Is Having a Teacher Important? Part 2: Walking the Dharma Path Without a Teacher

 

 

            When I sat down to write about my experiences in doing Buddhist practice without a teacher, I suddenly realized what a vast subject it is and wasn’t sure where to start or how to keep it short.  So what follows is a quick overview of what seems to me to be the major elements.

Books

            Books are very important, and the books that will actually help you reduce suffering are the ones that guide you in the use of specific practices to facilitate changing how you respond to the events in your life.  Many books are either theoretical or “travelogues” and though “interesting,” don’t really move the needle much in terms of making positive changes in your life.  The four books that I know about that I think have the most potential to be useful are the following

Lugenbehl, Dale, The Wisdom of the Buddha:  Using Mindfulness to Change Your Life, April 2019.  Available free on request in electronic form (PDF or WORD) from ahimsaacres@gmail.com  Detailed information is available at http://www.ahimsaacres.org/Dale/Dale_Book-2022/Wisdom_of_Buddha_Ahimsa_Acres_webpage_final-2022.pdf  Also available from Amazon as a paperback and in Kindle form.

Nhat Hanh, Thich, The Heart of the Buddha’s Teaching, New York:  Broadway Books, 1999.

Nhat Hanh, Thich, Interbeing:  Fourteen Guidelines for Engaged Buddhism, Third Edition, Berkeley:  Parallax Press, 1998.                                                                                                                                                           

Tolle, Eakhart, The Power of Now:  A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment, Novato:  New World Library, 1999.

DVDs and CDs

                DVDs and CDs are another very useful tool.  The two kinds to look for are dharma talks and voice-guided meditations. Start with books, and when you find several that you really connect with, check to see if the author has recorded material either free on a website or for sale as a disk.  You can also record your own guided meditations using a script (see Chapter 4 “Mindfulness and Meditation Teachings”  in The Wisdom of the Buddha).

Retreats

                Even if you do not have an on-going personal teacher, you can still get some of the benefits by going to a retreat for 3 days (at the least) or something longer—7 days or even 10.  You will have the opportunity to receive instruction from a qualified teacher, learn how to meditate, and have the ability to ask questions during personal interviews with the teacher.  Cost varies greatly, and some retreats are rather expensive.  Sometimes there are scholarships or discounts for helping with work.  Sometimes it may be hard to find a retreat center or monastery near where you live.  Nonetheless, I believe it is important to experience at least one retreat sometime during the first year of the journey.  Do some research and pick your instructor carefully.

Sangha Work

                A sangha is a group of people who share the same spiritual path who meet together regularly to support each other in the work of personal transformation.  This can be extremely useful in moving along the path but only if it is the right kind of sangha.  In my experience, the most important thing is a sangha that is focused on the day-to-day use of specific practices to change how you relate to life.  Unfortunately, many sanghas focus only meditating together as a group, reading the Five Precepts for personal conduct, and sometimes watching a recorded dharma talk.  These things have value, but something more is needed.

                This approach to sangha work reminds me of my early life experiences in going to church every Sunday with my family.  We went to church, we sang hymns, prayed, listened to a sermon, and then everyone went home and it was business as usual—none of what happened in church had any impact on how people lived their lives.  The same was true of all the other families I saw.  What was missing was a focus on actually making a good faith effort to put the teachings into practice in day-to-day living.  This tendency can be found in all religions.

                In the sangha work I have done, we begin with a 30 minute sitting, followed by 70 minutes of mindful group sharing of personal experience, followed by 10 minute walking meditation, and then 10 minutes sitting meditation.

                The talking portion of our practitioners group has the intention of sharing our experience in responding to the events in our lives using Buddhist practices, and sharpening our awareness of how our patterns of response can cause suffering for ourselves and others.  When we see clearly that what we are doing is causing suffering, this is the beginning of positive change.  The emphasis of the discussion is on seeing clearly our own responses, not on the events themselves or on trying to “fix” whatever problems we may have in our lives that triggered the response.  Meditation and sharing of life experiences are to be used as very powerful tools for self transformation, which is at the core of what the Buddha taught and at the center of what we are attempting to create in our sangha.

                Our group meets for 2 hours, once a week.  After the initial sitting meditation, a bell is rung and we continue to sit in silence until someone has something that they want to speak about—usually how they responded to a recent event and that the person is feeling some energy around.  The person whose turn it is usually describes the triggering event very briefly, and then shares their response to the event:  emotions, thought stream, mental resistance to what happened, body sensations, behavior, and how they tried to use the teachings. 

                While this person is talking, the other members of the practitioners group (sangha) have the job of simply staying present and receptive and listening carefully to what the person is saying.  They may also ask questions.  The intention of any question that is asked needs to be that of helping the person whose turn it is to see their own inner response (thoughts and emotions and response patterns) more clearly.  If no helpful question comes to mind, we just sit and listen, giving the person who is speaking our full attention.  Sometimes people get very emotional—that’s ok and the job of others who are there is to simply allow them to have their experience without trying to “fix” it, argue, or give advice.  When the person who is presenting their issue/experience is finished, the group sits in silence until another person indicates that they want to speak about themselves. 

                This method works well with a teacher or experienced practioner present, but can also work well without one if the group is seriously committed to doing the work.  Either way, it is the responsibility of everyone there to bring things back on track if the focus is lost or things devolve into chatting. 

                Combining weekly sangha meetings with a once a month day of mindfulness (or half day) and a recorded dharma talk is a good addition to weekly sangha sessions.

Becoming Part of a Sangha

                You can join an existing sangha or create a sangha yourself.  Listings of existing sanghas—with short descriptions—can be found on-line using Buddhist Insight Network at https://www.buddhistinsightnetwork.org/sanghasyyy , and Mindfulness Bell Sangha Directory at https://www.parallax.org/mindfulnessbell/sangha-directory/   

                Creating your own local sangha is the second option.  In my experience, ideal size is about 5 to 8 people, though useful work can be done with as few as 3.  If the group gets larger than about 10 or 12 it makes sense to divide it into smaller meeting groups.  Many Sanghas operate on a drop-in basis and are open to all members of the local community.   Our Ahimsa Acres Sangha is not a drop-in.  We ask for a commitment to regular attendance.  It begins by asking someone who wants to attend to first talk with me as Sangha leader to see if what they want matches up with what we offer.  If it seems a good fit, the new person is asked to commit to a 4-week trial participation.  After that, existing sangha members  and the new person then decide by consensus whether it is a good fit for continuation.  If everyone agrees it is a good fit, then the new person is asked to commit to coming to sangha sessions regularly. This type of sangha provides good continuity and trust leading to deep sharing.  If you can do two sessions a week, one session could be drop-in and the other requiring commitment.

                As to where to congregate, the meeting place can be in someone’s home or in a more public setting such as a room at a local church or school (free or modest rental fee).  Meetings can also be held on-line via ZOOM.

                And lastly, how do you find people to be part of your new sangha?  Ask friends and acquaintances to join you.  Put notices up on college campuses (including library and Religious Studies Departments, and Philosophy Departments), public libraries, natural food stores, bookstores, yoga classes, newsletters and newspapers (including local college newspapers), and Buddhist magazines.  Get your sangha listed on Buddhist Insight Network and Mindfulness Bell sangha directories (see above), do a talk or show a video at local libraries—and many more things you will think of on your own.  It’s a good idea to create an e-mail account with your Sangha’s name as a place for people to respond.

 

Note:   My intention is to add new posts to the blog about every one to two weeks.  If you would like to receive an e-mail notification each time a new blog post is made, please let me know and I will add you to the list of recipients. This notification will also include the title of the new post.  Some of the material that appears in this blog is copyrighted, but in keeping with the Buddha’s teaching that the dharma is not to be sold, the contents of this blog may be freely copied and given away, but not sold.