Sangha As A General Reference To Buddhist Community
Some commentators have noted that sangha is frequently (and according to them, mistakenly) used in the West to refer to any sort of Buddhist community. This could be problematic in a doctrinal sense insofar as a given collection of Buddhists might not fully constitute a triple gem (of Buddha, dharma, and sangha) where other sentient beings could take refuge, and as such, might not merit the reverence and the measure of community support (i.e., recourse to bhiksa in whatever form) provided for in the sutras for the sangha formative of the triple gem.
It is suggested by these commentators that the terms parisa or gana would be a more appropriate reference to a community of Buddhists. Parisa means "following" and it refers to the four groups of the Buddha's followers: monks, nuns, laymen and laywomen. The Sanskrit term gana has meanings of flock, troop, multitude, number, tribe, series, class, and is usable as well in more mundane senses.
However, application of sangha to any sort of Buddhist community is backed by other commentators, mainly coming from movements with a significant proportion of lay people, and often among Mahayana, Vajrayana and Vipassana groups. They refer to the word sangha being traditionally also used to encompass lay followers, in sutras like Anguttara-Nikaya II.1.vii. The doctrinal problem of sangha-as-gem-to-be-revered they solve in two ways: firstly by stressing that the arya sangha is a much greater refuge than the lower levels of sangha, and secondly by stressing that sangha denotes the sacred dimensions of gathering as a community of Buddhists, in contrast with its more mundane dimensions. The sacred dimensions of such peer relationships are governed by the concept of kalyana mittata.
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