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BBC Radio 3 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced Third Programme.

BBC Radio 3

Radio 3

Between the Ears

Documentaries

Factual: Arts, Culture & the Media

Innovative and thought-provoking features on a wide variety of subjects

Innovative and thought-provoking features that make adventurous use of sound and explore a wide variety of subjects. Made by leading radio producers.

Between the Ears: Summer Sesshin

Discussion & Talk

Factual: Life Stories

Factual: Health & Wellbeing

Summer Sesshin

30/10/2010

BBC Radio 3 - Between the Ears, Summer Sesshin

Documentary about people balancing stressful lives with the silence of a Buddhist retreat.

Documentary following people who balance their stressful routines with the silence of the Buddhist retreat. Can those who take part carry the silence back into their daily lives?

The challenge of carrying silence into daily life

Andy is a typical London taxi driver, and his daily life involves navigating through the choked streets of the capital. But Andy is also a monk who will take us to a totally different world of a Buddhist retreat and what is known as a 'summer sesshin'

'Sesshin' is a Japanese word which means 'touching the heart - mind' and involves a period of intensive meditation in a Zen monastery. In this Between the Ears we hear from those who have to balance stressful lives with their Buddhist outlook. Along with Andy we meet a young Polish student who exchanges her work behind one of the noisiest city bars for the silence of the Buddhist retreat and a chip shop owner who attempts to escape the chaos of a Saturday night by attending a sesshin. Can they manage to carry the silence of the sesshin back into their daily lives?

As we discover their lives we hear the precise, beautiful sounds mark the timing of daily rituals such as wake-up, meditation, meal and work times.

Live music and the arts: broadcasts more live music than any other radio network. Classical music is its core. Genres include world and new music, jazz, speech and drama.

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