This is an AI-generated transcript from auto-generated subtitles for the video Four Types Of Sangha: Group, Lay, Monastic, and Noble ~ Ajahn Kovilo. It likely contains inaccuracies.
The following talk was given by Ajahn Kovilo at the Insight Meditation Center in Redwood City, California. Please visit the website www.audiodharma.org for more information.
I hope everyone experienced that sit as I did, as very quiet. That was a very quiet sit. I think it was partially the carpet, and partially all of you. We’re all contributing to silence together, which is rather amazing to have this many people in a room together for half an hour and basically just be quiet together. It’s a really unique way that humans don’t usually interact. I’m not super woo-woo just because I have the robes, but there is something about coming into a place where this hall has been used for meditation and has had great bhikkhu1 teachers, great nun teachers, and great lay teachers come and teach in here with all sorts of people meditating for 25 years, or since 2002. This is a great space, and I feel really happy to be here with everyone.
My name is Ajahn Kovilo, and I ordained at a monastery north of Ukiah called Abhayagiri. I’m currently starting a monastery. I came to the monastery in 2006 and have been a monk since 2010. Currently, I’m starting a monastery with my monk brother, Ajahn Nisabho, up in Seattle. It’s called Clear Mountain Monastery. Usually, we’re meditating in a gym, and we call it the “triple gym” because we’re Buddhists. It has a disco ball and hardwood floors, and it’s rarely, it’s never been this quiet up there.
My mom actually lives just 10-15 minutes down the road in Menlo Park, so I come to visit her from time to time. I’m very happy to be making this connection with IMC because I secretly want to convert my mom to Buddhism. Even if she wasn’t Buddhist, I want her to meditate, and this is just such a great place. This would be her Buddhism: a group of people who are just curious, who want to find inner peace and want to learn specific strategies for settling the mind. She’s come here for a couple of different events, and I think it’s not going to be too long before I’ve got her coming on the regular.
Tonight, I wanted to talk about the Sangha2 gem, the Sangha jewel, the Sangha as refuge. It’s a little bit interesting to talk about in the West. You talk about the Buddha as an archetype of these three gems, these three refuges. The Buddha was a historical figure, Siddhartha Gautama, who attained enlightenment 2,600 or so years ago, is what we believe, and there’s lots of history to back that up. Buddho, what we were reciting, is just the principle of wakefulness, of being awake. As we recite that, we’re just reminding ourselves that we’re not here to fall asleep. Our eyes are closed, but we’re really trying to stay awake in a way which is balanced, in a way which isn’t biased towards chasing after the things we like and running away from the things we don’t like. So, wakefulness with balance is the Buddha, the archetype of the Buddha, the principle of the Buddha, the mantra of Buddho. And Dharma, his teachings, are basically the truth, the way things are. These are very easy for modern Americans to get behind. Why not be awake with compassion? Why not see the truth? It seems like all good things.
But then you get to the Sangha, and you’ve got people dressed like me. It’s something that most of us didn’t grow up with, and it can seem a bit foreign, it can seem very institutional. One of the monks in our tradition—all of the monks at the monastery where I ordained were born in America, none of them had Buddhist families, and we’re all basically convert Buddhists. One of the fathers of one of the monks, a very secular person, was lamenting to his monk son. He said, “I can’t believe you would go and join an organized religion.” And this monk says, “Actually, we’re not that organized.” [Laughter]
So there is this tension. You see somebody wearing a costume like this and you think, “I don’t want it.” You know, I’ve seen Wild Wild Country or whatever that documentary about Osho is, and you think, “I don’t know if I can get within arm’s reach of somebody in robes like this.” But I thought I’d talk about different types of Sangha. Roughly speaking, I’ll talk about four types of Sangha, and then really hone in on the latter two.
First, you have the word saṅgha. It can just mean a group. You have places in the Pāli Canon, which is the Buddhist canon, where you see a miga-saṅgha, which is a group of deer, or a kāka-saṅgha, which is a group of crows. So here, it’s just any group of beings. You have a deva-saṅgha, which is just a group of celestial beings. That’s the most basic level of Sangha, just a group of people.
The second type of Sangha is what is really a beautiful aspect of IMC, or of Spirit Rock, or of IMS Barre Center: the lay Sangha. You have a group of people, many of whom might not even call themselves Buddhist, but all of whom are really looking for peace, looking for ways to train the mind and bring some sense of stillness and solidity into their hearts. It really is beautiful. Before I had actually ordained, I was in between monasteries, and Gil didn’t know me from anybody else. IMC already existed, and I just found Gil’s email address and said, “I’m kind of struggling. Do I go the path of a monastic or do I stay the path of a lay Buddhist?” I was really committed by that time to a life of meditation and virtue. He didn’t know me, had never met me, but within three days he said, “Yeah, let’s go for a walk.” He made the time to meet me here. I think I volunteered to paint a door, and I painted that door out there. Don’t look too closely. [Laughter] But he took the time and basically walked around the block a couple of times. Great lay teachers in America, many of them are fabulous. So this is a lay Sangha.
Using the word Sangha in the context of a specifically lay Sangha is somewhat of a Western usage. You go to Thailand, Burma, or Sri Lanka, which are the main countries of Theravāda3 Buddhism, and Sangha is just reserved for the monastic Sangha: bhikkhus and bhikkhunis4, people who are largely robed and who’ve taken on a certain number of precepts. Here in America, we’ve got this lay Sangha, and it really is such a support. There are some monastic orders who really take exception to that use of Sangha and say that the word should just refer to a monastic Sangha. But if you’ve got a Sangha of devas, a Sangha of celestial beings, I feel it’s a very valid use of the word, especially in a place like America where you don’t have that many monastics.
The third type of Sangha is the monastic Sangha, the Sangha of bhikkhus (ordained monks) and bhikkhunis (ordained nuns) who’ve donned the ochre robe and really dedicated their life to keeping certain precepts. We’re basically flags for Buddhism. We’re always wearing these robes. I wear these robes to bed; I sleep in some of these robes. We’re wearing them all the time. We don’t take them off when we want to go and break some precepts. It’s our lives, and for a large part in our early years in robes, we’re just figuring out how to wear them. This outer rectangle is about 9 feet wide by 6 feet tall, and we just basically roll ourselves up like a soft-shell taco. It’s not so convenient. You’re walking around and you have to be mindful. It’s forced mindfulness. The roll will oftentimes fall off, so you’re having to constantly keep some level of bodily mindfulness. In our tradition, the Ajahn Chah5 tradition of Thai Buddhism, meditation which is yoked to the body, mindfulness which fills the whole body, is really the foundation of our practice, and that is inclusive of breath meditation.
We are a symbol. In some Buddhist countries like Sri Lanka, most monks do ordain for life. In Thailand, much less so; it’s almost always a temporary ordination. Up until maybe 15 or 20 years ago, it was a practice for males in Thailand to ordain for a period of three months. The majority of Thai men, probably 70-plus percent, have spent some time in robes. A traditional period would be three months, but these days it’s a lot less. You have people ordaining for a weekend. It’s lame. [Laughter] Three months is a good period to spend that first month just figuring out how to wear the robe.
Aside from the robes, we have all these rules that we’re keeping. Largely, they are variations and expansions from what are called the eight precepts. The foundation of Buddhist morality is the five precepts, which are a voluntary training: refraining from taking life, from taking what is not given, from sexual misconduct, from lying, and from consuming intoxicants. They’re a great foundation for an ethical life. But in Buddhist countries, you will have lay people taking on three more, the eight precepts, for short periods of time, maybe one day a week. If the first five are moral precepts, these extra three are renunciant ones: refraining from eating after noon, refraining from beautification and adornment (specifically listening to or playing music), and refraining from lying on a high or luxurious bed.
Most of the monk and nun’s rules are expansions of those. We have rules like monks do not eat after noon, and we can’t store food. Food has to be offered to us. We consciously refrain from entertainment. When you come to a monastery in our tradition, there’s an active period of seven years in particular where it’s like a forced digital detox. When you take the novice ordination, we give up money. We don’t use money. Literally, we don’t have a dollar to our name. The Ajahn Chah tradition is very strict with this. We don’t touch money.
When you become a monk, you give up your old email and are given a new email address. I myself didn’t have a phone for eight or nine years. There’s no cell signal at the monastery in general. It’s a forced digital detox, and it’s great. You get a long period away to just totally reset and see all the ways that we’re pulled in different directions by our devices.
Refraining from lying on a high or luxurious sleeping place might seem strange, but it’s a gateway into more renunciation. You start lying on just an air mattress, and you realize that you actually don’t need a bed. A bed takes up so much space in a room. Things are simpler without it. When you’re used to just sleeping on the floor, it’s easier to go camping. There are all sorts of knock-on effects.
The fourth type of Sangha is the true Sangha, the Arya Sangha6, the noble Sangha. This is the group of not just monastics, but lay, monastic, male, female—anyone who has trained their heart to a level of true awakening, to a non-backsliding state. In Buddhism, we talk about four levels of enlightenment: stream-entry, once-return, non-return, and arahatship7. It starts off as a belief and then it becomes an experience of being able to permanently let go of obstructive mental states, to permanently let go of doubt about the path. An arahat has fully let go of greed, anger, and delusion.
This is part of what’s called mundane right view. Transcendent right view is knowing the Four Noble Truths, but mundane right view includes beliefs like: there is benefit of generosity; there is fruit and result of good and bad action (karma); there is this world and the next world; and there are beings who, through their own practice, have realized the path and teach it. It is possible to abandon unwholesome mental states and it is possible to cultivate wholesome mental states. That’s a belief. The next belief is that it is possible to completely transcend greed, anger, and delusion. Do you believe that there are humans who just no longer have greed and anger coming up in their hearts?
Most of us may have never met anybody who comes anywhere close to that, but the more you stay around centers like this, the more you come to monasteries, maybe you will. I do feel like I’ve met beings who I believe have actually attained this level of the Arya Sangha. It’s a beautiful belief to have, that a human heart can transcend to that level. If you hold the belief healthfully, you don’t want to beat yourself up because we’re not there yet. We are where we are. But just maybe a human heart can come to a place through training where these mind states just no longer come up.
If you’ve ever given up smoking or any other bad habit for decades, the thought never comes up anymore. Take that principle to anger. Hopefully, if you’ve been meditating for a while, the anger that you used to feel so chronically just comes up less than it did 5, 10, 15, 20 years ago. Just extend that principle, that maybe if I keep walking this path, I myself can become part of this noble Sangha. It’s a cool belief to have.
So those are the four types of Sangha. All of us right now have gone beyond just being a herd of deer. We’re all definitely in this level of a lay Sangha. I totally encourage you, just having community, the value of community, especially these days with this pandemic of isolation, is great. Then that third level of monastic Sangha, finding the monastics near you, especially the inspiring ones. And the noble Sangha, just look for them and see if your heart can believe in something like that.
Question: It’s kind of harder to stay put. Initially, there is excitement. You joined in 2006, and you’re trying to be part of the practice. There’s initial excitement, a feeling that something great is going to happen. But what happens after two or three years? Sometimes people feel they’re not making enough progress, or what people are saying is not what you are experiencing. How did you endure it?
Ajahn Kovilo: It’s a great question, and I think this is very common. There’s a phrase in the canon that the Dharma is beautiful in the beginning, beautiful in the middle, and beautiful in the end. And that’s great. But I was reflecting a few days ago that the Sangha starts off beautiful in the beginning. You see these monastics, and they wear their robes well, and they know a lot of Pāli words. But then you live with these guys, and the smells, and all the other humanness of the Sangha. So it’s a little bit less than beautiful in the middle. Many people do disrobe. Part of our training, as the Buddha laid out, is for your first five years as a monk, you stay with your teacher.
We are still human. The vast majority of us have not yet attained this level of the noble Sangha. We do act out of our greed, anger, and delusion, and those things are ugly. It seems especially ugly if you see someone wearing this robe act out of that. So you come to a monastery, and it’s easy to get uninspired. But if you can stick through that and say, “They’re a human, and they’re going through whatever they’re going through, but the robe is still beautiful.” We bow so much at a monastery, and it’s a good thing to be able to bow to the robe, to the archetype, rather than the individual. The Buddha said himself you shouldn’t place faith necessarily in any one teacher, but in the Sangha institution as a whole. If you can kind of mentally separate the ideal of both the monastic Sangha and the Arya Sangha in your mind, then you can hopefully come back to a place where it is beautiful in the end.
Question: I often find myself thinking about how much to renounce. In my own life, I’ve noticed cravings that are definitely unhealthy and good to let go of, but then there are some cravings, like craving for music that I really enjoy. I was very struck when you said that you gave up music for eight years. Did the Buddha think that it’s necessary to enter into the monastic lifestyle to transcend greed, hatred, and delusion and become part of this noble Sangha?
Ajahn Kovilo: You don’t have to become a monastic. At the time of the Buddha, there are reports of hundreds of thousands of lay people who attained some level of the path. The final level, or the second to last and the last, one does finally transcend sensual desire or lust, so it’s almost default monasticism. But we basically have given up music.
There’s a great term in educational studies called the “zone of proximal development.” If something’s too easy for you, you’re not learning. If it’s way beyond you, you’re just flailing. But you’ve got this zone where you’re cutting your teeth and you’re really learning. I’d say just experiment. You don’t want to give up so much that life is unnecessarily dukkha8. You’re not trying to elicit depression; you’re doing it to make the heart brighter and to realize that you can be happy with less. So take that measure of well-being as a measure for how much you’re giving up. You can do it just temporarily for a day. Maybe today I can experiment with not listening to music, or not eating after noon, or lying on a mat for the night and see how it goes. If it’s inspiring, then maybe you can do it again. One of the reasons we give up music is just because we meditate a lot, and songs can get in our heads for a long time.
Bhikkhu: A fully ordained Buddhist monk. ↩
Sangha: A Pāli word that can mean “group” or “assembly.” In Buddhism, it typically refers to the community of practitioners. It can refer to the lay community, the monastic community, or the community of enlightened beings. ↩
Theravāda: The “School of the Elders,” the oldest surviving branch of Buddhism. ↩
Bhikkhuni: A fully ordained Buddhist nun. ↩
Ajahn Chah: (1918-1992) A highly respected Thai Buddhist master in the Forest Tradition, whose teachings had a significant impact on Western Buddhism. ↩
Arya Sangha: The “noble Sangha,” referring to the community of individuals who have attained one of the four stages of enlightenment. ↩
Arahat: In Theravāda Buddhism, an arahat (or arhant) is a “perfected person” who has attained enlightenment and full liberation from the cycle of rebirth. ↩
Dukkha: A Pāli word often translated as “suffering,” “stress,” or “unsatisfactoriness.” It is a central concept in Buddhism, referring to the inherent stress and dissatisfaction in life. ↩