This group came out of the two retreats held on community living at Adhisthana. It is a space to share resources and stories about living in a community as part of spiritual practice.

Over the past 40 years or so, many people attending Triratna Buddhist Centres have chosen to live together in residential spiritual communities. Buddhists around the world have set up a wide range of communal living situations with the aims of living simply, developing friendships with like-minded people, and supporting and encouraging each others’ attempts to practise the Dharma.

Buddhist communities vary from a few friends informally sharing a house or apartment to larger or more intensive situations with regular periods of meditation, study, ritual, and community meetings. Community life is a practice in itself – learning to share, tolerating other people’s habits and communicating honestly to resolve differences. It helps people to develop loving-kindness, loosen the divide between self and other, and gradually to realize the interconnected nature of life.

There is also an environmental benefit because communal life is generally cheaper; people can live more frugally, split bills, and need, say, only one fridge, washing machine and so on, shared between half a dozen or a dozen people.

This space seeks to explore some of the questions people may have about living in a community. How do you set up a community? What makes a community successful? How do communities deal with conflict? What is the place of the community in living the spiritual life?