-8787.

The Śānti Sangha strives to observe the Five Precepts (or 'Mindfulness Trainings') found in the Buddhist teachings:

1. abstaining from violence, from taking life;
2. abstaining from taking what is not freely given;
3. abstaining from sexual misconduct, honoring the sacred bonds of marriage and family;
4. abstaining from false speech;
5. abstaining from ingesting toxins, in whatever their form, which poison the body, mind and spirit.

The precepts are not commandments imposed from without, but principles of training each practitioner takes upon him or herself through his or her own initiative and strives to follow with awareness and understanding, mindfully. The precepts are behavioral guidelines, tools, which we utilize each and every day, by which to navigate the tide of greed, hatred, and delusion, as a self-responsible means for self-transformation. Our commitment to the precepts aid the process by which our unwholesome mental states, kilesa—our defilements—are replaced with wholesome states, which become more ingrained the more that we practice. That is, our habitual patterns of conditioned behaviors and thoughts come to be replaced with new behaviors and new thoughts. Training is repetitive, practice is repeated again and again, with kindness, compassion and persistence. Training involves a simple imaginative exercise—putting ourselves in the place of another, and then deciding whether or not to follow a particular course of action. What we come to understand is that we are all connected, and are all the same; that what is pleasant and painful to us is also pleasant and painful to others; thus just as we would not want others to cause pain for us, so we should not cause pain for others.

Underlying all these duties and all these trainings, lie the four attitudes, the "immeasurables" — loving-kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity.

Why practice as a group, a Sangha?

When we gather to practice together, we gain sustenance, strength, and insight from each other. For those of us who are new to the practice, we draw upon the energy and persistence of those who have gone before us. Together, we let go of the sense of individuation and separation that marks our suffering as self alone, and relax into the collective warmth of our community of like-minded practitioners. The Sangha is our refuge, and thus we must endeavor to establish connections with those around us, from whom we draw energy, willingness and persistence. We establish a refuge, founded on peace, harmony and the practice of mindfulness, our family, and we might then share this peace, harmony and mindful living with the larger Sangha—our families, our friends, our co-workers, our community, our world.

If you cannot find your way to practice with us, the following might aid your on your journey:

Observe the precepts.

Moral conduct — codified in Buddhism as the five precepts — is the absolute bedrock of spiritual progress. Get to know the five precepts/trainings well and make an effort to follow them. Learn which ones are most difficult for you to keep and what situations put you in danger of breaking them. Make adjustments in your behavior accordingly. When you break a precept, just pick yourself up, reflect on why you fell short, and make the determination not to let it happen again. In other words, practice ‘starting over.’ Simply begin again, wherever you are. Challenge yourself with the precepts, but be patient. It is a practice.

Choose your company with care.

The Buddha pointed out that we tend to pick up the qualities — both good and bad — of the people with whom we associate. If we care about developing good qualities in ourselves, it's therefore imperative that we associate as much as possible with good people and stay away from those who have little respect for the precepts and wisdom. But remember that Buddhists don't have a monopoly on goodness of character; you'll find plenty of people from all walks of life who have admirable attributes such as generosity, patience, kindness, truthfulness, and so on. Get to know these people and see what you can learn from them about developing goodness in yourself.

Read and study, study and read.

There are countless books and pamphlets on Buddhism, transcribed Dhamma talks, translated suttas, etc., available both in print and on the Internet. Some of them are wonderful, some not so much; developing the discernment to distinguish one from the other is itself a crucial aspect of learning Dharma. The Buddha's own test of authenticity is invaluable in discriminating the useful from the not useful, the good from the bad—is it useful? Is it of benefit?

Take a class, join a group sit.

If at all possible, take part in an introductory meditation workshop or retreat conducted by an experienced teacher. Even if you have to travel a long distance in order to attend, you may be rewarded with enough helpful advice to nourish your meditation and your studies for a long time to come.

As the Buddha taught:

"My teaching is not a philosophy. It is the result of direct experience...
My teaching is a means of practice, not something to hold onto or worship.
My teaching is like a raft used to cross the river.
Only a fool would carry the raft around after he had already reached the other shore of liberation."

Advice To Westerners On Choosing A Spiritual Path:

"The most important thing is not to get trapped in what I see everywhere in the West, a "shopping mentality": shopping around from master to master, teaching to teaching, without any continuity or real, sustained dedication to any one discipline. Nearly all the great spiritual masters of all traditions agree that the essential thing is to master one way, one path to the truth, by following one tradition with all your heart and mind to the end of the spiritual journey, while remaining open and respectful towards the insights of all others...

The modern faddish idea that we can always keep all our options open and so never need commit ourselves to anything is one of the greatest and most dangerous delusions of our culture, and one of the ego's most effective ways of sabotaging our spiritual search."

From Sogyal Rinpoche's: Tibetan Book of Living and Dying