Making some effort to reconnect with old friends, including making the trip into the city to practice with the Buddhist group I helped form 13 yrs ago. It was good for the group that I withdrew when I did many years ago. They all started taking turns with the duties, both ritual and mundane, and realized that they could do it. Going back now I’m a peer instead of a leader. It’s so gratifying to see the change and quite freeing for me. I need this community now, need to be just one of the gang.
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What they have now, this little sangha, is quite rare I think. Most people are very conditioned for hierarchy, first from factory-style schooling, church, then from work in top-down environments. It’s a big problem for genuine spiritual practice, which ends up being either a pale shadow of itself—abusive at worst—or people just check out from spiritual community entirely.
