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Training With Others

Training with others in a priory, meditation group, or monastery is one essential way to
deepen the practice of Serene Reflection Meditation. This vehicle is called the Sangha refuge.

Foremost in this refuge is the opportunity to study and train with a living teacher who can point to or express the Dharma in a direct way which books and ideas cannot.

Other aspects include developing faith and trust that there are those who know more than we, and being willing to ask for help.

Buddhism is a living religion which depends on human beings for its continuance, and it is this "life of Buddha" which the teacher shares with others.

Practice with fellow trainees also clarifies our understanding of meditation and the Precepts.
By interacting and living with others, these twin aspects of the tradition-and our own practice of them-show up in sharp relief. Lack of harmony with others helps clarify the changes needed.

Rev. Master Jiyu-Kennett, (the founder of the Order of Buddhist Comtemplatives), often compared group practice to the polishing of rocks in a rock tumbler. The friction of the rocks grinding and bouncing against each other is the very thing which turns them into beautiful, smooth stones. Each is rough in the beginning, each has value, and each comes to flow smoothly with the others.

Meditation and the Precepts are two of the paramitas, the practices of a Bodhisattva on her or his way to the Other Shore (Nirvana).

Two additional paramitas which can be perfected through group training are dana (giving, generosity) and pranidhana (vow, commitment).
Through giving we support the Sangha (the community of practitioners) and the spread of the Dharma, both of which depend on each individual's generous heart.

Through commitment we provide ourselves and others with an anchor and Refuge amidst the impermanence of the world, helping each other keep the Bodhisattva vow. This vow is the promise to help all sentient beings, including ourselves, on the Way to Buddhahood.