Hello

Sangha, roughly translated from Sanskrit, means "company", "community", or "association." I came upon this word last week, and I know I had come upon it before, but this time it hit me hard in the gut. A word, that can sum up everything. An entire search. Like receiving a diagnosis after experiencing a long drawn-out mysterious disease. A kind of liberation.

In the Buddhist religion Sangha is literally the monastery, where monks and nuns commune. It provides the structure and support for their spiritual practice. In Buddhism, locating a Sangha is intrinsic to staying on the path. But beyond the physical structure of a building or the community that dwells or meditates within it, Sangha may also include “one’s cushion and walking meditation path, along with trees, sky, and flowers” (Thich Nhat Hanh, The Heart of the Buddha’s Teaching). As part of my own search, I also think of Sangha as a kind of home. The community to which I belong. My tribe. And the place(s) that provides me with refuge. In the astrological chart, this is connected to issues of the fourth house: home, hearth, and family, where my north node resides.

While Sangha more directly speaks to a group and/or a place (outer manifestations of reality), the concept can also be applied to interior states of consciousness: the home we seek within. The search for Sangha, both in its exterior and interior manifestations, forms the crux of my own soul journey in this lifetime (the fourth house is also the inner refuge). This blog is a devotion to that journey, a medium to help me stay on course: engaged and mindful.

Presently Saturn is squaring my natal Sun, challenging me to form a disciplined practice. Thus, I plan to have a conversation here daily for one year––in the effort to turn fragmentation into wholeness, channel unproductive emotions into a productive creative flow, and, in the words of a wonderful teacher of mine, George Kokis, to find ease in “making special” (his words to describe artmaking). Because, godamn it. I'm constipated.