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Even the most ordinary moment is extraordinary.
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Extraordinary Moments
Thomas McConkie
Watching Now
Extraordinary Moments
Extraordinary Moments
Thomas McConkie • 16:42

The nirmanakaya, sambhogakaya, and dharmakaya are the three bodies of experience. They offer a framework for comprehending the complexity of our existence and how it affects us. These bodies stand for many levels of perception and realization, and each one adds to our whole experience and spiritual development.

The nirmanakaya, or body of appearances, serves as a gentle reminder of the value of being completely present in the world of things. It nudges us to be present at the moment, practice mindfulness, and savor the beauty and connectivity of the material world. 

The body of glory, or sambhogakaya, allows us to investigate the worlds of feelings, ideas, and collective awareness. Inspiring empathy, compassion, and a better understanding of both ourselves and others, it pushes us to explore our inner landscape. 

The ultimate nature of reality is represented by the dharmakaya, also known as the body of the absolute. It goes beyond individuality and exposes the limitless, formless essence at the center of all existence. 

We can better understand and negotiate the intricacies of life by acknowledging and interacting with these three bodies of experience. They provide a way to change oneself, grow spiritually, and establish a stronger bond with the essential realities of life. We can embrace the whole range of our human experience and develop a profound feeling of meaning, purpose, and fulfillment by integrating these bodies of experience into our daily lives.


View Transcript
[Thomas McConkie, Mindfulness Teacher] It was delightful to me as a young boy coming into contact with the dharma and learning that I had at least three bodies that I could learn to enjoy. The nirmanakaya, body of appearances, the sambhogakaya, the body of glory, the dharmakaya, the body of the absolute. I wanna invite you here to explore your three bodies, and just bring the attitude of enjoying them like a toddler enjoys learning to take his or her first steps. You can start by opening up your awareness to be aware of all of physicality, not just the physical body, but really all of the see, hear, feel world. The world that is mediated by the senses and comes to us in direct experience through the senses. See, hear, feel, taste, touch. Just notice what you're aware of. Maybe the feeling of the ground beneath you. Touch of clothes on your skin. The breath rising and falling like a wave. If your eyes are open, like windows that the sunshine is pouring through, just let the visual field come to you. Let sound come to the ear. And just delight in physicality. Relax. Have an intention not to push or pull or try to go for some special experience here. As we give ourselves more fully to the ordinariness of experience, we become more and more sensitive to the extraordinary nature of all experience. Take another moment, really soaking it in. This world of appearance is perhaps the most familiar to us, yet we don't often stop to really open up the doors of perception, to fully experience it and appreciate it. When we do so, we are often aware of a beauty that has been here all along, that we maybe weren't sensitive to. Excellent. Now, I want you to turn your attention to the subtle body, sambhogakaya, body of glory. What does this mean? Sometimes I like to imagine I'm tuning a radio dial, shifting my awareness from the body of appearances to something more subtle. I can't see it with the eye of flesh, I can't hear it with my two ears, but nevertheless there is a kind of substance and reality to this subtle body and world. Start by touching into something as simple as your own feelings, emotions. Notice what emotional energy is coursing through your experience in this moment. Notice any thoughtforms as well. Maybe mental images, internal talk, a song you heard 10 years ago, a conversation you anticipate having tomorrow with a friend. All part of the subtle body. Doesn't appear to the senses, but we can experience it inwardly through more subtle faculties. This part gets a little more fun. We're accustomed to thinking about my feelings, my thoughts, but what if you let go of this somewhat arbitrary boundary and you open your awareness up to the subtle body of all of humanity, all of the planet? All of a sudden an awareness floods in, all of life energy. The animals, the birds, the insects, the trees, and the grass, all of life opening up to this awareness. Feeling the life just fully move through you, pouring through you. Now notice not your own feelings, quote unquote, but the feeling tone of humanity as a collective. What feelings, what emotions are on the planet at this time, rising and passing, ebbing and flowing? What is the mood of North America, as opposed to Asia, as opposed to the Arctic? Just allow yourself to get this big, trust that you know how to do this. Just feel. Feel the mood, the emotional energies of the entire planet. And well beyond, if you wish. Also, as you do this, you can tune into the thoughtforms that float about the entire planet. Thoughtforms that show up in innumerable languages. And though we can't psychically detect the specificity and meaning of every single thoughtform in every single language, nevertheless we can attune ourselves to the particular energy of the thinking mind, and just feel the billions of human minds, animated by thoughtform, filling the atmosphere with thought in this very moment. Above all in the body of glory, the subtle body, you can attune to quality of universal love, kind of gravity that holds us all together, gathering us up. One heart, one mind. Feel this unity. When you allow yourself to really embody this body of glory, when you sit as this quality of big heart, universal love, see if there's a single creature, a single being that your love does not reach and touch and embrace. Feel how big you are. Let yourself be as big as you actually are. Feel the way the wisdom of the traditions, the compassion of the traditions, all flow through you. All of the Devas, all of the angels, all of the ancestors and the unborn Buddhas, all within your body of glory. You can go ahead and let this go now, tuning this radio dial again, shifting into an even more subtle body, more subtle than subtle, the dharmakaya, the body of the absolute. Allow yourself to just embody the awareness that is aware of all of it. Awareness that is aware of the world of appearances through the senses, awareness that is aware of the subtle world and realms immeasurable. As the body of the absolute, you are like infinite space. Spacious enough to hold absolutely anything and everything arising in this moment. Feel the worlds without number arising within your infinite space. There is no end or beginning to you. You don't have to try for this. You don't have to effort. It's your own body, it's your own nature. Let it be effortless. As natural as wiggling your fingers and toes. You can easily touch into cosmic proportions. Each in-breath and out-breath the birth and death of a galaxy, of a universe. Ultimately, you are so absolute, you're beyond time and space altogether. Never born, never dying. And feel the way in which you are all these bodies at once, all of these bodies, all of these realms, all of these worlds, all of physicality. All of the subtle forms, thoughts, feelings. As well as dreams, beings, personages, all of the angels, all of the power that flows through all of creation. As well as simply the open space through which it flows.

Watching Now
Extraordinary Moments
Extraordinary Moments
Thomas McConkie • 16:42

The nirmanakaya, sambhogakaya, and dharmakaya are the three bodies of experience. They offer a framework for comprehending the complexity of our existence and how it affects us. These bodies stand for many levels of perception and realization, and each one adds to our whole experience and spiritual development.

The nirmanakaya, or body of appearances, serves as a gentle reminder of the value of being completely present in the world of things. It nudges us to be present at the moment, practice mindfulness, and savor the beauty and connectivity of the material world. 

The body of glory, or sambhogakaya, allows us to investigate the worlds of feelings, ideas, and collective awareness. Inspiring empathy, compassion, and a better understanding of both ourselves and others, it pushes us to explore our inner landscape. 

The ultimate nature of reality is represented by the dharmakaya, also known as the body of the absolute. It goes beyond individuality and exposes the limitless, formless essence at the center of all existence. 

We can better understand and negotiate the intricacies of life by acknowledging and interacting with these three bodies of experience. They provide a way to change oneself, grow spiritually, and establish a stronger bond with the essential realities of life. We can embrace the whole range of our human experience and develop a profound feeling of meaning, purpose, and fulfillment by integrating these bodies of experience into our daily lives.


View Transcript
[Thomas McConkie, Mindfulness Teacher] It was delightful to me as a young boy coming into contact with the dharma and learning that I had at least three bodies that I could learn to enjoy. The nirmanakaya, body of appearances, the sambhogakaya, the body of glory, the dharmakaya, the body of the absolute. I wanna invite you here to explore your three bodies, and just bring the attitude of enjoying them like a toddler enjoys learning to take his or her first steps. You can start by opening up your awareness to be aware of all of physicality, not just the physical body, but really all of the see, hear, feel world. The world that is mediated by the senses and comes to us in direct experience through the senses. See, hear, feel, taste, touch. Just notice what you're aware of. Maybe the feeling of the ground beneath you. Touch of clothes on your skin. The breath rising and falling like a wave. If your eyes are open, like windows that the sunshine is pouring through, just let the visual field come to you. Let sound come to the ear. And just delight in physicality. Relax. Have an intention not to push or pull or try to go for some special experience here. As we give ourselves more fully to the ordinariness of experience, we become more and more sensitive to the extraordinary nature of all experience. Take another moment, really soaking it in. This world of appearance is perhaps the most familiar to us, yet we don't often stop to really open up the doors of perception, to fully experience it and appreciate it. When we do so, we are often aware of a beauty that has been here all along, that we maybe weren't sensitive to. Excellent. Now, I want you to turn your attention to the subtle body, sambhogakaya, body of glory. What does this mean? Sometimes I like to imagine I'm tuning a radio dial, shifting my awareness from the body of appearances to something more subtle. I can't see it with the eye of flesh, I can't hear it with my two ears, but nevertheless there is a kind of substance and reality to this subtle body and world. Start by touching into something as simple as your own feelings, emotions. Notice what emotional energy is coursing through your experience in this moment. Notice any thoughtforms as well. Maybe mental images, internal talk, a song you heard 10 years ago, a conversation you anticipate having tomorrow with a friend. All part of the subtle body. Doesn't appear to the senses, but we can experience it inwardly through more subtle faculties. This part gets a little more fun. We're accustomed to thinking about my feelings, my thoughts, but what if you let go of this somewhat arbitrary boundary and you open your awareness up to the subtle body of all of humanity, all of the planet? All of a sudden an awareness floods in, all of life energy. The animals, the birds, the insects, the trees, and the grass, all of life opening up to this awareness. Feeling the life just fully move through you, pouring through you. Now notice not your own feelings, quote unquote, but the feeling tone of humanity as a collective. What feelings, what emotions are on the planet at this time, rising and passing, ebbing and flowing? What is the mood of North America, as opposed to Asia, as opposed to the Arctic? Just allow yourself to get this big, trust that you know how to do this. Just feel. Feel the mood, the emotional energies of the entire planet. And well beyond, if you wish. Also, as you do this, you can tune into the thoughtforms that float about the entire planet. Thoughtforms that show up in innumerable languages. And though we can't psychically detect the specificity and meaning of every single thoughtform in every single language, nevertheless we can attune ourselves to the particular energy of the thinking mind, and just feel the billions of human minds, animated by thoughtform, filling the atmosphere with thought in this very moment. Above all in the body of glory, the subtle body, you can attune to quality of universal love, kind of gravity that holds us all together, gathering us up. One heart, one mind. Feel this unity. When you allow yourself to really embody this body of glory, when you sit as this quality of big heart, universal love, see if there's a single creature, a single being that your love does not reach and touch and embrace. Feel how big you are. Let yourself be as big as you actually are. Feel the way the wisdom of the traditions, the compassion of the traditions, all flow through you. All of the Devas, all of the angels, all of the ancestors and the unborn Buddhas, all within your body of glory. You can go ahead and let this go now, tuning this radio dial again, shifting into an even more subtle body, more subtle than subtle, the dharmakaya, the body of the absolute. Allow yourself to just embody the awareness that is aware of all of it. Awareness that is aware of the world of appearances through the senses, awareness that is aware of the subtle world and realms immeasurable. As the body of the absolute, you are like infinite space. Spacious enough to hold absolutely anything and everything arising in this moment. Feel the worlds without number arising within your infinite space. There is no end or beginning to you. You don't have to try for this. You don't have to effort. It's your own body, it's your own nature. Let it be effortless. As natural as wiggling your fingers and toes. You can easily touch into cosmic proportions. Each in-breath and out-breath the birth and death of a galaxy, of a universe. Ultimately, you are so absolute, you're beyond time and space altogether. Never born, never dying. And feel the way in which you are all these bodies at once, all of these bodies, all of these realms, all of these worlds, all of physicality. All of the subtle forms, thoughts, feelings. As well as dreams, beings, personages, all of the angels, all of the power that flows through all of creation. As well as simply the open space through which it flows.


Thomas McConkie
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