Love in Action: the Altruistic Spirit of Christ and Buddha

Andrew Harvey and Robert Thurman are great old friends who have been sharing their insights and passions for over 30 years and who taught a very galvanizing course on the Shift Network on the Buddha and the Christ. Both of them are aware that humanity has come to its defining evolutionary ordeal manifesting through its narcissism and hubris a ferocious global dark night which threatens its extinction. Both are also aware that this terrible situation, unprecedented in its intensity and scope, offers extraordinary possibilities for radical spiritual growth and for a creative re-visioning of all human structures through the next level of embodied divine consciousness.

In this weekend retreat, Bob will present the vision that he has brilliantly revealed in book after book of how the teachings and practices of Indo-Tibetan Buddhism help us to create a new way of being and doing everything. He will speak of the great transformative ideal at the heart of Mahayana Buddhism—that of the Bodhisattva, an enlightened being who dedicates his or her whole life, in life after life to the liberation of all sentient beings. Drawing on his own inner experience and his long and profound friendship with the Dalai Lama, he will demonstrate how seekers on all paths now need to be inspired by this magnificent vision to rise in joy and focused calm to put love into action to transform society, save democracy, build economic and political structures of sustainability and provide radiant guidance to generations to come.

Drawing on three decades of exploration of Christian mysticism and his own visionary relationship with the greatest Christian mystic of the 20th century—Father Bede Griffiths—Andrew will present his profoundly aligned vision of the message of Jesus as a call to all beings to embody Christ consciousness in its grandeur and passion and put it into dynamic sacred action. He will also explore the great secret at the heart of Christian mysticism, what he calls the transfiguration process that is the divinizing of heart, mind, soul and body lived by Angelus Silesius, Sarafim of Sarov and Father Bede Griffiths himself, among many others. He will relate this secret to the vision of other great evolutionary mystics, such as Aurobindo and the Mother, in order to show how our global dark night is potentially the birth canal of its re-incarnation on a massive scale.

Bob has the highest respect for Christian mysticism and recognizes Jesus as a Bodhisattva. Andrew has been initiated into Mahayana Buddhism and honors the Bodhisattva ideal as a noble interlinked counterpoint to that of the Christed embodied divine. Andrew and Bob will engage in dialogue demonstrating the thrilling parallels between the two visions while also teaching them separately from the depths of their mutual traditions. What they hope to achieve is the clearest possible offering of a way forward, a way that marries profound inner sacred practice with wise urgent sacredly-inspired activism.

In this retreat, you will receive three divine gifts: a vision of engaged enlightenment to aspire to with your whole being, maps towards that enlightenment derived from the deepest Mahayana and Christian traditions, and sacred practices both simple and transformative that you can start using now to inspire yourself in our grim age to be joyful and compassionate agents of transformative change.

Click Register Now above if you wish to register to attend in person at Menla. If you cannot attend in person and wish to join virtually/online, please click here to register for virtual participation.

Schedule

Thursday, November 30

• 3 – 6 pm Arrival & Check-in
• 6 – 7 pm Dinner
• 7:30 pm Welcome and Evening Discussion (Andrew & Bob)

Friday, December 1

• 8 – 9 am Breakfast
• 10 am – 12 pm Morning Teaching (Andrew)
• 12:30 – 1:30 pm Lunch
• 1:30 – 4 pm Free Time for Spa Appointments, Relaxation, or Self-Study
• 4 – 6 pm Afternoon Teaching (Bob)
• 6 – 7 pm Dinner
• 7:30 pm Evening Discussion (Andrew & Bob)

Saturday, December 2

• 8 – 9 am Breakfast
• 10 am – 12 pm Morning Teaching (Andrew)
• 12:30 – 1:30 pm Lunch
• 1:30 – 4 pm Free Time for Spa Appointments, Relaxation, or Self-Study
• 4 – 6 pm Afternoon Teaching (Bob)
• 6 – 7 pm Dinner
• 7:30 pm Evening Discussion (Andrew & Bob)

Sunday, December 3

• 7 – 11 am Check-out of Rooms
• 8 – 9 am Breakfast
• 9:30 – 12:30 pm Closing Discussion (Andrew & Bob)
• 12:30-1:30 pm Lunch & Departure

*Please note that the schedule is subject to change at any time.