One way is put the URL of the community you want to follow in the search box; that’s how I’m able to follow /c/lemmy from lemmy.ml on the mastedon server I’m using.
Since you’re on a lemmy server, you can also switch between Subscribed, Local, and All at the top of the main feed. “All” is all communities from all federated instances that _someone_ on your home instance already subscribes to. If you see something in the All feed you like, you can join that community from there.
I did what I said… I put the “URL of the community” (https://lemmy.ml/c/lemmy) into the search on my mastodon server.
It sounds like you found a shorthand.