From Me To We: True Love Is A Process Of Humility

Thich Nhat Hanh
399 words, 4K views, 15 comments

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A community of people walking together on a spiritual path has a great deal of strength; its members are able to protect each other, to help each other in every aspect of the practice, and to build the strength of the community. There are many things that are very difficult for us to do on our own, but when we live together as community, they become easy and natural. We do them without growing tired or making a strenuous effort. The community has a collective energy. Without this energy, the practice of individual transformation is not easy.

When we live together in community it becomes a body, and each one of us is a cell in that body. If we are not part of the community body, we will be isolated, hungry, and needy, and we will not have a suitable environment for practice. We can visualize the community body as a forest. Each member of the community is a tree standing beautifully alongside the others. Each tree has its own shape, height, and unique qualities, but all are contributing to the harmonious growth of the forest. Looking at the trees standing steadily alongside each other like that, you can sense the beauty, solidity, and power of a sacred forest.

Our community body is going forward on the path of practice and its eyes are able to direct us. The eyes of the community are able to see the strong points as well as the weak points of every member of the community. By Community Eyes, we mean the insight and vision of the collective body of the community, which includes the vision and insight of all of its members from the youngest to the eldest. Although the contribution of everyone’s insight is necessary for the community insight to be clear, it is not just a simple adding up of individual insights. The collective insight has a strength, a wisdom, and a vitality of its own, which surpasses any individual insight. […]

The energy of the community body has the capacity to protect and transform us. As a member of the community, all we have to do is to make our contribution to that energy. This is called community building. It is the most precious work a monk, nun or layperson can do.

In Joyfully Together: The Art of Building a Harmonious Community.

SEED QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION: How do you relate to the notion that community building is the most precious work a monk, nun or layperson can do? Can you share a personal story of a time you were able to appreciate the insight and vision of the collective body of the community? What helps you build awareness that you are a cell in the community body?

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15 Past Reflections

On May 1, 2024 Hannah wrote :

Paradoxically, it took the pandemic to experience - via Zoom - the sense of community that I had been longing for my whole life. The field that community, even if not physically present, is so powerful!

1 reply: Aj | Post Your Reply

On May 1, 2024 Debra wrote :

As I read about the recent post regarding "community," foremost in my mind was how "community" somehow can mean "cult." I am not a cult member. Am a free person. I like the idea of community, but I'm not one of those people who defines myself as a member of a community. I keep thinking about "cults," and how the idea of community can apply to cults, harmful cults, people who brainwash their members into believing in ideas that isolate them from the rest of the communities around them. So, my question is: where does one draw the line when it comes to communities?

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On Apr 30, 2024 Barbara Schwartzbach wrote :

Community building begins at the bottom. Planting seeds of Love for growth.

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On Apr 30, 2024 Anil Pandit wrote :

Thanks ... Great merging of a drop in ocean, to feel and derive its energy !!

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On Apr 30, 2024 Pankaj wrote :

I was once blessed to be the leader of an engineering team at a robotics company where we had to invent things that simply did not exist. And getting a couple of PhD candidates from the best robotics institute along with a mechanical engineer who liked to tinker with things that move, a scientist from SRI who had dedicated his life to geometric challenges for moving robots, a field expert in computer vision, and a couple of breadth-oriented engineers got together to tackle coming up with an accurate distance sensor that ended up costing about 1% of what was available in the market. The first couple of months were really hard because each person in the team was a rock star in their own expertise, and creating an environment where every one was heard and constructively challenged took a bit of time. But once there was a mutual respect for the unique perspective that each person (cell/tree) possessed, the collective energy truly manifested wisdom beyond that of any of us!

1 reply: David | Post Your Reply

On Apr 26, 2024 stream wrote :

Hmm- Well, I am not a monk or nun, so I guess my perspective is as a lay person. My current personal mission statement is: " I co-create a community that is safe, sustainable, growthful, and joyous by being honest and following my bliss". So, I lead Dances of Universal Peace, am cochairperson for our Interfaith Roundtable group, sing in Sacred Earth Choir, and offer services like free physical therapy, moving assistance, and other social work in our community. I do my best while also taking care of my personal needs. I love the extended family I am part of most of the time. There are big challenges when people do things that I find to be incomprehensibly wrong, mean. So , I am learning to keep going while forgiving others and myself. I use a mantra- MORE ME, That's NOT MINE- so, yes I am a cell and I do my part for the whole being even when the health of the larger being looks dubious-

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On Apr 25, 2024 stan wrote :

Humity...An awareness and appreciation... of...
... the others value

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On Apr 25, 2024 K Madhuri wrote :

Community to me means coming in unity. But it's not an easy thing to build or keep a community together or even be a dedicated member of the community. I have seen a mentor build a community of empaths from scratch. I have seen it grow and then I have seen it grow week because of the diminishing energy contributions. I also saw how that energy lives in each member and seeks to be nourished and wants to flourish into that collective force that can wrap each and all of us in its care .
To be in a community is drawing so much and giving a bit and enabling the flow of life energy and I notice my identity and entity being formed by and also contributing to the form of the community.

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On Apr 25, 2024 Jagdish P Dave wrote :

I love and appreciate the work of building spiritual communities or communes by the Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh. We are social beings and we need to build spiritual communities not only for our surviaval but also for the enhancement of the members of our community. This is everbody's calling. Spiriutal leaders, monks and nuns play a significant role in creating and sustaining spiritual communities. However, lay persons like me and you have a responsibilty to create and suatain spiritual communities. Survival and enhancement of our precious life is up to all of us. We all need to join our hands together to protect and enhace the wellness of each member of our community, not only for a special group of people. It is a call for inclusion, not exclusion. I deeply appreciate the contribution of the Dalai Lama , Thich Nhat Hanh and other spiritual leaders for creating harmony and peace in the world which is dangerously divided. What is my part as a lay person in creating such a community... [View Full Comment]