Talk:Sangha

(originally untitled note)

Made some changes based on personal observations. There are many Buddhist monks and nuns who do not practice monasticism but there is still a sharp distinction between the monks and the laity.

I corrected some inaccuracy with the definition of Sangha and Savaka. I also had to make minor edit of subsequent paragraph for this. I have also clarified the practice of vegetarianism and ordination of nuns in Buddhist country.FWBOarticle 07:32, 15 Jul 2004 (UTC)

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does this have anything to do with the 'satsang' movement? i ask because of the same sound of the words. rhadasoami satsang for example.

Sangha = Congregation

Almost all Buddhist organisation which does not have monks, call themselves "Lay organisation", so it specifically exclude application of Sangha reference. Only buddhist organisation which apply sangha to themselves while specifically reject monkhood is FWBO. In Wikipedia, NPOV state that views which are supported by "significant minortity" are to be included. FWBO is not a sigificant minority even in the West. It is possibly a significant minority in u.k. but this page is not about u.k. buddhism. FWBOarticle

Not sure what gives you the impression that only FWBO does that ... lots of western Buddhists do. Access to Insight has an article decrying the trend. - Nat Krause^(Talk!) 21:40, 17 March 2006 (UTC)

Can you name a Buddhist organisation in the West which do that aside from FWBO? In the West, there are quite few who decided to become buddhist after reading several books "about" buddhism. They usually drop out or join one of Buddhist organisation. Some do indeed remain buddhist without affiliating themselves with any particular temple. But I do not believe these people represent anywhere near the level which can be described as a sigfinicant mionrity. FWBOarticle

There are a lot of examples. The first one that sprung to mind was Cloud Water Sangha, which is the umbrella group for Zen Centers associated with the Rochester Zen Center. There's also, Diamond Sangha, the group affiliated with Robert Aitken; Dharma Sangha, affiliated with Richard Baker; and White Plum Asanga (I'm not sure if asanga is the same thing), affiliated with the heirs of Taizan Maezumi. I found that a good way to check around is to google for (sangha + [some popular Western Buddhist trend]). For instance, I found these easily on google: San Francisco Zen Center "Sangha News"; Southwind Sangha Sôtô Zen Association; Heartland Sangha; Shambhala Meditation Center Los Angeles "Sangha Signpost; and even these links from a Vipassana group: [1].

Another factor which should be considered is that the largest groups of Buddhist in the West are actually Asian immigrants (SriLankan,Thai,Chinese, Vietnamese and so on). Westerner convert, though more visible, are minority even in the West. FWBOarticle

That's true, but it doesn't disprove the claim that many Buddhist groups are now using sangha to refer to congregations. - Nat Krause^(Talk!) 23:55, 2 April 2006 (UTC)

Proposed merger

I'm proposing the merger of this page with bhikkhu and bhikkhuni. A bhikkhuni or bhikkhu is defined as a member of the monastic sangha of nuns or that of monks. That being the case, I can't really see what information is ever going to be added to those pages that wouldn't fit just as well here. - Nat Krause^(Talk!) 21:40, 17 March 2006 (UTC)

Support Merger Ideally, each of these article ought to be separate. Sangha, IMO, is more than sum of monks and nuns. After all it is one of three triple gems. Unfortunately, the current state of each articles doesn't deserve separate article. This may have lot to do with the current state of Buddhism article. FWBOarticle

I was about to effect the merger (which I think should also include Samanera and Samanerasikkha), but then I saw the article on Buddhist monasticism. Maybe we should merge there instead? I'm not sure what the relationship between this article and that is supposed to be. - Nat Krause^(Talk!) 06:09, 4 May 2006 (UTC)

Oppose Merger: I agree that Sangha and monk (of each tradition) are very different topics, requiring their own articles... articles which might benefit from further development. Each Buddhist monastic tradition has a unique history, various levels of ordination, and practices specific to the geographic and cultural context. Merging them all into a single article might be a setup for an extremely long article, eventually requiring separate articles again. Perhaps we could work on the articles and use a category to collect them all. It's been nearly six months since the merger was suggested and articles have continued to grow. Nat Krause, how are you feeling about this now? Deebki 07:36, 28 August 2006 (UTC)

Can you state a quick summary of what the separate content of each sangha-related article will be? These are currently sangha, Buddhist monasticism, bhikkhu, bhikkhuni, and samanera. By the way, doesn't most of what we say about bhikkhus apply to bhikkhunis as well? The current state of these articles is that they have medium amount of overlap, and none of them are very complete (although Buddhist monasticism is the most complete). I have to say that I don't see the downside of merging these articles now and then, if they eventually require separate articles again, splitting them back out. However, it's by no means clear to me that the articles that we split out will be the same ones that currently exist. For one thing, most of the content at bhikkhu currently is about Tibetan Buddhism. It would make more sense to move that to Tibetan Buddhism (if there's room) or to something like monasticism in Tibet.—Nat Krause^(Talk!) 19:20, 30 August 2006 (UTC)

Neutral for Now: Hey Nat, thanks for your response. I think we've got to be careful about confusing the six schools of Buddhism. I see articles that use Tibetan/Hinayanan terms to describe Theravadin practices (bhikkhu article being one example). There are for instance, 253 precepts for a male Tibetan monk and 227 for Theravadin. Thus, some of our articles are currently confusing, if not misinforming about the number of vows and need cleaup. Perhaps that is a good arguement for merging all the sangha info and looking at it in one place. Certainly we need to research, verify and add citations to the existing work. A quick summary of content for each of the six schools (and each tradition within each school) might be: unique history, various levels of ordination, which vinaya interpretation is followed, practices specific to the geographic area, cultural context, etc. If we were to merge all sangha-related articles, what sections do you think we should create in the resulting article?

BTW, I really appreciate that you caught & fixed the [vandalism] in May. Deebki 08:16, 7 September 2006 (UTC)

Copying merge discussion text, for reference, from Talk:Bhikkhuni --Deebki 19:54, 23 September 2006 (UTC)

Meltingpot

It seems reasonable imho to keep Sangha, Bhikkhu, Bhikkhuni, Mae ji etc. as separate yet interlinked articles.--Gakuro 08:16, 4 June 2006 (UTC)

Distinct Articles

I'd suggest that these (Sangha, Bhikkhu, Bhikkhuni, Mae ji) remain distinct articles. I imagine that several of these articles will grow significantly, since the situation for women monastics is rapidly changing. Deebki 00:25, 15 July 2006 (UTC)

Well, it's reasonable to have an article about the status of bhikkhunis in the Theravada countries and Tibet. But, what sort of information do you suggest should be housed in the other such articles? They seem to me like they are all about the same thing. I don't see any major changes occurring with regard to most of the bhikkhuni sangha.—Nat Krause(Talk!) 00:26, 30 August 2006 (UTC)

Nearly all the articles about sangha groups could use development. I should bring this to the Buddhism project. Most are missing info on specific ordination process, levels of ordination, inclusion or exclusion of leity, culturally specific practices of vinaya, roles within the culture, relationships to government and other cultures, etc. Just thinking about the massive sections on a single article (level of ordination, vinaya practice, roles, etc. for every Buddhist tradition) gives me a headache... perhaps as much headache as looking at all the scattered, proliferating articles gives you, Nat. Maybe they could all be categorized together, under something like Buddhist monasticism or even Sangha. What do you think? ----Deebki 10:46, 30 August 2006 (UTC)

Concluding Discussion:

Thanks to each of you who contributed to this very interesting discussion. I appreciate working with such thoughtful, patient people who are so dedicated to creating high-quality articles on Buddhism! I enjoyed hearing your brilliant ideas; they've changed my priorities for contributing. I hope one or some of us take the ideas generated here, over to the Wikipedia:WikiProject Buddhism!

This discussion has been open for over six months. No one has commented for 16 days. I've copied comments over from other pages, for complete record of the discussion. I'll go ahead and remove the merge tags if no one objects by 25 September.

To summarize the points:

• Mergers initially suggested because articles seemed to define those terms as equivalent of "Sangha." Several editors refuted this definition.
• Mergers reluctantly supported, though recognized as "ideally" being separate, on the grounds that article were too short.
• Suggested article to receive the new (merged) sections was questioned. Buddhist monasticism introduced as a possible option.
• Mergers opposed on the grounds that:

a. the subjects are distinct (with unique histories, levels/process of ordination, practices specific to the geographic and cultural context, etc.

b. one, single article would be very long

c. these articles are currently growing. And events in the Buddhist practices are likely to spur continued growth

d. incomplete articles should be developed, rather than merged

• Mergers re-supported based on "medium amount of overlap" and ability to merge and un-merge/split them, as needed
• Noted that some Buddhism articles confuse terminology specific to a tradition or school of Buddhism and need cleanup. --Deebki --Deebki 21:24, 23 September 2006 (UTC)

Sangha does not mean Monks

In Buddha's Teachings, Sangha means People who have attain either of Four levels of Nirvana, or Steps to Nirvana, namely Sotapanna, Sakradagami, Anagami and Arahat.

This seems to be a topic of some contention, because, unless I'm mistaken, orthodox Theravadins usually believe that sangha can apply to monks and nuns, and this has come to be it's most common meaning. Hypothetically, if this usage proves really problematic, we can later separate this article out into arya-sangha and monastic sangha. - Nat Krause^(Talk!) 23:55, 2 April 2006 (UTC)

Sangha simply means a congregation. It is most often used to refer to the monastic sangha, usually male since most people don't include the 8 precept nuns. The Suttas most often refer to the Fourfold Sangha however, the male and female monastics, the male and female lay followers and in no way refers to a person's attainments. Arya-sangha specifically refers to those who have attained one of the four stages of enlightenment. Obhaso 20:15, 23 May 2006 (UTC)

In the Pali Canon, both uses are common. Peter jackson 17:58, 18 January 2007 (UTC)

Deleted section

I just noticed that one of the sections of this article had been deleted by a vandal back in November, and not restored. I'll fix that now. - Nat Krause^(Talk!) 09:28, 13 May 2006 (UTC)

References missing all over

There are no references to all the myriad information presented here. That|s a shame.

Question: What is the reference for the Buddha eating meat? I know of a contested reference that says he died of a piece of spoilt pork, but the translation allows only for a spoilt mushroom. 217.115.75.231 (talk) 13:50, 25 August 2008 (UTC)

Sangha in Japan?

Does the concept of Sangha extend to Japan? Are all orders of Japanese Buddhist monks part of this. I personally have never heard of this concept, and I simply want to make sure that such articles as Sōhei and Yamabushi are being categorized appropriately. Japanese Buddhism is to a large extent separate and different from mainland Asian Buddhism, and has very complex concepts of sects, organization and associations. So I just want to make sure that you think it appropriate to categorize this way. Thank you. LordAmeth 18:26, 13 October 2006 (UTC)

The Buddhist clergy in Japan, except for the very small Ritsu school, do not have or claim to have the same sort of monastic ordination as found in most Buddhist countries. Whether they would use the Japanese equivalent of the word sangha to describe themselves I don't Know. Peter jackson 18:00, 18 January 2007 (UTC)

Nuns

I notice the section on women's role carefully refrains from mentioning that the vinaya thoroughly subordinates nuns to monks. Peter jackson 18:03, 18 January 2007 (UTC)