Dharmabytes from free buddhist audio

This weeks FBA Dharmabyte,"Bahiya - In the Seen Only the Seen" is a reading from the book 'Gautama Buddha: The Life and Teachings of the Awakened One' (Quercus, 2011) by Vishvapani. The original talk, Imagining Gautama, is part of series launching the book from February 2011.

This weeks FBA Dharmabyte titled: "What is Enlightenment?", from the talk, "Enlightenment as Experience and as Non-Experience" 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.

Today's FBA Dharmabyte, "Practising Purely," by Varjadarshini, is from the third talk in a five-part series from Tiratanaloka's retreat on the "Four Mind Turnings" of the Tibetan tradition titled: "The Transitoriness of Life and the Certainty of Death."

Today's FBA Dharmabyte, is brought to us by Maitreyi titled: "Trying to Make Samsara Work". Another gem from the talk "The Defects and Dangers of Samsara" where Maitreyi looks at pleasure and suffering in the context of samsara - compassionate responses to self and other, and how to loosen the bonds... Talk given at Tiratanaloka Retreat Centre, 2005 This talk is part of the series "The Four Mind-Turning Reflections".

Today's FBA Dharmabyte, "The Four Rivers of Samsara" is from the second talk from the 2009 UK Women's Order / Mitra Event titled "Generating Bodhi Mind" by Vajratara. She guides us through the second section of Tsongkhapa's short text on "The Three Principle Aspects of the Path". The verses contain some strong and striking images for what it feels like being caught in Samsara and they come to life in Vajratara's talk. She relates how she nearly came to death herself swept away by a Indonesian river and that was just an ordinary river current, never mind the current of Samsara!

Today's FBA Dharmabyte, "Cultural, Political and Social Change", is an extract from a question and answer session with Sangharakshita at the Croydon Buddhist Centre in November, 2004. The full recording can be found here: "An Evening with Sangharakshita."

Today's FBA Dharmabyte, takes us right to the heart of the matter with "Samsara and Nirvana", by Maitreyi. From the talk "The Defects and Dangers of Samsara" where Maitreyi looks at pleasure and suffering in the context of samsara - compassionate responses to self and other, and how to loosen the bonds... Talk given at Tiratanaloka Retreat Centre, 2005 This talk is part of the series "The Four Mind-Turning Reflections".

This weeks FBA Dharmabyte, "Positive Emotion and The Spiritual Life", is an extract from the legendary series by Sangharakshita, "Buddhism for Today and Tomorrow" given in 1976. From the talk "A Method of Personal Development", the founder of the Triratna Buddhist Order and Community speaks eloquently about how the practice of friendliness can bring about profound change in one's life.

This weeks FBA Dharmabyte, "Who Benefits?", is a revisit to last weekend's full talk podcast, "Brahama Viharas and the Key Moment" by Kulaprabha. In this extract, Kulaprabha reflects on who benefits when we engage in a process of cultivating loving kindness through the Brahma Vihara meditation practices.

Today's FBA Dharmabyte,"Samadhi - Concentration in the Highest Sense" is track from the talk "Buddhism and the Path of the Higher Evolution" by Sangharakshita. In answering the question 'What is Buddhism?', Sangharakshita identifies higher evolution - the development of higher states of consciousness - with the twelve links in the progressive trend of the Buddha's teaching of conditioned co-production. Talk given in 1969 as part of "The Higher Evolution" series.

Today's FBA Dharmabyte takes us into the blissful realm of Priti from a talk on the spiral path by Sangharakshita. "Priti: The Intensity of Rapture" is a selected Dharmabyte from the talk "The Stages of the Spiritual Path" given in 1966 as part of the series "Introducing Buddhism."

Today's FBA Dharmabyte "Virya - Energy in Pursuit of the Good," is from an inspiring talk by Prajnadevi titled: "The Perfection of Energy." Virya is the sort of energy that overflows and is fed by the Dharma, it is the ability to be spontaneous and in the moment in pursuit of the Good.

Today's FBA Dharmabyte takes us into the fascinating world of mind and mental events. "Dhammavichaya - Introspection of Mind and Mental Events," is a crucial stage in the spiral path of spiritual development. The full talk, titled "What is Mind?" is from a series of talks from the Order Convention in 2001 offering different perspectives on the Abhidharma and exploring from a personal perspective what the study of the 51 Mental Events can tell us about our minds and how they work.

Today's FBA Dharmabyte, simply titled "Mindfulness," by Paramabandhu, is from the comprehensive and invaluable talk titled "Mindfulness For Just About Everything" given at the San Francisco Buddhist Center in 2006. Drawing 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 - especially to problems with depression and addiction. The talk evokes the Buddha in the Satipatthana Sutta to explore the four traditional foundations of mindfulness and discuss their potential use in therapeutic contexts.

Today's FBA Dharmabyte "Seven Bodhyangas," by Sangharakshita, is an excerpt from the talk "Mind: Reactive and Creative." Here, Sangharakshita describes in detail the Seven Factors of Enlightenment, a creative spiral path of spiritual development.