sangha: collective practice, study, and care

as we launch our 2024 summer sangha, a few notes on what we’re up to and why…

what we mean when we say ‘sangha’

Sangha is community engaged in spiritual study. (For my fellow word nerds, it comes from the Sanskrit saṃgha meaning ‘community,’ and was previously used to describe a political governing body). In the Buddhist tradition, sangha refers to monks or nuns engaged in spiritual study as a group, and the term has expanded to include laypeople. The idea remains the same: spiritual study in community.  And we are to understand ‘spiritual’ in a universal sense, not tethered to religion or doctrine, simply connected to the aspects of ‘self’ and ‘being’ that extend beyond the material. 

community, study, and practice

I’ve written before about how interconnection implies both a duty of collective care and a web of collective support. That’s what community does too.  Community holds you accountable to your intentions and offers support for turning intention into action.  

Community reminds you that you are not alone. Spiritual study does too. When you start to look at the foundational tenets of yoga philosophy, or the questions asked in the Bhagvad Gita, or the ailments and challenges addressed by Ayurveda a thousand years before anglo-western science existed, you realize that none of your problems or joys or relationships or personality quirks are unique in human history. We’re all still trying to figure out this whole ‘existence’ thing, as we - scholars, poets, lovers, monks, moms, revolutionaries, dreamers - humans have been trying to do for, well, as long as we’ve existed. We’re all in this together, fam.

Study helps you understand yourself, the world around you, and the infinite connections between the two. Practice is a way of applying and building on that understanding in your everyday, repeating to yourself the simple truth of interconnection, strengthening your awareness day by day. Practice is ’weightlifting for your brain’. It’s supported space to ‘practice’ how you want to show up and interact with and respond to life outside of that space.

Community, study and practice are daily reminders - sticky-notes on the mirror of your consciousness - that you are connected, supported, and whole. Sangha puts these three elements together, so that you can learn and grow in your own practice in a supportive environment. 

for the summer and beyond

So, why launch the PYC sangha in the summer, instead of September or January? Simply put, we know how much better your summer could be if you were supported the whole way through.

Maybe you don’t associate words like ‘study’ and ‘practice’ with a shimmering, free-wheeling summer. But what if summer could be shimmering + free and grounded + nourishing? You could roll into September feeling clear-eyed and refreshed, with a community and a personalized practice that continues to support you throughout the year.

PYC aims to be a global sangha: a community connected through shared practice, study, and the wonders of the internet, founded on collective care. We’re glad you here, and we hope you’ll join us in going a little deeper for the summer, and beyond.