Free Buddhist Audio

In this imaginative talk, which begins with an evocation of how unbelievably fortunate we are to be able to practice together in community, Candradasa speaks to one of the four lineages of our sangha as drawn out by Urgyen Sangharakshita, Triratna's founder. He evokes the lineage of practice as a continuous chain of human inspiration and curiosity – from ancient peoples around the fire, to Siddhar...

Padmavajra explores the profound lines from Sangharakshita's Dedication Ceremony: "Here seated, here practising My our mind become Buddha, May our thought become Dharma May our communication with one another be Sangha" Recorded at the Autumn Going for Refuge weekend retreat at Padmaloka Retreat Centre , 2024.   https://www.freebuddhistaudio.com/audio/details?num=LOC6267 *** Help us keep FBA Podcas...

Dhammamegha   speaks about Sangha as Dharma practice and how spiritual community and friendship with the admirable are part of our heritage in Triratna. A talk given on the Triratna Buddhist Community International Gathering at Adhisthana, 2017. *** Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone! Donate now Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast:  Bite-sized clips - Buddhist inspiration three times a w...

Is it possible to create a society in which all social, economic, and political arrangements will support the development of true individuality? In this lecture, Sangharakshita discusses a number of principles essential to the successful transformation of our current society. This talk is part of the series Buddhism for Today – and Tomorrow , given in 1976 and digitally remastered in 2026. Support...

The Dharma meets androcentricity and culture wars. Maitrisiddhi explores how we can relate to views on gender without polarising. She asks, how do we bring the Dharma to bear on our and others' deeply-held views? And how do we hold some of Sangharakshita's conditioned views? Honest, nuanced, sensitive. This talk was given at Taraloka Retreat Centre , as part of the series entitled Daughters of the...

There's a story about the Buddha bowing to the tree under which he has just gained Enlightenment. Inspired by this this story, Vajragupta sees the whole path to Awakening in terms of gratitude. The grasping mind cannot feel grateful. But the Awakened know and feel just how deeply they are supported and enabled by other people, other life, and conditions in the world around them.  Vajragupta uses p...

How do you get used to being Enlightened? What happened to the Buddha in the weeks after his breakthrough experience? Kamalashila explores these questions in two ways - using the framework of our System of Meditation to shed light on the process that unfolded in the Bodhisattva's mind and body as Enlightenment dawned; and connecting us imaginatively with the symbolism and image of Muchalinda, the...

When we Go for Refuge, we can only Go for Refuge to that which is lokuttara - 'beyond the world'. In the third talk in this series, Satyaraja speaks of the need for a total orientation of our being towards Enlightenment through setting up conditions (pratitya samutpada), and the development of the Five Spiritual Faculties. Excerpted from the talk entitled 'For the Attainment of Enlightenment' give...

Here, Saddhanandi speaks about the nature of enlightenment, as experience and as non-experience, based on Bhante's lecture of the same name, given to the Buddhist Society in 1975. Given on retreat at Adhisthana , 2022. *** Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone! Donate now:   https://freebuddhistaudio.com/donate Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast:  Bite-sized clips - Buddhist inspiration th...

Sanghadhara reflects on the Buddha's resolve to sit on the vajrasana beneath the Bodhi tree until he broke through conditioned existence and awoke. The talk explores vajrasana as the "diamond throne," drawing on an audio excerpt from Sangharakshita to unfold its meaning as the central point of the cosmos: the spiritual axis where the Buddha awakens, and where the symbolism of the vajra, the tree o...

Have we got what it takes to wake up? Sanghagita follows Siddhartha Gautama's extraordinary quest to its turning point. In him we meet a seeker who turns down power, prestige and leadership, turning his back on the received wisdom of harsh asceticism, choosing instead something far more radical: to meditate alone in the comfortable shade of a beautiful tree. Here he meets Māra: tempter, accuser, e...

Vessantara explores Sangharakshita's idea that fundamentally there is one spiritual experience, which has different aspects that we can unfold. Here he guides on how to contact and influence deeper levels of mind, culminating in the turning about of the basis, the transformation of the deepest level of mind. This talk was given at Cambridge Buddhist Centre , 2016, as part of the series Aspects of...

In this talk, Suryagupta discusses the language of the depths, which refers to communication beyond the surface level of experience. She begins by exploring the power of stories. Part of the series The Language of the Depths given at London Buddhist Centre , 2024. *** Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone! Donate now:   https://freebuddhistaudio.com/donate Subscribe to our Free Buddhist Audi...

As part of Adhisthana's 2023 Triratna Day celebrations, Saddhanandi speaks to us about the 'existential communication' that can arise between a more, and a less, experienced practitioner. A communication that can take you to the limits of your own being and encourage you to stretch beyond them. Part of the series Triratna Day Weekend: Is a Guru Necessary? Given at Adhisthana , 2023. *** Help us ke...

Ratnaprabha presents traditional Buddhist advice on communicating well, in particular the images that the Buddha used to teaches own seven-year-old son about the importance of truthfulness, and the poetry of Vangisa, encouraged by the Buddha to turn his love of communication into verses. A talk to the West London Buddhist Centre , 2017. *** Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone! Donate now:...

We all need to find emotional equivalents to our intellectual understandings if our spiritual practice is to progress. Sangharakshita outlines the positive emotions stressed in Buddhism, and concludes with a brief explanation of the stages of the Sevenfold Puja. Talk given as part of the series The Buddha's Noble Eightfold Path , 1968. *** Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone! Donate now:  ...

Vishvapani explores the dynamic vision of Urgyen Sangharakshita in setting up a new Buddhist movement in the West, and asks how we might relate to him now. His central reference point in this provocative and moving talk is the Padmasambhava Abisheka - the initiation received by Sangharakshita in Kalimpong, India, in 1962 from the great Tibetan Lama, Kachu Rimpoche. The energy emanating from a simp...

Have we got what it takes to wake up? Sanghagita invites us to follow Siddhartha Gautama's extraordinary quest to its turning point. In him, we meet a seeker who turns down power, prestige and leadership, turning his back on the received wisdom of harsh asceticism, choosing instead something far more radical: to meditate alone in the comfortable shade of a beautiful tree. Here he meets Māra: tempt...

In the telling of the story of 'The Buddha's 4 Sights', Bodhinaga invites us to contemplate the people and events that have inspired us to change. What was The Buddha really like? We are told that the Buddha broke through into a radically different state of being, transcending ordinary human consciousness. What might it have been like to encounter that? There was something magnetic, awesome, myste...

Padmavajra delivers an enthralling account of the Buddha's passing into Paranirvana. Drawing on events in the Mahaparanibbana Sutta, he elucidates the perfumed chamber of the Buddha's unconditioned mind. Delivered on Parinirvana Day at the London Buddhist Centre , 2022. *** Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone! Donate now:   https://freebuddhistaudio.com/donate Subscribe to our Free Buddhis...

The Buddha's Enlightenment and his Parinirvana are the two key events in his life. But what significance do they hold for us in our approach to life - and death? Subhadramati , an experienced and engaging Buddhist teacher, will explore these profound questions. This talk was given at London Buddhist Centre , 2024. *** Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone! Donate now:   https://freebuddhista...

This is pretty fantastic in its way. Danavira is one of the best speakers we know - he is very funny, can do poetic and profound, tends to the chaotic in his style, and has a particular genius for this kind of thing; this kind of thing being talking about death. The whole talk is a kind of respectful joyride through the hardest subject of all - sit back and enjoy a thoroughly adult treat that's li...

Ratnaghosha commemorates the death of the Buddha not by focusing on death, but rather by focusing on the Buddha's early life and the myriad manifestations of impermanence. Talk given by Ratnaghosha at the London Buddhist Centre 's Parinirvana Day Festival, 2008. *** Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone! Donate now:   https://freebuddhistaudio.com/donate Subscribe to our Free Buddhist Audio...

Ratnadeva traces the significance and depth of the Buddha's teaching of karma, as well as addressing the complexities and common misconceptions that can often arise when we approach the topic. Having a clear understanding of the law of karma is vital if we are to transform our desires to be more in line with reality. We realize that on a path of training old habits run deep, and that we cannot con...

Dhivan talks about the spiral path and emphasises how it naturally unfolds. This talk was given at Dhanakosa Retreat Centre , 2014. *** Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone! Donate now: https://freebuddhistaudio.com/donate Subscribe to our Free Buddhist Audio podcast: A full, curated, quality Dharma talk, every week. Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/dharmabytes-from-fre...