Dharmabytes from free buddhist audio

We've been moved to share an abundant handful of Sangharakshita's poems over the next few weeks. Today's FBA Dharmabyte is a poem entitled "The Modern Bard". Selected from "An Autobiographical Sequence of Poems", read by the author and recorded at FWBO celebrations in London, September 1990.

We've been moved to share an abundant handful of Sangharakshita's poems over the next few weeks. Today's FBA Dharmabyte is a poem entitled "The White Calf". Selected from "An Autobiographical Sequence of Poems", read by the author and recorded at FWBO celebrations in London, September 1990.

Today's FBA Dharmabyte is entitled "A Dharmic Framework for Total Transformation", an excerpt from the talk "Karma and the Consequences of Our Actions" by Ratnadharini. There is nothing wrong with our experience, it’s how we interpret it. The Five Niyamas help us understand that total transformation is possible by shifting our habitual means of seeing things. Is it random? Is it fate? Why do the conditions that arise in our lives, arise? Where does the possibility of change lay? What makes total transformation possible? A Dharmic framework gives us the key… The fourth talk in a five-part series from Tiratanaloka's retreat on the 'Four Mind Turnings' of the Tibetan tradition. Here Ratnadharini takes us a little closer into the whole, often misunderstood area of karma in Buddhist thinking. She draws out the important details of the process that we call 'actions and consequences' - but her emphasis is always on putting what we learn into practice in real life, with other real people. Talk given at Tiratanaloka Retreat Centre, 2005 This talk is part of the series The Four Mind-Turning Reflections.

Today's FBA Dharmabyte is entitled "The Act of Making a Refuge", an excerpt from the talk "The Search For Refuge" by Padmavajra. At the time of the Buddha, life was unsafe, people sought refuge in sacred groves, natural shrines and blessed trees to seek protection from the dangers in the world. Explaining the three levels of Dukkha, Padmavajra gives us a clear pathway to understanding the movement within us to make refuges, and what those true refuges really are. Second in a series of five talks given at Padmaloka, March 2009 on the study theme 'Going for Refuge'.

Today's FBA Dharmabyte is entitled "Seeing Both Sides", an excerpt from the talk "Lightening the Load" by Karunagita. A great talk from Karunagita, author of A Path For Parents, with some key practical insights for anyone trying to figure out how to go deeper with their practice while raising children. We get a moving evocation of parenting as a distinct context for working with our conditioning, our views, and for learning to break our habits in order to cultivate ever deeper levels of awareness and love. And as you might expect, all the earned wisdom of this talk is actually applicable to everyone who wants to find the path to practice in every moment. A splendidly encouraging, properly challenging talk in that respect.

Transcendental insight is free of intellectual thought, but it doesn’t just arise out of nowhere. Nobody can tell you the difference between theory and direct experience - you just know it. Today's FBA Dharmabyte, from Yashobodhi, is entitled "Concepts: A Map of Reality", an excerpt from the talk "Inquisitive Mind, Thinking and Awakening".

Sometimes we can’t imagine an adult consciousness. What you are doing when you sit down to meditate to foster, to reveal to yourself a greater consciousness. Sometimes children have a sense of this greater consciousness, remembering back can help us tap into our aims as meditators. Your child consciousness naturally relates to the world as if it relates to you. Today's FBA Dharmabyte is entitled "Imagining a New Sort of Consciousness", an excerpt from the talk "Meditation Essentials - Week Five - Self Dies to Life" by Maitreyabandhu.

We hear how the practice relates to the theory of Buddhist meditation and are encouraged to choose and learn from our direct experience of how we respond to our breath in the moment. Today's FBA Dharmabyte is entitled "Practising the Breath with a Witness", from the talk "Meditation Workshop - Five Breaths" by Amaragita.

Today's FBA Dharmabyte explores a topic deriving from one of the Six Emphases of Triratna in a talk entitled "Sangha as a Radical Alternative to Capitalism", from the talk "Sangha As a Radical Alternative to Capitalism and Modern Youth Culture". Young Peoples facilitator Kara Moses talks about why industrialised Capitalist society presents us with particularly challenging conditions for Buddhist practise, and how the Sangha provides a radical positive alternative. Talk given at the Birmingham Buddhist Centre on Triratna Day 2013.

Today's FBA Dharmabyte begins a last week of topics deriving from our ongoing exploration of the Six Emphases of Triratna in a talk entitled "Triratna in the Context of Contemporary Buddhism", excerpted from the talk "Sangha in the Context of Contemporary Buddhism". Parami delivers an excellent talk that reflects on how Triratna's approach squares up with that of other traditions, and how we might continue to work on our practice of sangha as an integral part of our personal practice of the Dharma.

Viriyalila's appreciation of and gratitude for spiritual friendship shines through in today's FBA Dharmabyte entitled "Deepening the Practice of Spiritual Community". From the talk "Three Perspectives on the Practice of Spiritual Friendship", this talk continues our exploration of the last of the Six Emphases of Triratna. Talk given at Aryaloka Buddhist Center, November 2010

The FBA Dharmabyte podcast today introduces spiritual friendship, a particularly dominant feature of the Triratna Community, in a talk entitled "The Importance of Spiritual Friendship". From the talk "The Six Distinctive Emphases of the FWBO", here Sangharakshita concludes his talk on the Six Emphases with a beautiful reflection on his deep friendship with the great Tibetan Lama, Dhardo Rinpoche. Talk given at Padmaloka Retreat Centre, 2002.

Abhayavajra is the featured speaker in today's FBA Dharmabyte, the subject of an interview by Maitreyabandhu in a talk entitled "Painting the Void". He gives a lovely account of how his Buddhist practice and his creative life intersect and intermingle - giving us a window into why one of Triratna's Six Emphases is the importance of the arts in spiritual life.

Today's FBA Dharmabyte introduces one of the more unique of the Six Emphases of Triratna in a talk entitled "The Spiritual Value of the Arts". From the talk "The Six Distinctive Emphases of the FWBO", Sangharakshita  speaks about the importance that the arts have in cultivating sensitivity to beauty and inspiration in the spiritual life. Talk given at Padmaloka Retreat Centre, 2002.

Claudine Edwards tells us her story of Team-Based Right Livelihood in today's FBA Dharmabyte entitled "Lama's Pyjamas: A Story of Right Livelihood". From the longer talk "New Society Weekend 2011", this short excerpted talk presents a great example of the benefits and creativity of this way of working, as we continue our exploration of the Six Emphases of Triratna. Talk given at Birmingham Buddhist Centre, 2011