Free Buddhist Audio

In today's FBA Podcast Beyond Heaven and Hell Vajrasara shares her ideas for managing the highs and lows of the 8 Worldly Winds. Talk given October 2011 at Bristol Buddhist Centre.

Today's FBA Podcast is entitled Wayfinding by Vessantara. A rich talk using the metaphor of wayfinding to navigate our way across the sea of suffering to the safe refuge of the Buddha Dharma. The first of 4 talks exploring Going For Refuge given on Sangha Night at Cambridge Buddhist Center.

Today's FBA Podcast is possibly one of Padmavjra's best talks given at Padmaloka. Compassion . This. Given during the October Men's event 2012.

Today's FBA Podcast is so provocative we don't even need a description. Who Hates the Metta Bhavana? by Jnanavaca. Week two of a five week seminar on the Metta Bhavana practice at the London Buddhist Center.

In today's FBA Podcast , Evolution, Capitalism and the Buddha Vaddhaka argues that capitalist economics is based upon a narrow evolutionary view associated with social Darwinism and a distorted interpretation of the survival of the fittest. So the question is then: Can modern approaches to evolution help to develop a new approach to economics more in line with buddhist values? Stockholm Sweden, 22...

Today's FBA Podcast recounts the harrowing and revelatory tale of Kisa Gotami in a talk entitled "A Life-Changing Encounter" by Jvalamalini. In the story, Kisa Gotami's grief for her dead child is completely transformed after her contact with the Buddha through the experience of compassion and insight, leading her to a life of spiritual commitment and renunciation.

Part of a series from Cambridge Buddhist Centre on the Six Distinctive Emphases of the Triratna Buddhist Community, today's FBA Podcast from Aryajaya is entitled "Commitment is Key ". Here she discusses Going for Refuge to the Three Jewels, a thread that runs through all Buddhist traditions but which is drawn out strongly as a central principle in the Triratna tradition.

Today's FBA Podcast is entitled "The Way to the Beyond" by Vimalavajri. Here she offers some reflections on how the Mahaparinibbana Sutta gives us glimpses of awakening by looking at three topics: Ananda's request for last instructions, the Buddha's comforting of Ananda's grief, and the mystery of the Parinirvana itself.

Continuing with our journey through the Five Buddha Mandala, we find ourselves at the centre with Vairocana. Today's FBA Podcast is entitled Sitting At the Centre of the Mandala by Vessantara. How do we balance the teachings of effort and openness? One way is through the image of the sun and relaxed being. The practice of the Dharma is simply to come back. Yet of course this requires effort. Anoth...

Continuing around the mandala, we now enter the realm of story and imagination with a journey to the northern realm. In today's FBA Podcast we move around to the North to meet  Amoghasiddhi: Courage and Creativity . Amoghasiddhi is also connected with Spiritual Rebirth, we hear how this relates to insight, becoming more than we are, and the way in which we draw up courage and creativity to transfo...

Continuing around the mandala, in today's FBA Podcast we meet Amitabha in a talk by Padmasuri simply called  Amitabha .

Continuing around the mandala, we enter the realm of Ratnasambhava, the golden Buddha of the South. In  "A Personal Take On Upekkha , this weeks FBA Podcast by Ratnavandana. Continuing the series of personal talks on each of the Brahma Viharas from the 2015 Rainy Season Retreat, Ratnavandana shares an intensely honest, psychologically intimate, beautifully forensic history of her personal relation...

Having now entered the mandala, we begin in the East with Akshobya on the theme of Integration with  "The Five Aspects of Dharma Life – Integration" , this weeks by FBA Podcast . Subhuti delves into the fundamental principles behind Integration and invites his hearers to apply them deeply in their own lives. We begin by taking fully responsibility for our karmic agency. This talk is part of the se...

For the next month or so we'll be entering the mandala with a variety of talks and reflections from members of the Triratna Buddhist Order. We'll begin at the beginning with "Entering the Mandala" by Vessantara for the first FBA Podcast in this series. Vessantara introduces Mandalas, in terms of personal, symbolic and specifically buddhist representations. He then invites us to enter the Mandala a...

Today's FBA Podcast is entitled "Sanghakaya and the Heart's Release" by Maitreyi. She describes having somewhat of an epiphany on first hearing the term 'Sanghakaya' in a talk by Subhuti in India. It seemed to give expression to a whole direction and momentum of her life and practice, while simultaneously both deepening and opening out the mystery of the enlightened mind, expanding beyond any sens...

Today's FBA Podcast is a tribute to our teacher, Bhante Sangharakshita, given by Parami entitled "Revisiting the New Society" , the third talk of The Order as Practice – Shifting Paradigms retreat. Parami talks about the first verse of the Dasadhamma Sutta – "I am no longer living according to worldly aims and values." She revisits Bhantes vision of the New Society, sharing her inspiration and lov...

Today's FBA Podcast is a tribute to our teacher, Bhante Sangharakshita, given by Padmavajra entitled "Glimpses of the Mythic Life of Sangharakshita" . Urgyen Sangharakshita, the founder of the Western Buddhist Order, is many things to many people. Yet all inspiration and controversies aside, he is first and foremost a follower of the Buddha's way and his own evocations of his personal practice giv...

We've been inspired to share writings and poems by Bhante Sangharakshita this month. Our FBA Podcast today, "Sangharakshita – Facing Mount Kanchenjunga" , is a delightful talk from 1991. Sangharakshita starts by reading an extract from the new volume of his autobiography, Facing Mount Kanchenjunga. He follows this by talking about and reading eight poems that he composed in Kalimpong which give a...

We've been inspired to share poems by Bhante Sangharakshita this month. Our FBA Podcast today is an unusual, early, talk from Sankharakshita which will be new to most people. "Sangharakshita – Reading Poems About Friendship" . Bhante was invited by the Croydon Arts Centre, in 1990, to choose, discuss and read poems about friendship. His selection ranges from the Epic of Gilgamesh to 20th century p...

This week's FBA Podcast features Ratnaghosha in a talk entitled "An Ever Widening Circle" . Given as the key note talk at Sangha Day at the Cambridge Buddhist Center, launching the Year of Spiritual Community for 2014 and laying out a vision for the Sangha.

This week's FBA Podcast features Vajratara in a talk entitled "Buddhism and the Modern World" . Given on a retreat for young women training for Ordination, Vajratara describes the topical issues of the time and asks what the Buddhist response is. The refugee crisis, the rise of Jeremy Corbyn, the effects of neo liberal capitalism and environmental denigration; all point to a change in the way we s...

This week's FBA Podcast features Jnanavaca in a talk entitled "Mind Over Matter" . Most people think of science as insisting that only dead matter really exists as a substrate of everything in the universe, and that mind is something that does not have the same reality as matter. However modern physics shows that matter itself is not made up of definite things, and that it may even be influenced b...

In the final installment of our long-running series on the Six Emphases of Triratna, this week's FBA Podcast features Padmakumara in a talk entitled  "What is Triratna Buddhism?" . Padmakumara wraps it all up neatly with his own perspectives on what Triratna's approach to Buddhist principle and practice is.

In his typical engaging speaking style, Padmavajra illuminates the Triratna emphasis on spiritual friendship in this week's FBA Podcast , with "Triratna Emphases – Spiritual Friendship" . Wrapping up the last of the Six Emphases of Triratna that we've been featuring over many weeks, Padmavajra gives a through overview of the importance of companions on the Buddhist path.

In this week's FBA Podcast , Dayabhadra is the distinguished speaker with "Triratna Emphases – The Arts" . Dayabhadra gives us a comprehensive look at the importance of the arts in the spiritual life, one of the Six Emphases of the Triratna Buddhist Community.