Thriving Together : Nine Principles for Cocreating True Community

Seasoned community builder David Viafora pinpoints the nine principles that create conditions for joy and solidity in any community

Research over the last few decades reveals that our social fabric is unraveling as rates of isolation and loneliness continue to rise, climate crises intensify, and an individualistic worldview prevails. Is there another way to live? Where can we turn for guidance and hope in the face of such challenges? 

In this astute and empowering guide, David Viafora, a former Buddhist monk, points to community building as a fresh yet ancient and powerful way to face our most pressing individual, social, and ecological challenges. With precision, enthusiasm, and deep humility, Viafora draws from his own vast experience of mindfulness communities to offer inspiration and concrete guidance in growing thriving communities from the inside out. The nine principles Viafora uncovers for successful community—including Visioning, Service, Joy, and Reconciliation—are broad and easily applicable to our existing groups and relationships. Yet their potential to reshape the most basic elements of our life and friendships is revolutionary. With these nine principles in hand, we can cocreate another way of being—beyond isolation, individualism, and despair. 

In true community, we don’t have to face the difficulties of the world on our own. What we can embrace and heal as a community is far greater and more fulfilling than what we could ever achieve alone. Whether your aim is to start a new group, strengthen the community you already belong to, or explore what mindful community living has to offer, Thriving Together teaches us how to:

• Collectively create a vision to guide your community’s unique growth and purpose
• Strengthen the culture of joy, appreciation, and peace in your family or community
• Nurture vibrant, compassionate friendships as the foundation of community life
• Strengthen the muscles of reconciliation through simple yet powerful communication practices
• Embark upon meaningful service projects that nourish and heal both your community and others
• Protect your community by creating healthy boundaries in relationship to power dynamics
• Embrace racial healing as a path of compassionate and inclusive community building

David Viafora, LICSW, leads mindfulness retreats for educators, families, teens, young adults, and other groups in North America and Europe. He first ordained as a monk with Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh in 2005 and spent several years living in the Plum Village tradition monasteries before finding his niche in lay community life. David has founded several mindfulness communities across the US, including Greatwoods Zen in Charlotte, North Carolina, where he currently resides. David is a lay ordained member of the Order of Interbeing, the core community of the Plum Village tradition, and works as a licensed therapist for children, adults, and families. David identifies as a white-presenting Chinese-American cis man. Some of David’s favorite activities are drinking tea in the woods with friends, Sangha game nights, sober dance parties, and sunset meditations.