Free Buddhist Audio

Vaddhaka can usually be relied on to give a pretty great talk – and this is no exception. Here we have a real treat – a terrific, energetic exploration of the green Buddha of the north: Amoghasiddhi (Dundubishvara), the Unobstructed One. This is kind of a multi-media affair – listen for the 13th Century Spanish processional music in honour of the Virgin, and a blast of Sibelius too! Marvellous. Talk given at Padmaloka Retreat Centre, winter retreat 2001 Please note that some small noise artefacts can be heard occasionally on this talk due to a poor original recording. To help us keep this free, please think about making a donation.

This is a fascinating, challenging and, in the end, realistically affirming look at Buddhist practice in the face of global climate crisis. What can we do? How can we change the ways we think and respond to the seemingly insurmountable problems the planet faces? Akuppa's thoughtful introduction to the worlds of scientific and deep ecology asks us the hard questions and offers some hope for possible answers. Drawing on the work of Joanna Macy, amongst others, he traces positive lessons to be learned from simply observing and engaging with nature's patterns and processes – and invites us all to prepare to be awestruck as a necessary first step. Please note that some small noise artefacts can be heard occasionally on this talk due to a poor original recording. To help us keep this free, please think about making a donation.

This is a gem of a talk from Abhaya. With his customary dry wit and sharp eye he leads us on the crazy paving path through the Diamond Sutra â€" a text guaranteed to turn your world upside-down. Some very funny parts to this talk â€" and some excellent evocations of rigorous Dharma practice as part of the everyday business of life. Watch out too for an intriguing discussion of the sutra as Vajrapani and as a zen master… Great stuff! To help us keep this free, please think about making a donation.

Jnanavaca is back! Last time it was mountaineering (see our very first podcast), this time it's Einstein, Schroedinger, double slits, and all that stuff you wished you understood about quantum physics but despaired of ever knowing so as to impress at parties… Well, now you can learn all about it â€" as well as how it relates to Dharma practice and the Buddha's view of a truly luminous Reality. Very classy stuff from a great speaker with the most infectious laugh on the planet! We won't give any more away here â€" settle back and enjoy a brain-expanding, soul questioning talk. To help us keep this free, please think about making a donation.

The Buddha as lover, as master of enchantments, as a vision of the sky. In this talk, Candradasa presents the story of the Buddha's life as a backdrop to three visions of practice, focussing on a progression through love and corresponding to the traditional path of ethics, meditation and wisdom. Myth, dream and archetypal images galore â€" from Jung and Star Wars to Giacometti and Jean Genet â€" as well as a healthy dose of sex, magic and death. But finally, we have the Buddha simply as a vision of how to know ourselves more fully and live our lives with a marvellous elegance of being… To help us keep this free, please think about making a donation.

Core meditation teaching from Viveka. Here is her fresh and vibrant take on the traditional practice of anapanasati – mindfulness with breathing. Using the breath as a stabilizing presence, this series of reflections is designed to help us discover the nature of reality itself by encouraging us to notice what is actually happening each moment in a direct and open way. Anapanasati is a complete path to awakening or enlightenment. To help us keep this free, please think about making a donation.

Lalitavira's splendid talk on mindfulness – especially mindfulness of the body – is here to ground you! Through vivid imagery, we encounter the root practice of Buddhism as it appears in earliest times. In doing so, we contemplate the assumptions behind our experience, as well as those behind traditional dharma practice and philosophy. This is good, strong medicine for flighty times – an unflinching but kindly look at death, sex and the nature of things! To help us keep this free, please think about making a donation.

A new year's talk by Subhuti to help dust away all those mental cobwebs hanging over from the last one! Just the thing for sharpening your wits, deepening your understanding of the thorny area that is ethics, and generally pulling your socks up on the awareness front… A friendly but thoroughly enagaging first step into a profoundly interesting area of Buddhist philosophy and practice â€" just how does the mind work? To help us keep this free, please think about making a donation.

A jewelled casket of a talk by Vajradarshini, with poetic accompaniment. Rumi meets Tsongkhapa in the Tavern of Ruin, and Dogen, Milarepa and Nagarjuna join them to talk about 'self' and 'world'. Joanna Macy turns up too â€" then many voices, mixed and mingled, explore the experience of being part of an Order and following the Buddha's way. Quite splendid stuff. To help us keep this free, please think about making a donation.

Fabulous stuff from Padmavajra. This richly rewarding talk explores the place and function of sound in Buddhist practice and history, as well as within the speaker's own spiritual life. A wide-ranging cultural journey is made from John Coltrane to Sufi Qawwali, from mantra to Zen poetry, taking in Andre Gide, Renaissanace Neoplatonism and the ancient Pali Verses en route. Not to be missed! To help us keep this free, please think about making a donation.