Join the Saṅgha
a Dhamma community dedicated to individual & collective liberation
MEDITATION | STUDY | DISCUSSION | COMMUNITY
Our lovely group began in Berkeley, California in 2016 and went online in the pandemic of 2020. Now we are an international group of friends in the Dhamma, supporting each other to bring this radical practice into the fullness of our lives. We gather weekly on Tuesday nights and monthly for a Friday morning book club, along with seasonal in-person gatherings and retreats in Northern California.
Saṅgha—Pāli and Sanskrit for spiritual community—is a space we cultivate together, valuing safety, reciprocity, inquiry, and the nourishment of connection as we unfold the path. All are welcome, and we offer Saṅgha access always on Gift Economy (dāna), with accessibility and inclusivity our core commitment. No one is turned away from participating based on resources. We have a sliding scale of monthly offerings but if you need another amount, please reach out. Giving the highest rate you can sustainably and joyfully afford helps make the group accessible for others.
We need community, and safe spaces for spiritual practice, now more than ever if we are to find strength and wisdom to act in service of collective well-being. In an age of dislocation, isolation, and overwhelm, coming together with sincere practitioners and seekers of true peace may be one of the most radical things we can do.
Join us in spiritual friendship.
Note for current Saṅgha: We are shifting from a drop-in model to a community membership model as an experiment in service of deepening connection, continuity, and sustainability for the group. We are still on Gift Economy, and are exploring this as a way to link the Tuesday and Friday groups and create a container for more community connection. This is a work-in-progress—let us know how it’s working for you and if you have questions.
What’s included
Insight Meditation Satsang, our weekly practice gathering
The “book club,” our monthly text study gathering
The Eightfold Path audio archive (130 hours)
Access to the Saṅgha discussion forum (coming soon)
A community of welcoming, sincere seekers
Saṅgha Gatherings
Weekly Tuesdays, 7:30-9pm Pacific
Online
Meditation, teachings, & Dhamma discussion. The primary gathering of our lovely Saṅgha.
Insight Meditation Satsang
Monthly Fridays, 8:30-10am Pacific
Online
Group study of the Buddha’s teachings in the Pāli Canon. Currently reading the Dīgha Nikāya, The Long Discourses of the Buddha.
Book Club
All are welcome.
Access to our practice community is offered on a Gift Economy model,
with nobody turned away for lack of resources, and includes both of our ongoing groups.
Please join us if you would be supported by saṅgha in this moment.
Who is this for?
You’ve been practicing alone and want to connect with others on the path
You thrive in a trauma-sensitive and justice-oriented Buddhism that values both inner cultivation and engagement with the world
You want to grow a relationship with the root texts and teachings of the Insight tradition, and with a teacher who can guide you through them
Beginners are always welcome. Come for a month for free and introduce yourself—we’d love to meet you.
“In a world of so much noise, verbal, physical and emotional, I arrive at your recordings with weariness, but leave them with a bit more clarity and focus. Sometimes, it may not be the actual words or topic that help. It is the intention to share something worth sharing, and the work you put into it that reminds me what’s truly important... and how crucial it is to connect. And the noise drops away.”
Gift Economy
Saṅgha access is offered on a sliding scale, relying on self-assessment of your ability to support others with lesser resources to participate. Your generosity directly gifts scholarship support to those who need it, and allows us to share these teachings with everyone who might benefit from them, regardless of wealth or access to resources.
Please join us in the practice of Gift Economy and offer the highest level you can. Thank you!
Choose your plan
Plans charge on an automated, monthly basis, with your first month free.
You can change your tier or cancel anytime.
Supported Rate
Our goal is to not turn anyone away for lack of resources. This supported rate is made possible by the generosity of those who are able to joyfully offer a higher monthly gift. We offer this rate freely, and respect your self-assessment of need for it.
If you need a lower rate than this, please reach out.
Check Us Out
Your first month of access is free.
Your plan will automatically renew at the tier you’ve chosen at the end of the trial period, or you may choose to cancel before then. We’ll send you a reminder email 5 days before renewal. If you prefer to continue with a different plan, you can cancel and sign up at any rate.
FAQs
Content
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Please do. We regularly return to foundational teachings and practices, and folks are at many different places in their practices. Sincere practitioners of all experience levels are always welcome.
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Our practice is centered on the contemplative, social action, and philosophical teachings of the Buddha. We work with a range of meditations from mindfulness to lovingkindness and the cultivation of somatic awareness and energy. And we explore the resonance of a wide range of Buddhist ideas and teachings in contemporary life.
We wrestle with social issues and challenges of the world as it is now, and welcome activists and socially-engaged practitioners as well as all those interested in bringing their practice off the cushion and into the fullness of our lives.
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We are based in the Insight Meditation tradition, which is a globalized form of contemporary Buddhism rooted in the Theravāda (“Path of the Elders”) and Early Buddhist lineages of Southeast Asia.
Sean received teaching authorization from Jack Kornfield, whose primary lineage of the Thai Forest Saṅgha continues to be a strong influence on our practice. Our main text source is the Pāli Canon.
In addition, we study and practice with the luminous early Mahāyāna teachings known as the Perfection of Wisdom (Prajñāpāramitā).
Logistics
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Insight Meditation Satsang meets every Tuesday, 7:30-9pm Pacific.
The Book Club meets once per month on Fridays, 8:30-10am Pacific.
You are welcome to attend all sessions or come and go as works for you. We often explore topics in series, but you’ll have access to recordings of all previous sessions.
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All sessions are held online via Zoom. Members receive the Zoom link via email and it is also posted within the member area on our website. You can join from a desktop, laptop or download the Zoom App to join from a mobile device.
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Yes, all sessions are recorded. The Q&A portion is removed before the recording is posted, for privacy.
Satsang recordings are posted in the Teaching Archive which is publicly available.
Book Club recordings and supplemental materials are catalogued within a course. Members have exclusive access to the book club course until we complete the text we are currently reading, at which time we will make the course publicly available as an on-demand course offering.
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We do not currently post transcripts of talks. AI-generated closed captions are available for the Satsang meditations and talks posted on YouTube.
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When you join you will be prompted to create an account with a user name and password during check out. You will use this to log into the website going forward.
Once logged in, you will now have access to our Saṇgha resources area from your Account dashboard. You can find your Account dashboard at the top right of your screen, where the login button is. When your account panel opens, your active membership and courses will be displayed under the heading Digital Products.
The community forum will be linked on the Saṅgha resources page once we launch it. (Soon!)
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Email us at admin@seanfeitoakes.com and we can help.
Engagement
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Yes, both Satsang and the Book Club end with time for Q&A . If we run out of time, or you think of additional questions or discussion points after the session ends, further discussion is welcome and encouraged in the group forum.
Sean also regularly does “Ask Me Anything” sessions at the Tuesday Satsang, making more time for questions and discussion.
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All of our live sessions include interactive time. In addition, our group forum (coming soon!) is a place for questions, discussion, and community interaction. Sean is an active participant in the dialogue and encourages everyone to introduce themselves and become active there as well.
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Sean mentors a small number of dedicated students, and you are welcome to reach out to explore whether individual or small group support would serve your practice.
Saṅgha Access
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To join, we ask that you select a monthly tier from the available options, which includes a freely-offered scholarship option, or reach out for a custom rate.
During check out you will enter and save a credit card. This is the card that will be charged monthly.
Your subscription renews monthly, on the same day each month. For example if you sign up on February 5th for $35/month, your first charge will occur on March 5th for $35, and recur monthly ongoing until you cancel.
You can cancel, change your contribution level, or change your credit card at any time from your account dashboard.
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Saṅgha access is offered on a wide sliding scale, with a variety of monthly contribution tiers available for self-selection. Custom rates are available, including $0, by request.
Our model works on self-assessment of your resources and ability to support others with lesser resources to participate. Read more about the practice of Gift Economy here. Please join us in this radical practice by engaging sincerely and offering the highest level you can.
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Please reach out to us and we’ll set you up with any custom amount, including $0.
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You can cancel or change your subscription at any time.
To cancel or update your credit card, login and navigate to your account dashboard and select your active subscription.
Your access to the sangha will remain through the end of the billing cycle. After that you will still use the same account to login, but your account will no longer link you to the member area of the website.
If you wish to change your subscription tier, you can cancel and sign up at the new rate of your choosing. If you would like a rate that is not listed on the website, please contact us for a custom amount, including $0.
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Yes. Everyone receives a free month before the first payment is charged. Your plan will automatically renew at the end of your first month, at the rate you have chosen. You may choose to cancel before then, at any time.
We’ll send you a reminder email 5 days before renewal. If you prefer to continue with a different plan, you can cancel and sign up at any rate.
Sutta: Good friends are half the spiritual life
So I have heard. At one time the Buddha was staying in the land of the Sakyans, where they have a town named Nagaraka. Then Venerable Ānanda went up to the Buddha, bowed, sat down to one side, and said to him: “Sir, good friends, companions, and associates are half the spiritual life.”
“Not so, Ānanda! Not so, Ānanda! Good friends, companions, and associates are the whole of the spiritual life. A mendicant with good friends, companions, and associates can expect to develop and cultivate the noble eightfold path.
And how does a mendicant with good friends develop and cultivate the noble eightfold path? It’s when a mendicant develops right view, which relies on seclusion, fading away, and cessation, and ripens as letting go. They develop right thought … right speech … right action … right livelihood … right effort … right mindfulness … right immersion, which relies on seclusion, fading away, and cessation, and ripens as letting go. That’s how a mendicant with good friends develops and cultivates the noble eightfold path.
And here’s another way to understand how good friends are the whole of the spiritual life. For, by relying on me as a good friend, sentient beings who are liable to rebirth, old age, and death, to sorrow, lamentation, pain, sadness, and distress are freed from all these things. This is another way to understand how good friends are the whole of the spiritual life.”