In this week's FBA Podcast entitled Reverencing the Buddha – I Bow to No One Dead Or Alive Mahamani gives an incredibly passionate talk on reverencing the Buddha. Drawing on her own experiences of struggling to understand the place of ritual in Buddhism, Mahamani guides us on her own path to finally bowing before the Buddha.
In this week's FBA Podcast Padmavajra describes how we practice the Dharma so as to create Love, respect and unity within our community and the wider world. Creating Love, Respect and Unity given at the Mens Event titled Beyond Isolation, Building the Buddha Land.
The wonderful Dhammadinna brings us this week's FBA Podcast entitled Seven Point Mind Training . This is the first of seven talks in a series based on Atisha's famous 'The Seven Points of Mind Training', and influenced both by Chekawa's commentary and Langri Tangpa's 'Eight Verses for Training the Mind'. This talk was given on April 7th, 2008 and is part of the series Seven Point Mind Training ....
This week's FBA Podcast is a talk by Maitreyabandhu entitled Spiritual Death and Radical Transformation . In this rousing talk Maitreyabandhu goes into where Buddhism begins: with ourselves as we are and with the awake Buddha. But we don't really know either ourselves or the Buddha. He emphasises that we don't know because we so easily assume we know, or fix or lessen the goal. So what do we do? There are three approaches we need to balance and four things we have to do, to close the gap between...
This week's FBA Podcast is a talk by Vessantara entitled The Empty Boat . Early navigators were able to traverse vast distances using intuitive messages from the sun, wind, stars. Going for refuge is kind of a journey that needs ongoing mindfulness, a vision of the goal The second in a series of four talks by Vessantara exploring Going for Refuge is an accessible talk on the Insight aspect. From the four-part series, Aspects of Going for Refuge , given at the Cambridge Buddhist Centre in early 2...
Parami delivers this week's FBA Podcast entitled Living In The Greater Mandala . She brings this theme alive in the most human, poetic, and inspired of ways. Her range is broad as she evokes the mandala itself, and the profound, playful path of the Bodhisattva. Calling forth Rumi and Hafiz, the great Buddhist Perfection of Wisdom texts, Keats, Yeats, Robert Hass, and Kenneth White, she illustrates what it looks and feels like to live dedicated to the wellbeing of all as the most natural thing in...
This week's FBA Podcast is a talk given by Vajrapriya entitled Descend with the View, Ascend with the Conduct . Vajrapriya makes the link between this saying, and Sangharakshita's explanation of the Noble Eightfold Path as a path of Vision and Transformation; talks about what it means to ascend with the view; and to descend with the conduct; and explores the signs that we're not keeping these two directions of practice in balance....
We are delighted to bring in Jnanavaca for today's FBA Podcast entitled The Texture of Reality . In this talk, he explores the notions of conditioned and unconditioned reality, and the relationship between the two.
Vajratara headlines our FBA Podcast for today with a talk entitled Metta and the Path of Insight . Given on a Young Womens' Weekend at Taraloka, she discusses how the practice of metta can be more than just the simple cultivation of loving-kindness and positive emotion, and how it can also be a window into deeper truths about the nature of reality....
From a landmark talk of the same name, our FBA Podcast today is from Parami entitled The Lineage of Inspriation . Here Parami speaks about the lineage of inspiration, one of the four lineages Sangharakshita has handed on to the Triratna Order and movement; lineages of teachings, practices, institutions and inspiration. She evokes the importance of the lineage of inspiration in this burning world, and talks about her own sources of inspiration since she came into contact with the movement in 1977...
Our FBA Podcast today is from Ratnaguna entitled From Karma Niyama to Dharma Niyama , a talk given at the Manchester Buddhist Centre on a Day for Men in Training for Ordination, 13 March 2016.
In today's FBA Podcast Shifting to Indras Net Parami evokes the reality of interconnectedness in relation to the second Dasadhamma – My life is dependent on others. I am sustained by the gifts of others – She talks about how the experience of interconnectedness is supported by wisdom, and results in compassionate activity. This is the fourth talk of The Order as Practice – Shifting Paradigms retreat....
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 of February 2016...
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. Another question is the balance between practical and mythical approaches : can we hold both at once? Wha...
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 transform ourselves and maybe make a difference in the world. This talk is part of the series The Mandala of...
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 relationship to the practice of upekkha (equanimity) throughout her spiritual life. We hear about ways to ass...
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 series The Five Aspects of the Dharma Life....
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 as a initiatory voyage of discovery and development, making reference to the System of Practice and t...
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 sense of individual consciousness or attainment. This talk is about the Sangha Jewel and it's place in t...
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 love for the radical and transformative power of the Dharma....
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 give many clues as to the nature of a committed Dharma life. Here Padmavajra, one of his closest discip...
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 real feel for his appreciation of the place but also for his worries about the effect of logging in ...
