When We Are One
By Chris Davis © 2025
This is our sangha
A sacred place
A community
Full of joy and grace
Our love is deep
Our love is wide
When we are one
The river flows
When we are together
There’s no perfection
This is good enough
Our love is deep
Our love is wide
When we are one
I see a smile upon each face
The present we embrace
Breathing in and out
With one another
Sharing from our hearts
Listening as an art
Feeling all the love
When we are one
When we are one
(Bridge)
We are one, we are free
We are one big family
All are welcome, all can be
A part of our family
Song Inspiration
After hearing Sister True Dedication, a Plum Village monastic, give a dharma talk online to a group in the UK, I was inspired to write this song out of a love for my community that meets several times a week to practice meditation, learn, grow, and share life. The Buddhist term for this is a sangha. A sangha is a community that practices mindful living together.
Helping and encouraging people to start sanghas all over the world is one of Thay’s life goal. In 2021 I started the Cahaba River Sangha and it has forever changed my life. I never thought I would have a spiritual community with so much love, compassion, understanding, inclusion, encouragement, and support. This song is dedicated to my sangha.
Below are a few of my favorite quotes by Thay about sanghas and short video.
Thich Nhat Hanh Quotes about Sangha
Taken from an excerpt from Teachings on Love by Thich Nhat Hạnh
“A sangha is a community of resistance, resisting the speed, violence, and unwholesome ways of living that are prevalent in our society.”
“You will never find a perfect sangha. An imperfect sangha is good enough.”
“I am more and more convinced that the next Buddha may not be just one person, but he may be a community, a community of love.”
“We need to support each other to build a community where love is something tangible. This may be the most important thing we can do for the survival of the Earth.”