Dharmabytes from free buddhist audio

Ratnavandana offers a personal sharing of her reflections on a six month solitary retreat where she was focussing on the Heart Sutra. With Avalokitesvara as her guide, she was hoping to deepen her understanding of the emptiness of the five skandhas as well as exploring how to bring all the ordinary everyday activities of life into the realm of the sacred.

This excerpt includes a reading evocation on the Five Buddha Mandala.

From the talk Glimpses of Emptiness given on a retreat for mitras held at Taraloka: The Heart Sutra - Thunderclaps of Reality, 2020.

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Maitreyi shares the story of Meghiya to illustrate the importance of having strong friendships on the spiritual path.

From the talk entitled Sanghakaya and the Heart's Release given at Manchester Buddhist Centre, December 2015.

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Here Padmasuri shares stories of friendship between the early Buddhist nuns and the Buddha. Featuring glimpses into the lives of Mahapajapati, Patajara, Dhammadinna, Kisagotami, Mitta, Queen Mallika. Many of these women would have gone forth for friendship, a sort of cradle of friendship, in which the truth teachings would be held and practiced. Just so then, so now.

Exerpted from the talk The Buddha Was a Friend As We Can Be a Friend, the fourth and final in a series of talks to mark the Year of Kalyana Mitrata at the Cambridge Buddhist Centre, 2013.

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Here Karunadhi introduces us to the Red Rite of Fascination. Friendship emerges from love for our friends, but also can evoke strong attachment. Communication and the samgrahavastu (means of unification) of loving speech are the antidote for grasping and projection.

Excerpted from the talk Spiritual Friendship and the Red Rite of Fascination as part of the series Spiritual Friendship and the Tantric Rites given on a joint Tiratanaloka and Buddhafield retreat for women training for ordination in the Triratna Buddhist Order, 2019.

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Suryamati reminds us that the spiritual life is difficult to practice on one's own. Here we here the story of Meghiya where the Buddha advises that spiritual friendship is needed for the heart's release.

How do we be a sangha member? How do we help others in their practice of sangha?

Here, we get an introduction to the teaching on the Samgrahavastus, the four means of unification.

From the talk entitled Building the Buddhaland given at Sangha Night, Sheffield Buddhist Centre, 2013, as part of a series of talks on Buddhism Through Time and Space.

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A very interesting introduction to the mandala here from Garava - the idea, the myth, the image, the symbol, the experience. His own practice as an artist affords him a respectful and generous perspective, from which we are able to simply sit back and learn.

Excerpted from the talk Entering the Mandala given at Padmaloka Retreat Centre, 2001

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We can find mandalas everywhere – in the East, in the West, in art, literature, even in dreams. Mandalas represent a resolution, or the beginnings of a resolution, of a conflict between the conscious and the unconscious.

Sangharakshita explores the symbolism of the mandala, circles of symbolic forms, found in the The Tantras (special scriptures of Vajrayana Buddhism) as a symbol of psychological and spiritual integration.

Excerpted from the talk entilted The Mandala – Tantric Symbol of Integration as part of the series Aspects of Buddhist Psychology, 1967.

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We often get ideas about the symbolism of the vajra as being tight and willful. The language of determination can do that!

Jvalamalini looks at the importance of clarity of purpose for simplicity and meaning in life, and the powerful symbol of the vajra. This diamond-thunderbolt symbol is really more about integration then it is about powering through obstacles regardless of what the rest of our being is up to.

From the talk entitled Vajra: Symbol of Integration given at Bristol Buddhist Centre, 2018.

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Candradasa takes a personal look at aspects of magic in the East and West, considering its place in Buddhist history and practice and also its meeting with Christianity at the time of the Renaissance. What emerges is a picture of how magic defined in various ways can be a powerful metaphor for the everyday work of Buddhist meditation and ethical practice - with the enchantment of love and wisdom fused the only one we need. The Buddha is the Master of Enchantments and his path - a magical training with him - is available to all. The truly marvelous awaits...

Excerpted from the talk, Religion Without God, Part 4 - Magic For the Modern World, the fourth in the series entitled Religion Without God given in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, USA, October 2012.

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The 'Vajrayana' means 'the way of the vajra'. Satyalila explores and explains how the vajra symbolizes the capacity to transform our darkest and most difficult experience into the liberated energy of awakening. She describes her personal experience of this and concludes with an exploration of the five Buddha mandala as a way of bringing powerful diverse energies into creative, harmonious relationship.

From the talk Imagination, the Vajrayana & Us, part of the series Imagination, the Buddhist Tradition and Us, 2017.

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