 The Nagaloka Buddhist Center is located in the Arts District in Portland, Maine. This provides a unique opportunity to the Sangha in Nagaloka by drawing on the diverse population in the heart of downtown Portland. We're in the Arts District, we're in a busy community, and so what we are attracting is some young men now coming to our community. It's physically in a great location as far as downtown and being in the Arts District and being able to come here and meet local people. This Sangha reflects the nature of Portland. It is a city but it's one of the smaller, it's the biggest city in Maine, but it's a relatively small city. And this Sangha here accommodates a way to practice mindfulness in smaller groups even though there are a lot of people participating in the Sangha and the Sangha is growing all the time. Coming here to Nagaloka and coming back to Portland, I'm originally from Maryland, I found that Portland, the people of Portland are really tight knit group of people and maybe it's a better quality of life up here, I'm not sure. However, it has allowed me to open up within my mind and within my heart especially and to want to connect. I think the people that come to Nagaloka are representative of the population of Portland because everybody is so open-minded and very friendly and welcoming, so very much like Portland as a whole, I think. The Sangha at Nagaloka takes full advantage of its location in the Arts District. The first Friday of every month, the downtown district of Portland has, well it's the part of the after stick and the part of the Maine College of Art, all the galleries are open in Portland on the first Friday, so people can go around, every gallery is open, but actually this building is open, they exhibit art on the second floor, plus we open our bookstore and we open Nagaloka for people that want to come in to just see what it's like here to be in a Buddhist community. Geographically it's great and I think it does it, you know, I come here and I get inspired and I walk through the downtown and go out to dinner or meet friends, it's a nice way to start the evening or the weekend. On April 4th, 2014, the Sangha hosted Nagabody, a long time order member from England during a first Friday art walk when he gave a talk on mindfulness. Nagabody gave his talk on the first Friday too, so Nagabody talked about mindfulness which was really great and we had, I don't know, probably 20, 30 people hear that evening that just, a lot of them just came to listen to Nagabody give his talk and so here we are, this little community in Portland, Maine and we have somebody like Nagabody coming and giving a talk, it's quite wonderful. Our whole life is devoted to kind of holding a tight grip on this idea of a self. Just imagine if you can loosen that, what might get released? You know, the energy, the creativity, the capacity to engage and relate. The people who come to Nagaloka appreciate its connection with the Portland community and find that that connection enhances their practice. I think the Sangha helps to reaffirm mindfulness in just my daily practice when I get to meet up every week with people that share the same values and really just helps to remind me of what I'm trying to do with my practice. The kinds of conversations that we have here at Nagaloka are focused on what we're doing, what we're thinking right now. They're practical, they're everyday and this is a wonderful opportunity for us to connect our practice to our everyday life. It's really about again being interconnected and really finding a way to relate to one another through mindfulness which blows my mind sometimes thinking how again it can happen in this small group. What can it do outside of this, out of the center, in this small city?