Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun The worldwide community of Buddhist monks and nuns, and sometimes Buddhist laity.
- noun A particular community of Buddhist monks and nuns, or of the monks, nuns, and laity engaged in Buddhist practice.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun The community of all followers of the
Buddha ; theecclesia in which the devout take refuge; those who have "entered the stream" towardsnirvana ; as one of the three jewels of Buddhism. - noun The Buddhist congregation including laypersons and "religious" (renunciate monks and nuns who have taken vows).
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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The modern Western usage of the term sangha for the members of a Dharma center or organization, as if it were an equivalent term for the congregation of a church, is a nontraditional use of the term.
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Moreover, the term sangha in this heinous crime refers specifically to the monastic community.
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Monica Sanford, whose “Buddhist in Nebraska” blog has drawn attention from the Buddhist blogosphere, writes that learning and practicing dharma in the absence of sangha is a tricky thing.
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In Western circles, the word sangha has taken on the meaning of members of a Buddhist center.
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A couple of small points -- my reference books say the word sangha means "crowd" or "group" in Sanskrit, making it a word that must have had multiple applications.
About.com Buddhism 2009
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Monasteries were raided, hundreds of monks were arrested, and a new law was introduced placing the "sangha" -- the monastic orders -- under government regulation.
Up in Alms: Burma's 2007
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Monasteries were raided, hundreds of monks were arrested, and a new law was introduced placing the "sangha" -- the monastic orders -- under government regulation.
Buddhism in Burma 2007
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In the West, we’ve started to use the word sangha in a totally non-Buddhist way, to be the equivalent of a congregation of a church.
Bringing Buddhism Down to Earth ��� Session Two: Safe Direction (Refuge) 1996
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He then gathered a group of disciples, and formed what was known as a sangha or gana (old Vedic terms for tribal groupings in the region).
Buddha Armstrong, Karen, 1944- 2001
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While I appreciated my "sangha," or community, I didn't get into Buddhism personally until I was 16.
Waylon Lewis: Tortured by Love, Lust or a Crush? The Buddhist Solution (is Gross). 2010
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