Yoga Is a Team Sport; on Community and Sangha

You are not alone if you have found it difficult to keep up your yoga and meditation practice this past year. Plain and simple, practice is easier with a Sangha. A Sangha is a spiritual community. It has become clear that we must never underestimate the importance of our community to our health and well-being.

Impact of COVID-19 on our Sangha

Experts are worried that we are about to fall into a mental health pandemic, as the COVID crisis finally looks to be ebbing. So, if you are new to these ancient practices or have fallen off and are ready to get your feet wet again, now is the time. 

It is best to develop these tools while we are coming up for air. So that when the next crisis hits-and something will hit us-we are ready. 

As they say, “We don’t rise to the level of our expectations. We fall to the level of our training.” We know we need these practices. We want them to be strengthened. So when we fall to the level of our training, it is enough.

The Sangha is here to help. We have done everything we can during this pandemic to preserve our community. We have stuck by each other and continued to practice together, whether it be with the help of technology or in some other socially distanced way.

Through this time, we started to appreciate how much we need our community and our social connections to feel at our best. Whether you are an introvert or extrovert or something in between, we as humans need this sense of connection to truly thrive.

As we return to the studio and practice together in IN REAL LIFE, I cannot help but reflect on the important role this sense of community plays in our spiritual life and overall well-being.

What does the word Sangha Mean?

Sangha is a term that comes from Buddhism where practitioners take refuge in the Three Jewels known as the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha.

When we take refuge in something, it is akin to saying we put our highest trust and faith in it. Many people take refuge in religion, political or authority figures, a spouse, or even a job. However, those things can be transitory and thus not always reliable.

In this spiritual context, when we take refuge, we put our highest trust in an absolute reality, a reality that is not dependent on a particular outcome or thing. It is not relying on anything beyond our own enlightened potential.

So, to take refuge in the Buddha means you trust the Buddha or what the Buddha represents as a teacher. (This can also be whoever you see as your own teacher.)

Dharma is the path. Here we take refuge in the teachings that have come before us. It is also our own inner teacher.

And last is the Sangha or the group of people with whom you study or practice the Dharma.

We need this community of friends practicing together. In fact, taking refuge in the Sangha is not about devotion to it, but it is a practice in itself.

Importance of Sangha to our spiritual life and well-being

We entrust ourselves to the Sangha because the Sangha is practicing, and we benefit from the collective energy. 

Yoga practices look to be a solo experience, whether it’s asana, breath, or meditation. However, as we do this inner work, we realize we are all interconnected. We do not live in a vacuum. We are yogis in the community, and we do it for the benefit of the community.

In terms of overall wellness, the Sangha can support our need for social and spiritual wellness. As humans, we are wired for connection. We need each other to survive and thrive.

Part of social wellness is about developing good relationships and creating a support network of friends and family members. It also includes showing respect for others and contributing to your community.

The Sangha is a place to practice for the transformation and the healing of self and society.

Essence of the Sangha in Yoga

The essence of the Sangha is awareness, acceptance, understanding, and harmony. In a Sangha, no person is an island.

The Sangha is more like a network of trees with deep roots. Through these roots, the trees share water and nutrients underground, supporting each other and helping each other reach toward the sky. 

This is what the sangha does for us. The roots go deep; through their connection, we are transformed. It cannot happen alone. Maybe we come to yoga for our own self-interested motivations, but in the end, it is in your self-interest to benefit the whole.

When you work on yourself, you create conditions for all to live a fulfilling life. When Martin Luther King said, “What affects one directly, affects all indirectly,” he referred to the fact that we each flourish when we create conditions for all to flourish. The Sangha reminds us of this. This leads to our spiritual development.

Originally, the context of yoga was spiritual practices to train the body and mind to self-observe and become aware of one’s own nature. The purposes of yoga were to cultivate discernment, awareness, self-regulation, and higher consciousness in the individual, not necessarily to attain some ethereal experience.

The practices pave the way for a deeper understanding of our beliefs and values, purpose, and meaning. A sense of purpose grows from your sense of connection to yourself and others.

Ultimately, it is not just an inner journey, but it is about how we treat each other in the world. The ultimate purpose of self-study is to recognize that to be happy, we have to realize how interconnected we all are.

We need a Sangha

We are living in a community, and as much as we like to think we are independent, in effect, we are all interdependent. We benefit when the whole of society benefits. Throughout this pandemic, we have socially distanced, worn masks, gotten vaccinated, all for the benefit of the greater good of the community.

Now, we strive together for community. Yoga outlines ethical principles that ask us to approach life and ourselves with an attitude of kindness and nonviolence. 

The result is spiritual wellness and an understanding of your inner world. However, universal themes such as love, kindness and compassion for others are inherent in the practice.

We are not fully practicing yoga if what we do is divorced from ethics. We are not an island. We need each other. And the Sangha is what supports us. We don’t practice yoga for a better backbend. We practice it to be better people.

Some of the Yogic texts suggest that to be successful in yoga, one should refrain from being in the company of “common people”. I always found this funny. But the reference is about avoiding those that might steer you away from your practice and the wisdom and compassion it brings.

Instead, it implies the act of gathering with like-minded, uplifting people, especially those on a spiritual path — the Sangha.

The Sangha is home and, we have learned, it does not necessarily require a physical location. When we move, breathe, study, and sit together, we enjoy the collective energy. It is healing.

When we are surrounded by kindred spirits doing the same thing together, it is easy to flow in the stream of the Sangha and be absorbed by it.

The energy will help you, carry you, and support you. It is there to make practice easy. It is powerful when a group of people choose to follow a mindful path together. They become a positive element in society.

Find your Sangha. Yoga is a team sport

When we choose to live our daily life in a way that demonstrates a positive way of being in this world, we feel and model possibilities for the future. Without a group of people willing to cultivate a wise heart, we cannot go far.

The reason we take refuge in anything is that we need protection. Every time you go back to the Sangha, whether in person or not, you feel that you can breathe, move easily and approach life more mindfully.

There should be no struggle. Instead, you can relax and allow the collective energy to penetrate your body and consciousness.

Never question the power of spiritual friends. The bonds are what allow us to deepen our development of daily life as practice. It is time to come together again. It is time to stand near each other again, so we serve as a reminder for each other to stay present.

Yoga then truly nourishes the heart, the mind, and the body individually and collectively. It is actually a team sport!

Having admirable people as friends, companions, and colleagues is actually the whole of the holy life.
~ The Buddha

Do you feel the impact of sangha in yourself?

How important is your Sangha to you?