Forming a Right Speech Sangha

Good Relationships Benefit our Health & Well-Being
One of the longest ongoing research studies (started in 1938 by the Harvard Study of Adult Development) has followed 724 men of different socio-economic backgrounds to discover the answer to well-being and health. The Study’s director, Dr. Robert Waldinger, is well-versed in the implications of this research. He graduated summa cum laude from Harvard in 1973 and went on to become a a psychoanalyst and a Zen priest as well as the founder and executive director of the Lifespan Research Foundation and professor of Psychiatry at the Harvard Medical School. His TED talk offers much insight about the basis for happiness. See: https://www.ted.com/talks/robert_waldinger_what_makes_a_good_life_lessons_from_the_longest_study_on_happiness
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This long-term research at Harvard shows that “good relationships” are the key contributing factor to health and well-being. This makes sense to me, as we are social beings. According to Dr. Waldinger, most people assume that wealth and fame are the necessary elements for well-being. But the research clearly found that this is not so. Instead, the sometimes “messy” relationships with family, friends, community, and others are the catalyst for well-being and health.

Spending quality time with others is so important, according to Dr. Waldinger. While 20% of Americans (over 66 million people) currently feel a loneliness that is detrimental to their health and well-being, some of the 90-year-olds in the study report chronic pain yet they are happy and healthy. Mark Twain recognized the value of good relationships when he wisely wrote: 

“There isn't time, so brief is life, for bickerings, apologies, heartburnings, callings to account. There is only time for loving,
​and but an instant, so to speak, for that.”

Society Today
As we age, we will undoubtedly experience the deaths of more of our friends and family. During this COVID-19 pandemic, people have experienced more social isolation, more loneliness, and spikes in break ups and divorces. Our mobile society means that many of us no longer live in the places where we were born or in the communities where we grew up. In this age of globalization, we have lost the sense of our “village community.” Breakdowns in our social structures, heightened by the pandemic, have exacerbated health risks and misery in our community.

Creating a Virtual Sangha
Mindfulness practice is designed to improve our relationship to ourselves and to others. As our relationships strengthen, we also boost our own health and happiness. This is where our newly formed WhatsApp Right Speech Sangha comes in.

What’s a sangha? It is a Sanskrit word meaning community. In Mindfulness practice, a sangha is a community of people practicing Mindfulness and supporting each other. Sangha is a critical element for successful Mindfulness practice.  A sangha is a safe place where everyone can share thoughts, be in touch with one another, and discuss their Mindfulness practice in relation to their personal life challenges and discoveries. It is a place to socialize and lend support to one another.  

In today’s world we can use a social media platform to form a sangha dedicated to alleviating loneliness and bringing people together for the benefit of all. A virtual community needs no real estate. There is no cost to join. And you are most welcome to join us.

WhatsApp Right Speech Sangha is run by volunteers, and you can join the Admin group if you like. Currently. Diane Haas, Ron Kinder, and George Klein have been very kind and generous to step forward to be the administrators for the sangha. I have been involved for the past few months to assist the Admin group in developing the sangha. However, I am going to resign from the Admin group after posting this blog so that it will be just for you as practitioners and not a teaching medium for me.
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How can this virtual sangha benefit everyone? Here are some of the ways:

1. Your membership and involvement will help establish a community that promotes good relationships with others and supports the needs of others.
2. You will benefit from having a community for building relationships that support you.
3. Sangha will offer you the opportunity to practice Right Speech (which I will explain later).
4. You will help establish a safe and supportive environment with like-minded people.

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Right Speech
The sangha establishes Right Speech as a method for interacting with each other. This means:

1. Speaking or writing only when your content is true/authentic.
2. Speaking or writing only when what you bring has value, is useful, or benefits others.
3. Speaking or writing only when it is proper within the context.
4. Speaking or writing in a way that is non-harming and peaceful.
5. Speaking or writing humbly without boasting to elevate the ego.

The practice of Right Speech is valuable for Mindfulness practice as it helps you pause before writing or speaking, which brings your mind into a state of being in the present with awareness. As Right Speech become habitual through frequent practice, it becomes the “embodiment” of Mindfulness.

Ultimately, the goal of Mindfulness practice is to improve our collective well-being.
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To join the WhatsApp Right Speech Sangha, please e-mail Diane Haas at [email protected] with your request.

May all beings be happy!

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