Dharmabytes from free buddhist audio

Spreading Our Goodness Into the World

Sunada shares her personal reflections on simple down home ways to be an activist in a world that 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? .

Excerpted from the talk Practice During Times of Chaos and Uncertainty given on Sangha Day at Aryaloka Buddhist Center, USA, 2017.

***

Subscribe to our Free Buddhist Audio podcast - a full Dharma talk every week! Follow our blog for news and new Dharma

FBA on Twitter FBA on Facebook

FBA on Soundcloud

Padmavajra calls on the radical early teaching of the Buddha to activate love as skillful and wise response to those we perceive as causing us harm.

The second talk in Padmavjara's wonderful series on the Dhammapada, the most popular of early Buddhist texts. All of the Buddha's core teachings are here - held in heart and mind there's more than enough in the Dhammapada to take us as far in our practice as we can imagine, and then on beyond...

From the talk Changing Hatred into Love - Dhammapada Verses 3 to 6 recorded at Padmaloka Retreat Centre, 2007, as part of the series Where do we go from here?.

***

Subscribe to our Free Buddhist Audio podcast - a full Dharma talk every week! Follow our blog for news and new Dharma

FBA on Twitter FBA on Facebook

FBA on Soundcloud

The Buddha and Ananda once tended a sick monk, neglected by his companions because of his 'uselessness'. Sangharakshita shows that people cannot be treated as 'things' in the spiritual community.

From the talk entitled A Case of Dysentry given in 1982 as part of the series Incidents from the Pali Canon.

***

Subscribe to our Free Buddhist Audio podcast - a full Dharma talk every week! Follow our blog for news and new Dharma

FBA on Twitter FBA on Facebook

FBA on Soundcloud

It is possible to move our sense of who we are, our stories are changeable. Vidyamala invites us into the world of myth, symbol and poetry to challenge our fixed sense of self.

Wouldn't it be amazing to have a fluid sense of oneself? Responding to whatever arises with kindness, with love, with compassion, with infinite creative potential.

She finishes emphasising kindness with a wonderful quote from Patrul Rimpoche: "Have a good heart and act with kindness. There is no higher teaching"

***

Subscribe to our Free Buddhist Audio podcast - a full Dharma talk every week! Follow our blog for news and new Dharma

FBA on Twitter FBA on Facebook

FBA on Soundcloud

The Perfection of Wisdom literature is filled with paradox. Santavajri shares her reflections on the rather baffling concepts presented in The Diamond Sutra and The Heart Sutra. Both relevant and incomprehensible, the true meaning goes well beyond the words themselves.

Excerpted from the talk entitled Approaches to the Perfection of Wisdom given at the London Buddhist Centre's Women's Class as part of their exploration of the Bodhisattva Ideal, 2011.

***

Subscribe to our Free Buddhist Audio podcast - a full Dharma talk every week! Follow our blog for news and new Dharma

FBA on Twitter FBA on Facebook

FBA on Soundcloud

In describing the qualities of patience, Sangharakshita calls on a story from the Saddharma-Pundarika (The Lotus Sutra) to illustrate the necessity of spiritual receptivity.

From the talk Masculinity and Femininity in the Spiritual Life as part of the series Aspects of the Bodhisattva Ideal, 1969. The full talk explores the third and fourth Perfections: kshanti (forbearance, tolerance or spiritual receptivity) and virya (energy in pursuit of the good).

***

Subscribe to our Free Buddhist Audio podcast - a full Dharma talk every week! Follow our blog for news and new Dharma

FBA on Twitter FBA on Facebook

FBA on Soundcloud

Untangling our Views

Amaragita explodes and expands notions around the practice of paying attention via awareness of the breath, using the deceptively simple exercise of taking just five breaths through the day. We hear how the practice relates to the theory of Buddhist meditation and are encouraged to choose and learn from our direct experience of how we respond to our breath in the moment. There is also a chance to try it out as you listen - and we highly recommend that you do! A moving, quietly revolutionary take on practice for parents, and for anyone who has a full, busy life and needs some tools to take on anxiety and stress. Just five breaths... Recorded on a Five Breaths Meditation Workshop recorded on the Mothers Retreat at Taraloka Retreat Centre, 2015. As a companion to her talk, The Possibility of Practice and her guided Meditation on the Three Bodies (physical, emotional, and mental) this workshop is indispensable.

***

Subscribe to our Free Buddhist Audio podcast - a full Dharma talk every week! Follow our blog for news and new Dharma

FBA on Twitter FBA on Facebook

FBA on Soundcloud

Sanghadevi shares a story on the development of enlightenment through tales of pilgrimage from the Avatamsaka Sutra, known as the Flower Ornament Scripture. This story illustrates the art of engagement and the art of letting go, combining activity with receptivity, which supports the arising of the unbounded energy of the creative mind.

From the talk entitled Spiritual Receptivity and Spiritual Community given with a series of talks organised by the Cambridge Buddhist Centre, 2014, called A Year of Spiritual Community Talks.

***

Subscribe to our Free Buddhist Audio podcast - a full Dharma talk every week! Follow our blog for news and new Dharma

FBA on Twitter FBA on Facebook

FBA on Soundcloud

Dhatvisvari shares her personal journey of relating to the Mandala of the Five Buddhas. We hear about the dream she had on the eve of her ordination in which she met the white Buddha in the centre of the mandala, Vairocana.

From the talk entitled Vairocana given at Cambridge Buddhist Centre, 2015.

***

Subscribe to our Free Buddhist Audio podcast - a full Dharma talk every week! Follow our blog for news and new Dharma

FBA on Twitter FBA on Facebook

FBA on Soundcloud

When the whole of oneself is present, something new comes into play - we become more than the sum of our parts. Here we have Ratnaguna describing the stages of integration and positive emotion in the Triratna system of practice.

From the talk entitled The Underlying Pattern of the Spiritual Life given at Manchester Buddhist Centre on 14th April 2012.

***

Subscribe to our Free Buddhist Audio podcast - a full Dharma talk every week! Follow our blog for news and new Dharma

FBA on Twitter FBA on Facebook

FBA on Soundcloud