Free Buddhist Audio

Suryagupta delivers a powerful, passionate account of the figure of the Dakini who represents perfect freedom. London Buddhist Centre’s contemporary series on Sangharakshita’s classic 1979 lecture 'The Taste of Freedom'. *** Help keep FBA free for everyone! Become a supporter today.  Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast - bite-size pieces of Dharma inspiration, two times a week! Follow our blog for news and new Dharma FBA on Twitter FBA on Facebook FBA on Soundcloud

Padmavajra visited the London Buddhist Centre to give a talk on Sangharakshita’s classic 1979 lecture 'The Taste of Freedom'. Just as the mighty ocean has but one taste, the taste of salt, even so the Dharma-vinaya (Buddhism) has but one taste, the taste of Freedom. (from 'The Udana').  Talk given June 2019 *** Help keep FBA free for everyone! Become a supporter today.  Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast - bite-size pieces of Dharma inspiration, two times a week! Follow our blog for news and new Dharma FBA on Twitter FBA on Facebook FBA on Soundcloud  

Sanghadevi offers this substantial and inspiring talk on the praises of Pingiya, from the chapter entitled The Way to the Beyond from the Sutta Nipata. This is the final talk in a series entitled The Buddha in the Pali Canon given at Cambridge Buddhist Centre (UK) 2015. *** Help keep FBA free for everyone! Become a supporter today.  Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast - bite-size pieces of Dharma inspiration, two times a week! Follow our blog for news and new Dharma FBA on Twitter FBA on Facebook FBA on Soundcloud

Here we have Akuppa exploreing how someone practising the Dharma might respond if they found themselves in 'Hell and Other Ordinary Places' - including prison and public buses! One of a series of talks on the theme of 'A Force for Good in the World', given in the Dharma Parlour at the 2010 Buddhafield Festival in Somerset, UK. There are also very worth sharing: Shambala Warrior verses written by Akuppa, 2005. *** Help keep FBA free for everyone! Become a supporter today.  Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast - bite-size pieces of Dharma inspiration, two times a week! Follow our blog for news and new Dharma FBA on Twitter FBA on Facebook FBA on Soundcloud

How can Buddhists respond to the climate emergency? Vishvapani uses the Parable of the Burning House from the Lotus Sutra to suggest our responsibilities' and finds the values we need to guide us in the Five Precepts. Given at Cardiff Buddhist Centre on Dharma Day, July 2019. *** Help keep FBA free for everyone! Become a supporter today.  Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast - bite-size pieces of Dharma inspiration, two times a week! Follow our blog for news and new Dharma FBA on Twitter FBA on Facebook FBA on Soundcloud

Partisan politics, hurricanes and earthquakes, mass shootings, nuclear threats … our world at times feels like a living nightmare. How do we as Buddhists respond, individually and as a sangha? And how do we keep our sanity? “Practice During Times of Chaos and Uncertainty” given by Sunada on Sangha Day at Aryaloka Buddhist Center, Newmarket, NH, November 2017. *** Help keep FBA free for everyone! Become a supporter today.  Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast - bite-size pieces of Dharma inspiration, two times a week! Follow our blog for news and new Dharma FBA on Twitter FBA on Facebook FBA on Soundcloud

It's often very difficult to keep up with the challenges of a Buddhist practice. If we are truly to make progress in our Buddhist practice, we have to take into account our surroundings, our environment, where we live, where we work, where we socialize. Transforming our own lives and minds is at the core of our practice, but to do that effectively we also need to look at transforming, remaking, rebuilding the world and communities around us.  Taking inspiration from The Vimalakirti Nirdesa, Padmavajra offers instructions for how to create a Buddhaland. 1. Make yourself 2. Gather wisdom 3. Make friends 4. Make a world together 5. Revere the mystery Talk given at London Buddhist Centre, 2017. *** Help keep FBA free for everyone! Become a supporter today.  Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast - bite-size pieces of Dharma inspiration, two times a week! Follow our blog for news and new Dharma FBA on Twitter FBA on Facebook FBA on Soundcloud

Subhuti shares his reflections on Urgyen Sangharakshita in the days following his death and funeral ceremony. He explores the double response to Sangharakshita as an effective Dharma teacher and former of Sangha alongside the various difficulties and paradoxes in his life. The two last papers Sangharakshita wrote, completed just over two weeks before he died, examine the three main paths of Buddhism, among other things, and thereby offer three different ways of understanding his own role as teacher. This helps us to understand both his human personality and his significance for us. This talk is part of the series Who is Urgyen Sangharakshita? Talk given at London Buddhist Centre, November 29, 2018. *** Help keep FBA free for everyone! Become a supporter today.  Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast - bite-size pieces of Dharma inspiration, three times a week! Follow our blog for news and new Dharma FBA on Twitter FBA on Facebook FBA on Soundcloud

Here is a talk by Punyamala on Dilgo Khyentse Rimpoche, (1910-1991) one of Sangharakshita’s main eight teachers. Forced to flee Tibet in 1959, Dilgo Khyentse Rimpoche was an accomplished meditation teacher, scholar and holder of the Nyingma lineage, the oldest school of Tibetan Buddhism. Punyamala offers a brief history of his life, his connection with Sangharakshita and a set of reflections on his teachings. Talk given at Sheffield Buddhist Centre, 29th August 2006, as part of a series on the Refuge Tree of the Triratna Buddhist Order. *** Help keep FBA free for everyone! Become a supporter today.  Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast - bite-size pieces of Dharma inspiration, two times a week! Follow our blog for news and new Dharma FBA on Twitter FBA on Facebook FBA on Soundcloud  

Here's a forthright and passionate talk by Vajratara, taking as its starting point the great contemporary Tibetan teacher (sometimes also written 'Chatral Sangye Dorje') and his relationship to practice in Triratna, rooted in his giving of the Green Tara practice to Sangharakshita. The main focus, however, is the need to practice the Dharma for others as part of a meaningful community, and Vajratara argues her case with a balance of down-to-earth humour and uncompromising vision. Talk given at the Sheffield Buddhist Centre, 2007 *** Help keep FBA free for everyone! Become a supporter today.  Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast - bite-size pieces of Dharma inspiration, three times a week! Follow our blog for news and new Dharma FBA on Twitter FBA on Facebook FBA on Soundcloud

A lovely talk given by Nagabodhi on Triratna Day at Aryaloka Buddhist Center, with an introduction by Dayalocana. Here, Nagabodhi recounts his favorite memories of his time with Dhardo Rinpoche in Kalimpong, expresses his feelings about the strengthening power of stupa building for centers, and ties it all together with a reminder of the central role of sangha in the Triratna Community. Lovely introducation and conclusion by Dayalocana. Talk given on Triratna Day, April 2014 at Aryaloka Buddhist Center. *** Help keep FBA free for everyone! Become a supporter today.  Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast - bite-size pieces of Dharma inspiration, three times a week! Follow our blog for news and new Dharma FBA on Twitter FBA on Facebook FBA on Soundcloud

Part 5 in the Faces of Enlightenment Sangha night series at the Sheffield Buddhist Centre. Bodhinaga gives a talk on the Buddha Amitabha and the Metta Bhavana loving-kindness meditation. Recorded at Sheffield Buddhist Centre, 21/05/19 *** Help keep FBA free for everyone! Become a supporter today. Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast - bite-size pieces of Dharma inspiration, three times a week! Follow our blog for news and new Dharma FBA on Twitter FBA on Facebook FBA on Soundcloud

Our FBA Podcast this week is entitled Forgiveness and Happiness. Santavajri explores verses 4, 5 and 6 of the Eight Verses for Training the Mind. She begins with her realisation that a motivator for her spiritual practice has been a quest for happiness. Touching on the themes of righteous indignation, spiritual bypassing, empathy, non-violent communication, envy, and exploring apology, confession and working with betrayal, Santavajri poses the question: can we forgive ourselves and move towards unconditional love for all beings? Talk given at the Women's Area Order Weekend at Adhisthana, December 2018 This talk is part of the series Women's Area Order Weekend at Adhisthana.

Here Padmavajra speaks about the stages of spiritual death and rebirth. How to prepare for them, how they can be seen in all the stages of the path, as well as where they lead. Talk given on a Kula Gathering at Padmaloka, 2012. Subscribe to the FBA Podcast!

Check out this week’s FBA Podcast: What’s Race, Gender, Sexuality and Skin Color Got to Do with Non-Self by Vimalasara. A timely and thought-provoking talk given at a People of Color (POC) day-long retreat at San Francisco’s East Bay Meditation Center 2019. The East Bay Meditation Center hosts teachers from all lineages to teach the Dharma to their POC, LGBTQI2, Differently Abled and Scent Free Communities. Talk given February 2019 in San Francisco.

In today’s FBA Podcast this week: 21st Century Bodhisattva Saravantu explores the role of active engagement in the world’s problems, and the various pitfalls along the way, into which activists can so easily fall. This talk launches a series of talks entitled “The 21st Century Bodhisattva”, inspired by Akuppa’s module in the Dharma Training Course.

Enjoy our FBA Podcast this week: Communicating the Dharma Through the Arts – Show Don’t Tell by Sarvananda. Be prepared for the unexpected in this very funny – and by turns wrongfooting – personal exploration of why the Arts are vital to the development of a genuine Buddhist community. Sarvananda discusses as background his attempts to find a synthesis between the Arts and spiritual life, leading to his current work as a successful playwright. But it is in the three departures from a traditional Dharma talk that we glimpse something else – the crucial show-don’t-tell aspect of the title. Suffice to say, if you have not heard Stand-Up Tragedy, Dharma Ventriloquism, or a Ukulele Lady Visualisation before, best turn on your heart and your ears…

Our FBA Podcast this week is an important talk entitled Mindfulness and the Creative Disruption of Bias by Viveka. Viveka explores the theme of racism from the perspective of the Dharma and what the Buddha had to say about complex conditionality. A timely look at understanding – and ultimately undoing – the patterns that lead to prejudice and bias, of all kinds. Specifically, this talk investigates: - Opening to the inter-personal, organizational, and societal conditioning that perpetuates racial bias. - Understanding ‘implicit bias’, which is how thoughts, feelings, emotions, and actions are influenced (largely unconsciously) by exposure to stereotypes and fears about targeted social groups. - How can the mechanics of ‘implicit’ bias be disrupted by the power of mindfulness? Talk given at San Francisco Buddhist Center, June 2016. thebuddhistcentre.com/sanfrancisco

This week’s FBA Podcast is a talk on Radical Inclusivity by Singhashri. What does Buddhism have to do with belonging? What does belonging have to do with Buddhism? We live in a pluralistic society, where many cultures coexist while maintaining their cultural differences. One of the main concerns of our day is how we continue to create a sense of belonging, amid so much difference. For Triratna, we might ask ourselves, how do we create spaces where all feel welcome, regardless of age, race, nationality, class, gender, sexual identity, physical ability and even religion? And as we deepen our commitment and involvement, how do we honour the unique experiences and gifts of each individual, while also seeking a ground of connection based on the Dharma? Sangharakshita has said: The Dharma should be communicated to as many people as possible and this means communicating the Dharma in as many different ways as possible…Avalokitesvara has a thousand hands, and each of the thousand hands holds a different object. Simi

Speaking in a marquee on the June 2012 Women’s National Order Weekend at Taraloka and in a landscape dedicated to the Five Jinas, Samantabhadri explores positive emotion in our system of practice. Her themes are: pliancy and loosening boundaries; the imagination; insight; our collective life; the shade and the light of our spiritual lives. Subscribe to the FBA podcast