Divine Human Mystery School, Part 2: Bodhgaya

Psyche & Co. presents · Divine Human Mystery School · Part 2 of 7

Sitting where the Buddha woke, learning compassion and clear seeing.

Psyche & Co. presents the second part of the Divine Human Mystery School with Andrew Harvey: a week at Bodh Gaya, the place where the Buddha's awakening is remembered beneath the Bodhi tree. After the fire of Benares, this is a turn towards stillness, clarity and the compassion that clear seeing makes possible.

The Divine Human, as Andrew teaches it, is not an escape from the world but a waking up within it. Few places speak more directly to that than the spot where, according to tradition, a man sat down beneath a tree, saw through the roots of suffering, and rose to spend the rest of his life teaching.

The place

Bodh Gaya lies in Bihar, in the ancient region of Magadha. At its centre stands the Mahabodhi Temple, inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2002. Tradition credits the emperor Ashoka with building the first temple here in the third century BCE, and the Vajrasana, the Diamond Throne at the foot of the Bodhi tree, is thought to date from his reign. The present brick temple, with its tall pyramidal tower, dates largely from the Gupta period in the fifth and sixth centuries CE.

Beside the temple grows a tree believed to descend from the Bodhi tree under which the Buddha gained enlightenment. Pilgrims from across the Buddhist world come to sit, walk and pray here, and the temple grounds hold a quiet, many-tongued devotion.

The teachings

• The Buddha's awakening: the story of the night beneath the Bodhi tree as a map of the mind's liberation.
• Clear seeing: practices of mindful attention that loosen our grip on fear, craving and fixed views of the self.
• Compassion as the fruit of wisdom: how seeing clearly opens naturally into care for all beings.
• The bodhisattva ideal and the Divine Human: awakening not for oneself alone but for the sake of the world.
• Bringing stillness into action: steadiness as the ground of Sacred Activism.

A sketch of the days

1. ArrivalGathering at Bodh Gaya, an opening circle and a first quiet visit to the temple grounds. A sketch of the days; the final programme will be confirmed.
2. Days 2–3The awakening: teachings on the Buddha's enlightenment, with meditation and walking practice.
3. Days 4–5Compassion: contemplative practices of loving-kindness and reflection on the bodhisattva path.
4. Day 6Silence: a day held largely in silence, with time to sit near the Mahabodhi Temple.
5. Day 7Integration and closing: drawing together the week and its place in the wider Divine Human journey.

This is an outline to give you a feel for the days. The final programme, teachers and timings will be confirmed with the dates.

What you'll take home

• A grounded meditation practice for clarity and calm under pressure.
• A deeper capacity for compassion that does not burn you out.
• An understanding of the Buddha's awakening as a living invitation, not a distant story.
• For practitioners, ways of bringing clear, kind attention into therapeutic work.
• A sense of how Buddhist wisdom meets Andrew's vision of the Divine Human.

Who it's for

This part is for helping professionals and thoughtful laypeople alike, whether you have meditated for years or are just beginning. No Buddhist background is needed. It can be taken on its own, or as the second step of the full seven-part journey. Dates are to be confirmed; register your interest to hear first.

Photographs via Wikimedia Commons: Sangeetavarma (CC BY-SA 4.0); Photo Dharma from Penang, Malaysia (CC BY 2.0); Sumitsurai (CC BY-SA 4.0).

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