Free Buddhist Audio

This is another great talk from the 'Dharma Warriors' series given at the Buddhafield Festival 2006. Karunagita is the author of 'Growing as a Parent – What Buddhism Has to Offer', and here she presents some of that material to an audience of summer loving practitioners under the blue skies of Devon. Settle back and enjoy the sound of drums, kids' voices, and Karunagita's perspectives on the challenges and opportunities of raising a child as part of your practice of the Dharma. She encourages us to see and accept the gifts of love, letting go and awareness (of our limitations and of our mortality) that are inherent in the life of any parent – and we catch a hint of the growth and wisdom that are possible for the heart as it opens to meet its experience in the most fundamental relationship of all. Talk given at the Buddhafield Festival, Devon 2006 To help us keep this free, please think about making a donation.

A short but sweet talk from San Francisco's very own Suvarnaprabha, in which she explores the Buddhist vision of compassion through her own experience of meditation and contact with inmates within the U.S. prison system. Moving stuff. Talk given at the Western Buddhist Order convention, 2005 Contents 01 Survanaprabha – poem by Jimmy Santiago Baca; a personal interest in violence 02 Violence as resistance in meditation; compassion as not resisting experience 03 Prisoners talking about self-perpetuating violence 04 The vastness of compassion; the difficulty of talking about shunyata and compassion 05 An anecdote about selflessness; quote from Shunryu Suzuki To help us keep this free, please think about making a donation.

Time for another talk from Vajradarshini. More poetry, more Rumi, more listening joy. Actually, we just liked the title so much we had to go for it this month – but, in fact, it's another splendid journey around the idea of Enlightenment, using the languages of surrender and discipline from the Sufi context. It's as heady as a sumptuous wine, but also sobering and down to earth, whether we're "following a railing in the dark" or walking lost "inside the red world". Drink up! Talk given at Taraloka Retreat Centre, 2005 Contents 01 Starting with a poem by Rumi – not a 'sensible' talk 02 'Enlightenment'; following a railing in the dark; wine in Rumi's poetry; the Dharma as studying the self; surrender and discipline 03 The Tavern – pushing off for Truth; 'managing' samsara and settling down 04 Fermentation; being cooked – slowly 05 How we are cups; two ways we limit ourselves – i. literalism; a quote from Aloka – abandoning ideas of what the 'path' is 06 Sangharakshita on literalism and craving; effective Going for Refuge and giving up limited ideas; the antidote to beauty 07 ii. Utilitarianism; Sangharakshita's idea of the Greater Mandala of Uselessness; literal takes on aesthetics; breaking the cups 08 Pushing off into truth; kinds of connection with Buddhas and Bodhisattvas; Reality and form and emptiness; visualistaion practice and life – things arising and disolving 09 'Fana' and 'baka' in Rumi's poetry – two streamings across the doorsill; Shams-e-Tabrizi – Rumi's teacher 10 The importance of reflecting on form and emptiness; the eight-point mind training – taking all obstacles with you on the path; the Bodhisattva Ideal from the perspective of emptiness; spiritual practice in a world neither real nor illusory 11 Pema Chodron on how to avoid burn-out; shunyata and unrealistic ideals; a quote by Dennis Potter near to death; the trivial and the important; birdsong 12 Hsuan-Tsang's 'trusting mind'; introducing the dirt we buy to the dirt we already have To help us keep this free, please think about making a donation.

Here is the second part of Paramabandhu's excellent exploration of the lessons Buddhist techniques around meditation and mindfulness training can bring to the field of mental health – especially to problems with depression and addiction. Drawing on many years of experience as a consultant psychiatrist and Dharma teacher, here he takes questions on his previous talk and elaborates on the general theme. There's a wide range of material opened up – and considerable detail about how we can actually go about applying these techniques to whatever challenges we face in your own lives. Essential listening. Please note – the questions in this recording were made at very low levels. We've amplified and clarified where possible – but the general sound quality drops noticeably at these points. However, they are all now audible and, in almost all instances, questions are repeated by Paramabandhu before he answers. Talk given at San Francisco Buddhist Center, 2006 Contents 01 Question-and-answer session – two books to reference on mindfulness; working with depression – discrepancy monitor and rumination 02 Knowing what you can and cannot change – considered action 03 Difficulty doing mindfulness work when actively depressed; noticing subtle shades of pleasant and unpleasant 04 Can mindfulness initiate depression? Stepping out of patterns of thinking; difference between rumination and 'staying with'; body awareness 05 Over-active mind; 12 step program – something to actually do; expectations and suffering; having your experience – the truth as sometimes uncomfortable 06 Letting go of what you don't have; relationship break-up; staying with unpleasant experience and not compounding it – the Buddha in the 'Dart Sutta' 07 Not identifying with one feeling; sexual addiction; recovery from addiction and mindfulness practice 08 Rumination in the body; working with internal sensations; using metaphors to work with your mind 09 Psoriasis and mindfulness 10 What is meditation? A brief introduction and exercise – the 'Three Minute Breathing Space' To help us keep this free, please think about making a donation.

This is a timely and invaluable talk from Paramabandhu. 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. It is a kindly and empowering expression of practical hope, whose message applies to us all as we struggle to overcome whatever it is that holds us back from greater freedom in our lives. Part 2 of this podcast will feature a question-and-answer session based on the material Talk given at the San Francisco Buddhist Center, 2006 Contents: 01 Contemporary interest in mindfulness; brief therapeutic history of meditation since the 1960s; the Buddha as behavioural therapist – the obese king, Kisa Gotami and her baby 02 John Kabat-Zinn and mindfulness-based stress reduction; other therapies based around mindfulness 03 Mindfulness in Buddhist tradition; the Satipatthana Sutta; sati and sampajanya; analogies for mindfulness; the four foundations of mindfulness – an analysis of technique in practice 04 Four aspects of mindfulness in therapeutic context; i clocking what's going on – being on automatic pilot 05 ii Sitting with your experience; Rumi's poem 'The Guest House'; the kindly aspect of awareness; body awareness and mental proliferation 06 iii Perspective; cognitive behavioural therapy and mindfulness-based cognitive therapy – the implicit and the explicit; not taking our thoughts so seriously; iv choice – mindfulness of purpose 07 Taking awareness deeper; freedom; Kotita's 'Song of Realization' To help us keep this free, please think about making a donation.

Settle back and touch base with this very enjoyable and, at times, inspiring talk by Saddharaja on the great blue Buddha of the eastern quarter of the mandala – the Unshakeable One, the Imperturbable Akshobya. This is particularly good because it departs from standard fare on the figure. We get a great reading from Wordsworth, a stimulating discussion of ethics and their relationship to issues of doubt and self-confidence, as well as a meeting with a wooly mammoth… Listen out too for a terrific story about standing inside a mountain which communicates something essential about the depth of presence and mystery Akshobya is all about. Talk given at Padmaloka Retreat Centre, Winter Retreat 2001 To help us keep this free, please think about making a donation.

This wonderful talk by Ratnaguna looks at the Pureland tradition of Shinran, comparing some of his approaches to those of the contemporary teacher John Kabat-Zinn, pioneer of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction. The nature of 'problems' versus 'difficulties' is explored – notions of 'acceptance', 'development', and awareness itself are considered from new angles that can shed light on our experience of failure and suffering. A lovely, sympathetic and good-natured look at the foolishness of human beings which can, when held in the heart, begin to approach wisdom itself. To help us keep this free, please think about making a donation.

To get us moving again now the new site is up and running, here's a cracking and wonderfully detailed talk by Vessantara, author of 'Meeting the Buddhas'. He is the ideal person to introduce us to the complex and fascinating Tantric figure of Vajrapani – 'Lord of Secrets', embodiment of "virya' ('Energy in Pursuit of the Good'). Vessantara's style is familiar and well-earthed, and therefore eminently suited to material that bristles with electricity and is not always so easy to communicate. We get the origin and development of the Tantra itself, as well as of this key figure who meets the impermanent nature of Reality head-on and embodies the tremendous possibilities of change. Look out too for a great introduction about darts…! To help us keep this free, please think about making a donation.

This is pretty fantastic in its way. Danavira is one of the best speakers we know – he is very funny, can do poetic and profound, tends to the chaotic in his style, and has a particular genius for this kind of thing; this kind of thing being talking about death. The whole talk is a kind of respectful joyride through the hardest subject of all – sit back and enjoy a thoroughly adult treat that's likely to blow the heart wide open. To help us keep this free, please think about making a donation.

Kamalashila has spent a lot of his adult life exploring meditation – and this talk is a lovely little foray into the whole subject as a crucial aspect in life and practice, with special consideration given to reflection on the six elements. Oh, and look out for Brian the meditating dog… Table of contents: 01 Brian, the meditating dog, and the natural life; experience of the elements versus artificial living 02 Meditation exposing artificiality through awareness of experience; meditation as a kind of prayer for authenticity and truth; the buddhist path as a way of beccoming more natural 03 The six element practice as a focus on nature; historical suppression of pagan naturalness; naturalness as an issue of practice, not theory 04 The earth element; the easiest element to experience directly; hard, firm and durable 05 The water element; the shape depends on the container; the taboo of bodily fluids; accepting the elements as they are; the elements as co-existing qualities, not things 06 The fire element; relating to and learning from fire 07 The element of wind (air) as 'motion' – vayo dhatu; movement of emotional energy in the body and its oppression; element practice as recollection of spaciousness; the movement of the mind, thoughts and perceptions 08 The element 'space'; the great container of all things 09 The element 'consciousness'; all other elements embraced in consciousness; the element of experiences; seeing into what experience is 10 Questioning in practice – deepening; the reason for practice as the development of liberating awareness; the consequences of unawareness and awareness; letting the dharma in; the importance of study and discussion in deepening practice 11 The essence of meditation as realising the natural state of things and being changed by that realisation; having confidence in one's realisations; learning what to look for; the spaciousness of things 12 Two ways into spaciousness; noting inconsistencies as opportunities for realisation; the incongruity and illusory nature of 'me' and 'mine'; relaxing the tendency to arousal opens up simplicity and naturalness 13 A second approach to emptiness; seeing directly the free and spacious nature of things; motion in the mind; the elusive nature of thoughts; words and thoughts; the emptiness of thoughts; emptiness as the natural element; nirvana as naturalness 14 Returning to earth and befriending the elements; the extremity of artificiality in present culture; Buddhafield as an attempt to find simplicity; true simplicity as whatever allows more room for comparison and wisdom To help us keep this free, please think about making a donation.