Dharmabytes from free buddhist audio

In this talk Dayanandi cov­ers the first of the five great stages of spir­itual exper­i­ence that develop and unfold as we pro­gress on the Path to Enlightenment — integ­ra­tion and whole­ness. Excerpted from the talk entitled Mindfulness and the Mandala of Integration, part of the series The Five Great Stages of the Spiritual Path given at Manchester Buddhist Centre, 2011. *** Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone! Donate now Subscribe to the FBA podcast: A full, curated, quality Dharma talk, every week. Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube

Padmasagara challenges familiar ideas of compassion. When we step beyond the ego, compassion may arise in many forms, not always what we expect. Excerpted from the talk entitled A Buddhist's Response to Global Crises - Part 1 given at Buddhistisches Tor Berlin, 2026. *** Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone! Donate now Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: Bite-sized clips - Buddhist inspiration three times a week. Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube

Join Lalitaratna as he explores the essence of puja, a devotional practice honoring the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. Discover how this practice can reshape our mental state and perspective on the world. The talk delves into Dharma Vinaya, unpacking the truths of impermanence, no-self, and suffering, along with the transformative path of ethical living, meditation, and wisdom. Excerpted from the talk entitled The Truth Is All Its Aspects, the Path In All Its Stages given at Buddhistisches Tor Berlin, 2023. *** Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone! Donate now Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: Bite-sized clips - Buddhist inspiration three times a week. Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube

Prasadavati invites us to explore how meditation can serve our lives on and off the cushion, and especially during challenging times. Excerpted from the talk entitled Befriend Your Mind given at Buddhistisches Tor Berlin, 2025. *** Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone! Donate now Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: Bite-sized clips - Buddhist inspiration three times a week. Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube

Equanimity is the deepest level of metta: metta imbued with seeing reality. Maitrisiddhi brings in Kisa Gotami, Hiroshima and her own mother's death. Can we hold the paradox of loving, yet letting go? Can we drop the drama, and see the mettaful action that we could actually take? Excerpted from the talk entitled Equanimity: This Is The Way Things Are as part of the series Brahma Viharas: Living in the Mandala, Taraloka Retreat Centre, 2025. *** Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone! Donate now Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: Bite-sized clips - Buddhist inspiration three times a week. Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube

Image of the sea and the raft: we hold onto our raft, but this brings suffering - can we let go, enter the sea and become spiritually reborn? This is the question Arthabandhu asks us.  Spiritual death does not only mean esoteric meditation practices; it means confronting the vagaries and difficulties of life with honesty and courage and seeing what we can learn from them. By opening up to new experiences, life becomes more vivid and enjoyable - if we can just face the fear. Excerpted from the talk entitled The Sea As Spiritual Death given at Young Men Retreat, Padmaloka Retreat Centre, 2012. *** Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone! Donate now Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: Bite-sized clips - Buddhist inspiration three times a week. Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube  

Orientation towards Enlightenment is a keynote talk by Kusaladevi marking both the Buddha's enlightenment over 2,500 years ago and the 30th anniversary of the Nottingham Buddhist Centre. Exploring themes of lineage, connection, and the symbolism of the Vajrasana as a point of orientation in a suffering world. Kusaladevi reflects on how Dharma practice and the life of a Buddhist Centre offer a bridge from disorientation towards the transcendental through the light of the Dharma. Excerpted from the talk entitled Orienting Towards Enlightenment given at the Nottingham Buddhist Centre, 2026. *** Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone! Donate now Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: Bite-sized clips - Buddhist inspiration three times a week. Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube

Vaddhaka delves into the Buddha's unanswered questions; questions that Vacchagotta, Malunkyaputta and others asked him. Among them: 'What happens to a Buddha after death?' And what happens at our own death; what did the Buddha really say; and why did the renowned Buddhist scholar Paul Williams convert from Buddhism to Roman Catholicism? Excerpted from the talk entitled Death and the Self, and the Buddha's Unanswered Questions given at Stockholm Buddhist Centre, 2010. *** Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone! Donate now Subscribe to the FBA podcast: A full, curated, quality Dharma talk, every week. Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube

Maitreyabandhu draws out the deeper meaning and finer detail of 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 their structure, and bringing in a Buddhist interpretation of the themes raised in the poems, Maitreyabandhu shows us the importance and profundity of poetry and how it can help us to explore Dharmic themes more deeply. Here he discusses the poem "I heard a Fly buzz – when I died - by Emily Dickinson. Excerpted from the talk entitled A New Knowledge of Reality-Buddhism and Poetry given at Padmaloka Retreat Centre, 2018. *** Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone! Donate now Subscribe to the FBA podcast: A full, curated, quality Dharma talk, every week. Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube

In this talk Alokadhara explores these beautiful verses which evoke the Buddha, his qualities and the profundity of his teaching. Excerpted from the talk entitled Celebrating the Buddha Pingiya's Praises to the Way to the Beyond given at Padmaloka Retreat Centre, 2014. *** Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone! Donate now Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: Bite-sized clips - Buddhist inspiration three times a week. Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube

Dhivan relates tales of some of the colourful characters who visit the Buddha to receive teachings.Here, we here about a killer-bandit named Angulimala. Excerpted from the talk A Courtesan, a Killer and a King given at Bristol Buddhist Centre, 2016. *** Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone! Donate now Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: Bite-sized clips - Buddhist inspiration three times a week. Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube

What was the Buddha really like? Jayabodhi explores this important question with particular emphasis on how this is related to our own lives and how we may follow in the footsteps of the Buddha ourselves. Excerpted from the talk entitled What the Buddha Was Really Like given at Birmingham Buddhist Centre, 2017. *** Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone! Donate now Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: Bite-sized clips - Buddhist inspiration three times a week. Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube

Sangharakshita outlines his view of the historical background to current world problems (essentially, problems within and between groups), which can only be solved by people either withdrawing support from groups or influencing them positively through an experience of Spiritual Communities. Excerpted from the talk entitled Evolution or Extinction: Current World Problems given as part of the series Where do we go from here?, 1971. *** Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone! Donate now Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: Bite-sized clips - Buddhist inspiration three times a week. Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube

Here, Prajnamati describes how a range of dharma practices can be seen as a finding of the point of freedom where a more creative option becomes apparent as an alternative to the more familiar reactive choices. In ethical practice this is developing a sensitivity to the wholesome quality of skilful intentions, in meditation finding a way of relaxing in to the practice and in sangha engaging in a free association of individuals, as an individual, from one's point of freedom. Excerpted from the talk entitled The Point of Freedom, given at Bristol Buddhist Centre, 2017. *** Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone! Donate now Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: Bite-sized clips - Buddhist inspiration three times a week. Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube

The Bodhisattva called 'Never Direct' saw the Buddha in everyone, yet his practice of bowing received a mixed response. Drawing on themes from the White Lotus Sutra, Aryadasa delves into how different framings of the spiritual life can profoundly change our understanding of Buddhism and its practice. Excerpted from the talk entitled A Bodhisattva On His Knees given at Sheffield Buddhist Centre, 2025. *** Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone! Donate now Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: Bite-sized clips - Buddhist inspiration three times a week. Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube

Vijayasri explores confession's illuminating and transformational properties through the Mahayana sutra, The Sutra of Golden Light. Excerpted from the talk entitled the Sutra of Golden Light: What Is the Role of Confession In Buddhism? Given at Birmingham Buddhist Centre, 2023. *** Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone! Donate now Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: Bite-sized clips - Buddhist inspiration three times a week. Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube

Nagavajri gracefully introduces some points one may find helpful before studying any Mahayana sutra, giving some context to this rich vein of the Dharma. Excerpted from the talk What Do I Need to Know Before Reading a Mahayana Sutra? Given as an introduction to the Vimalakīrti Nirdeśa (The Inconceivable Emancipation) at a sub30 Adhisthana retreat, 2025. *** Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone! Donate now Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: Bite-sized clips - Buddhist inspiration three times a week. Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube

Akasaraja explores the nature of presence and absence in encounters between people and concludes that we can only be truly present when we are "absent", i.e. when we get out of the way. And the Buddha embodies this "presence" through "absence" in a way we cannot truly comprehend. By being "absent", he is completely and utterly present. The Buddha is the embodiment of reality itself and, as such, is always present. Excerpted from the talk entitled Why Did the Buddha Leave Us? Or Did He? Or Was He Ever Really There? given at Shrewsbury Triratna Buddhist Centre, 2025. *** Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone! Donate now Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: Bite-sized clips - Buddhist inspiration three times a week. Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube

The full moon in May is celebrated as the anniversary of the Buddha's Enlightenment and his victory over the demon Mara. Sangharakshita explains what Mara represents and how he can be overcome. As well as containing much that will fascinate experienced Buddhists, this is also an excellent introductory lecture. Excerpted from the talk entitled The Buddha's Victory given in 1987. https://www.freebuddhistaudio.com/audio/details?num=169 *** Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone! Donate now Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: Bite-sized clips - Buddhist inspiration three times a week. Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube

Nagasiddhi invites us to experience the dharma imaginatively: through art and heart. He outlines the turning points or 'rites of passage' in the Buddha's mythic life story as he introduces the In the Footsteps of the Buddha home retreat offered by the Triratna Buddhist Community. In this excerpt from the talk entitled Rites of Passage, he speaks about the numerous perspectives the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas take. Visit 'In the Footsteps of the Buddha' for more resources from this retreat: https://thebuddhistcentre.com/footsteps *** Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone! Donate now Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: Bite-sized clips - Buddhist inspiration three times a week. Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube

In this moving talk based on Sangharakshita's 1969 talk 'Breaking through to Buddhahood', Suddhaka shares some of his experience as an Order Member to illustrate how we might move beyond our unhelpful psychological conditioning. Excerpted from the talk Breaking Through Psychological Conditioning talk given at Brixton Buddhist Centre, 2017. *** Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone! Donate now: https://freebuddhistaudio.com/donate Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: Bite-sized clips - Buddhist inspiration three times a week. Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/dharmabytes-from-free-buddhist-audio/id416832097 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4UHPDj01UH6ptj8FObwBfB

Dhivan considers what we can learn from the story of the noble quest of the Buddha. This story is recounted in the Discourse on the Noble Quest (Ariyapariyesana-sutta) in the Middle-length Discourses (Majjhima-nikaya). In it we can almost believe we are hearing a memory of the Buddha's own words, as he recounts his going forth, his study under great meditation teachers, his eventually leaving them, his austerities, and finally his awakening. Dhivan draws out some of the continuing significance of the story of the noble quest, as a kind of blueprint for the model of the Dharma life as heroic self-development. Excerpted from the talk The Buddha's Noble Quest given at Bristol Buddhist Centre, 2016. *** Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone! Donate now: https://freebuddhistaudio.com/donate Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: Bite-sized clips - Buddhist inspiration three times a week. Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/dharmabytes-from-free-buddhist-audio/id416832097 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4UHPDj01UH6ptj8FObwBfB

​​How can we work with our own inner voices that undermine our practice and limit our lives? Shubhavyuha draws this out, using the stories of early Buddhist women encountering 'Mara' - the embodiment of all that holds us back. Excerpted from the talk entitled 'I See You, Mara' from the Daughters of the Buddha: Lineage of Freedom retreat at Taraloka Retreat Centre, 2026. *** Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone! Donate now: https://freebuddhistaudio.com/donate Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: Bite-sized clips - Buddhist inspiration three times a week. Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/dharmabytes-from-free-buddhist-audio/id416832097 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4UHPDj01UH6ptj8FObwBfB

Bodhidasa shares ways we can touch the transcendent in simple, everyday moments of devotion. Looking at the works and life of Milarepa for inspiration and guidance, the session will help us go beyond what we might understand the Dharma Path to be. Excerpted from the talk entitled Mending the Broken Crown given at Auckland Buddhist Centre, 2019. *** Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone! Donate now: https://freebuddhistaudio.com/donate Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: Bite-sized clips - Buddhist inspiration three times a week. Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/dharmabytes-from-free-buddhist-audio/id416832097 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4UHPDj01UH6ptj8FObwBfB

Balajit explores how working with emotion can be a radical process for transformation. Excerpted from the talk entitled Perfect Emotion given at Birmingham Buddhist Centre, 2021. *** Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone! Donate now: https://freebuddhistaudio.com/donate Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: Bite-sized clips - Buddhist inspiration three times a week. Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/dharmabytes-from-free-buddhist-audio/id416832097 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4UHPDj01UH6ptj8FObwBfB

In his truly creative and poetic way, Ananda explores how various life experiences have shaped his understanding of the Dharma-Niyama. Something is being shown to us when we are prepared to look. This short talk was given on the European Order Gathering at Wymondham College, 2013, on the theme of the gathering was 'Karma niyama in the service of the Dharma niyama'.   *** 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  

Sangharakshita explores the nature of the Buddhist spiritual community and why it is so essential to spiritual life... Excerpted from the talk entitled The Spiritual Community, part of the series Introducing Buddhism, 1966. *** 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

Here Sangharakshita explores how Buddhism, being the most rational of religions, appeals no less to the heart than to the head, using the language of myth to do so. Examples are four 'myths' from the Buddha's biography, here correlated with four of Jung's archetypes. From the talk entitled Buddhism and the Language of Myth, part of the series Ritual and Devotion in Buddhism, 1967. *** 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  

Todayand#8217;s FBA Dharmabyte, is called Faith as Metta by Saddhaloka from the talk entitled Amitabha. This is the fourth talk in a six-part series on the figures on the Wheel of Life. Saddhaloka introduces us to Amitabha, the red Buddha of the West who represents and inspires the highest love of all. Talk given at Padmaloka Retreat Centre, winter retreat, 1997

Todayand#8217;s FBA Dharmabyte, is called Compassionate Action by Sangharakshita. This excerpt is from Taraloka Retreat Centre, when Sangharakshita inaugurates their new shrine cabin dedicated to Tara and#8211; the radiant Bodhisattva of compassion, inspiration to many who lead a Buddhist life aspiring to beauty and a steady openness in the face of the mysteries of existence.

Parami comes out strong in todayand#8217;s FBA Dharmabyte, Ethics and Compassion. The Buddha realised full well how hard it was going to be to communicate what he had discovered to other people and#8211; 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. Parami explores this theme of the Buddhaand#8217;s compassionate action and how ultimately it came from beyond self, beyond other and#8211; it emerged from his realisation of and#8216;Emptinessand#8217;. From the talk Out of Compassion for the World by Parami given at Triratna (FWBO) International Retreat at Taraloka, May 08

In todayand#8217;s FBA Dharmabyte, and#8220;Taking Awareness Deeper,and#8221; Paramabandhu draws on many years of experience as a consultant psychiatrist and Dharma teacher. He invites us to consider the lessons Buddhist techniques around meditation and mindfulness training can bring to the field of mental health and#8211; especially to problems with depression and addiction. In this excerpt, he talks about taking awareness deeper to really get a sense of impermanence 'in our bones'. From the talk, and#8220;Mindfulness for Just About Everything,and#8221; given at San Francisco Buddhist Center, 2006

Our FBA Dharmabyte, and#8220;Ritual, Metaphor and Poetryand#8221; is a beautiful excerpt on communication as exchange of energy and experience. Happy is the mind that is steeped in totality, Dhammadassin reveals the ritual in the world through poetry and metaphor. The full talk Standing on Emptiness: View, Meditation, and Action was given at the Western Buddhist Order Women's National Order weekend, August 2004.

Our FBA Dharmabyte today is a beautiful short talk by Aryashila of the Croydon Buddhist Centre. In and#8220;The Dharma is Everywhereand#8221; she uses the challenging poetry of Leonard Cohen and others, as well as her own deep life experience, to show that reality does not conform to ordinary wishes, but yet facing it squarely can be supremely uplifting, not sad. Talk given at the Sangha evening of the West London Buddhist Centre.

In todayand#8217;s FBA Dharmabyte, and#8220;A Creative Response,and#8221; Subhuti encourages us to and#8220;Ignite your heart!and#8221; Duality is inherently unsatisfactory. By opening yourself up to the sufferings of the world, you open up to a transcendental force, which is the only real solution to the problem of suffering. An excerpt from the talk, and#8220;Eight Verses for Training the Mind: Talk 4,and#8221; part of the series and#8220;Eight Verses for Training the Mind.and#8221;

This weeks FBA Dharmabyte titled: and#8220;What is Enlightenment?and#8220;, from the talk, and#8220;Enlightenment as Experience and as Non-Experienceand#8221; by Sangharakshita exposes a modern disease of frustrated craving for experience. Sangharakshita suggests that spiritual life is better seen in more concrete ways; as growth, work, and duty.

Todayand#8217;s FBA Dharmabyte, is titled and#8220;Buddhism and the Mindand#8221; is an excerpt from the talk and#8220;Meditation: the Expanding Consciousnessand#8221; by Sangharakshita. A traditional exposition of Buddhist meditation looking at why we meditate; preparation for meditation; the five meditation practices designed to counteract the five mental poisons; and the three stages of meditation. Talk given in 1967.