Free Buddhist Audio

Our FBA Podcast this week is entitled Forgiveness and Happiness. Santavajri explores verses 4, 5 and 6 of the Eight Verses for Training the Mind. She begins with her realisation that a motivator for her spiritual practice has been a quest for happiness. Touching on the themes of righteous indignation, spiritual bypassing, empathy, non-violent communication, envy, and exploring apology, confession and working with betrayal, Santavajri poses the question: can we forgive ourselves and move towards unconditional love for all beings? Talk given at the Women's Area Order Weekend at Adhisthana, December 2018 This talk is part of the series Women's Area Order Weekend at Adhisthana.

Here Padmavajra speaks about the stages of spiritual death and rebirth. How to prepare for them, how they can be seen in all the stages of the path, as well as where they lead. Talk given on a Kula Gathering at Padmaloka, 2012. Subscribe to the FBA Podcast!

Check out this week’s FBA Podcast: What’s Race, Gender, Sexuality and Skin Color Got to Do with Non-Self by Vimalasara. A timely and thought-provoking talk given at a People of Color (POC) day-long retreat at San Francisco’s East Bay Meditation Center 2019. The East Bay Meditation Center hosts teachers from all lineages to teach the Dharma to their POC, LGBTQI2, Differently Abled and Scent Free Communities. Talk given February 2019 in San Francisco.

In today’s FBA Podcast this week: 21st Century Bodhisattva Saravantu explores the role of active engagement in the world’s problems, and the various pitfalls along the way, into which activists can so easily fall. This talk launches a series of talks entitled “The 21st Century Bodhisattva”, inspired by Akuppa’s module in the Dharma Training Course.

Enjoy our FBA Podcast this week: Communicating the Dharma Through the Arts – Show Don’t Tell by Sarvananda. Be prepared for the unexpected in this very funny – and by turns wrongfooting – personal exploration of why the Arts are vital to the development of a genuine Buddhist community. Sarvananda discusses as background his attempts to find a synthesis between the Arts and spiritual life, leading to his current work as a successful playwright. But it is in the three departures from a traditional Dharma talk that we glimpse something else – the crucial show-don’t-tell aspect of the title. Suffice to say, if you have not heard Stand-Up Tragedy, Dharma Ventriloquism, or a Ukulele Lady Visualisation before, best turn on your heart and your ears…

Our FBA Podcast this week is an important talk entitled Mindfulness and the Creative Disruption of Bias by Viveka. Viveka explores the theme of racism from the perspective of the Dharma and what the Buddha had to say about complex conditionality. A timely look at understanding – and ultimately undoing – the patterns that lead to prejudice and bias, of all kinds. Specifically, this talk investigates: - Opening to the inter-personal, organizational, and societal conditioning that perpetuates racial bias. - Understanding ‘implicit bias’, which is how thoughts, feelings, emotions, and actions are influenced (largely unconsciously) by exposure to stereotypes and fears about targeted social groups. - How can the mechanics of ‘implicit’ bias be disrupted by the power of mindfulness? Talk given at San Francisco Buddhist Center, June 2016. thebuddhistcentre.com/sanfrancisco

This week’s FBA Podcast is a talk on Radical Inclusivity by Singhashri. What does Buddhism have to do with belonging? What does belonging have to do with Buddhism? We live in a pluralistic society, where many cultures coexist while maintaining their cultural differences. One of the main concerns of our day is how we continue to create a sense of belonging, amid so much difference. For Triratna, we might ask ourselves, how do we create spaces where all feel welcome, regardless of age, race, nationality, class, gender, sexual identity, physical ability and even religion? And as we deepen our commitment and involvement, how do we honour the unique experiences and gifts of each individual, while also seeking a ground of connection based on the Dharma? Sangharakshita has said: The Dharma should be communicated to as many people as possible and this means communicating the Dharma in as many different ways as possible…Avalokitesvara has a thousand hands, and each of the thousand hands holds a different object. Similarly, Order members of particular temperaments have different talents, aptitudes, and capacities, and in making their respective contributions to the life and work of the Order they should allow – you should allow – those talents, aptitudes, and capacities full scope. Join us in an exploration of what the Dharma might have to say about radical inclusivity. This talk was given at the London Buddhist Centre’s Transforming Self and World group in April, 2017. The morning included a led meditation and enquiry, a main talk and discussion, and a closing meditation. To access the meditations, please visit Free Buddhist Audio.

Speaking in a marquee on the June 2012 Women’s National Order Weekend at Taraloka and in a landscape dedicated to the Five Jinas, Samantabhadri explores positive emotion in our system of practice. Her themes are: pliancy and loosening boundaries; the imagination; insight; our collective life; the shade and the light of our spiritual lives. Subscribe to the FBA podcast

Delve into the fundamental principles behind Integration in Triratna’s System of Practice with this week’s FBA Podcastentitled The Five Aspects of Dharma Life - Integration by Subhuti. With integration we begin by taking fully responsibility for our karmic agency. This is the third talk in a series of eight from the System of Practice retreat at Padmaloka for men who have asked for Ordination. Subhuti invites his hearers to find new and deeper significance with the fundamental principles behind Integration, Positive Emotion, Spiritual Receptivity, Spiritual Death, and Spiritual Rebirth. This talk is part of the series The Five Aspects of the Dharma Life. Subscribe to the FBA podcast

Our FBA Podcast this week is a rousing, uncompromisingly radical talk from Maitriveer-Nagarjuna entitled The Lion’s Roar Of Doctor Ambedkar (with translation in Hindi). Taking up the theme of the Convention, the great “Lion’s Roar” of the Buddha, Maitriveer-Nagarjuna evokes the fire that drove Doctor Bimrao Ambedkar to work tirelessly on behalf of the so-called Dalit “Untouchable” people in order to free them from the evils of the Hindu caste system. He reframes Doctor Ambedkar as a radical for the ages, of greater and broader relevance for a world where the forces that oppose liberation at all levels seem stronger than ever. Listen and be inspired and uplifted! Jai Bhim! This talk was given to start the 2018 Triratna Buddhist Order Convention at Bodhgaya in India and is part of the series The Lion’s Roar: Talks from the International Order Convention.