Praxis
The podcast where practice makes purpose…
Praxis
The Pillars of Practice - Community (mini episode)
Community forms an essential pillar in developing meaningful practices and personal growth. When we practice within groups rather than in isolation, we experience a tangible difference that enhances commitment and progress. In this episode I discuss how:
• Group meditation creates a qualitatively different experience compared to solo practice
• Buddhism emphasizes community through the concept of Sangha—one of the Three Jewels
• Four benefits of community practice: friendship, solidarity, inspiration, and accountability
• Communities create productive friction that smooths our rough edges, like rocks on the shore
• Being called out on our "nonsense" in constructive ways helps us grow authentically
Reach out on Instagram @praxis_podcast with questions, feedback, or to volunteer for an interview about your own practice.
Welcome to Praxis, the podcast where practice makes purpose. I'm Mikey and I'll be interviewing people about the practices that reveal and create purpose in their lives. Welcome to another mini episode of praxis. This is the second in a small series of mini episodes where I'll be exploring the pillars of practice, as I've called them. These are five kind of frameworks or mindsets that I believe support your practice and help you to develop and grow in a meaningful way.
Speaker 1:I put out a poll on my Instagram at the weekend asking people what they would like to hear as the second episode, and the episode that people chose was community. So, just to kind of introduce this topic, why is community important? So, in a broader sense unrelated to practice, you know, we are social animals. We desire for belonging as part of a group. We desire for belonging as part of a group, and the vast majority of people find it difficult to be in isolation for quite a long time. I think this was brought into kind of sharp focus during the 2020 2021 lockdowns that most of the world um experienced in one form or another due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and I think a lot of people suffered because we were suddenly forced into isolation and we could only leave the house for a certain amount of time. We couldn't go to work unless we were in essential key worker jobs, like you know doctors and emergency services and for a lot of people it was tough mentally to stay inside and be isolated and cut off from our communities. I think part of going through that experience even though obviously it was a horrendous time millions of people died and I do not want to diminish that in any way, shape or form but I think it enabled a lot of us to reflect on what we value, think it enabled a lot of us to reflect on what we value. You know, a lot of people have shifted their work patterns to spend one or two days working from home because they didn't want to spend five days at the office, for example. Um, but I think it did give people the space to reflect on what it means to be um, part of a group and the value of family and friendship and all those things.
Speaker 1:Now, what is a community? Well, it can mean a lot of different things to different people. It can be something that you were born into, so that could be a religious, ethnic, linguistic, national sort of community, or it can be something that you've chosen for yourself. It can be again, I suppose, a spiritual tradition that you've chosen to enter into. It could be a hobby, a sport, an artistic practice, all those different things. For me, a community is a group of people who inspires, supports and pushes you forward and in turn, you do the same for the other people in your community. You know it's very reciprocal and you help each other to progress in your chosen practice. Chosen practice Now I think you'll find a common thread in my podcast is Buddhism, meditation, spirituality, and I'm going to be touching on Buddhism quite a lot in this episode, I think, because I think the Buddhists have got it right when they stress the importance of community.
Speaker 1:They stress the importance of community. So I must admit that I usually meditate on my own. However, there was a period when I was attending a Zen center in South London and there is a tangible qualitative difference. When you engage in meditation as part of a group, you can definitely sense something greater than yourself and there is a collective kind of push forward. When I meditate on my own, I usually meditate for 20 minutes, sometimes more, sometimes less, but roughly 20 minutes and I've noticed that when I meditate on my own roughly 20 minutes and I've noticed that when I meditate on my own, it's quite easy to kind of give up or say to myself oh, actually I only need to meditate for 10 minutes today, or five minutes is enough. But if I make the effort to go and sit with a group, I'm much more likely to sit for 20, 30 minutes, even an hour, I think.
Speaker 1:When you are practicing in a group, there is a desire to show up and put on your best foot forward, almost. You know, for example, I went to a yoga class after work this evening and you know I'm not brand new to yoga. I've done a few yoga classes here and there. I do a YouTube video once, twice a week. But when I am doing yoga as part of a class, I feel like I want to do better, because everyone else is putting so much effort into doing it that it helps me to show up for myself. And it's not that I want to impress anybody, because you know I am not flexible, I'm not a yogi. So it's not that I want to impress, but it's that I'm inspired by other people's effort and I want to match that for my own practice.
Speaker 1:So, returning to Buddhism for a moment, in Buddhism there is a lot of lists of numbers. You know, you have the four noble truths, the eightfold path, the five aggregates. It's all these numbers, and buddhists are pretty obsessed with, with numbers and lists, and one of those lists is the three jewels. Now, these are buddha, dharma and sangha. So the three jewels in buddhism are the buddha himself, the, the teacher, and the one that we aspire to to become like. The dharma, which is the teachings of the buddha, and the third one is the sangha, which is the teachings of the Buddha. And the third one is the Sangha, which is the community of practitioners. Now, this can traditionally refer to monks and nuns, people who are dedicated practitioners, who live in monasteries, but I think more broadly these days it refers to the broader Buddhist community of lay people and ordained people.
Speaker 1:Now, when I picture someone meditating, they're often alone, somewhere peaceful you know could be, I don't know in a cave or in the living room, on a cushion, incenses burning, and they're chanting Aum or something like that. But that's not how it is. Usually Most Buddhists who are ordained monks or ordained practitioners or serious practitioners, they meditate in groups. Practitioners or serious practitioners, they meditate in groups and there is something that spurs you on when you are in a group. You know we don't grow in isolation. We thrive as part of a group. Even if you're the most disciplined practitioner, there's something to be gained from participating in community practice. You know we are social animals.
Speaker 1:Now, what are the benefits of community in terms of practice? So I'm going to use running as an example for for these, and I've come up with four things that I think community practice brings Friendship, solidarity, inspiration and accountability. Friendship is kind of the easy one. You know we're not meant to do things alone necessarily, and having people who understand your journey makes a lot of difference. Now I've got a small group of friends that I run with regularly A quick shout out to Dan, stefan, brandon and Fergal and you know we do park runs together. We might do a long run together every now and then, but it just kind of makes it fun and I'm much more likely to show up knowing that my friend's going to be there too. This kind of leads on to solidarity.
Speaker 1:When things get tough, when we struggle, having people that help us and literally run alongside us helps to create a sense of belonging. It helps us to persist and go through it. You know, last sunday I did a long run in preparation for my next marathon and my friend steph was running to train for his marathon and our running overlapped slightly and he was coming to the end of a 30k run, which is really tough, and I'd only just started mine. Even though we were at different points on our on our run that day, I feel like we were both struggling and you know he was exhausted towards the end. I was just starting and I hadn't really caught my groove yet, I hadn't got into the flow state and I think it would have been easy for us to give up. But knowing that we were running side by side, pushing through for those six, seven, eight kilometers, wherever it happened to be, actually made all the difference and eventually I did run, you know, a significant distance after that.
Speaker 1:So, having that solidarity, having that friend with me to support me as I was supporting him, you know, as I say it's, it's reciprocal, it's not me, me, me, and I like to think that I helped him achieve his goals that day too, with inspiration. I think seeing other people committed to their practice really helps me to visualize what I could do at some point. Um, it does provide that. Inspiration does provide that. Um, it's not a goal necessarily. You know, I've talked about that before. I don't think I have a goal in running necessarily, but it does provide me with some sense of do you know what? I can get better over time. And here's the proof. Here is someone who started before me and look how far they've come. If I persist with this, then maybe I can do the same. The last one is accountability. You know, if I make a plan to show up at a certain time to do a long run, that other person is depending on me and you know if you are a runner or if you know runners.
Speaker 1:There's a bit of a joke that the first hour of running is sitting on the couch in your running gear putting it off. My friend Steph calls it pro-crustination. Um, and it's so true. There's been countless times where I've gone to running gear, sat on the couch and spent an hour on Instagram just because I did not want to leave, and eventually I do. However, if I've made a plan to meet up with someone at a specific time, then I just get out and do it, and it's much more beneficial.
Speaker 1:So how do we assist each other in community? How do we help each other grow. Well, it's not without friction, it's not without problems. You know, any group of humans together is gonna engender some sort of drama, some sort of um yeah, friction. And there is a buddhist thought expression um analogy. I suppose that we are all like rocks that are washed up on the shore and over time, through the friction of living and practicing together, the rough edges of our rocks get smoothed down over time and we can help each other to grow. We find out who we are really when we have other people to kind of call us out on our nonsense and challenge us in a positive, constructive way. Um, you know, if I'm not really showing up properly for my running practice, having a group of friends who can call me out and I say no, no, come on, let's go for a run, that actually does help me.
Speaker 1:So just in, in closing for this short episode, I would like to think about what community or communities you do belong to, because we all belong to communities. Maybe think about your particular practice, wherever that might be, whether that that's sports, creativity, spirituality. Maybe think about one person who is part of your community and maybe reach out to them. This can be to make a plan to practice together. It could just be to give gratitude or appreciation for them for what they do and, as ever, you can contact me on Instagram at Praxis underscore podcast. I love answering people's questions, I love having feedback, I love suggestions and if you want to be interviewed, if you have a particular practice that you are passionate about it could be literally anything please, please, get in touch and I will see you next time.