Tejopala likens the current global climate crisis to a village with a fire that threatens everyone in it and asks what a community of monks living in such a village might do in such circumstances. He also draws on the advice given by Urgyen Sangharakshita in his talk given in 1984 called 'Buddhism, World Peace and Nuclear War' as to how Buddhists should act to address an overwhelming existential threat, in which Bhante urges civil resistance. This talk was given at the Melbourne Buddhist Centre ...
Jun 21, 2025•39 min•Ep. 723
Referencing Sangharakshita's teaching on personal responsibility, Khemasuri shows how, through self-development and sangha, we can make a radical difference in the world. This talk was part of a two talk series entitled The Lion's Roar by Shakyapada and Khemasuri given at Triratna Buddhist Community York , 2019. *** 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, ever...
Jun 14, 2025•30 min•Ep. 722
Bhadra gave this talk as part of BAM 2018. He references David Loy's two icebergs and explores how we might revise the Triratana mandala of practice to strengthen our sense of interconnectedness with the world. Given at Bristol Buddhist Centre, 2018. *** 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/d...
Jun 07, 2025•48 min•Ep. 721
Saraha addresses the UK & IE Triratna Buddhist Order convention, exploring the collective practice of taking part in Order chapters. The Buddha went forth to seek an end to suffering, to go beyond what binds us to the samsaric world. The theme of this event also encompasses 'going beyond' and the ways in which we are approaching that as an Order. This talk was given at the Triratna Buddhist Order convention on the theme Going Forth, Going Beyond , 2022. *** Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for...
May 31, 2025•35 min•Ep. 720
Prajnahridaya explores Awareness of Reality, but not in a way you might expect. What if seeing the truth were less about 'understanding' reality, and more about coming into relation with and opening up to what we might experience as a living spiritual force? Through the course of the evening we will be becoming more aware of the Buddha, who is himself reality. Prajnahridaya will be speaking quite personally about his encounters with the Buddha whilst on pilgrimage in India, as well as practices ...
May 24, 2025•39 min•Ep. 719
Let's hear it for the early Buddhist women! Mahajapapati was the first Buddhist nun and leader of the women's ordained sangha, and her two chief disciples were Khema and Uppalavanna. Maitrisiddhi explores some challenging material - and also very inspiring texts around the beginning of the bhikkhuni sangha. The talk also features Mara - the embodiment of everything that holds us back. How do we free ourselves from his insidious whispers? Talk given at Taraloka Retreat Centre as part of the serie...
May 17, 2025•56 min•Ep. 718
In this talk Suddhayu explores images from the Fire Sermon and the Parable of the Burning House in relation to the current political climate in the USA. From a Buddhist perspective, the world is always on fire — and sometimes it feels like the heat gets turned up. He uses the theme of 'Going Forth from Samsara' to speak about personal transformation and a compassionate response to the suffering of others. This talk was given on Sangha Night at Aryaloka Buddhist Center , Newmarket NH USA, 2025. *...
May 10, 2025•32 min•Ep. 717
What is the spiritual community and how does it differ from the group? Why is it important? How does the spiritual community come into being? How can I be part of the conditions for it to arise? Kalyacitta takes us on a heart-felt and imaginative exploration of the spiritual community, drawing on her own experience of bringing about a true Sangha. Talk given on a retreat for women who have asked for ordination as part of a series on 'The Group, the Individual and The Spiritual Community' given a...
May 03, 2025•53 min•Ep. 715
Communication with another can be a wonderfully connecting and liberating experience or it can destroy us. Recognising the mystery and interconnectedness of all things we find the uncanny ability to communicate meaningfully. Mindfulness, courage and renunciation are essential. Saraha invites us all, with practical steps, to notice and live freedom in Shunyata, connection in aloneness and the mutual co-arising of each other. Better than 1000 meaningless words is one word on hearing which makes th...
Apr 26, 2025•45 min•Ep. 715
Satyaraja begins the series of talks on the four acceptance verses with an inspiring, careful, and systematic exploration of the verse 'With Loyalty to my Teachers, I Accept this Ordination'. He investigates the centrality of the relationship with Bhante Sangharakshita, our own preceptors and the world and culture which we join at the sacred moment of ordination. This talk was given as part of the series What is the Order? Given at Padmaloka Retreat Centre , 2022. *** Subscribe to our Free Buddh...
Apr 19, 2025•36 min•Ep. 714
Subhadramati gives a talk for Cambridge Sangha night as part of a series on the Six Distinctive Emphasis of the Triratna Buddhist Community. A talk full of energy, insight and inspiration on Ordination within Triratna. Given at Cambridge Buddhist Centre , 2016. *** Subscribe to our Free Buddhist Audio podcast: On Apple Podcasts | On Spotify | On Google Podcasts A full, curated, quality Dharma talk, every week. 3,000,000 downloads and counting! Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: On Apple Podca...
Apr 12, 2025•50 min•Ep. 713
Nagabodhi interviews Sangharakshita in a wide-ranging discussion about the FWBO's history and the continuing process of translating the Buddha's Dharma for the West. At times the exchanges are more personal than is common as we listen in to questions and answers regarding a variety of historical features of the personal and public life of the founder of a new, radical spiritual community. What emerges is the clear sense of a complex man and of broad vision allied with a remarkable unity of purpo...
Apr 05, 2025•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 712
Punyamala explores how we can bring our mindfulness to the crucial juncture in our experience, the gap between feeling and craving. This point - the point of freedom, also sometimes referred to as the battleground of the spiritual life - is where we can start to change the habits that bind us to the Wheel. It's the point where we can move from the reactive mind to the creative mind, move closer to the Buddha. This talk was given at Sheffield Buddhist Centre , 2025. *** Subscribe to our Free Budd...
Mar 29, 2025•40 min•Ep. 711
Awareness, or mindfulness, is the keystone of the Buddhist path and of any truly human life. The Buddha's teaching on what awareness is and how to practise it is vast, and profound, and takes us far beyond what we might usually associate with the word 'mindfulness'. It requires a willingness to open our hearts and a good deal of courage to enter upon this way. Are you up for the challenge? Prajnahridaya explores how cultivating awareness is central and crucial to our existential situation, as we...
Mar 22, 2025•39 min•Ep. 710
Ratnaghosha explores the Buddha's vision of spiritual community as it is expressed in verses 197, 198 and 199 of the Dhammapada. This is a comprehensive survey of the Buddha's teaching but is also replete with practical advice about how we might apply this to our lives today - and finishes on a very encouraging note. Recorded at the Dublin Buddhist Centre , 2024. *** Subscribe to our Free Buddhist Audio podcast: On Apple Podcasts | On Spotify | On Google Podcasts A full, curated, quality Dharma ...
Mar 15, 2025•51 min•Ep. 709
In this talk Padmavajra explores the first two verses of the Dhammapada and their far reaching implications. He explores how we create not only our own happiness or suffering through our actions but also how we create worlds, worlds of suffering or worlds conducive to human growth and even freedom. He then describes how the Bodhisattva works tirelessly and heroicly to create a Buddha field for the benefit of all beings. Talk given during the February Great Gathering weekend at Padmaloka Retreat ...
Mar 08, 2025•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 708
Kusalasara explores the opening verses of the Dhammapada, or 'Way of Truth' showing a path of discovery of the pure mind and the impure mind. Excerpted from the talk entitled The Essential Revolution given at London Buddhist Centre as part of the series The Dhammapada , 2022. *** Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: On Apple Podcasts | On Spotify | On Google Podcasts Bite-sized inspiration three times every week. Subscribe to our Free Buddhist Audio podcast: On Apple Podcasts | On Spotify | On ...
Mar 06, 2025•3 min•Ep. 1310
The Buddha's wisdom can be summarised by the three lakshanas, this is not nihilistic, but an honest recognition of the way things are. Change is inherent in life, the only choice we have is whether we change for the better! To open to this change we need confidence, which we can find in the dharma and the sangha. Jnanadhara gave this talk at a Young Mens Retreat, at Padmaloka Retreat Centre , 2012. ••• Subscribe to our Free Buddhist Audio podcast: On Apple Podcasts | On Spotify | On Google Podca...
Mar 01, 2025•54 min•Ep. 707
Subhadramati starts with the story of the Snow Queen and takes us on an exploration of imagination and Dharmic responsiveness, faith and wisdom. She shows how it is imagination that removes the twin thorns of ignorance and craving, that allows us to ascend towards the beauty of the Three Jewels. This talk was given on a Mythic Context Retreat at Tiratanaloka Retreat Centre , 2024, as part of the series Mythic Context retreat . Some technical terms are used. *** Subscribe to our Free Buddhist Aud...
Feb 22, 2025•51 min•Ep. 706
In early 2020, only weeks preceding the full onslaught of the pandemic, Vajrin survived a catastrophic fall from a bike deep within New Zealand bush. Paralysed from the chest down and stranded in Auckland for months of lockdown, he called upon the Dharma. Despite four decades of practice, it didn't seem to help. Or did it? …in ways he hadn't predicted. This talk was given at Bristol Buddhist Centre , 2024. *** Subscribe to our Free Buddhist Audio podcast: On Apple Podcasts | On Spotify | On Goog...
Feb 15, 2025•43 min•Ep. 705
Suryagupta shares personal reflections on death and dying, discovering patterns in the human condition, and relates this to the life of the Buddha. This talk was given as a part of the London Buddhist Centre 's Winter Retreat 2023, part of the series The Noble Quest , 2023. *** Subscribe to our Free Buddhist Audio podcast: On Apple Podcasts | On Spotify | On Google Podcasts A full, curated, quality Dharma talk, every week. 3,000,000 downloads and counting! Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: O...
Feb 08, 2025•40 min•Ep. 704
In this talk, Sanghagita takes us on a journey into the cremation ground. A fearful place filled with demons and powerful natural forces, and also the place where we can discover true freedom. Talk given at Sheffield Buddhist Centre , 2023. *** Subscribe to our Free Buddhist Audio podcast: On Apple Podcasts | On Spotify | On Google Podcasts A full, curated, quality Dharma talk, every week. 3,000,000 downloads and counting! Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: On Apple Podcasts | On Spotify | On...
Feb 01, 2025•36 min•Ep. 703
Maitrisiddhi explores Shinjin as faith, bodhicitta and wisdom. What happens when the conditioned mind lets up for a bit? Experiences of beauty, openness, love, desire to go for refuge and devotion naturally arise; we experience contact with 'amida', the quality of limitlessness. Are those experiences 'ours' – or something else? This talk was given at Taraloka Retreat Centre , 2024. *** Subscribe to our Free Buddhist Audio podcast: On Apple Podcasts | On Spotify | On Google Podcasts A full, curat...
Jan 25, 2025•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 702
Mahamani provides an overview of the Three Myths of the spiritual life: self-development, self-surrender, and self-discovery. These offer us three paradigm-shifts – three world-views - that can open us into radical freedom. What, for us, allows the open dimension of being to arise? The Three Myths invite us to trust and have deeper confidence in different ways of experiencing meditation. From the series entitled the Open Dimensions of Being: The Three Myths of the Spiritual Life , Taraloka Retre...
Jan 18, 2025•52 min•Ep. 701
A delightful, uplifting and heartfelt talk from Saraha offering three pieces of sage advice for the spiritual life. Not to be missed. This talk was given at Birmingham Buddhist Centre , 2018. *** Subscribe to our Free Buddhist Audio podcast: On Apple Podcasts | On Spotify | On Google Podcasts A full, curated, quality Dharma talk, every week. 3,000,000 downloads and counting! Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: On Apple Podcasts | On Spotify | On Google Podcasts Bite-sized inspiration three tim...
Jan 11, 2025•52 min•Ep. 700
Saccanama explores the pre-Buddhist responses to goodness, truth and beauty that are the roots of faith; Jung's 4 factors of consciousness; 'faith is innate, doubt acquired'. Recorded at the Swedish Summer Retreat at Dharmagiri as part of the series 'To Place the Heart Upon' - Exploring Faith in Buddhism , 2019. *** Subscribe to our Free Buddhist Audio podcast: On Apple Podcasts | On Spotify | On Google Podcasts A full, curated, quality Dharma talk, every week. 3,000,000 downloads and counting! ...
Jan 04, 2025•41 min•Ep. 699
Ratnaghosha looks at the parable of the Jewel in the Garment from the White Lotus Sutra and explores jewel symbolism elsewhere in the Lotus Sutra and in Buddhism more broadly. This talk was given at Padmaloka Retreat Centre , 2024. *** Subscribe to our Free Buddhist Audio podcast: On Apple Podcasts | On Spotify | On Google Podcasts A full, curated, quality Dharma talk, every week. 3,000,000 downloads and counting! Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: On Apple Podcasts | On Spotify | On Google P...
Dec 28, 2024•38 min•Ep. 698
The plant just needs to grow, it doesn't need to know what kind of plant it is. We need to make an effort to grow, we need to apply the teachings of the Dharma, to give, be kind, communicate openly and warmly. Although simple practices, these practices can really change us profoundly. Here Amoghavajra introduces the Parable of the Rain Cloud from the White Lotus Sutra. This talk was given at Padmaloka Retreat Centre , 2002. *** Subscribe to our Free Buddhist Audio podcast: On Apple Podcasts | On...
Dec 21, 2024•44 min•Ep. 697
A father, now wealthy, spots his long-lost son in the streets. He gradually befriends him until he has the self-confidence to take on his inheritance. Akashadevi introduces the parable from the Lotus Sutra which yields fascinating lessons in accepting the riches of our deepest nature. A talk for the West London Buddhist Centre , 2018. *** Subscribe to our Free Buddhist Audio podcast: On Apple Podcasts | On Spotify | On Google Podcasts A full, curated, quality Dharma talk, every week. 3,000,000 d...
Dec 14, 2024•34 min•Ep. 696
Saddhaloka riffs on everything fiery - flames abound, smoke fills the air, the Buddha gets almost apocalyptic in his vision of things. Luminous stuff. This is the first in a two-part series The Burning House - an Image from the White Lotus Sutra referencing Chapter 3 of the 'Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Law' given at Padmaloka Retreat Centre , 2002. *** Subscribe to our Free Buddhist Audio podcast: On Apple Podcasts | On Spotify | On Google Podcasts A full, curated, quality Dharma ...
Dec 07, 2024•27 min•Ep. 695
