Nuts and Bolts of Sangha Building – September 13, 2019
I’ve written several articles on Sangha building, mostly from a theoretical point of view. I’ve addressed major points of inclusion, and celebration of difference, and the importance of not neglecting the Sangha as disposable.
Now I’d like to give some advice on how to actually do the work of growing a Sangha. It’s hard, it’s often discouraging, and truly there is no other way.
First I believe that it is necessary to get over feeling sorry for oneself that you are all alone. Stop bemoaning the fact of your isolation. The Buddha was alone after he attained enlightenment, when he first approached his four former pals in ascetic practices. Nichiren was alone without a Sangha when he was chased away from Seicho-ji after he proclaimed the efficacy of the Lotus Sutra and the practice of Namu Myoho Renge Kyo. You being alone is not the obstacle to building a Sangha.
Second you need to find your place in your community. Then you need to go out and be in that place. For me, in Charlotte, I continued my work with AIDS patients and some prison outreach. At the time I was a member of SGI and was told that as a leader I could not bring this to the Sangha as it made people feel uncomfortable. I continued doing that as well as working with other faith leaders to begin an interfaith organization to work in the community to address a series of murders of black men by police. The time frame was the early 1990s.
It was all volunteer work, and none of it brought fame or glory. None of it brought recognition. What it did do is create a resume or CV of my presence working on these issues. I gained credibility.
It wasn’t until I returned to Charlotte after going off to college and the process of becoming a Nichiren Shu priest that things paid off. Becoming a priest was not the ticket, it really did not matter. What mattered when I came back is that people knew my position, people knew my dedication, people knew my history.
So when I returned to Charlotte I began as a single person with no Sangha, no members, just me. Slowly I began to re-immerse myself back into the
community. I had the advantage of already having done the dirty work of being an unknown volunteer. This is what you must do. Build a reputation. It will most likely mean you start at the bottom and work your way up.
When I returned because people knew me I was able to parley those contacts into further contacts. I was able to present myself and receive speaking invitations to local universities, various organizations, and even local churches. Eventually as you may or may not know I was asked to give the opening prayer for one of the days of the Democratic National Convention. The only way I got that is because of the work I had done in the community to gain a reputation and a name for my integrity and experience.
There is not real short cut to doing this.
Over time before I began working full-time in the hospital I had grown quite a large local Sangha, in fact we had outgrown our space. Due to the mobility of people our Sangha membership changed, and we continued to grow, though slowly.
When I began to work full time in the hospital the membership began to dwindle. I attribute this to two factors. One was I had to limit my community outreach because I did not have the time. Another was due to needing to reduce the number of activities at the temple because of hospital hours and being on-call.
This teaches us that one of the key drivers to growing the sangha is your presence, your activity in the community. I do not believe that merely advertising will work. It is too impersonal and too spotty. Also the amount of energy to respond to those who answer your adds is a scattered approach and is difficult to transition people to relating to the sangha rather than the one-on-one connection of responding to an advertisement.
The ministers I’ve spoken with about this agree that the tendency of people is to demand and expect a personalized individual Buddhist experience and thereby not being willing to engage in the jewel of Sangha. My personal approach when privately contacted and asked questions is to invite the individual to present their Buddhist question to the Sangha so that they may benefit from the answer. This is my strategy for putting the jewel of Sangha first and teaching it from the beginning.
So, find something you feel passionate about. Perhaps it is feeding the homeless, it might be working in an animal shelter, it might be volunteering at a hospital or VA center. You may feel strongly about conservation issues, or perhaps social issues such as gun control, or racial inequality. You may be concerned about political issues, or perhaps you are concerned about education. The list could go on and on. Find what moves you, find what stimulates you, find what your passion is.
Then go out and start at the bottom and volunteer. Yes sometimes it is thankless work. But soon, before you know it due to turn over you will find yourself being given more important tasks and opportunities. Why will that happen? Not because you are great, not because you are special, or because you are Buddhist. People don’t give a crap about that. What they want is your integrity, your reliability, your honesty, your commitment. Those are the things that count, both in society and in Buddhism. If you’re not willing to put in the hard work there then you need to look at yourself and be honest and admit you are not willing to put in the hard work of building a sangha.
So you slowly advance in your community work. People get to know you, they become your friend. This gives you time and chances to speak about your faith and how that aligns with and informs your work and life. Now this is where your faith can really speak the loudest because you are manifesting your faith with your life and not just high falutten words and cliches and theory. Anybody can learn the lingo, the jargon of Buddhism, anybody can learn about the theory. And it is possible for anyone to live a Buddhist life and Engaged Buddhist life, but many people won’t and they will expect others to do it for them.
You can even wear a Buddhist t-shirt when you volunteer sometimes. You can wear a wrist mala. You can fold your hand in Gassho when you greet people. I had one supervisor when I was working in the hospital who commented that he noticed I always bowed to people. You may think people don’t notice these things, they do, and sometimes it takes them being able to be sure they can approach you with their observations.
By starting at the bottom and working your way up you can learn nuances of your community project. It isn’t always the same on the inside as you might imagine from the outside. This allows you to better formulate and speak about the work you do as an insider. This is important, both in your community work and in Buddhist practice.
What your trajectory becomes will depend on your special skills and the needs of your group. Often though is offers chances for cross pollination and contact with other community service organizations.
Will people flock to you? Probably not so much, especially at first. But slowly one person and then that person tells another person, and then another. Soon people beyond your work are learning about you and your faith. People you would not ordinarily encounter begin to learn about Buddhism.
I don’t know how long it will take you. In Charlotte it took me about 15 years of not giving up, of not being discouraged, of not needing to be honored or recognized. Although along the way I did receive recognition, things such as volunteer awards, and even being nominated as Mentor of the Year for Charlotte Mecklenburg School System for my work in school, mentoring fifth grade math. I invested a lot of time and energy to being Engaged as a Buddhist in society. This is what you will need to do in one place or another.
For you advertising and leaflets may work. For me it did not and a lot of that was the drying up of places for free advertising and for locals where my literature would be seen and not buried under other people’s flyers. You will need to find what works for you. Regardless there is no short cut.
As your Sangha grows you will need to change and grow as well. The work will change you. It will give you a chance to mature and learn to work with all sorts of people not like yourself. That’s hard to do. There are many times when I wasn’t up to the task. Rather than give up I tried to learn from the mistake, tried to not repeat my error, and realized that I couldn’t give up.
Ok, that’s a lot of words. This is the closest I’ve come to addressing the actual work involved in building a Sangha as opposed to having one magically appear on your doorstep because you feel you deserve the easy path.
