Home Retreats help us inject some of the powerful teachings of the Buddha directly into our everyday lives. This week we’re joined by Balajit, Singhashri and Viveka to talk about what lies behind their latest week-long collaborative venture with The Buddhist Centre [Live] - the enigmatically titled ‘The Three Bodies of Belonging’. 

In this episode we dive into the the traditional Buddhist teaching / images / metaphors / experiences of the three kayas (‘bodies’): Dharmakaya, Samboghakaya and Nirmanakaya. These are correlated respectively, via Urygyen Sangharakshita’s reading of the Tibetan yogi and mystic Milarepa, with human mind, speech and physical body. The discussion that arises out of this takes in not just what it means to belong - but also questions of longing: what the heart yearns for, how we conceive of liberation itself via an embodied and relational approach to Awakening.

We explore what individuality and collectivity look and feel like in the light of the trikaya - how the whole of the teaching is pointing to human potential where we have the same faculties, senses, heart, body and mind as the Buddha and everyone else who has ever trodden this path. In that sense, like Buddhism at its best, it’s a profoundly hopeful, healing conversation requiring honesty, vulnerability and a new perspective on ‘self’, ‘other’ and our relationships in the face of the universe.

How do we change our stories to allow for genuine and profoundly transformative connection in a suffering world? How might we resource ourselves to blow open wide our own “window of tolerance” for whatever arises in life and become beings with a boundless heart? Join us on the Home Retreat - live or after the fact - to discover with other seekers the luminous and boundless possibilities beyond trauma, fear, anxiety, heartbreak and all that holds us back from a true sense of belonging.

N.B. The audio quality in some parts of this recording were affected by a poor connection at times.

Show Notes

🧘 Join us live for ‘The Three Bodies of Belonging’ Home Retreat (October 25-31 2024)

👥 Staci Haines - Exploring Trauma and Resilience in the Body

👥 Prentis Hemphill - Embodiment and Community

📖 ‘Mending Wall’ by Robert Frost (‘Good fences make good neighbors.’)

🎧 ‘The Inconceivable Emancipation - Themes from the Vimalakirti Nirdesha’ (lecture series by Sangharakshita)

🎧 The Sangha or Buddhist Community by Sangharakshita

🧘 Forces for Good: Challenging Emotions as Portals to Liberation (Home Retreat to do anytime!)

🧘 Explore the archive of Home Retreat on The Buddhist Centre Online 

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Theme music by Ackport! Used with kind permission.