Free Buddhist Audio

Today's Dharmabyte moves us into the theme of Death as the Buddha's Parinirvana is celebrated across the Buddhist world. "Death as Loss or Death as Gateway" is an extract from Vidyamala's talk "Dying to Live", which will be our next featured full length podcast. Confronted with impermanence and death the questions of who and what we are burn into us. Bereavements and losses of all kinds can be met with a kindness and awareness that gently ease the burden, allowing something of peace to enter our lives agai

Today's Dharmabyte: Reality as Change - Poetry and Impermanence is from a thoughtful and sympathetic talk by Srivati on the most delicate of tasks in any life - how to live in the present moment. Exploring the subtle aspects of past and present, of memory and expectation, we encounter impermanence as the touchstone of our experience through the practice of writing - especially poetry. Dharmabyte selected from the talk, "Becoming a Citizen of the Present." Talk given to the Western Buddhist Order national O

In this talk, "Generating Bodhi Mind" Vajratara guides us through the second section of Tsongkhapa's short text on "The Three Principle Aspects of the Path". The verses contain some strong and striking images for what it feels like being caught in Samsara and they come to life in Vajratara's talk. She relates how she nearly came to death herself swept away by a Indonesian river and that was just an ordinary river current, never mind the current of Samsara! At the end of the talk she suggests that of the Bodhicitta practises we might take up – the puja or the various reflections on the suffering of beings – the most useful and effective Bodhichitta practice is the practice of sangha, of spiritual community.

Talk given at Taraloka, May 2009.

Today's Dharmabyte, "The Suffering of a Wasted Life" is a track from the inspiring talk "Generating Bodhi Mind" by the dynamic Vajratara of Sheffield Buddhist Centre. Our speaker beautifully guides us through the second section of Tsongkhapa's short text on The Three Principle Aspects of the Path as she challenges us to examine our own suffering created in not living fully to our potential. Talk given at Taraloka, May 2009.

Today's Dharmabyte, "The Six Perfections" is a reminder from our last podcast where Nagapriya beautifully and clearly led us through his understanding of "The Ideal of Universal Awakening". In this little golden Dharma-nugget we are reconnected with the Six Perfections, a reading from the Bodhicaryavatara by Shantideva, and the 10 Bhumis or stages of the Bodhisattva's Path. This is from the second talk in a five-part series called Visions of Mahayana Buddhism given at the Manchester Buddhist Centre, 2009.

In this talk, "The Ideal of Universal Awakening" Nagapriya explores the emergence of the Bodhisattva Ideal in the Mahayana tradition. Nagapriya discusses the historical context in which this basic concept developed, its ties to early Buddhist texts, and what the bodhisattva's life entails, on both the mundane and cosmic levels.

This is the second talk in a five-part series called Visions of Mahayana Buddhism given at the Manchester Buddhist Centre, 2009.

Welcome to Dharmabytes! In "Buddhist Conversion and The Bodhichitta", Sangharakshita, the founder of the Triratna Buddhist Order and Community, introduces the talk "The Arising of the Bodhicitta". Here, in his classic form, Urgyen Sangharakshita describes the act of Conversion within Buddhist practice. Two contradictory trends that are discernible in the spiritual life: withdrawing from the world and compassion for it. The arising of the Bodhichitta or 'Will to Enlightenment' resolves this dichotomy. Talk

Welcome to the first installment of our new Dharmabytes podcast, where Free Buddhist Audio serves up a bite-sized portion of Dharma from the wealth of audio talks in our archives. In this excerpt from Sangharakshita's talk "The Buddha, God and Reality," he clarifies the gap between the clouded lenses of space and time through which we see the world and the 'clear vision' that comes with Enlightenment, as achieved by the Buddha. Talk given in 1966. Part of the series Introducing Buddhism.

"Great Compassion Penetrates into the Marrow of the Bones" – A stirring and penetrating talk by Dhammadinna around the image that a Bodhisattva's compassion runs as deep as their very bones. Nagarjuna, Milarepa and others add their voices as Dhammadinna makes an emotionally resonant but clear-eyed attempt to lay out the ground of a practice that is moving towards the development of Bodhichitta. Why bother? she asks us, and shows how open-heartedness can respond realistically and well to suffering in our own lives and in the lives of others.

Talk given at the Western Buddhist Order Convention, 2009

In this talk, "Out of Compassion for the World", Parami explores the theme of the Buddha's compassionate action and how ultimately it came from beyond self, beyond other – it emerged from his realisation of 'Emptiness'. The Buddha realised full well how hard it was going to be to communicate what he had discovered to other people – to us. He knew that the grip of greed, hatred and delusion is very strong. He could imagine how vexatious it might be to teach. Fortunately for us, he could also see our potential. And so out of compassion he taught.

Talk given at FWBO International Retreat at Taraloka, May 08