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SANGHA--THE MEDITATIVE COMMUNITY | A Pure Land on Earth


The meditative community is the peace program and the means we advocate and practice. It is not a community of individuals acting alone, but a community of meditators bonded by an attainable ideal. A good model is perhaps the Buddhist monastic community, or Sangha, which we call a Harmonious Society. The word harmonious encourages members to maintain a peaceful attitude toward others, to adjust their behavior to accommodate others, and to offer themselves for the benefit of others. Accepting the role of peacemaker is more direct than requiring that others wage peace. Following this harmonious model, a larger society can attempt to influence disharmonic elements in its midst through peaceful means.

History reveals that Buddhists, as a community, have never initiated a religious war. On many historical occasions Buddhists have worked to alleviate the pain and suffering of warfare. In the time of Shakyamuni Buddha, there were many warring factions in India. Many stories tell of the Buddha advising a king to govern his country with virtue and compassion; he admonished leaders to forswear force and to influence neighboring countries through virtue and compassion. This advice is as valuable today as it was then.

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Venerable Sheng Yen is a well-known Buddhist monk, Buddhist scholar, and educator. In 1969, he went to Japan for further studies and obtained a doctoral degree from Rissho University in 1975, becoming the first ordained monk in Chinese Buddhism to pursue and successfully complete a Ph.D. in Japan.
Sheng Yen taught in the United States starting in 1975, and established Chan Meditation Center in Queens, New York, and its retreat center, Dharma Drum Retreat Center at Pine Bush, New York in 1997. He also visited many countries in Europe, as well as continuing his teaching in several Asian countries, in particular Taiwan.
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