Explore every episode of the podcast Dharmabytes from free buddhist audio
| Title | Pub. Date | Duration | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Transforming the Depths | 28 Oct 2026 | 00:05:06 | |
Previously unreleased and, rather famously, given off-the-cuff at the London Buddhist Centre, this is an enjoyable and stirring evocation of the great Tantric Guru of Tibet by our founder, Sangharakshita. Excerpted from the talk entitled Padmasambhava, 1979. *** Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone! Donate now Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: Bite-sized clips - Buddhist inspiration three times a week. | |||
| The Mystery of Sunyata | 27 Oct 2026 | 00:04:04 | |
How do we transform our energies to realise insubstantiality - the blue-sky nature of everything? We need compost - all our 'stuff' - and the faith that everything can transform, given time. This excerpt is from the talk entitled Padmasambhava and Insubstantiality by Satyakavi given at Taraloka Retreat Centre as part of the series Mystery of Mantra, 2026. *** Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone! Donate now Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: Bite-sized clips - Buddhist inspiration three times a week. | |||
| Seeing Ourselves in the Buddha's Story | 22 Oct 2026 | 00:04:50 | |
Suryagupta draws on her decades of Buddhist practice alongside experiences of activism, parenting, and work in the arts, to reflect on what it means to be fully human: to struggle, to long for growth, and to seek connection, meaning, and love. Excerpted from the talk Being Human given for Buddhistisches Tor Berlin, 2026. Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone! Donate now Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: Bite-sized clips - Buddhist inspiration three times a week. | |||
| Writing As Spiritual Practice | 21 Oct 2026 | 00:03:43 | |
Drawing on her experience as a poet, Varasahaya discusses creativity, imagination, and the writing process as a spiritual practice. She reads some of her poems, and explains the process by which they came to birth, and what she learnt about letting go of self as she grappled with writing. Excerpted from the talk entitled Writing As Spiritual Practice given at West London Buddhist Centre, 2017. Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone! Donate now Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: Bite-sized clips - Buddhist inspiration three times a week. | |||
| Summoning the Muse | 14 Oct 2026 | 00:02:59 | |
The imagination is a superpower. Buddhism offers unique tools to harness this superpower for the benefit of all beings. Sagaravajra encourages us to let the muse communicate through us. Excerpted from the talk entitled Maps of the Imagination, given at the Buddhafield Festival as part of the series The Dharma Parlour: Buddhafield 2023 - Liberation Through Imagination. *** Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone! Donate now Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: Bite-sized clips - Buddhist inspiration three times a week. | |||
| Art and Transformative Communication | 13 Oct 2026 | 00:04:01 | |
"Art is the organisation of sensuous impressions that express the artist's sensibility and communicate to his audience a sense of values that can transform their lives." Using his own definition, Sangharakshita investigates the relevance of art and the artist to higher evolution. Excerpted from the talk entitled Art and the Spiritual Life given as part of the series The Higher Evolution, 1969. Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone! Donate now Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: Bite-sized clips - Buddhist inspiration three times a week. | |||
| Falling in Love with Our Higher Self | 12 Oct 2026 | 00:03:12 | |
Following the theme of channeling our strong emotions into energy that can be used in our spiritual practice, Paranita will be exploring how we can direct the feeling of falling in love with another person towards cultivating deeper spiritual ideals and falling in love with those. Excerpted from the talk The Rite of Fascination - Falling In Love given at Sheffield Buddhist Centre, 2023. Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone! Donate now Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: Bite-sized clips - Buddhist inspiration three times a week. | |||
| Respond to What Fascinates Us | 06 Oct 2026 | 00:05:28 | |
Parami gives the introductory talk for the 2015 Triratna International Urban Retreat live in Adelaide, Australia. Her theme - and the theme of the whole retreat - is Living in the Greater Mandala, and she brings this alive in the most human, poetic, and inspired of ways. Her range is broad as she evokes the mandala itself, and the profound, playful path of the Bodhisattva. Excerpted from the talk entitled Living In The Greater Mandala recorded in Adelaide, Australia, for the Urban Retreat, 2015. Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone! Donate now Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: Bite-sized clips - Buddhist inspiration three times a week. | |||
| An Illusion of the World | 05 Oct 2026 | 00:06:33 | |
Does my life matter? Can I really say that actions have consequences? In this short talk Kavyamani explores the Yogacara teaching of the Alaya Vijnana, commonly referred to as the storehouse consciousness, reflecting that all our actions are like seeds and at some point they will bear fruit. Excerpted from the talk Everything Matters and Nothing Is Lost, part of the series Seeds of the Heart: Talks from the Dharma Parlour, at Buddhafield, 2022. *** Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone! Donate now Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: Bite-sized clips - Buddhist inspiration three times a week. | |||
| The Delight of the Poet, The Joy of the Reader | 05 Oct 2026 | 00:04:25 | |
With precise reference to three poems by Sangharakshita, Samantabhadri explores the haiku at its best. Speaking on a Silent Retreat at Taraloka, she focuses on the evocation of the moment, on compassion and other implicit emotion, on the unworldliness of the poet and on the haiku as a communication of an insight experience. Excerpted from the talk entitled The Wonder of the Haiku given at Taraloka Retreat Centre, 2022. Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone! Donate now Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: Bite-sized clips - Buddhist inspiration three times a week. Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube
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| The Doors to the Immortal are Open | 21 Sep 2026 | 00:05:29 | |
Sangharakshita tells the story of the Buddha's encounter with Brahma Sahampati. This lecture celebrates the anniversary of the Buddha's decision to teach, with an account of the events just after his Enlightenment. Excerpted from the talk entitled The New Man Speaks, 1971. *** Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone! Donate now Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: Bite-sized clips - Buddhist inspiration three times a week. | |||
| Dwelling On the Ideal | 15 Sep 2026 | 00:01:58 | |
More of a lively ramble than a talk, Devamitra explores of the relationship between imagination and devotion based loosely around the Ti Ratana Vandana. Excerpted from the talk entitled The Heart of Triratna given at Birmingham Buddhist Centre, 2013. *** Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone! Donate now Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: Bite-sized clips - Buddhist inspiration three times a week. | |||
| Directing Change Towards Positive Growth | 14 Sep 2026 | 00:02:41 | |
Vidyamala introduces the key aspects of this part of the Sutta and then speaks of the importance of allowing for growth and integration in our practice. She speaks of the twin pillars of awareness and love and how mindfulness can lead to a deeper and deeper sense of connection with all of life and how kindness is a natural expression of that. She also speaks of her own practice after the recent death of her father. Excerpted from the talk Citta - Fragments On Love, part of the series An Exploration of the Satipatthana Sutta given on Gravity and Grace retreat at Rivendell, 2017. *** Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone! Donate now Subscribe to the FBA podcast: A full, curated, quality Dharma talk, every week. | |||
| Horizontal and Vertical Integration | 10 Sep 2026 | 00:05:01 | |
In this talk Dayanandi covers the first of the five great stages of spiritual experience that develop and unfold as we progress on the Path to Enlightenment — integration and wholeness. Excerpted from the talk entitled Mindfulness and the Mandala of Integration, part of the series The Five Great Stages of the Spiritual Path given at Manchester Buddhist Centre, 2011. *** Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone! Donate now Subscribe to the FBA podcast: A full, curated, quality Dharma talk, every week. | |||
| Work on Whatever Estranges You | 07 Sep 2026 | 00:05:04 | |
In Sthiranaga's exploration of this section of Canto 103, he provides some practical techniques to help keep us from becoming estranged from our meditation practice as well as tips to creatively explore the positive formulation of the precepts, which can form part of the 'enactment' of Padmasabhava's advice to Queen Ngang Chung, which leads to her liberation. Excerpted from the talk Working with the Mind given at Padmaloka Retreat Centre as part of the series Illuminations from The Guru's Heart, 2025. *** Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone! Donate now Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: Bite-sized clips - Buddhist inspiration three times a week. | |||
| An Uninterrupted Flow of Skilful Mental States | 03 Sep 2026 | 00:04:40 | |
A delightful talk to mark the re-launch of 'Mitrata, a journal (now discontinued) which helped develop the systematic study of Buddhism and was especially intended for 'mitras' ('Friends'). Here, Sangharakshita tells the story of Meghiya drawing out the theme of spiritual friendship and receptivity to one's teacher. Excerpted from The Launching of the New Mitrata, 1983. Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone! Donate now Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: Bite-sized clips - Buddhist inspiration three times a week. | |||
| Metta is Consciousness | 02 Sep 2026 | 00:02:27 | |
A beautiful introduction by Ratnavandana to the Brahma Viharas as an integrated set of practices flowing from metta- loving-kindness. Her central image is that of a tree, deep-rooted and spreading its canopy wide as she evokes a profound, personal connection to the cultivation of the sublime abodes- loving-kindness, compassion, joy with others, and equanimity. Ratnavandana also leads a guided meditation on cultivating a connection to the Brahma Viharas. Excerpted from the talk Introduction to the Brahma Viharas (With Guided Meditation) given as part of the series Brahma Viharas - Bristol Retreat, Bristol Buddhist Centre, 2015. *** Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone! Donate now Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: Bite-sized clips - Buddhist inspiration three times a week. | |||
| The Light of the Mind | 01 Sep 2026 | 00:03:49 | |
Ratnaprabha takes us through the realisations that came to the Buddha during his all night meditation under the Bodhi tree, culminating in the vision of the morning star, the Star of Healing. Its light was the first sight of the Awakened One, a light symbolising the illumination of awareness itself. Excerpted from the talk entitled The Star of Healing given at West London Buddhist Centre, 2014. *** Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone! Donate now Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: Bite-sized clips - Buddhist inspiration three times a week. | |||
| Spiritual Treasures | 26 Aug 2026 | 00:03:43 | |
A father, now wealthy, spots his long-lost son in the streets. He gradually befriends him until he has the self-confidence to take on his inheritance. This parable from the Lotus Sutra yields fascinating lessons in accepting the riches of our deepest nature. Excerpted from the talk entitled The Myth of the Return Journey by Akashadevi given at West London Buddhist Centre, 2018. Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone! Donate now Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: Bite-sized clips - Buddhist inspiration three times a week. Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube
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| A Quest for Truth | 18 Aug 2026 | 00:04:02 | |
Poetry is something that takes you deeper into the heart of things. Dharmavadana explores the impact of poetry on our spiritual life. Excerpted from the talk entitled Poetry and Spiritual Life given at West London Buddhist Centre, 2010. Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone! Donate now Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: Bite-sized clips - Buddhist inspiration three times a week. | |||
| Utopia in Your Heart | 18 Aug 2026 | 00:04:06 | |
Activism, slavery, the Bodhisattva vow and utopia. Welcoming rage, passion and kindness into our Sangha is the path to liberation. Successful responses to capitalism and other forms of suffering and injustice. from the Sigalaka sutta to real questions about how we treat our fellow human beings. Here, Saraha shares two poems that inspire him to engage fully with life. Excerpted from Your Liberation Is Bound Up with Mine given at Birmingham Buddhist Centre, 2020. Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone! Donate now Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: Bite-sized clips - Buddhist inspiration three times a week. | |||
| A Fresh Approach to Compassion | 14 Aug 2026 | 00:04:34 | |
Padmasagara challenges familiar ideas of compassion. When we step beyond the ego, compassion may arise in many forms, not always what we expect. Excerpted from the talk entitled A Buddhist's Response to Global Crises - Part 1 given at Buddhistisches Tor Berlin, 2026. Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone! Donate now Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: Bite-sized clips - Buddhist inspiration three times a week. | |||
| The Truth and The Path | 14 Aug 2026 | 00:04:05 | |
Join Lalitaratna as he explores the essence of puja, a devotional practice honoring the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. Discover how this practice can reshape our mental state and perspective on the world. The talk delves into Dharma Vinaya, unpacking the truths of impermanence, no-self, and suffering, along with the transformative path of ethical living, meditation, and wisdom. Excerpted from the talk entitled The Truth Is All Its Aspects, the Path In All Its Stages given at Buddhistisches Tor Berlin, 2023. Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone! Donate now Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: Bite-sized clips - Buddhist inspiration three times a week. | |||
| Befriend Your Mind | 03 Aug 2026 | 00:04:00 | |
Prasadavati invites us to explore how meditation can serve our lives on and off the cushion, and especially during challenging times. Excerpted from the talk entitled Befriend Your Mind given at Buddhistisches Tor Berlin, 2025. Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone! Donate now Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: Bite-sized clips - Buddhist inspiration three times a week. | |||
| Seeing Metta as a Choice | 03 Aug 2026 | 00:05:05 | |
Equanimity is the deepest level of metta: metta imbued with seeing reality. Maitrisiddhi brings in Kisa Gotami, Hiroshima and her own mother's death. Can we hold the paradox of loving, yet letting go? Can we drop the drama, and see the mettaful action that we could actually take? Excerpted from the talk entitled Equanimity: This Is The Way Things Are as part of the series Brahma Viharas: Living in the Mandala, Taraloka Retreat Centre, 2025. Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone! Donate now Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: Bite-sized clips - Buddhist inspiration three times a week. | |||
| As Ordinary As Your Own Breath | 27 Jul 2026 | 00:03:30 | |
Image of the sea and the raft: we hold onto our raft, but this brings suffering - can we let go, enter the sea and become spiritually reborn? This is the question Arthabandhu asks us. Spiritual death does not only mean esoteric meditation practices; it means confronting the vagaries and difficulties of life with honesty and courage and seeing what we can learn from them. By opening up to new experiences, life becomes more vivid and enjoyable - if we can just face the fear. Excerpted from the talk entitled The Sea As Spiritual Death given at Young Men Retreat, Padmaloka Retreat Centre, 2012. *** Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone! Donate now Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: Bite-sized clips - Buddhist inspiration three times a week. Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube
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| Light as an Orientating Feature | 27 Jul 2026 | 00:04:32 | |
Orientation towards Enlightenment is a keynote talk by Kusaladevi marking both the Buddha's enlightenment over 2,500 years ago and the 30th anniversary of the Nottingham Buddhist Centre. Exploring themes of lineage, connection, and the symbolism of the Vajrasana as a point of orientation in a suffering world. Kusaladevi reflects on how Dharma practice and the life of a Buddhist Centre offer a bridge from disorientation towards the transcendental through the light of the Dharma. Excerpted from the talk entitled Orienting Towards Enlightenment given at the Nottingham Buddhist Centre, 2026. Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone! Donate now Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: Bite-sized clips - Buddhist inspiration three times a week. | |||
| A Hot Debate | 22 Jul 2026 | 00:07:09 | |
Vaddhaka delves into the Buddha's unanswered questions; questions that Vacchagotta, Malunkyaputta and others asked him. Among them: 'What happens to a Buddha after death?' And what happens at our own death; what did the Buddha really say; and why did the renowned Buddhist scholar Paul Williams convert from Buddhism to Roman Catholicism? Excerpted from the talk entitled Death and the Self, and the Buddha's Unanswered Questions given at Stockholm Buddhist Centre, 2010. *** Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone! Donate now Subscribe to the FBA podcast: A full, curated, quality Dharma talk, every week. | |||
| Between the Heaves of Storm | 22 Jul 2026 | 00:03:46 | |
Maitreyabandhu draws out the deeper meaning and finer detail of five different poems, each around the theme of death with the final poem focusing on spiritual rebirth. By discussing the background of the poems and poets, the intricacies of their structure, and bringing in a Buddhist interpretation of the themes raised in the poems, Maitreyabandhu shows us the importance and profundity of poetry and how it can help us to explore Dharmic themes more deeply. Here he discusses the poem "I heard a Fly buzz – when I died - by Emily Dickinson. Excerpted from the talk entitled A New Knowledge of Reality-Buddhism and Poetry given at Padmaloka Retreat Centre, 2018. *** Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone! Donate now Subscribe to the FBA podcast: A full, curated, quality Dharma talk, every week. | |||
| The Drum of the Deathless | 15 Jul 2026 | 00:02:31 | |
In this talk Alokadhara explores these beautiful verses which evoke the Buddha, his qualities and the profundity of his teaching. Excerpted from the talk entitled Celebrating the Buddha Pingiya's Praises to the Way to the Beyond given at Padmaloka Retreat Centre, 2014. Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone! Donate now Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: Bite-sized clips - Buddhist inspiration three times a week. | |||
| Angulimala | 15 Jul 2026 | 00:04:51 | |
Dhivan relates tales of some of the colourful characters who visit the Buddha to receive teachings.Here, we here about a killer-bandit named Angulimala. Excerpted from the talk A Courtesan, a Killer and a King given at Bristol Buddhist Centre, 2016. Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone! Donate now Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: Bite-sized clips - Buddhist inspiration three times a week. | |||
| A Sense of Urgency | 15 Jul 2026 | 00:01:53 | |
What was the Buddha really like? Jayabodhi explores this important question with particular emphasis on how this is related to our own lives and how we may follow in the footsteps of the Buddha ourselves. Excerpted from the talk entitled What the Buddha Was Really Like given at Birmingham Buddhist Centre, 2017. Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone! Donate now Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: Bite-sized clips - Buddhist inspiration three times a week. | |||
| True Individuals and Spiritual Communities | 30 Jun 2026 | 00:04:19 | |
Sangharakshita outlines his view of the historical background to current world problems (essentially, problems within and between groups), which can only be solved by people either withdrawing support from groups or influencing them positively through an experience of Spiritual Communities. Excerpted from the talk entitled Evolution or Extinction: Current World Problems given as part of the series Where do we go from here?, 1971. *** Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone! Donate now Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: Bite-sized clips - Buddhist inspiration three times a week. | |||
| Dedicated to Peace | 23 Jun 2026 | 00:04:53 | |
Partisan politics, hurricanes and earthquakes, mass shootings, nuclear threats … our world at times feels like a living nightmare. Sunada reflects: How do we as Buddhists respond, individually and as a sangha? And how do we keep our sanity? Excerpted from the talk entitled Practice During Times of Chaos and Uncertainty given on a Sangha Day celebration at Aryaloka Buddhist Center, 2017. Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone! Donate now Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: Bite-sized clips - Buddhist inspiration three times a week. | |||
| Shared Going for Refuge | 18 Jun 2026 | 00:02:18 | |
Here, Prajnamati describes how a range of dharma practices can be seen as a finding of the point of freedom where a more creative option becomes apparent as an alternative to the more familiar reactive choices. In ethical practice this is developing a sensitivity to the wholesome quality of skilful intentions, in meditation finding a way of relaxing in to the practice and in sangha engaging in a free association of individuals, as an individual, from one's point of freedom. Excerpted from the talk entitled The Point of Freedom, given at Bristol Buddhist Centre, 2017. Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone! Donate now Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: Bite-sized clips - Buddhist inspiration three times a week. | |||
| A Case for Reverence | 18 Jun 2026 | 00:04:12 | |
The Bodhisattva called 'Never Direct' saw the Buddha in everyone, yet his practice of bowing received a mixed response. Drawing on themes from the White Lotus Sutra, Aryadasa delves into how different framings of the spiritual life can profoundly change our understanding of Buddhism and its practice. Excerpted from the talk entitled A Bodhisattva On His Knees given at Sheffield Buddhist Centre, 2025. *** Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone! Donate now Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: Bite-sized clips - Buddhist inspiration three times a week. | |||
| The Compassion Aspect of Wisdom | 16 Jun 2026 | 00:03:56 | |
Khemasuri introduces the Bodhisattva Ideal, central to Mahayana Buddhism, by describing the training of the novice Bodhisattva and the arising of the will to Enlightenment. Excerpted from the talk entitled Becoming a Bodhisattva given at Sheffield Buddhist Centre, 2012. Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone! Donate now Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: Bite-sized clips - Buddhist inspiration three times a week. | |||
| By the Sound of this Majestic Drum | 08 Jun 2026 | 00:03:31 | |
Vijayasri explores confession's illuminating and transformational properties through the Mahayana sutra, The Sutra of Golden Light. Excerpted from the talk entitled the Sutra of Golden Light: What Is the Role of Confession In Buddhism? Given at Birmingham Buddhist Centre, 2023. Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone! Donate now Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: Bite-sized clips - Buddhist inspiration three times a week. | |||
| We Don't Really Know Anything About Anything | 08 Jun 2026 | 00:04:57 | |
Nagavajri gracefully introduces some points one may find helpful before studying any Mahayana sutra, giving some context to this rich vein of the Dharma. Excerpted from the talk What Do I Need to Know Before Reading a Mahayana Sutra? Given as an introduction to the Vimalakīrti Nirdeśa (The Inconceivable Emancipation) at a sub30 Adhisthana retreat, 2025. Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone! Donate now Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: Bite-sized clips - Buddhist inspiration three times a week. | |||
| Unlimited Spaciousness of the Buddha | 08 Jun 2026 | 00:02:59 | |
Akasaraja explores the nature of presence and absence in encounters between people and concludes that we can only be truly present when we are "absent", i.e. when we get out of the way. And the Buddha embodies this "presence" through "absence" in a way we cannot truly comprehend. By being "absent", he is completely and utterly present. The Buddha is the embodiment of reality itself and, as such, is always present. Excerpted from the talk entitled Why Did the Buddha Leave Us? Or Did He? Or Was He Ever Really There? given at Shrewsbury Triratna Buddhist Centre, 2025. Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone! Donate now Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: Bite-sized clips - Buddhist inspiration three times a week. | |||
| Overcoming spiritual individualism | 03 Jun 2026 | 00:05:32 | |
The full moon in May is celebrated as the anniversary of the Buddha's Enlightenment and his victory over the demon Mara. Sangharakshita explains what Mara represents and how he can be overcome. As well as containing much that will fascinate experienced Buddhists, this is also an excellent introductory lecture. Excerpted from the talk entitled The Buddha's Victory given in 1987. https://www.freebuddhistaudio.com/audio/details?num=169 *** Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone! Donate now Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: Bite-sized clips - Buddhist inspiration three times a week. | |||
| A Multitude of Perspectives | 03 Jun 2026 | 00:32:58 | |
Nagasiddhi invites us to experience the dharma imaginatively: through art and heart. He outlines the turning points or 'rites of passage' in the Buddha's mythic life story as he introduces the In the Footsteps of the Buddha home retreat offered by the Triratna Buddhist Community. In this excerpt from the talk entitled Rites of Passage, he speaks about the numerous perspectives the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas take. Visit 'In the Footsteps of the Buddha' for more resources from this retreat: https://thebuddhistcentre.com/footsteps Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone! Donate now Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: Bite-sized clips - Buddhist inspiration three times a week. | |||
| At the Brink of Enlightenment | 15 May 2026 | 00:04:00 | |
In this moving talk based on Sangharakshita's 1969 talk 'Breaking through to Buddhahood', Suddhaka shares some of his experience as an Order Member to illustrate how we might move beyond our unhelpful psychological conditioning. Excerpted from the talk Breaking Through Psychological Conditioning talk given at Brixton Buddhist Centre, 2017. *** Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone! Donate now: https://freebuddhistaudio.com/donate Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: Bite-sized clips - Buddhist inspiration three times a week. Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/dharmabytes-from-free-buddhist-audio/id416832097 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4UHPDj01UH6ptj8FObwBfB | |||
| A Journey of Discovery | 15 May 2026 | 00:05:16 | |
Dhivan considers what we can learn from the story of the noble quest of the Buddha. This story is recounted in the Discourse on the Noble Quest (Ariyapariyesana-sutta) in the Middle-length Discourses (Majjhima-nikaya). In it we can almost believe we are hearing a memory of the Buddha's own words, as he recounts his going forth, his study under great meditation teachers, his eventually leaving them, his austerities, and finally his awakening. Dhivan draws out some of the continuing significance of the story of the noble quest, as a kind of blueprint for the model of the Dharma life as heroic self-development. Excerpted from the talk The Buddha's Noble Quest given at Bristol Buddhist Centre, 2016. Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone! Donate now: https://freebuddhistaudio.com/donate Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: Bite-sized clips - Buddhist inspiration three times a week. Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/dharmabytes-from-free-buddhist-audio/id416832097 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4UHPDj01UH6ptj8FObwBfB
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| Confronting Mara | 05 May 2026 | 00:04:45 | |
How can we work with our own inner voices that undermine our practice and limit our lives? Shubhavyuha draws this out, using the stories of early Buddhist women encountering 'Mara' - the embodiment of all that holds us back. Excerpted from the talk entitled 'I See You, Mara' from the Daughters of the Buddha: Lineage of Freedom retreat at Taraloka Retreat Centre, 2026. Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone! Donate now: https://freebuddhistaudio.com/donate Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: Bite-sized clips - Buddhist inspiration three times a week. Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/dharmabytes-from-free-buddhist-audio/id416832097 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4UHPDj01UH6ptj8FObwBfB | |||
| A Conscious Effort to be Kind | 05 May 2026 | 00:03:30 | |
Bodhidasa shares ways we can touch the transcendent in simple, everyday moments of devotion. Looking at the works and life of Milarepa for inspiration and guidance, the session will help us go beyond what we might understand the Dharma Path to be. Excerpted from the talk entitled Mending the Broken Crown given at Auckland Buddhist Centre, 2019. Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone! Donate now: https://freebuddhistaudio.com/donate Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: Bite-sized clips - Buddhist inspiration three times a week. Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/dharmabytes-from-free-buddhist-audio/id416832097 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4UHPDj01UH6ptj8FObwBfB | |||
| Transforming Demons | 01 May 2026 | 00:04:03 | |
Balajit explores how working with emotion can be a radical process for transformation. Excerpted from the talk entitled Perfect Emotion given at Birmingham Buddhist Centre, 2021. *** Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone! Donate now: https://freebuddhistaudio.com/donate Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: Bite-sized clips - Buddhist inspiration three times a week. Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/dharmabytes-from-free-buddhist-audio/id416832097 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4UHPDj01UH6ptj8FObwBfB | |||
| Maintaining Our Vision | 27 Apr 2026 | 00:07:30 | |
A fascinating lecture, previously unreleased. It was given on WBO Day on the 20th anniversary of the Order's foundation and sees Sangharakshita reflecting in an intimate, impromptu mood on impermanence and his own thoughts and hopes for the future. Excerpted from the talk entitled The Next Twenty Years, 1988. *** Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone! Donate now: https://freebuddhistaudio.com/donate Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: Bite-sized clips - Buddhist inspiration three times a week. Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/dharmabytes-from-free-buddhist-audio/id416832097 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4UHPDj01UH6ptj8FObwBfB | |||
| Together, A Force for Good in the World | 27 Apr 2026 | 00:04:06 | |
Here, Sanghagita introduces Avalokitesvara, he who hears the cries of the world. This Bodhisattva is the embodiment of the myth of the Triratna Buddhist Order. Through the image of Avalokitesvara's thousand compassionate hands, we'll explore how our community can become a single Bodhisattva—responsive, open-hearted, and alive to suffering in the world. Excerpted from the talk entitled Sangha As Goal given at Sheffield Buddhist Centre, 2025. Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone! Donate now: https://freebuddhistaudio.com/donate Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: Bite-sized clips - Buddhist inspiration three times a week. Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/dharmabytes-from-free-buddhist-audio/id416832097 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4UHPDj01UH6ptj8FObwBfB | |||
| Views that Liberate the Mind | 16 Apr 2026 | 00:05:18 | |
Here, Vishvapani focuses on the Buddha's experience before, during and after Enlightenment, bringing his nuanced, perceptive reading to the words the Buddha himself is said to have employed in order to best evoke his experiences as he struggled to give voice to them. Excerpted from the talk entitled The Buddha's Vision given as part of the book launch for 'Gautama Buddha: The Life and Teachings of the Awakened One' (Quercus, 2011), Bristol Buddhist Centre, 2011, a fitting conclusion to a wonderfully insightful series called Gautama Buddha. Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone! Donate now: https://freebuddhistaudio.com/donate Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: Bite-sized clips - Buddhist inspiration three times a week. Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/dharmabytes-from-free-buddhist-audio/id416832097 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4UHPDj01UH6ptj8FObwBfB | |||