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Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha Bodies
Thay discusses the importance of mindfulness in daily life and that every breath, every step can bring us joy and happiness. Mindfulness, concentration, insight, are three kinds of energies that we cultivate in our practice, that can bring joy and peace in every moment and help us transform suffering.
Thay tells the story of the Buddha visiting the monk Vakkali, who is dying. The story illustrates the concept of the Dharma body. Thay then teaches about the Four Recollections and the Four Bodies- the Buddha body, the Dharma body, the Sangha body and the Mindfulness Training body. We practice to cultivate and nuture these Four Bodies within us. He relates how the Four Bodies are interconnected and that a true Sangha– a living Sangha, has the living Dharma and the living Buddha within it.
“Every one of us is a cell of the Sangha body. And we know that the Sangha body carries within herself the Buddha body. So if the Sangha is a true Sangha, the Buddha is in the Sangha. And while you are a cell of the Sangha body, you are at the same time a cell of the Buddha body. It’s wonderful to be a cell in the body of the Buddha. And actually you are one. Every one of us is one cell in the Buddha body. Why do you have to go and look for the Buddha elsewhere? You are already one cell in the Buddha body. Rejoice.”
This is the ninth talk in a series of thirteen given during The Science of the Buddha, twenty-one-day retreat in the year 2012. Thay offered this talk at the Upper Hamlet, Plum Village, France.
Part of the following collections
The Story of Vakkali and the Dharma Body