Free Buddhist Audio

Our FBA Podcast this week is entitled The Disappearing Buddha by Sangharakshita. The Buddha adopted the appearance and speech of his different audiences, and gave discourses on the Dharma which instructed, inspired, fired, and delighted. Then he would just disappear and leave them wondering, ‘Who is the Buddha?’ Talk given in 1994.

Our FBA Podcast this week is called Bright Blue Sky, Deep Blue Sea by Suryadarshini. Amitabha is one of the most well-known archetypal Buddhas, whose qualities of love and compassion attract myriad practitioners and devotees. Suryadarshini shares her personal connections with Amitabha, from superheroes to phoenixes, and also explores traditional symbols and imagery of the red Buddha of the West.

Our FBA Podcast this week is by Kulaprabha entitled Her Two Hands Are the Two Truths. This is the second in a four-part series by Kulaprabha on Nagarjuna’s ‘Lines Written to Tara.’

Our FBA Podcast this week is a cracking and wonderfully detailed talk called Vajrapani – Energy Unlimited by Vessantara, author of ‘Meeting the Buddhas’. He is the ideal person to introduce us to the complex and fascinating Tantric figure of Vajrapani – ‘Lord of Secrets’, embodiment of ”virya’ (Energy in Pursuit of the Good). Vessantara’s style is familiar and well-earthed, and therefore eminently well suited to material that bristles with electricity and is not always so easy to communicate. We get the origin and development of the Tantra itself, as well as of this key figure who meets the impermanent nature of Reality head-on and embodies the tremendous possibilities of change. Look out too for a great introduction about darts…! Talk given at Padmaloka Retreat Centre, 2003

Our FBA Podcast this week is a talk by Padmavajra entitled The Motive. This is the first talk in an eight part series by Padmavajra exploring a great classic of Tibetan Buddhism – Gampopa’s ‘Jewel Ornament of Liberation’. The work, inspired by devotion to Manjusri, is one of the key texts in the development of the Tibetan Lam Rim teachings. And Gampopa, being one of the two principle disciples of the yogi Milarepa, presents both the monastic Lam Rim approach of Atisha and the Mahamudra meditation teachings of Milarepa himself. Talk given at Padmaloka Retreat Centre, Winter 2008 This talk is part of the series Themes from Gampopa’s Jewel Ornament of Liberation.

Our FBA Podcast this week is a talk by Mahamati entitled Actualizing the 1000 Armed Avalokiteshvara. The third of four talks given on the Padmaloka May National Order weekend- Mahamati talks on actualizing the myth of the Order- symbolised in the 1000 armed Avalokiteshvara.

Our FBA Podcast this week is a talk by Vajratara entitled The Power of the Archetypal Realm given at Sheffield Buddhist Centre on 29th May 2007 as part of a series of talks on Buddhist Symbols.

Our FBA Podcast this week is a talk by Padmavajra entitled The Bodhicitta – A supra-personal spiritual force. This is the second in a series of five talks given on a Going for Refuge retreat at Padmaloka called Living From The Bodhicitta. Padmavajra explores some aspects of Sangharakshita’s insights into the Bodhicitta, as well as how we might live a life devoted to living from the Bodhicitta.

Our FBA Podcast this week is a talk by Ratnaprabha entitled Sowing Seeds In the Soil of the Mind – The Alaya. The alaya, or storehouse consciousness, is the Buddhist equivalent of the unconscious mind. It is like a garden, in which every experience and action sows a seed which may later sprout and create our unfolding life. This talk describes how this relates to the six sense awarenesses, the mind as a sense, and the contaminated mind which reads everything in terms of self and not self. Mindfulness finds a creative path between leaving the alaya on autopilot, and allowing the contaminated mind to interfere and fill the garden with weeds and rubbish.

Our FBA Podcast this week is called Mind and Mental Events by Subhuti. These five omnipresent mental events (sarvatragas) constitute the basic mechanics of the mind; if you are conscious, they are present. 1. Feeling-tone (vedana) 2. Recognition (or conceptualisation) (samjna) 3. Directionality of mind (cetana) 4. Contact (sparsa) 5. Egocentric demanding (manaskara) From this we can conclude that: 1. All our experience is feeling-toned. The more conscious we are of this, the less we will react and be driven by our likes and dislikes. 2. We are always interpreting our experience with varying degrees of accuracy and depth. We can make an ongoing effort to raise the level of our experience. 3. The mind is always moving towards things. We can use cetana skilfully to move in the direction of Going for Refuge by practising the precepts etc. But we need to want to go in that direction. This talk is part of the series Mind and Mental Events (Subhuti 2001).

Our FBA Podcast this week is calledThe Buddha Beyond Siddhartha by Dassini. The first half of the talk looks at the Buddha’s early life and his battle with and the defeat of Mara. Then Dassini looks at the traditional Buddhist concept of time, and the division of time into Kalpas, inconceivably lengthy periods of time. The talk concludes by looking at the Dharma niyama, the order of conditionality through which the attainment of Enlightenment is possible. Please not that as this talk progresses there is some sound disturbance that gets louder as the talk goes on. Apologies for this.

Our FBA Podcast this week is calledAnapanasati – Contemplation of Feelings given by Guhyavajra during the 2016 Anapanasati retreat at Padmaloka. The Anapanasati meditation practice and Four Foundations of Mindfulness are woven into a system of practice which when developed and cultivated is of great fruit and great benefit. Based on the Buddha’s principal discourse on the subject found in the Anapanasati sutta of the Pali Canon, we explore our human experience rooted in the six senses; from the perspective of body, feeling and mind in the context of mindfulness with breathing. This talk is part of the series Anapanasati.

Our FBA Podcast this week is calledThe Sangha Context of the Anapanasati Teaching, a talk given by Shubha at the London Buddhist Centre’s Women’s Night Class, Nov 21st 2013. Drawing out the full sutra where the Anapanasati teaching is given speaks to the sangha context as a condition for insight.

Our FBA Podcast this week is called Inquisitive Mind, Thinking and Awakening. Here Yashobodhi talks about the relationship between thinking and insight. As long as we have a brain, we will have thoughts. Some of these thoughts are helpful. Some not so much. Becoming aware of thoughts is a good start. Whatever next?

Our FBA Podcast this week is called From View to No View by Jnanavaca on views and the need for a positive emotional engagement with those views. London Buddhist Centre in 2007

Our FBA Podcast this week is called Training in the Six Paramitas: Shila – The Essence of Ethics by Padmavajra. This is the fifth talk in a six-part series by Padmavajra exploring the Perfection of Wisdom and specifically the practice of the Six Perfections. The usual order of the practices is reversed, so here we turn to the key issue of “Ethics”. Talk given at Padmaloka Retreat Centre, 2004 as part of the series Training in the Six Paramitas.

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In this week’s FBA Podcast, Working with Energy In the Bodhicaryavatara, Suryamati explores the theme of Virya (energy) in Santideva’s Bodhicaryavatara. Talk given at Sangha Night, Sheffield Buddhist Centre on 29th April 2008. Part of a series on Great Buddhist Texts.

Our FBA Podcast today is brought to you by Vaddhaka entitled The Evolution of the Bodhisattva Ideal. In this elegant description of the evolution of the Bodhisattva Ideal Vaddhaka draws on his extensive reading and study, and picks out Jan Nattier’s writing in particular. Given at Sangha Night at Stockholms Buddhistcenter, 8 March 2010.

Our FBA Podcast this week is by Sangharakshita from 1971. The Myth of the Return Journey has a theme which resonates with many similar stories in world literature. Here its important elements are related to the personal quest for meaning. This talk is part of the series Parables, Myths and Symbols of Mahayana Buddhism in the White Lotus Sutra.