I recently spent two nights on a short retreat in a wood in Norfolk.
The main purpose of the retreat was practical: to help build a temporary dojo, a space that would later be used for practice. There was something satisfying about working with my hands, surrounded by trees, away from the usual routines of everyday life.
Alongside the work, there was time to walk, sit and simply be in the woods.
During one of those walks, I found myself looking closely at two very ordinary things: a nettle and a decaying leaf.
They became the starting point for a reflection on the Trikāya, the traditional Buddhist teaching of the “three bodies” of Buddha.
The Dharmakāya can be understood as the formless, unconditioned dimension of reality. The Sambhogakāya is traditionally associated with the luminous or visionary expression of awakening, while the Nirmāṇakāya is its manifestation in the world of form — this body, this place, this moment.
These are large ideas, and walking through the woods I wasn’t particularly interested in turning them into an intellectual exercise.
Instead, I looked at what was actually there.
The nettle had its particular shape, colour and texture. The decaying leaf was slowly returning to the earth. Light moved through the trees. Everything was changing, appearing and disappearing, taking form and losing it.
The leaf becomes soil, the nettle grows, the light touches all.
Perhaps teachings such as the Trikāya can sometimes be approached like this: not only as concepts to understand, but as different ways of looking at what is already happening.
Later, I gave a short Dharma talk about these reflections. Speaking about them after spending time walking, observing and working in the woods felt very different from simply reading about the Trikāya in a book.
The surroundings had become part of the inquiry.
The retreat itself was short. Two nights, some physical work, some walking, sitting and talking together.
Then it was time to leave.
A storm was approaching, and as I packed my things the weather was already beginning to change.
The temporary dojo stood among the trees.
The nettles were still there.
The leaves continued to fall.
And I went home.
