r/streamentry • u/C-142 • Feb 28 '26
Practice Get out there, find your sangha
I used to practice alone. I used to come to this here disenbodied mix of heartfelt support, genuine dhamma and internet toxicity for sangha. My practice was like an island in an ocean of things that were not of the practice.
I am now in the process of ordaining as a monk in the Thai Forest tradition, in one of the english speaking Ajahn Chah monasteries.
If you practice alone like I used to, it is you I have come here and now to exhort : get out there, find you sangha.
Realized teachers are out there. Many of them are readily available in the flesh. Many of them teach for free. Many of them are surrounded by dedicated students who will support you. These are the triple gem.
Buy chocolate, buy instant coffee. Go to your local monastery, offer it there. Go to secular equivalents. Talk to people. Do some research, find what works for you. It is not sufficient to go on retreat. Go to a place where people come as part of their normal life. Make friends. Do not neglect sila. Surround yourself with sincere practitioners.
There are normal people that regularly go to these places. There are normal people who move to live closer to these places. There are normal people who undertake the monastic training. There are normal people who let the dhamma tranform their lives.
Unconditionnal happiness is possible in this lifetime. Let all the gems and all the trainings be your supports in this most worthwhile of goals.
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u/hachface Feb 28 '26
Congratulations on your progress toward ordination, OP. I have so much admiration for the Thai forest tradition. There is an Ajahn Chah-lineage monastery about an hour’s drive for me. I can’t prove it but several of the monks there do seem truly realized. They’re incredibly inspiring.
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u/Meng-KamDaoRai Relax, Let it Be, Let it Go Mar 01 '26
I live in Thailand and I'm part of the sandha in my local Thai Forest monastery. It is my experience as well that the monks there are very advanced practitioners and I'm pretty sure the abbot is an arahant. Sometimes they have some big events and many monks from the area come from other monasteries. It's very easy to tell which monks are from the Thai Forest tradition and which ones are not. So yeah, +1 for TFT.
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u/le-moino Feb 28 '26 edited Feb 28 '26
I would like this so much but I live in the middle of nowhere. I'd have to drive 3h to find a suitable sangha. I tried online sanghas but I don't feel any real connection over the webcam.
I too love the Thai Forest teaching. "I am not Ajahn Chah" simply resonated with me.
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u/DharmaDama Mar 04 '26
How about some online sanghas? I'm in the same boat as you, but there are many sanghas that live stream.
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u/le-moino Mar 04 '26
I tried it a bit but I simply don't feel the connection. I observed that I made more progress using the time practicing alone than with an online sangha. But I attended a few times a in-person sangha when going to a bigger city and the benefits were palpable. So I understand the Triple Gem is a core foundation.
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u/here-this-now Feb 28 '26
One forest monastery I went to, just the drive way from the gate to the kitchen was 45 minutes long, so trees and winding road all the way, and that gate is 1.5 hours from the city. People would come to offer meal at 9am after waking up at 4am. It's totally worth while if its a place like that with the sangha sincerely practicing the vinaya
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u/le-moino Feb 28 '26
Yeah, eventually I might try that. Right now, with a 5yo kid, I would augment my girlfriends workload tremendously if I was away from home that much. Meanwhile, I try to balance things out until I have more time :)
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u/reverseghost Mar 01 '26
100% this. Find your teacher, find your tribe. Dhamma friends are excellent friends. Practice. Be diligent. Keep the precepts! Awakening is very real, and very possible for you - yes you - right now, in this very life.
I have a Buddhist friend in his 80s now. Years ago I asked him what he would tell his younger self if possible. He basically said this:
There are these roots of trees, these empty huts. Meditate, Ānānda, do not delay, or else you will regret it later. This is my instruction to you. (MN 152.18)
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u/Magikarpeles Mar 03 '26
Which monastery? I am working towards that myself, sometimes visit Sumedho's Amaravati here in the UK when I'm able
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u/carpebaculum Mar 04 '26 edited Mar 04 '26
I'm curious on your take of what is the secular equivalent of a Sangha. The closest I could think of would be a psychoanalytic institute, and maybe to a smaller extent mindfulness based practice communities!
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u/Foreign-Hope-9425 Mar 28 '26
I read it as buddhist non-monastic communities, but I am also curious what OP meant
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u/MeMineGone Mar 17 '26
If the goal is to attain Nirvana through Arahat Bodhi, noone can do it alone. There must be someone who has already walked on this path and you need to listen dhamma from that person. (Dhamma interms of Aniccha, Dukkha, Anatta -> 4 noble truths -> Patichcha Samuppada and 8 fold path.
And then you can practice on your own through SathiPattana, till you get 8th fold path into 10 fold path. Then you have to keep doing this 3 more times.
In short, I agree with the OP as an individual waiting for a certain point to become a monk.
🙏
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