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"Happy indeed we live, friendly amid the haters. Among those who hate we dwell free from hate. Happy indeed we live, healthy amid the sick. Among those who are sick we dwell free from sickness. Happy indeed we live, content amid the greedy. Among those who are greedy we dwell free from greed." (The Dhammapada, chapter 14, 'Happiness', verses 197-199). Ratnaghosha explores the Buddha's vision of spiritual community as it is expressed in three verses of the Dhammapada. This is a comprehensive survey of the Buddha's teaching but is also replete with practical advice about how we might apply this to our lives today - and finishes on a very encouraging note. Talk given at the Dublin Buddhist Centre, 2024. *** Subscribe to our Free Buddhist Audio podcast: On Apple Podcasts | On Spotify | On Google Podcasts A full, curated, quality Dharma talk, every week. 3,000,000 downloads and counting!Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: On Apple Podcasts | On Spotify | On Google Podcasts Bite-sized inspiration three times every week. Subscribe using these RSS feeds or search for Free Buddhist Audio or Dharmabytes in your favorite podcast service! Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone: donate now! Follow Free Buddhist Audio: YouTube | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Soundcloud

In a life well lived there is a conscious search for meaning. Suryagupta reflects on the Buddha's (and our own!) Noble Quest. This talk was given as a part of the LBC Winter Retreat 2023, following the Buddha's This talk was given at London Buddhist Centre as part of the series The Noble Quest, 2023. *** Subscribe to our Free Buddhist Audio podcast: On Apple Podcasts | On Spotify | On Google Podcasts A full, curated, quality Dharma talk, every week. 3,000,000 downloads and counting!Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: On Apple Podcasts | On Spotify | On Google Podcasts Bite-sized inspiration three times every week. Subscribe using these RSS feeds or search for Free Buddhist Audio or Dharmabytes in your favorite podcast service! Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone: donate now! Follow Free Buddhist Audio: YouTube | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Soundcloud

Jnanadhara explores the meaning of inspiration and its importance in the Dharmalife. He makes some general observations about the nature of inspiration, discusses the three kinds of faith, and concludes by talking about The Buddha as a source of inspiration. This talk was given at Adhisthana as part of the series Changemakers Weekend: Passing on the Flame, 2024. *** Subscribe to our Free Buddhist Audio podcast: On Apple Podcasts | On Spotify | On Google Podcasts A full, curated, quality Dharma talk, every week. 3,000,000 downloads and counting!Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: On Apple Podcasts | On Spotify | On Google Podcasts Bite-sized inspiration three times every week. Subscribe using these RSS feeds or search for Free Buddhist Audio or Dharmabytes in your favorite podcast service! Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone: donate now! Follow Free Buddhist Audio: YouTube | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Soundcloud

'Just as I love and cherish my body, which is divided into many limbs, so I should love and cherish this whole world, which is divided into many beings.' So says Shantideva in his famous 'Guide to the Path of Awakening'. In this talk Vadanya will explore what Shantideva tells us about the wisdom teaching of 'anatman' – often translated as 'no-self' – and look at how this apparently negative doctrine opens up a positive and inspiring vision of connectedness. Given at Sheffield Buddhist Centre, 2024. *** Subscribe to our Free Buddhist Audio podcast: On Apple Podcasts | On Spotify | On Google Podcasts A full, curated, quality Dharma talk, every week. 3,000,000 downloads and counting!Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: On Apple Podcasts | On Spotify | On Google Podcasts Bite-sized inspiration three times every week. Subscribe using these RSS feeds or search for Free Buddhist Audio or Dharmabytes in your favorite podcast service! Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone: donate now! Follow Free Buddhist Audio: YouTube | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Soundcloud

On a warm spring day, under the overhanging branches of the Sycamore tree in the Buddhist Centre garden, Parami richly evokes Gautama's quest, realisation, and their relevance for today's world. This talk was given on Buddha Day at the Birmingham Buddhist Centre, 2010. *** Subscribe to our Free Buddhist Audio podcast: On Apple Podcasts | On Spotify | On Google Podcasts A full, curated, quality Dharma talk, every week. 3,000,000 downloads and counting!Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: On Apple Podcasts | On Spotify | On Google Podcasts Bite-sized inspiration three times every week. Subscribe using these RSS feeds or search for Free Buddhist Audio or Dharmabytes in your favorite podcast service! Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone: donate now! Follow Free Buddhist Audio: YouTube | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Soundcloud

Nagasiddhi traces the period after the Buddha's going forth: as he masters meditation then turns towards extreme asceticism in his quest to overcome dukkha. Having taken himself to the brink of death, the Buddha-to-be finally realises that he must find his own 'middle way' to liberation. This talk is part of the series In the Footsteps of the Buddha given during a Buddhist Centre Online home retreat, 2021. This magical week-long retreat explores the images, myths and symbols of the Buddha's journey to awakening using dharma talks, meditation, storytelling, puppetry and art. Visit 'In the Footsteps of the Buddha' for more resources from this retreat: https://thebuddhistcentre.com/footsteps *** Subscribe to our Free Buddhist Audio podcast: On Apple Podcasts | On Spotify | On Google Podcasts A full, curated, quality Dharma talk, every week. 3,000,000 downloads and counting!Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: On Apple Podcasts | On Spotify | On Google Podcasts Bite-sized inspiration three times every week. Subscribe using these RSS feeds or search for Free Buddhist Audio or Dharmabytes in your favorite podcast service! Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone: donate now! Follow Free Buddhist Audio: YouTube | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Soundcloud

Amitasuri explores what can happen when faced with well-being, illness, ageing and death, and looks at how the Dharma might influence our response. Amitasuri takes her Dharma practice to her work as a Buddhist Hospital Chaplain, where she supports health and well-being through pastoral, religious and spiritual care for staff, patients and their families in a number of hospitals in Greater Manchester. This talk was given at Manchester Buddhist Centre, 2015. *** Subscribe to our Free Buddhist Audio podcast: On Apple Podcasts | On Spotify | On Google Podcasts A full, curated, quality Dharma talk, every week. 3,000,000 downloads and counting!Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: On Apple Podcasts | On Spotify | On Google Podcasts Bite-sized inspiration three times every week. Subscribe using these RSS feeds or search for Free Buddhist Audio or Dharmabytes in your favorite podcast service! Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone: donate now! Follow Free Buddhist Audio: YouTube | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Soundcloud

After an account of the Buddha's life, Sangharakshita asks how, if at all, such a man can be defined or categorised. This talk was given in 1968 as part of the series Introducing the Three Jewels of Buddhism *** Subscribe to our Free Buddhist Audio podcast: On Apple Podcasts | On Spotify | On Google Podcasts A full, curated, quality Dharma talk, every week. 3,000,000 downloads and counting!Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: On Apple Podcasts | On Spotify | On Google Podcasts Bite-sized inspiration three times every week. Subscribe using these RSS feeds or search for Free Buddhist Audio or Dharmabytes in your favorite podcast service! Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone: donate now! Follow Free Buddhist Audio: YouTube | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Soundcloud

Kalyanaprabha shares some of her own recollections of Bhante Sangharakshita going back to their first encounter in 1984, stories both humorous and serious, evoking some of his unique qualities. Drawing on an unpublished fragment, 'What I learned from my gurus', she reminds us of some of the fundamental aspects of his teaching. This talk was given as part of a series entitled Triratna Day Weekend: Is a Guru Necessary? Given at Adhisthana for the Triratna Day celebrations, 2023. *** Subscribe to our Free Buddhist Audio podcast: On Apple Podcasts | On Spotify | On Google Podcasts A full, curated, quality Dharma talk, every week. 3,000,000 downloads and counting!Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: On Apple Podcasts | On Spotify | On Google Podcasts Bite-sized inspiration three times every week. Subscribe using these RSS feeds or search for Free Buddhist Audio or Dharmabytes in your favorite podcast service! Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone: donate now! Follow Free Buddhist Audio: YouTube | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Soundcloud

Ksantikara revisits Sangharakshita's classic 1970 lecture. In this energetic and playful talk Ksantikara adds his own reflections to Sangharakshita's original list of what a Guru is not (not the head of a religious group, not a teacher, not a father/mother substitute, not a problem solver) and explores the important of having people in our life to look up to and be in contact with. Ksantikara implores us to find a situation of Kalayana Mitrata (beautiful friendship) and to stay receptive to those more evolved than us. This talk was given at Adhisthana as part of the series Triratna Day Weekend: Is a Guru Necessary? 2023. *** Subscribe to our Free Buddhist Audio podcast: On Apple Podcasts | On Spotify | On Google Podcasts A full, curated, quality Dharma talk, every week. 3,000,000 downloads and counting!Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: On Apple Podcasts | On Spotify | On Google Podcasts Bite-sized inspiration three times every week. Subscribe using these RSS feeds or search for Free Buddhist Audio or Dharmabytes in your favorite podcast service! Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone: donate now! Follow Free Buddhist Audio: YouTube | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Soundcloud

Here is a strong, beautiful talk by Parami from the final day of the Triratna Buddhist Order's International Convention 2013 in India, bringing us back to the task in hand as members of the Order and as Buddhists: engaging with breaking the fetters and weakening the hold that self-clinging exerts upon our minds and our ways of seeing things. *** Subscribe to our Free Buddhist Audio podcast: On Apple Podcasts | On Spotify | On Google Podcasts A full, curated, quality Dharma talk, every week. 3,000,000 downloads and counting!Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: On Apple Podcasts | On Spotify | On Google Podcasts Bite-sized inspiration three times every week. Subscribe using these RSS feeds or search for Free Buddhist Audio or Dharmabytes in your favorite podcast service! Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone: donate now! Follow Free Buddhist Audio: YouTube | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Soundcloud

Here is a recently re-discovered little lost delight - Sangharakshita and Subhuti launching each other's books and clearly enjoying themselves. Sangharakshita's in fine humour - and it's great to hear him read and quote from the bible! Is that a twinkle in his voice? Talk given at Triratna [FWBO] Day celebrations in 2001. *** Subscribe to our Free Buddhist Audio podcast: On Apple Podcasts | On Spotify | On Google Podcasts A full, curated, quality Dharma talk, every week. 3,000,000 downloads and counting!Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: On Apple Podcasts | On Spotify | On Google Podcasts Bite-sized inspiration three times every week. Subscribe using these RSS feeds or search for Free Buddhist Audio or Dharmabytes in your favorite podcast service! Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone: donate now! Follow Free Buddhist Audio: YouTube | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Soundcloud

Subhadramati explores integration as a process of meeting Mara in her life and in scenes in the life of the Buddha, and the fulfillment of integration during the Buddha's last days of exquisite love. This talk was given at Bristol Buddhist Centre, 2018. *** Subscribe to our Free Buddhist Audio podcast: On Apple Podcasts | On Spotify | On Google Podcasts A full, curated, quality Dharma talk, every week. 3,000,000 downloads and counting!Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: On Apple Podcasts | On Spotify | On Google Podcasts Bite-sized inspiration three times every week. Subscribe using these RSS feeds or search for Free Buddhist Audio or Dharmabytes in your favorite podcast service! Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone: donate now! Follow Free Buddhist Audio: YouTube | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Soundcloud

In this talk Alokadhara explores these beautiful verses which evoke the Buddha, his qualities and the profundity of his teaching. This talk was given at Padmaloka Retreat Centre, 2014. *** Subscribe to our Free Buddhist Audio podcast: On Apple Podcasts | On Spotify | On Google Podcasts A full, curated, quality Dharma talk, every week. 3,000,000 downloads and counting!Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: On Apple Podcasts | On Spotify | On Google Podcasts Bite-sized inspiration three times every week. Subscribe using these RSS feeds or search for Free Buddhist Audio or Dharmabytes in your favorite podcast service! Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone: donate now! Follow Free Buddhist Audio: YouTube | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Soundcloud

In an excellent and thorough introduction to the Jataka tales, Akashadevi explains the value of stories of the Buddha's past lives and how they originated. She tells the stories of the Hare in the Moon and the Monkey King. This talk was given at the West London Buddhist Centre, 2017. *** Subscribe to our Free Buddhist Audio podcast: On Apple Podcasts | On Spotify | On Google Podcasts A full, curated, quality Dharma talk, every week. 3,000,000 downloads and counting!Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: On Apple Podcasts | On Spotify | On Google Podcasts Bite-sized inspiration three times every week. Subscribe using these RSS feeds or search for Free Buddhist Audio or Dharmabytes in your favorite podcast service! Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone: donate now! Follow Free Buddhist Audio: YouTube | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Soundcloud

In a striking and inspiring talk, Paramananda tells the life story of the Buddha's disciple Kasyapa: the Buddha uniquely said that Kasyapa would have gained enlightenment even without his help. The crescendo is a mysterious transmission when the Buddha held up a lotus and Kasyapa smiled, regarded by Zen Buddhists as the start of their lineage. Paramananda discusses what 'transmission' could mean for us. This talk was given at West London Buddhist Centre, 2017. *** Subscribe to our Free Buddhist Audio podcast: On Apple Podcasts | On Spotify | On Google Podcasts A full, curated, quality Dharma talk, every week. 3,000,000 downloads and counting!Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: On Apple Podcasts | On Spotify | On Google Podcasts Bite-sized inspiration three times every week. Subscribe using these RSS feeds or search for Free Buddhist Audio or Dharmabytes in your favorite podcast service! Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone: donate now! Follow Free Buddhist Audio: YouTube | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Soundcloud

The most human thing to do is to keep being kind. Generosity helps you build connection and community. Danapriya explores the themes of generosity and abundance. Talk given at East Kent Buddhist Group, 2008. *** Subscribe to our Free Buddhist Audio podcast: On Apple Podcasts | On Spotify | On Google Podcasts A full, curated, quality Dharma talk, every week. 3,000,000 downloads and counting!Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: On Apple Podcasts | On Spotify | On Google Podcasts Bite-sized inspiration three times every week. Subscribe using these RSS feeds or search for Free Buddhist Audio or Dharmabytes in your favorite podcast service! Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone: donate now! Follow Free Buddhist Audio: YouTube | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Soundcloud

This talk is a commentary on, and a homage to, Sangharakshita's talk 'Buddhism, World Peace and Nuclear War'. This seminal talk applies not only to nuclear war, but any major difficulty the world faces. In this talk, Vajratara explores Sangharakshita's analysis of the problems we are facing as a society and the real solutions. Should we, as Buddhists, have a Buddhist response to any particular conflict? Is a better world possible, or should we resign ourselves to endless cycles of greed, hatred and delusion expressed here as war, here as environmental destruction, here as poverty, here as oppression? This talk was given at Tiratanaloka Retreat Centre, 2023. *** Subscribe to our Free Buddhist Audio podcast: On Apple Podcasts | On Spotify | On Google Podcasts A full, curated, quality Dharma talk, every week. 3,000,000 downloads and counting!Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: On Apple Podcasts | On Spotify | On Google Podcasts Bite-sized inspiration three times every week. Subscribe using these RSS feeds or search for Free Buddhist Audio or Dharmabytes in your favorite podcast service! Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone: donate now! Follow Free Buddhist Audio: YouTube | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Soundcloud

In this talk Subhuti sets out a vision of the 'Power of the Dhamma' as a force within the nature of reality that leads to growth and development. This is the Dhamma Niyama, to reify it is a mistake, but to deny it leaves us with an impoverished sense of the nature of things. The new society is about allowing this order of things to manifest within us and on that basis have a transformative effect on society. This talk was given at Dharmapala College, 2010. *** Subscribe to our Free Buddhist Audio podcast: On Apple Podcasts | On Spotify | On Google Podcasts A full, curated, quality Dharma talk, every week. 3,000,000 downloads and counting!Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: On Apple Podcasts | On Spotify | On Google Podcasts Bite-sized inspiration three times every week. Subscribe using these RSS feeds or search for Free Buddhist Audio or Dharmabytes in your favorite podcast service! Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone: donate now! Follow Free Buddhist Audio: YouTube | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Soundcloud

War, destruction and conflict are on the increase in the world, as are conflicted and destructive individual lives. How do we live in a way that brings about a less conflicted world and a more creative, integrated way of being? Suryagupta explores this complex topic at London Buddhist Centre, 2016. *** Subscribe to our Free Buddhist Audio podcast: On Apple Podcasts | On Spotify | On Google Podcasts A full, curated, quality Dharma talk, every week. 3,000,000 downloads and counting!Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: On Apple Podcasts | On Spotify | On Google Podcasts Bite-sized inspiration three times every week. Subscribe using these RSS feeds or search for Free Buddhist Audio or Dharmabytes in your favorite podcast service! Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone: donate now! Follow Free Buddhist Audio: YouTube | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Soundcloud

Jnanasiddhi gave an inspiring and practical talk sharing her extensive understanding and experience of peace making. She illustrated different approaches of peacemaking in relation to the five aspects of the spiritual path. And focused on how we can create the conditions within ourselves - through our practice - to contribute to harmony with others. This talk was given at Birmingham Buddhist Centre, 2023. *** Subscribe to our Free Buddhist Audio podcast: On Apple Podcasts | On Spotify | On Google Podcasts A full, curated, quality Dharma talk, every week. 3,000,000 downloads and counting!Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: On Apple Podcasts | On Spotify | On Google Podcasts Bite-sized inspiration three times every week. Subscribe using these RSS feeds or search for Free Buddhist Audio or Dharmabytes in your favorite podcast service! Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone: donate now! Follow Free Buddhist Audio: YouTube | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Soundcloud

Padmasagara explores the glimpses of the Buddha's liberating vision found in the Ariyapariyesana sutta, focusing on the Buddha's description of Reality in terms of pratitya samutpada (conditionality) and his response to Brahma Sahampati's request to teach the Dhamma. The talk also explores how we can begin to realise this vision for ourselves by responding to the Buddha's exhortation: 'let those who have ears release their faith'. This talk was given at Padmaloka Retreat Centre, 2019. *** Subscribe to our Free Buddhist Audio podcast: On Apple Podcasts | On Spotify | On Google Podcasts A full, curated, quality Dharma talk, every week. 3,000,000 downloads and counting!Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: On Apple Podcasts | On Spotify | On Google Podcasts Bite-sized inspiration three times every week. Subscribe using these RSS feeds or search for Free Buddhist Audio or Dharmabytes in your favorite podcast service! Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone: donate now! Follow Free Buddhist Audio: YouTube | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Soundcloud

In this talk, Vajratara takes us on a vivid journey starting with the Buddha's exploration of what is the noble quest, moving into personal examples of the ignoble and noble quests in her own life. Vajratara invites us to look at our own motivation, our own noble quest, how to establish a culture of the noble quest in such a way that invites more people to join us on that journey, both through our own practice and ways that our institutions can and have supported individuals' Ariyapariyesana. This talk was given on a Womens' Area Order Weekend held at Adhisthana, December 2022. *** Subscribe to our Free Buddhist Audio podcast: On Apple Podcasts | On Spotify | On Google Podcasts A full, curated, quality Dharma talk, every week. 3,000,000 downloads and counting!Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: On Apple Podcasts | On Spotify | On Google Podcasts Bite-sized inspiration three times every week. Subscribe using these RSS feeds or search for Free Buddhist Audio or Dharmabytes in your favorite podcast service! Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone: donate now! Follow Free Buddhist Audio: YouTube | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Soundcloud

Dharmashalin gives the first of a two-part talk on the first two of the 4 Noble Truths, evoking the miraculous communication of the Buddha's dharma. Talk given as part of Dharma Day 2023 at the Birmingham Buddhist Centre and marking the 25th anniversary of the opening of the current centre. *** Subscribe to our Free Buddhist Audio podcast: On Apple Podcasts | On Spotify | On Google Podcasts A full, curated, quality Dharma talk, every week. 3,000,000 downloads and counting!Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: On Apple Podcasts | On Spotify | On Google Podcasts Bite-sized inspiration three times every week. Subscribe using these RSS feeds or search for Free Buddhist Audio or Dharmabytes in your favorite podcast service! Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone: donate now! Follow Free Buddhist Audio: YouTube | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Soundcloud

Vajradevi ends a series of talks on the Satipatthana Sutta, looking at the Four Noble Truths, and focusing on the first two. Talk given at Shrewsbury Triratna Buddhist Centre, 2018. *** Subscribe to our Free Buddhist Audio podcast: On Apple Podcasts | On Spotify | On Google Podcasts A full, curated, quality Dharma talk, every week. 3,000,000 downloads and counting!Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: On Apple Podcasts | On Spotify | On Google Podcasts Bite-sized inspiration three times every week. Subscribe using these RSS feeds or search for Free Buddhist Audio or Dharmabytes in your favorite podcast service! Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone: donate now! Follow Free Buddhist Audio: YouTube | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Soundcloud

Tantric Buddhism is concerned with the direct experience of who we are and what we can become. Its aim is to help us realize our potential by transforming the energy locked in by old habits, fears, and views. This experience cannot be mediated by concepts; it needs to be evoked with the help of symbols. Subhadramati gave this talk at London Buddhist Centre, 2020. *** Subscribe to our Free Buddhist Audio podcast: On Apple Podcasts | On Spotify | On Google Podcasts A full, curated, quality Dharma talk, every week. 3,000,000 downloads and counting!Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: On Apple Podcasts | On Spotify | On Google Podcasts Bite-sized inspiration three times every week. Subscribe using these RSS feeds or search for Free Buddhist Audio or Dharmabytes in your favorite podcast service! Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone: donate now! Follow Free Buddhist Audio: YouTube | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Soundcloud

Don't listen to this talk if you want a straightforward explanation of what a dakini may or may not be. In fact, what is prompting you to listen to a talk on the dakini in the first place? Vidyadaka talks around the theme in this rousing exploration of the dakini, the gestalt and the artist. Given at Padmaloka Retreat Centre, 2022, as part of the series The Secret Refuges. *** Subscribe to our Free Buddhist Audio podcast: On Apple Podcasts | On Spotify | On Google Podcasts A full, curated, quality Dharma talk, every week. 3,000,000 downloads and counting!Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: On Apple Podcasts | On Spotify | On Google Podcasts Bite-sized inspiration three times every week. Subscribe using these RSS feeds or search for Free Buddhist Audio or Dharmabytes in your favorite podcast service! Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone: donate now! Follow Free Buddhist Audio: YouTube | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Soundcloud

Padmavajra evokes the spirit of Tantric Buddhism, which transforms the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha from abstract ideals into living qualities of our present experience. He explores the guru, the yidam and the dakini as Tantric embodiments of Enlightenment here and now, sharing stories from his own experience of practice. Talk given at Sheffield Buddhist Centre, 2019, as part of the series Tantra Now! *** Subscribe to our Free Buddhist Audio podcast: On Apple Podcasts | On Spotify | On Google Podcasts A full, curated, quality Dharma talk, every week. 3,000,000 downloads and counting!Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: On Apple Podcasts | On Spotify | On Google Podcasts Bite-sized inspiration three times every week. Subscribe using these RSS feeds or search for Free Buddhist Audio or Dharmabytes in your favorite podcast service! Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone: donate now! Follow Free Buddhist Audio: YouTube | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Soundcloud

The Buddha lived 2,500 years ago, so how can we meet him and open ourselves to the inspiration and resources that come from him? Through imagination we can cultivate the capacity to meet the Buddha on an archetypal level. This can have a powerful effect, karmically speaking. We all have - and use - our imagination all the time, even if we don't realise it! We just need to learn how to 'use it' rather than having it 'use us' in a reactive way, i.e. instead of letting it be 'captured' by unhelpful, unskilful things, we can learn to let it be called to, seeded or sparked by the Buddha (and the Dharma). Imagination can be seen as a 'faculty' which we can cultivate. Satyalila offers inspiration and ideas for how to meet the Buddha through imagination. This talk was given at Bristol Buddhist Centre, 2019. *** Subscribe to our Free Buddhist Audio podcast: On Apple Podcasts | On Spotify | On Google Podcasts A full, curated, quality Dharma talk, every week. 3,000,000 downloads and counting!Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: On Apple Podcasts | On Spotify | On Google Podcasts Bite-sized inspiration three times every week. Subscribe using these RSS feeds or search for Free Buddhist Audio or Dharmabytes in your favorite podcast service! Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone: donate now! Follow Free Buddhist Audio: YouTube | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Soundcloud

Within the arena of the visual arts, the studios where renowned artists create their works have become the subject of intense interest and scrutiny. In Buddhism, there is a tradition of creating inspiring and beautiful spaces for spiritual practice. These sacred spaces and artists' studios have become places of study, reflection and pilgrimage. Jnanadhara explores what these two kinds of spaces have in common. What can they tell us about the minds of the people who created them? What lessons can we learn from considering these questions that could help us live meaningful lives in today's world? Talk given at the Dublin Buddhist Centre, 2023. *** Subscribe to our Free Buddhist Audio podcast: On Apple Podcasts | On Spotify | On Google Podcasts A full, curated, quality Dharma talk, every week. 3,000,000 downloads and counting!Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: On Apple Podcasts | On Spotify | On Google Podcasts Bite-sized inspiration three times every week. Subscribe using these RSS feeds or search for Free Buddhist Audio or Dharmabytes in your favorite podcast service! Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone: donate now! Follow Free Buddhist Audio: YouTube | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Soundcloud

Sangha is not just a cosy group of people, it is a context for transformation on the path to Awakening. Singhamati explores 10 points on how we can transform through the practice of sangha. Given in the context of Sangha Day at the Birmingham Buddhist Centre, 2017. *** Subscribe to our Free Buddhist Audio podcast: On Apple Podcasts | On Spotify | On Google Podcasts A full, curated, quality Dharma talk, every week. 3,000,000 downloads and counting!Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: On Apple Podcasts | On Spotify | On Google Podcasts Bite-sized inspiration three times every week. Subscribe using these RSS feeds or search for Free Buddhist Audio or Dharmabytes in your favorite podcast service! Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone: donate now! Follow Free Buddhist Audio: YouTube | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Soundcloud

Speaking personally about stepping onto the Buddhist path, Padmavajra shares stories of spiritual friendship in the context of his own life and reflected in the work of 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, 2008, the third talk in an eight part series entitled Themes from Gampopa's Jewel Ornament of Liberation. *** Subscribe to our Free Buddhist Audio podcast: On Apple Podcasts | On Spotify | On Google Podcasts A full, curated, quality Dharma talk, every week. 3,000,000 downloads and counting!Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: On Apple Podcasts | On Spotify | On Google Podcasts Bite-sized inspiration three times every week. Subscribe using these RSS feeds or search for Free Buddhist Audio or Dharmabytes in your favorite podcast service! Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone: donate now! Follow Free Buddhist Audio: YouTube | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Soundcloud

Here Suryaka offers reflections on the third verse of Triratna's Sevenfold Puja, Salutation, by exploring the range of possible responses we can have to Buddhism, from contentment with worldly life, to intellectual agreement with Buddhism, or to the wholesale devotion exemplified by Shantideva. This is the third talk in a series at the Manchester Buddhist Centre on the Sevenfold Puja, 2010. *** Subscribe to our Free Buddhist Audio podcast: On Apple Podcasts | On Spotify | On Google Podcasts A full, curated, quality Dharma talk, every week. 3,000,000 downloads and counting!Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: On Apple Podcasts | On Spotify | On Google Podcasts Bite-sized inspiration three times every week. Subscribe using these RSS feeds or search for Free Buddhist Audio or Dharmabytes in your favorite podcast service! Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone: donate now! Follow Free Buddhist Audio: YouTube | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Soundcloud

What is the central focus of our lives? Vajrashura shares a story from the Buddhist tradition where the monk Mahanama asks the Buddha; "What dwelling places (of the mind) shall we live in?" This talk was given at Padmaloka Retreat Centre, 2018, as part of the series In Praise of the Three Jewels. *** Subscribe to our Free Buddhist Audio podcast: On Apple Podcasts | On Spotify | On Google Podcasts A full, curated, quality Dharma talk, every week. 3,000,000 downloads and counting!Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: On Apple Podcasts | On Spotify | On Google Podcasts Bite-sized inspiration three times every week. Subscribe using these RSS feeds or search for Free Buddhist Audio or Dharmabytes in your favorite podcast service! Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone: donate now! Follow Free Buddhist Audio: YouTube | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Soundcloud

Vishvapani explores the dynamic vision of Urgyen Sangharakshita in setting up a new Buddhist movement in the West, and asks how we might relate to him now. His central reference point in this provocative and moving talk is the Padmasambhava Abisheka - the initiation received by Sangharakshita in Kalimpong, India, in 1962 from the great Tibetan Lama, Kachu Rimpoche. The energy emanating from a simple shrine room–location of that significant meeting in Sangharakshita's life–reverberates through everything that came next, the bright and shadow sides. Voices and stories, told and untold, come echoing through as Vishvapani makes the case that a deeper examination of Sangharakshita's teaching and approach reveals a deeper rhythm to his life and work that is relevant to everyone practicing in Triratna today. A talk given at Adhisthana on the men's UK & Ireland area Order weekend in November 2022. *** Subscribe to our Free Buddhist Audio podcast: On Apple Podcasts | On Spotify | On Google Podcasts A full, curated, quality Dharma talk, every week. 3,000,000 downloads and counting!Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: On Apple Podcasts | On Spotify | On Google Podcasts Bite-sized inspiration three times every week. Subscribe using these RSS feeds or search for Free Buddhist Audio or Dharmabytes in your favorite podcast service! Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone: donate now! Follow Free Buddhist Audio: YouTube | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Soundcloud

In this talk Suddhaka, based on Sangharakshita's 1969 talk 'Breaking through to Buddhahood', shares some of his experience as an Order Member to illustrate how we might move beyond our unhelpful psychological conditioning. This talk was given as part of the Brixton Sangha retreat, 2017. *** Subscribe to our Free Buddhist Audio podcast: On Apple Podcasts | On Spotify | On Google Podcasts A full, curated, quality Dharma talk, every week. 3,000,000 downloads and counting!Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: On Apple Podcasts | On Spotify | On Google Podcasts Bite-sized inspiration three times every week. Subscribe using these RSS feeds or search for Free Buddhist Audio or Dharmabytes in your favorite podcast service! Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone: donate now! Follow Free Buddhist Audio: YouTube | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Soundcloud

If we ignore the call of our higher potential, it often clamors louder! In this personal talk, Suryagupta, with characteristic ease and intelligence relates Sangharakshita's Five Great Stages of the Path to her own journey so far. This talk was given on Dharma Day at London Buddhist Centre, 2015. *** Subscribe to our Free Buddhist Audio podcast: On Apple Podcasts | On Spotify | On Google Podcasts A full, curated, quality Dharma talk, every week. 3,000,000 downloads and counting!Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: On Apple Podcasts | On Spotify | On Google Podcasts Bite-sized inspiration three times every week. Subscribe using these RSS feeds or search for Free Buddhist Audio or Dharmabytes in your favorite podcast service! Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone: donate now! Follow Free Buddhist Audio: YouTube | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Soundcloud

How do we keep our meditation alive and fresh - especially over the long-term? Can we get lost and bogged down in our meditation and lose connection with creativity, play, and freshness? How do we go deeper? Responding to these questions, Vajragupta (m) looks at the Four Iddhipadas - the four 'powers' or 'means of accomplishment' taught by the Buddha. These are: desire, discernment, heart/mind, and resolve. They are both four ingredients of a creative meditation practice, and they also draw out the alchemical process of meditation, or how the transformative process of meditation works. This first talk explores how we need to stay connected to our deeper desires, yearnings, and spiritual longing - and how to hold this desire in a way that sustains our practice. This talk was given at Croydon Buddhist Centre, 2022 as part of a series entitled The Alchemy of Meditation. *** Subscribe to our Free Buddhist Audio podcast: On Apple Podcasts | On Spotify | On Google Podcasts A full, curated, quality Dharma talk, every week. 3,000,000 downloads and counting!Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: On Apple Podcasts | On Spotify | On Google Podcasts Bite-sized inspiration three times every week. Subscribe using these RSS feeds or search for Free Buddhist Audio or Dharmabytes in your favorite podcast service! Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone: donate now! Follow Free Buddhist Audio: YouTube | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Soundcloud

This is a great introduction to the basic Buddhist methods of working with doubts based on unhelpful confusion, in meditation and in general practice. Padmadaka explores the relationship between doubt and suffering, and highlights the ways in which we can have and hold our genuine questionings, while working through the habits and tendencies that can hold us back in our lives. Talk given at Padmaloka Retreat Centre, 2005. *** Subscribe to our Free Buddhist Audio podcast: On Apple Podcasts | On Spotify | On Google Podcasts A full, curated, quality Dharma talk, every week. 3,000,000 downloads and counting!Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: On Apple Podcasts | On Spotify | On Google Podcasts Bite-sized inspiration three times every week. Subscribe using these RSS feeds or search for Free Buddhist Audio or Dharmabytes in your favorite podcast service! Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone: donate now! Follow Free Buddhist Audio: YouTube | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Soundcloud

Dhivan discusses the Discourse on the Not-Self Characteristic or Anattalakkhana Sutta (also known as the Discourse to the Group of Five or Pañcavaggiya Sutta), believed to be the second discourse given by the Buddha. This talk was given at Bristol Buddhist Centre, 2017, as part of the series Discourses from the Pali Canon. *** Subscribe to our Free Buddhist Audio podcast: On Apple Podcasts | On Spotify | On Google Podcasts A full, curated, quality Dharma talk, every week. 3,000,000 downloads and counting!Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: On Apple Podcasts | On Spotify | On Google Podcasts Bite-sized inspiration three times every week. Subscribe using these RSS feeds or search for Free Buddhist Audio or Dharmabytes in your favorite podcast service! Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone: donate now! Follow Free Buddhist Audio: YouTube | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Soundcloud

Superficiality is acting from the surface of ourselves without thoroughness or care. We act from the intellect but not from our emotional depths. In this talk Akashamitra looks at how superficiality arises from an internally divided state of mind. He points the way to a more wholesome practise of the Dharma through a focus on personal transformation as the goal of everything we do. Talk given at London Buddhist Centre, 2019, as part of the series 'The Taste of Freedom' Revisited. *** Subscribe to our Free Buddhist Audio podcast: On Apple Podcasts | On Spotify | On Google Podcasts A full, curated, quality Dharma talk, every week. 3,000,000 downloads and counting!Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: On Apple Podcasts | On Spotify | On Google Podcasts Bite-sized inspiration three times every week. Subscribe using these RSS feeds or search for Free Buddhist Audio or Dharmabytes in your favorite podcast service! Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone: donate now! Follow Free Buddhist Audio: YouTube | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Soundcloud

Sangharakshita goes to Buddhafield! A first for him, and a first for the fabulous Buddhafield Festival that takes place each year at the height of the English summer. This talk was given in a tent in Devon - and the sounds of this great Dharma celebration are everywhere around as Sangharakshita marks his entry to the 'Dharma Parlour' with a rolling set of thoughts and reminiscences and encouragements to practice. We move from India at the time of the peaceful revolution of 'untouchable' caste Hindus, to the famed hot-tubs of the festival itself. And we are introduced to the first 'three fetters' from the Buddha's teaching, the breaking of which will set us free. This is classic Sangharakshita - plenty to challenge and plenty to talk about around the fire afterwards. With an excellent and thoughtful introduction by Kamalashila. Talk given at the Buddhafield Festival, Devon 2007. *** Subscribe to our Free Buddhist Audio podcast: On Apple Podcasts | On Spotify | On Google Podcasts A full, curated, quality Dharma talk, every week. 3,000,000 downloads and counting!Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: On Apple Podcasts | On Spotify | On Google Podcasts Bite-sized inspiration three times every week. Subscribe using these RSS feeds or search for Free Buddhist Audio or Dharmabytes in your favorite podcast service! Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone: donate now! Follow Free Buddhist Audio: YouTube | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Soundcloud

Devotion and prayer, ritual and freedom, engagement and tradition, Bodhidasa explores the fascinating meanings behind our common traditions in modern Buddhism - from tea and tim-tams to puja, chanting and offering. Sourcing the Pali canon, Bodhidasa discusses the Three Fetters, and the pitfalls of superficiality, habit and vagueness that can hinder our progress on the path. How do we relate to blessing and purity in the spiritual life? Through a sense of reverence and engagement with symbol, can we connect our lives to the transcendental? Talk given at Sydney Buddhist Centre, 2015. *** Subscribe to our Free Buddhist Audio podcast: On Apple Podcasts | On Spotify | On Google Podcasts A full, curated, quality Dharma talk, every week. 3,000,000 downloads and counting!Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: On Apple Podcasts | On Spotify | On Google Podcasts Bite-sized inspiration three times every week. Subscribe using these RSS feeds or search for Free Buddhist Audio or Dharmabytes in your favorite podcast service! Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone: donate now! Follow Free Buddhist Audio: YouTube | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Soundcloud

Kamalashila describes the types of Shraddha (confidence, faith or esteem), and their place in Buddhist practice. Talk for Sangha Night at the West London Buddhist Centre, 2016. *** Subscribe to our Free Buddhist Audio podcast: On Apple Podcasts | On Spotify | On Google Podcasts A full, curated, quality Dharma talk, every week. 3,000,000 downloads and counting!Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: On Apple Podcasts | On Spotify | On Google Podcasts Bite-sized inspiration three times every week. Subscribe using these RSS feeds or search for Free Buddhist Audio or Dharmabytes in your favorite podcast service! Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone: donate now! Follow Free Buddhist Audio: YouTube | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Soundcloud

Saddhanandi riffs off a talk that Sangharakshita gave to the Buddhist Society in 1975 entitled 'Enlightenment as Experience and Non-Experience'. She reflects on the content as well as the context, just what was happening with these early lectures by Sangharakshita, just six years after the first ordinations. Given on retreat at Adhisthana, 2022. *** Subscribe to our Free Buddhist Audio podcast: On Apple Podcasts | On Spotify | On Google Podcasts A full, curated, quality Dharma talk, every week. 3,000,000 downloads and counting!Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: On Apple Podcasts | On Spotify | On Google Podcasts Bite-sized inspiration three times every week. Subscribe using these RSS feeds or search for Free Buddhist Audio or Dharmabytes in your favorite podcast service! Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone: donate now! Follow Free Buddhist Audio: YouTube | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Soundcloud

Vajragupta (m) explores the power of ideas to shape us, our lives and world, and even human history. As Buddhism comes to the West, is it taken on in a way that seems to fit with certain prevailing ideas and assumptions in our culture? What ideas and world-views lead to Enlightenment and the fullest expression of human potential, and what ideas and world-views may hinder? A talk fizzing with ideas to make you think and wonder… Part of the series What Is Nirvana and Do We Really Want to Get There? given at the Croydon Buddhist Centre, 2021. *** Subscribe to our Free Buddhist Audio podcast: On Apple Podcasts | On Spotify | On Google Podcasts A full, curated, quality Dharma talk, every week. 3,000,000 downloads and counting!Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: On Apple Podcasts | On Spotify | On Google Podcasts Bite-sized inspiration three times every week. Subscribe using these RSS feeds or search for Free Buddhist Audio or Dharmabytes in your favorite podcast service! Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone: donate now! Follow Free Buddhist Audio: YouTube | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Soundcloud

Vidyapala draws on various Pali suttas, and the Buddha's own life, to suggest ways we might move from suffering to faith in this talk given at Manchester Buddhist Centre, 2023. *** Subscribe to our Free Buddhist Audio podcast: On Apple Podcasts | On Spotify | On Google Podcasts A full, curated, quality Dharma talk, every week. 3,000,000 downloads and counting!Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: On Apple Podcasts | On Spotify | On Google Podcasts Bite-sized inspiration three times every week. Subscribe using these RSS feeds or search for Free Buddhist Audio or Dharmabytes in your favorite podcast service! Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone: donate now! Follow Free Buddhist Audio: YouTube | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Soundcloud

Drawing upon the myths in the life of the Buddha Satyapara explores the role the body plays when we take up Buddhist practice. She describes the Buddha as a child under a rose apple tree being deeply in touch with his surrounding and when calling upon the earth he gains confidence in his practice and overcomes his doubts. With these stories Satyapara invites us to trust our body. Given in Cambridge, UK, in the Young People's Evening, 2016. *** Subscribe to our Free Buddhist Audio podcast: On Apple Podcasts | On Spotify | On Google Podcasts A full, curated, quality Dharma talk, every week. 3,000,000 downloads and counting!Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: On Apple Podcasts | On Spotify | On Google Podcasts Bite-sized inspiration three times every week. Subscribe using these RSS feeds or search for Free Buddhist Audio or Dharmabytes in your favorite podcast service! Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone: donate now! Follow Free Buddhist Audio: YouTube | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Soundcloud

Bodhivajra talks about Enlightenment in a direct and very down-to-earth way, making the whole notion of Enlightenment more accessible, approachable, and relevant. Norwich Buddhist Centre, May 2015. *** Subscribe to our Free Buddhist Audio podcast: On Apple Podcasts | On Spotify | On Google Podcasts A full, curated, quality Dharma talk, every week. 3,000,000 downloads and counting!Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: On Apple Podcasts | On Spotify | On Google Podcasts Bite-sized inspiration three times every week. Subscribe using these RSS feeds or search for Free Buddhist Audio or Dharmabytes in your favorite podcast service! Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone: donate now! Follow Free Buddhist Audio: YouTube | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Soundcloud

Space, white light and the wisdom of the Dharmadhatu: Maitrivajri explores the qualities of Akasadatesvari. This talk was given on a retreat at Taraloka Retreat Centre on the Mandala of the Five Female Buddhas, 2016. *** Subscribe to our Free Buddhist Audio podcast: On Apple Podcasts | On Spotify | On Google Podcasts A full, curated, quality Dharma talk, every week. 3,000,000 downloads and counting!Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: On Apple Podcasts | On Spotify | On Google Podcasts Bite-sized inspiration three times every week. Subscribe using these RSS feeds or search for Free Buddhist Audio or Dharmabytes in your favorite podcast service! Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone: donate now! Follow Free Buddhist Audio: YouTube | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Soundcloud