Page 59 - The Buddha‘s Noble Eightfold Path

a Sangha, an Order — because it makes the transformation of

our emotional nature so much easier to achieve. For unless we
transform that emotional nature there is for us no spiritual life at

all. This is why it is so important that in the group, in the
community, in the Sangha when we have one, we cultivate all the
time the right spirit. A spiritual community, we may say, is not

really a spiritual community unless people are actually developing
within it, and finding it easier to develop, the positive emotions

of love, compassion, generosity, peace, faith and devotion. It is
for the sake of the development of such emotions, and the
transformation of our emotional nature, that we have the

spiritual community. If the spiritual community does not function
in this way, then it is better not to have a group or community at

all.

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