Part Five: Keep the Inner Sangha Alive | Dr. Larry Ward

Dear Thầy, dear Sangha.

Greetings beloved ones.

Thank you for your practice and your presence here for the fifth session in our short journey,

of exploring, really the Sangha within.

The purpose of this entire process

is to enrich our awareness of our inner Sangha.

Help us recognize the possibility of offering gratitude and appreciation to our inner Sangha,

and to cultivate our relationships with our inner the Sangha, in ourselves, with the noble community within.

We have a great song in our Plum Village chant book.

Chant, really, on the Three Refuges and really, this entire series is about.

This song, especially taking refuge in the Sangha.

So I'll read a few lines for you of this beautiful chant.

Dwelling in the refuge of Sanga.

Shining light that supports me.

Keeping my practice free of obstruction.

So the practice here of bringing our inner Sangha to awareness,

our inner community into focus and our inner Sangha may be within our larger community,

that we may be aware of in our inner life.

But I want to focus your attention on the Sangha, the noble community within.

Where you can take refuge and find the energies and memories.

And thoughts and speech of

compassion,

of wisdom.

and of peace.

So it's all about for me who is in my inner life that provides this nourishment.

And if there's someone in my inner community.

Everybody, another way to say this;

Everyone in my inner community than I am aware of.

I do not invite to be in my inner Sangha there, just in the community at large,

which is wonderful.

Coworkers, friends, neighbors, childhood developments, etc..

But it's really important to know who your core community is inside.

Life, as you know, is not so easy.

It is beautiful and wonderful, but also difficult.

And so the best thing is to surround ourselves,

just like we do externally with Sangha in this noble community of energy and support,

do the same thing inside of our own hearts and minds.

Fill it with the energies of people who help you practice

compassion,

wisdom,

and a noble life.

A life of not harming.

So take a look at the list you've been building over these last several sessions.

And the thing I appreciate about what I've learned so far about working with my inner Sangha

is it can change depending on what's happening in my life.

When I was on the streets, in different cities across the U.S,

during the civil rights movement, I had a different inner Sangha than I do right now.

My inner Sangha then

was Martin Luther King who still around in my life, Stokely Carmichael, Brad Brown,

many, many other characters.

Fannie Mae.

I'm remembering some people, Rosa Parks, who's still with me,

but at that time they were prominent in the voices that nourished me.

That's what I'm trying to say.

I didn't say it very well, but that's what I'm trying to say.

So you're looking for those voices.

Those memories, those expressions that nourish you on the path.

But because the path is alive, you're inner community must also be alive.

There may be different people who you need to hear.

Depending on what's happening in your life conditions, you're experiencing ,

the changes that you're going through, the age you are.

All of these things are impermanent and flowing,

and so your inner community must also be understood as a flow of awareness,

a flow of relationship, a flow of connection, but not a permanent institution.

So if you've identified that a few people from that list.

Use your understanding of the five skandhas to reflect on the quality of your relationships.

And you can pick one just so you learn how to do this.

Pick one person.

I have done this with many people.

I have done it most obviously, most recently with Thầy in my life.

But what I mean is.

Following how your body feels inside when you're in touch with this person.

In touch with this memory, in touch with this voice.

So follow that.

Find out where it is in your body.

Where is it located?

Does it break?

Does it open up a capsule of joy?

Does it open up hope?

Does it open up despair or fear?

Be aware of what opens up in your body, in your nervous system.

Does it ease you into a state of calm and peacefulness while still alert to life?

How is it?

How does any of these voices or memories impact your feelings in the sense of...

pleasant, unpleasant or neutral.

Know that...

information from your connections to your inner Sangha.

Your perceptions, how you see things, your views, your understandings of the world and life itself.

Your habit energies, your mental formations.

How does any of these if you want to shift a mental...

energy?

Or a habit.

Do you have?

Are you surrounded with the right energies and the right people in the right memories to do that well?

And then consciousness itself, which this is all about in terms of the storehouse.

And all the levels of consciousness that comes up to mind and back to scan this body, feeling, etc.

eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, mind, all of that wisdom.

Bring that to bear on your inner life.

Which I know you're already doing, but at this time in the world.

We need to enhance everything we're doing.

To save our planet.

And to save ourselves.

And then enhancement comes from inside out.

In Plum Village has a great program on "the way out is in."

That's what we're talking about during these sessions.

So take a few notes.

Do what is easy for you to do.

In this process of any of these steps.

Don't be intimidated.

If it's not easy for you to do.

You can stop it.

Do what you can do and come back later.

So this is like a paint palette of five sessions.

So see yourself as an artist here, not as a mathematician.

And you'll have more fun.

Thank you.

[BELL]