Satsang

Satsang combines sat (truth or being) and sangha (company), naming the practice of gathering with others in shared pursuit of understanding, whether around a teacher, a text, or simply a shared silence.

The emphasis on company is deliberate. Many traditions treat sustained solitary practice as necessary but insufficient, holding that certain kinds of understanding or transformation are more reliably supported in the presence of others walking a similar path than in isolation alone.

A satsang need not involve formal teaching. Sitting quietly with others committed to the same inward direction is, in many accounts, satsang enough, on the reasoning that the company itself, not only its content, does real spiritual work.

From the Editors' Desk, Shastra Digest.