Ratnaprabha describes the qualities of mindfulness in a talk about the fifth precept, intoxication and mindfulness.  Excerpted from the talk entitled The Fifth Precept given at the West London Buddhist Centre, 2013. *** Subscribe to our Free Buddhist Audio podcast - a full Dharma talk every week! Follow our blog for news and new Dharma FBA on Twitter FBA on Facebook FBA on Soundcloud

Dharmabytes from free buddhist audio

Why Mindfulness?

Introducing the speech precepts, Bodhilila explains the Buddha's advice on how to communicate effectively. How do you decide when and how to speak, using criteria of helpfulness, truthfulness, and whether or not it is pleasant to hear? From the talk entitled The Buddha’s Speech given at West London Buddhist Centre, 2017. *** Subscribe to our Free Buddhist Audio podcast - a full Dharma talk every week! Follow our blog for news and new Dharma FBA on Twitter FBA on Facebook FBA on Soundcloud  

Reflecting on your Speech

Marking the 50th anniversary of his own 'Going Forth' in India, Sangharakshita offers us his thoughts on the significance this adventure had for him and reflects on its relation to the Buddha's search for Truth - with particular regard to actions of body, speech, and mind. From the talk Reflections on Going Forth, 1997. *** Subscribe to our Free Buddhist Audio podcast - a full Dharma talk every week! Follow our blog for news and new Dharma FBA on Twitter FBA on Facebook FBA on Soundcloud

Going Forth in Speech

Here Candradasa explores the third precept and the Buddha's moral code generally and we get some sense of where we might look to find ways to work effectively with our strongest desires in ways that lessen attachment and help us see reality more clearly. From the talk entitled Sex and Morality, Going Beyond Puritanism given in Portsmouth, NH, October 2012. This talk is part of the series Religion Without God. *** Subscribe to our Free Buddhist Audio podcast - a full Dharma talk every week! Follow our blog for news and new Dharma FBA on Twitter FBA on Facebook FBA on Soundcloud

Stillness, Simplicity and Contentment

Drawing on sources from Russell Brand to Tenzin Palmo, Suryadarshini navigates the third precept. Covering sex, relationships, confessional writing, and social media, she offers suggestions for how to start a shift from attention and attachment into stillness, simplicity and contentment. From the talk entitled Sex and Social Media: From Attention and Attachment to Contentment given at Norwich Buddhist Centre, 2019. *** Subscribe to our Free Buddhist Audio podcast - a full Dharma talk every week! Follow our blog for news and new Dharma FBA on Twitter FBA on Facebook FBA on Soundcloud

Coming to Stillness

What’s in it for me? Our natural human tendency is to take, to grasp, to cling. If you can give though, there is hope, spiritually speaking. Generosity is an attitude of heart and of mind, an attitude of one’s whole being. Sangharakshita describes the altruistic aspect of the Bodhisattva and the reconciliation of the apparent antithesis between the interests of others and of self by practising the first two of the six Perfections: dana (giving) and shila (ethics or 'uprightness'). From the talk entitled Altruism and Individualism in the Spiritual Life given as part of the series Aspects of the Bodhisattva Ideal, 1969. *** Subscribe to our Free Buddhist Audio podcast - a full Dharma talk every week! Follow our blog for news and new Dharma FBA on Twitter FBA on Facebook FBA on Soundcloud  

The Altruistic Aspect of the Bodhisattva

Danapriya explores how our inner world reflects to the outer world. How do we want to live in the world? How do our views impact our practice of generosity? Where do we direct the energies of craving and desire? Excerpted from the talk entitled Giving Is Enjoyable given at Croydon Buddhist Centre, 2015. *** Subscribe to our Free Buddhist Audio podcast - a full Dharma talk every week! Follow our blog for news and new Dharma FBA on Twitter FBA on Facebook FBA on Soundcloud

Letting Our Inner Riches Shine

 Dayapakshini explores the relevance of the First Precept to our lives with extracts from the Abhisanda sutta, especially that of freedom from oppression to limitless numbers of beings. Excerpted from the talk entitled The First Precept given at the Croydon Buddhist Centre, 2015. *** Subscribe to our Free Buddhist Audio podcast - a full Dharma talk every week! Follow our blog for news and new Dharma FBA on Twitter FBA on Facebook FBA on Soundcloud  

Freedom from Oppression

How can we decide between right and wrong? The Eastern criterion of ethics is psychological rather than theological: ethical behaviour is said to express higher orders of awareness. Here, Sangharakshita details the first precept, that of abstention from all forms of violence and harm towards other beings. Cultivating the positive aspect of this precept is the embodiment of maitri, love, as expressed through our deeds of loving-kindness. From the talk entitled The Principles of Ethics: Right Action given as part of the series The Buddha’s Noble Eightfold Path, 1968. *** Subscribe to our Free Buddhist Audio podcast - a full Dharma talk every week! Follow our blog for news and new Dharma FBA on Twitter FBA on Facebook FBA on Soundcloud

Abstention from Violence – Love

Siladevi reflects on an aspect of Buddhism that is often played down, but is nonetheless an organic part of Buddhism - that of working together with others to effect change in the world. Excerpted from the talk The Ideal Society and the Ideal Individual entitled given at Manchester Buddhist Centre during a day in commemoration of the death of Bhante Sangharakshita, 30 October 2019.   *** Subscribe to our Free Buddhist Audio podcast - a full Dharma talk every week! Follow our blog for news and new Dharma FBA on Twitter FBA on Facebook FBA on Soundcloud

Awakening Through Collective Practices

Is awakening near or far, is the path sudden or gradual? Dharmashalin presents Sangharakshita’s metaphor on Buddhahood being like an evolutionary process, this time with more emphasis on metta as both an essential basis and method for inviting a sudden shift towards awakening on the basis of a gradual approach. From the talk Metta As Method and Support For Breaking Through to Buddhahood given at Birmingham Buddhist Centre, 2016. *** Subscribe to our Free Buddhist Audio podcast - a full Dharma talk every week! Follow our blog for news and new Dharma FBA on Twitter FBA on Facebook FBA on Soundcloud

The Experience of Awakening

Kulaprabha recounts an episode from the Vimalakirti Nirdesa to draw out how one generates the great love in response to the suffering of beings. This is the third of four talks exploring Vasubandhu's Four Factors entitled Contemplating the Suffering of Beings given at Taraloka Retreat Centre, 2010. In his treatise Generating Bodhi Resolve, Vasubandhu describes them as able to generate the resolve to cultivate and accumulate the bases for the Arising of the Bodhicitta. You can find out more about them in Sangharakshita's books The Meaning of Conversion in Buddhism and The Bodhisattva Ideal.   *** Subscribe to our Free Buddhist Audio podcast - a full Dharma talk every week! Follow our blog for news and new Dharma FBA on Twitter FBA on Facebook FBA on Soundcloud 

How Does a Bodhisattva Regard Living Beings?

 Jnanavaca discusses metta as the foundation of samadhi, taking us back to basics and reminding us to dwell with patience and acceptance in the body. Excerpted from the talk entitled Metta as the Foundation of Samadhi given as part of the online retreat Towards Insight: Three Myths led by  Jnanavaca and Maitreyabandhu at Adhisthana, 2020.   *** Subscribe to our Free Buddhist Audio podcast - a full Dharma talk every week! Follow our blog for news and new Dharma FBA on Twitter FBA on Facebook FBA on Soundcloud

Moving Towards Timelessness

Jvalamalini introduces us to Vasakha, a generous laywoman disciple of the Buddha. Her story from the early sangha is about the Buddhist attitude to wealth and about the effects of generosity on the donor. From the talk entitled As Garlands From a Heap of Flowers given at Bristol Buddhist Centre, 2017. *** Subscribe to our Free Buddhist Audio podcast - a full Dharma talk every week! Follow our blog for news and new Dharma FBA on Twitter FBA on Facebook FBA on Soundcloud

Early Sangha Buddhist Attitudes to Wealth

There is an unfolding process within us – in each moment we have a choice to move towards the painful and unskilful, or we can move towards liberation. Faith is the intuition that there is a way of responding to experience that moves us away from suffering and towards liberation. What most deeply matters to us? What conditions allow for the process of flourishing to happen? Dhammarati calls on the story of Milarepa to draw out the relationship between faith and virya in Dharma practice. From the talk entitled Virya - Bending Towards the Wholesome given at Glasgow Buddhist Centre, 2020, as part of their online series on the paramita of Virya. *** Subscribe to our Free Buddhist Audio podcast - a full Dharma talk every week! Follow our blog for news and new Dharma FBA on Twitter FBA on Facebook FBA on Soundcloud 

Faith is the Foundation: Virya is the Wall

Dharmabytes features bite-sized dharma, three times a week, from the Free Buddhist Audio archives. Themed in conjunction with our weekly full length talk podcast, these are inspiring short extracts from over 5,000 talks on Buddhism, meditation and mindfulness! Tune in, be inspired!