Dharmabytes from free buddhist audio

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...

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 relation...

Karunasara  takes us into the timeless world of the Dakini Vajrayogini, with an explanation of the symbolic meanings found in Tantric imagery and visualization of her, as well as an overview of her spiritual qualities. From the talk The Symbolic Meaning of Vajrayogini given at Aryaloka Buddhist Center , 2010. *** Subscribe to our Free Buddhist Audio podcast - a full Dharma talk every week! Follow...

We often think that our best defense is to protect ourselves with a barrier between ourselves and the world. On the contrary, the dakini has the complete realization that in the end there is nothing to defend. In enlightenment all we were ever defending was a pattern of defensiveness, you realize there was nothing to defend. From the talk entitled The Dakini & the Skull Garland by Subhadramati  gi...

Here by Sangharakshita recounts one of the stories from the Mahaparinibbana Sutta, that of The Episode of Untimely Flowers. Reflections based around the Buddha's Parinirvana ('death'), stress the importance of impermanence. From the lecture entitled Between Twin Sala Trees as part of the series  Incidents from the Pali Canon, 1983. *** Subscribe to our Free Buddhist Audio podcast - a full Dharma t...

In this talk on the Buddha's parinirvana, Vadanya explores how we can use our imagination to have a real living connection with the Buddha, and how we can make our own future potential for enlightenment a source of strength and guidance in our present lives. From the talk Is the Buddha Dead - For Us given at a Men's Event, Padmaloka Retreat Centre, October 2011, as part of the series entitled  Par...

Aryajaya tells the story of The Myth of the Return Journey from the Lotus Sutra in illustrating the meaning and symbolism of Vajrasattva who is associated with purity and the time of death. From the talk entitled Vajrasattva given at Cambridge Buddhist Centre , 2019. *** Subscribe to our Free Buddhist Audio podcast - a full Dharma talk every week! Follow our blog for news and new Dharma FBA on Twi...

The Buddha was a human being who by his own efforts discovered the path towards Enlightenment and was able to communicate this path for others to follow. His life is full of stories that that are of relevance for those of us today who wish to follow the path towards Enlightenment. Manjurava   from a talk entitled Stories of Awakening: Parinirvana given at Cambridge Buddhist Centre , 2019, as part...

The Maha Parinirvana Sutra contains a fairly detailed account of the Buddha's last months of his earthly life. It follows him step by step -- where he went, who he met, how he discoursed, what teaching he gave. By the time he embarked on his last journey he knew he was going to pass away. Being the Enlightened One, he remained calm, reflecting on his last words, his last teaching. Excerpted from t...

There is something profoundly natural and ordinary about death, and yet something quite mysterious. Where do we go? What actually happens? Who or what are we when alive? Nothing changed, from the Buddha's point of view. Vimalavajri offers reflections on the ultimate unknown, the ultimate mystery, death, inspired by the glimpses of awakening depicted in the Mahaparinibbana Sutta. Excerpted from the...

Maitreyabandhu  draws out the deeper meaning and finer detail of the poem entitled A Measuring Worm, by Richard Wilbur. In the full talk entitled A New Knowledge of Reality-Buddhism and Poetry , Maitreyabandhu discusses five different poems, each around the theme of death, with the final poem focusing on spiritual rebirth. By discussing the background of the poems and poets, the intricacies of the...

A well read poem can help us deepen our understanding of Buddhist principles. Achala shares his practice of reflecting on impermanence through poetry. In this Dharmabyte we hear two poems. The first is entitled "Life" by Sangharakshita , the second entitled "Letter to a Nobleman in Kyoto" by Kukai , (774-835 CE), Japanese poet, scholar, painter, engineer, and great Buddhist teacher. Translated int...

We want to be free from suffering and to become free we need to transform ourselves. How do that? Singhamati describes three paths for transformation: self development, self discovery and self surrender. Each path helping us to turn towards and transform different parts of ourselves. In this track we hear about the path of Self-Development. Excerpted from the talk entitled Three Paths to Transform...

Classic Sangharakshita   from the Aspects of the Higher Evolution of the Individual series given in 1970. Tackling such terms as self, I, individual, and ego, reveals that each can have both a positive and a negative connotation. What is the self, and how can we cultivate true Individuality? Excerpted from the talk Individuality , True and Self . *** Subscribe to our Free Buddhist Audio podcast -...

Amaragita  offers three principles for considering the possibilities of deepening into the Dharma in any situation, and they are are worth remembering - or as she says, remembering to remember! Great, gently radical words that are bold enough to imagine and even assume the possibility of a more compassionate future for all beings. From the talk entitled The Possibility of Practice given as part of...

Working in the world is a game, and like any game, we need to know the rules in order to play it. In this talk, Arthavadin presents his personal experience of working in the world, from a Buddhist perspective, using a series of clear models and vivid images. From the talk entitled Getting Real given at Padmaloka Retreat Centre, Men's Event, January 2012. ***   Subscribe to our Free Buddhist Audio...

Life's unfair, what can we do about it? We can practice the Dharma and follow the Buddha's teachings. Kalyanaprabha's sober yet uplifting talk encourages us to do just that. Excerpted from the talk entitled What to do in an Unfair World given at Birmingham Buddhist Centre , 2013. *** Subscribe to our Free Buddhist Audio podcast - a full Dharma talk every week! Follow our blog for news and new Dhar...

Saddhanandi reads the episode of the Buddha working out whether or not he will teach the Dharma. From the talk entitled Dukkha and the Unbiased given as a series of talks and led meditations from a retreat at Adhisthana on Dukkha and the Unbiased . *** 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 Faceboo...

Excerpted from the talk The Cloud of Suffering by Vessantara as p art of a series of talks and led meditation from a retreat at Adhisthana on Dukkha and the Unbiased . *** 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

Jnanavaca offers a far-reaching and uncompromising vision of human fellowship based on transcendental ideals: Sangha. With reference to terrorism, romance, consumerism and Star Wars.... This FBA Dharmabyte is from the talk called What The World Knows Now , part of the series Where do we go from here? given at the London Buddhist Centre Winter Retreat , 2016. *** Subscribe to our Free Buddhist Audi...

This is a gem of a talk, with a wintery theme. Parami  starts by singing 'In the Bleak Midwinter' by Christina Rossetti. She then goes on to bring out the underlying meaning of some of the imagery in the poem. The first metaphors are about bleakness, with the earth as hard as iron and water like a stone, times when we struggle and it seems as if no growth is possible. She talks about her early exp...

It may be Christmas Day but it is also Sangha Night and Ratnaghosh a  takes the opportunity to explore the Buddhist themes in 'A Christmas Carol' by Charles Dickens. This talk, The Dharma in Dickens, was given at Cambridge Buddhist Centre , 2019. ***   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 Faceboo...

Dassini takes us into the Parable of the Burning House from the White Lotus Sutra. Through readings from the sutra and retelling of the parable the main themes of the story are brought out, and the problem at the heart of the parable is revealed, that of unawareness or heedlessness. From the talk Housebuilder, Now You Are Seen given at Glasgow Buddhist Centre , 2009. The talk concludes with some s...

In a talk looking deeply at the many manifestations, contexts, and practices of ksanti, patience, here Satyaraja shares a story from The White Lotus Sutra about 5000 arahants walking out of the assembly as they believed they had nothing more to learn. On the theme of spiritual receptivity, from the talk entitled Ksanti – Patience given at Stockholm Buddhist Centre , 8 February 2010. *** Subscribe...

Sangharakshita takes us to the Vulture's Peak, the summit of earthly existence, where the Buddha begins the White Lotus Sutra by speaking on infinity. With his words, (and the forthcoming myths, symbols and parables of the sutra), we are entreated to go beyond into the purely spiritual world of the transcendental. From the talk The Drama of Cosmic Enlightenment , 1971, part of the series  Parables...