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So for each of us, those exemplars, those sources of inspiration will be different for some
people, it will be the Buddha, for someone else, it may be the life of Millerrepper, or
it might be Yeshe Shoggyal, one of Padmasambha, there's female disciples, or by here of the
Bach garment who appears in the Pali Canon.
I haven't got time to tell you their stories, but I'd really encourage you to read stories
of, well, from the Arya Sanga, you know, people who have actually crossed over journeyed and found
freedom. So it's really important that we have this kind of flock, this help, if you like.
I'm going to read a poem by Rumi, which kind of says this in a slightly different way.
The poem's called On Being Woven, so I'm going to change the word road to journey.
This journey demands courage and stamina, yet it's full of footprints.
Who are these companions? They are rungs in your ladder. Use them.
With company you quicken your assent. You may be happy enough going along, but with others you'll
get farther and faster. Someone who goes cheerfully by himself or herself to the customs
have to pay his travel of tax will go even more lightheartedly when friends are with him.
A wall standing alone is useless, but put three or four walls together, and they'll support a
roof and keep the grain dry and safe. Rushes and reads must be woven to be useful as a mat,
if they weren't interlaced the wind would blow them away. So something about being woven
forming a flock and working together that inspires me.
Lone sailors, lone flyers, they may be happy enough going along in some ways,
but they're also vulnerable aren't they? We all need help, we all need support.
We all need encouragement to stay on course to keep going when the going gets tough,
when the journey gets challenging. The flock, the sangha, is about
participating in and contributing, you could say, to something that's more than just us.
So sangha involves thinking globally, but also acting locally. It's like with the meta-barvener,
you can think globally and hopefully try and let meta pervade as far and wide as you can,
but then we also have to think about how we're actually acting in the world, in our own sphere of
influence. Can we act there with meta? Can we act there with kindness?
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