The Whole of the Holy Life

The Whole of the Holy Life. When the Buddha’s long-time personal attendant Ananda asked him: “Is association with like-minded people part of the holy life?”, the Buddha’s reported answer was surprising: “Not so, Ananda! Not so! Association with like-minded people is actually the whole of the holy life.” For as long as we can remember, the third Jewel of Enlighten- ment - the Sangha, or the community of practitioners - has always been viewed as vital – like a lifeline - for those who aspire to ad- vance on the path to enlightenment. Those who have engaged the path have often testified that genuine spiritual life can be a difficult ordeal and is not without its periods of trial by fire. At times, it is like walking the razor’s edge. Yet, being in the company of those who share the highest human aspiration of living an enlightened life can help us navigate and overcome the spiritual challenges we will inevitably run into. Our dharma sisters and brothers provide us with a robust support structure. They serve as a mirror in which we can see our progress or stagnation, and their presence and dedica- tion to practice both challenge and support us. And so, sharing our The Sangha: Intersubjective Nonduality journey with inspired spiritual friends and walking the talk of the Dharma together is more transformative than going it alone. When I first arrived in India in 1984, I went to Rishikesh to visit the Swami Shivananda Ashram. One evening, Swami Krish- nananda, one of Shivananda’s successors, was giving satsang. In the midst of his talk, seemingly out of the blue, he uttered a few striking phrases that still echo in my soul to this day: “There is a drone in the air… Can you hear it…? It is coming from God! It is saying: Come together, come together. In unity there is strength. Come together… Can you hear it?” Hearing these intriguing words from this extraordinary Saint catapulted me into a deep state of ec- static intoxication, and I barely managed to walk out of the room. It infused my soul with the essential flavor of what we later came to call ‘Intersubjective Nonduality’ – a breakthrough spiritual state that enriches the meaning of ‘Sangha’ as we have always known it, by bringing to it an entirely fresh capacity to live awakening relationally. Living Awakening Relationally The state of Intersubjective Nonduality is one of the most remarkable discoveries that emerged from our spiritual engage- ment together as a Sangha. Its emergence came to us gradually as the result of extensive pioneering efforts, fueled by my long-held utopian vision of the extraordinary transformative potential that I intuited could be unleashed, if we all came together in a context where nonduality would be the foundation of our relationships. Over the course of many years, we had devoted a substantial amount of energy and attention to exploring ways to be together