Dharmabytes from free buddhist audio

Ratnasambhava, the 'Jewel-Born' Buddha of the Southern realm, exemplifies generosity and abundance. In this talk Moksatara expands upon this theme, looking at how living with an attitude of generosity can create community, bestow abundance and lead to a sense of fearlessness. Excerpted from the talk entitled The Wish-Fulfilling Jewel given at Sheffield Buddhist Centre (2019) as part of the series ...

Paramabandhu introduces some of the symbolism of Akshobhya - the deep blue Buddha of the Eastern realm, particularly emphasizing patience (ksanti) and how it can help us overcome our own anger. Excerpted from the talk entitled The Patience of the Deep Blue Akshobhya as part of the series  The Symbolic World of the Five Buddha Mandala given at London Buddhist Centre, 2019. *** Subscribe to our Free...

Bodhilila introduces the characteristic wisdom of the blue Buddha of the Eastern quarter of the mandala, a wisdom that undistortedly reflects experience just as it is. Excerpted from the talk entitled Akshobhya and the Mirror-Like Wisdom given at West London Buddhist Centre , 2018.   *** Subscribe to our Free Buddhist Audio podcast - a full Dharma talk every week! Follow our blog for news and new...

Taranita discusses the Five Buddhas of the Mandala, their characteristics, how their wisdom may manifest itself in everyday life, and how their features may benefit the Western Buddhist practitioner. From the talk entitled The Five Buddha Mandala given at Bristol Buddhist Centre, 2007. *** Subscribe to our Free Buddhist Audio podcast - a full Dharma talk every week! Follow our blog for news and ne...

The Tantras (special scriptures of Vajrayana Buddhism) frequently refer to mandalas, circles of symbolic forms. Sangharakshita describes the mandala of the five Buddhas, its use as a symbol of psychological and spiritual integration, and the meaning of its sexual symbolism. From the talk entitled The Mandala: Tantric Symbol of Integration, part of the series  Aspects of Buddhist Psychology given i...

As soon as we bring awareness to our mind states they change. Vidyamala  speaks to the importance of allowing for growth and integration in our practice. She speaks of the twin pillars of awareness and love and how mindfulness can lead to a deeper and deeper sense of connection with all of life and how kindness is a natural expression of that. From the talk entitled Citta - Fragments On Love , par...

The Vajrayana, or Tantric Buddhism, is a path of radical transformation that harnesses the energy of life's deepest and strongest experiences. Falling in love is one such experience that can provide great masses of energy to power our spiritual development. Vadanya reveals how in the Vajrayana we fall in love not with other people but with the person who we can become - with the ideal of the Enlig...

Love (compassion and practising for others) and liberation (wisdom and practising for ourselves) are both essential aspects of the Dharma life. With stories of the Buddha, anecdotes from   Maitrisiddhi's own life, and suggestions around how to respond creatively to the planets' ecological crisis. From the talk Love, Liberation and the Bodhisattva Ideal given on a weekend retreat for local sangha m...

Rumi on Finding the Barriers Dharmashalin offers his reflections in the first in a three talk series exploring the Rumi quote: 'Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.' Excerpted from the talk entitled Love Past the Barriers 1: Rumi and Our Stories About What Love Should Look Like given at Birmingham Buddhist C...

Paraga discusses the importance of connecting with both Myth and Kalyana Mitrata as key aspects to help translate Dhardo Rimpoche's aspect of 'Radiate Love' into our Dharma life. Excerpted from the talk entitled Radiate Love given at Padmaloka Retreat Centre during the ' A Living Bodhisattva' retreat in March 2019. *** Subscribe to our Free Buddhist Audio podcast - a full Dharma talk every week! F...

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. Excerpted from the talk entitled Lion's Roar: Why Integration = Love given at Bristol Buddhist Centre , 2018. *** Subscribe to our Free Buddhist Audio podcast - a full Dharma talk every week! Follow o...

Here we have Padmavajra talking about the importance of bhavana in our metta practice –  the growing of friendly feelings, friendly responses, slowly, gently, like a garden. What you attend to, you become. It is vital that we engage with the practice honestly, starting where we actually are and gradually moving towards non-dual loving kindness, maha maitri, the Great Love that has dissolved the di...

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 Manchest...

Upayavira has been exploring, often through necessity, ways to meditate with children since 2000 when shortly after his ordination he became a parent. He takes the aim of demonstrating that practicing with your young children present is not just possible, there can be some huge benefits in this form of practice. Excerpted from the talk entitled Meditating with Your Child which includes a led medit...

Lilapa talks openly about how the Brahma Viharas inspired and challenged him as a father. Parenting can be very hard, a connection with the Brahma Viharas, also known as The Immeasurables, can support infinitely expansive and positive states of mind. Excerpted from the talk entitled Parenting and the Brahma Viharas , part of the series  Talks from Adhisthana's Weekend Retreat for Parents , given a...

A Tibetan Story shared by Vessantara about a young boy and his family and the uncertainty of the course of our lives. Excerpted from the talk entitled Positive Emotion as part of the series  The Mandala of Spiritual Practice: Positive Emotion Retreat given on a retreat called The Mandala of Spiritual Practice: Positive Emotion at Adhisthana , 2015.   *** Subscribe to our Free Buddhist Audio podcas...

What if our children are seen as aspects of our mind – this moment greed, this moment hatred. The Buddha advises us to 'be with' whatever arises, just allowing and then seeing what happens. Amaragita takes a look at Buddhist practice in the light of parenting. Excerpted from the talk entitled Staying at Home, Dancing with the Universe given at the Buddhafield Festival , 2006. *** Subscribe to our...

Nagapriya talks via zoom on Buddhist practice as a path towards the transcendence of our egocentric tendencies and motivations, which are the cause of our suffering, and the obstacles to our compassionate response to others. Transcendence is what is beyond our self clinging will, and by connecting with it we can begin to live our lives on the basis of a new logic. One motivated by the aspiration t...

Nagabodhi explores a common misconception about how we're supposed to stop all thought in meditation. Thought more generally can be very useful and could even be said to be one of the things that makes us human, but it becomes a problem when it runs away with itself and we start living in a 'secondary reality' most of the time.  From the talk entitled Direct Experience , part of the series  The Tw...

In the Dhaniya Sutta, the questions arise: 'how do we move in this world with a freedom to be creative?' and 'how often do we follow the addictive tendency?' Saddhanandi looks at vertical and horizontal nourishment as she explores these questions. Excerpted from the talk The Dhaniya Sutta - Freedom to be Creative , part of the series  Evoking Shakyamuni  given at Adhisthana , 2020. *** Subscribe t...

Saddhaloka reflects on the first Buddhist book he read, The Way of the White Clouds, by Lama Govinda, sharing a verse to Amitabha, the red Buddha of the West who represents and inspires the highest love of all... From the fourth talk in a six-part series on the figures on the Wheel of Life entitled Amitabha , given at Padmaloka Retreat Centre , 1997. *** Subscribe to our Free Buddhist Audio podcas...

Padmasambhava is a potent symbol of transformation. Here, as part of a Padmasambhava Day Festival, Maitreyi shows us how evoke the help, energy and vision we need to change our lives. From the talk entitled Heart Advice From the Lotus-Born: 'Never Be Apart From the Causes For Faith to Arise', given at the London Buddhist Centre , 2016. *** Subscribe to our Free Buddhist Audio podcast - a full Dhar...

Kamalashila takes us into the world of the Abhidharma to investigate how positive mind states emerge. He describes the types of Shraddha (confidence, faith or esteem), and their place in Buddhist practice. Excerpted from the talk entitled Shraddha given for Sangha Night at the West London Buddhist Centre , 2016. *** Subscribe to our Free Buddhist Audio podcast - a full Dharma talk every week! Foll...

Practising Buddhism (so much harder than understanding it) involves breaking the chain of the twelve negative links, or nidanas, by moving onto the spiral path, here described in its twelve stages. What is our usual reaction to things that are pleasant, things that are painful and things that are neutral? Sangharakshita gives us a clear description of the beginning of the Spiral Path, that of our...

Punyamala describes the path of beauty and how we can move from contemplating mundane beauty to the beauty of the enlightened state and in so doing she leads us into an experience of beauty. From the talk entitled 'In Beauty May I Walk' - Beauty As the Fourth Laksana given during the Women's Area Order Weekend at Adhisthana, December 2019. *** Subscribe to our Free Buddhist Audio podcast - a full...