Dharmabytes from Free Buddhist Audio

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!

At the Brink of Enlightenment 05/15/2026

At the Brink of Enlightenment In this moving talk based on Sangharakshita's 1969 talk 'Breaking through to Buddhahood', shares some of his experience as an Order Member to illustrate how we might move beyond our unhelpful psychological conditioning. Excerpted from the talk talk given at , 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. Apple Podcasts: Spotify: /episode/index/show/dharmabytes/id/41311115

A Journey of Discovery 05/15/2026

A Journey of Discovery 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 given at , 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. Apple Podcasts: Spotify: /episode/index/show/dharmabytes/id/41310980

Confronting Mara 05/05/2026

Confronting Mara How can we work with our own inner voices that undermine our practice and limit our lives? 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 from the retreat at , 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. Apple Podcasts: Spotify: /episode/index/show/dharmabytes/id/41155195

A Conscious Effort to be Kind 05/05/2026

A Conscious Effort to be Kind 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 given at , 2019. *** 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: /episode/index/show/dharmabytes/id/41154780

Transforming Demons 05/01/2026

Transforming Demons explores how working with emotion can be a radical process for transformation. Excerpted from the talk entitled Perfect Emotion given at , 2021. *** 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: /episode/index/show/dharmabytes/id/41115790

Maintaining Our Vision 04/27/2026

Maintaining Our Vision A fascinating lecture, previously unreleased. It was given on WBO Day on the 20th anniversary of the Order's foundation and sees 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: Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: Bite-sized clips - Buddhist inspiration three times a week. Apple Podcasts: Spotify: /episode/index/show/dharmabytes/id/41029500

Together, A Force for Good in the World 04/27/2026

Together, A Force for Good in the World Here, 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 , 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. Apple Podcasts: Spotify: /episode/index/show/dharmabytes/id/41029220

Views that Liberate the Mind 04/16/2026

Views that Liberate the Mind Here, 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 given as part of the book launch for 'Gautama Buddha: The Life and Teachings of the Awakened One' (Quercus, 2011), , 2011, a fitting conclusion to a wonderfully insightful series called . *** 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: /episode/index/show/dharmabytes/id/40897875

The Buddha’s Gift of Communication 04/16/2026

The Buddha’s Gift of Communication In this lecture shows how the symbolism of ritual offerings originated in the Hinayana and Mahayana, and later flowered with the Tantric offerings, particularly the offering of the Mandala. Excerpted from the talk entitled The Symbolism of Offerings and Self-Sacrifice as part of the series , 1972. *** 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: /episode/index/show/dharmabytes/id/40896980

Concentration meditation and presence meditation 04/10/2026

Concentration meditation and presence meditation was ordained in 2000, and became a parent soon after. Since then he has been exploring, often through necessity, ways to meditate with children around. He has led Meditation for Parents workshops at the Buddhafield Festival and at the Buddhafield Village retreat, as well at some local Buddhist Centres; with the aim of demonstrating that practicing with your young children present is not just possible, there can be some huge benefits in this form of practice. Excerpted from the talk entitled given as part of the , 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. Apple Podcasts: Spotify: /episode/index/show/dharmabytes/id/40799510

Through the Lens of Love 04/10/2026

Through the Lens of Love , author of A Path For Parents, offers some key practical insights for anyone trying to figure out how to go deeper with their practice while raising children. We get a moving evocation of parenting as a distinct context for working with our conditioning, our views, and for learning to break our habits in order to cultivate ever deeper levels of awareness and love. And as you might expect, all the earned wisdom of this talk is actually applicable to everyone who wants to find the path to practice in every moment. A splendidly encouraging, properly challenging talk in that respect. Excerpted from the talk entitled given as part of the Mothers 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. Apple Podcasts: Spotify: /episode/index/show/dharmabytes/id/40799520

Tranquility and the Dharma Doors of Parenting 04/02/2026

Tranquility and the Dharma Doors of Parenting takes a look at Buddhist practice in the light of parenting. Tranquillity is difficult to find when raising children, but it is possible! Our path of practice is getting enough perspective to see things differently. Excerpted from the talk entitled given at , 2006. *** 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: /episode/index/show/dharmabytes/id/40710905

Cherishing Positive Emotion 04/02/2026

Cherishing Positive Emotion This is the first in a five part series by on all aspects of the Metta Bhavana practice and 'The Great Love' in Buddhist discourse and practice - from metta (loving kindness) itself to Bodhichitta. His starting point here is to source notions of love in traditional teaching from the Pali Canon and in the great Mahayana sutras. A refreshing take on metta and how to cultivate it in your life. Excerpted from the talk entitled given at , 2004. *** 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: /episode/index/show/dharmabytes/id/40710315

Practice Unfolding in Collective Context 03/26/2026

Practice Unfolding in Collective Context In this short talk, reflects on the magic of transformation, her mythic connection with her preceptors and with Sangharakshita as a mythic guide. The imperfections of their humanness give her faith in her own process as it unfolds in the context of collective practice. Excerpted from the talk given at as part of a Women’s Area Order Weekend, 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. Apple Podcasts: Spotify: /episode/index/show/dharmabytes/id/40633715

A Steadfast Gaze In Relation to Others 03/26/2026

A Steadfast Gaze In Relation to Others explores discipleship as a living, relational practice rooted in faithfulness rather than idealism. Discipleship is presented as a steadfast gaze on what we most deeply value, and a shared understanding of Going for Refuge that orients a whole life and is handed on through friendship, practice, and devotion. Excerpted from the talk entitled given at as part of the series , 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. Apple Podcasts: Spotify: /episode/index/show/dharmabytes/id/40633675

Awakening As Gratitude 03/20/2026

Awakening As Gratitude There's a story about the Buddha bowing to the tree under which he has just gained Enlightenment. Inspired by this this story, sees the whole path to Awakening in terms of gratitude. The grasping mind cannot feel grateful. But the Awakened know and feel just how deeply they are supported and enabled by other people, other life, and conditions in the world around them. Excerpted from the talk entitled Awakening As Gratitude given at , 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. Apple Podcasts: Spotify: /episode/index/show/dharmabytes/id/40557725

Characteristics of reality 03/20/2026

Characteristics of reality gives an account of the Buddha's teaching of the three lakshanas, the marks of conditioned existence. He taught that all phenomena have three characteristics: they are impermanent, insubstantial, and imperfect. Expectations can help or hinder our view of reality, and reflecting on the lakshanas can move us towards freedom rather than disappointment, both in meditation and in our lives. Excerpted from the talk entitled Expectations Versus Reality given at , 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. Apple Podcasts: Spotify: /episode/index/show/dharmabytes/id/40557675

We Have to Start Somewhere 03/09/2026

We Have to Start Somewhere discusses the importance of meditation as a refuge in chaotic times, both as a way to tend to our own hearts, and as a way to change the world when we leave the cushion. Excerpted from the talk entitled , January 13, 2026 at in New Hampshire, USA. *** 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: /episode/index/show/dharmabytes/id/40365470

Confidence in the Buddhist Tradition 03/09/2026

Confidence in the Buddhist Tradition explores the first seven verses of the Cetokhila Sutta ('The Wilderness of the Heart'), looking at the conditions that make spiritual growth possible or impossible. The focus here is on the 5 wildernesses (or wastelands) that need to be abandoned: being doubtful, uncertain, undecided and unconfident in the Buddha, the Dharma, the Sangha, and the training and being angry or displeased with one's companions in the spiritual life. Excerpted from the talk entitled given at Adhisthana, 2019 on a weekend as part of a . *** 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: /episode/index/show/dharmabytes/id/40364560

The Buddha as a Wise Friend 03/05/2026

The Buddha as a Wise Friend This is a quietly passionate talk by on the quicksilver nature of the Enlightenment experience - impossible to pin down, utterly transformative. His main theme within the frame of such a big question - 'What is Enlightenment?' - is the struggle to live our lives in the present moment, especially in the face of pain. Excerpted from the talk entitled What is Enlightenment? given at Cambridge Buddhist Centre, 2003. *** 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: /episode/index/show/dharmabytes/id/40296305

Going for Refuge to the Buddha 03/03/2026

Going for Refuge to the Buddha After an account of the Buddha's life, asks how, if at all, such a man can be defined or categorised. Excerpted from the talk entitled given as part of the series , 1968. *** 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: /episode/index/show/dharmabytes/id/40296150

Vajrasattva is Connected With Death 02/23/2026

Vajrasattva is Connected With Death Here shares two personal stories from his time in Kalimpong and how he came to learn that Vajrasattva is connected with death. This lecture is a series of reflections based around the Buddha's Parinirvana ('death'), stressing the importance of impermanence and explaining episodes recorded in the Mahaparinibbana Sutta. Excerpted from the talk entitled as part of the series , 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. Apple Podcasts: Spotify: /episode/index/show/dharmabytes/id/40188505

In Praise of Ananda 02/22/2026

In Praise of Ananda The Buddha’s time has come and his companion, Ananda, is completely grief-stricken for the teacher whom he loves so deeply. shares the Buddha’s gentle encouragement and public praise of his loyal companion in the moments before his Paranibbana. Excerpted from the talk entitled given at , 2008. *** 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: /episode/index/show/dharmabytes/id/40188405

The Journey to Kushinara 02/16/2026

The Journey to Kushinara Stories are powerful - they speak to parts of ourselves that respond to symbols, patterns and truths about human life that are deeper and far beyond our rational experience. Here, tells the moving story of the Buddha's final days, his Parinirvana. Excerpted from the talk entitled In the given at , 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: /episode/index/show/dharmabytes/id/40122960

King Ajatasattu 02/16/2026

King Ajatasattu Here, recounts a few themes from the Mahaparinibbana Sutta, beginning with a problematic character named King Ajatasattu, a disciple of the Buddha, who wishes to go to war. Excerpted from the talk entitled given on the occasion of celebrating Parinirvana Day, during the Coronavirus lockdown, at 2021. *** 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: /episode/index/show/dharmabytes/id/40122700

Attending Closely to the Transient Nature of Things 02/09/2026

Attending Closely to the Transient Nature of Things explores the Buddhist teachings of impermanence and shares reflections on how to live with the fact of death, using her recent experience of death. Excerpted from the talk entitled Impermanence of This Body given at , 2015, on a mitra retreat called Reflection: A Path of Wisdom and is the Second in a series of four talks given on the four reminders. *** 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: /episode/index/show/dharmabytes/id/39992200

What Legacy Will You Leave? 02/05/2026

What Legacy Will You Leave? poetically explores the image of the reclining Buddha - at his physical passing, the Buddha did not stop being a force for good, did not meet a final end in oblivion - and neither do we. The Buddha acts as an inspiration, a story, an influence, a guide, an exemplar - and that continues in the lives of those who remember him. Excerpted from the talk entitled given at , 2021. *** 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: /episode/index/show/dharmabytes/id/39992150

What happens to the Buddha when he dies? 02/02/2026

What happens to the Buddha when he dies? A lecture celebrating the anniversary of the Parinirvana or 'death' of the Buddha. It outlines six basic meditation practices crucial to the attainment of the 'Deathless': Enlightenment. Excerpted from the talk entitled given as part of the series , 1972. *** 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: /episode/index/show/dharmabytes/id/39961195

Exemplification in the Aryasangha 02/02/2026

Exemplification in the Aryasangha Here, reflects on a poem by Rumi entitled On Being Woven as she explores the path of spiritual friendship. Excerpted from the talk entitled Things You Can Learn From Geese given at , 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. Apple Podcasts: Spotify: /episode/index/show/dharmabytes/id/39961050

A Sense of Solidarity with Others 02/02/2026

A Sense of Solidarity with Others Here, explores what it means to live a full buddhist life, and the place of meditation and community within it. Excerpted from the talk entitled given on the Summer Great Gathering: What Meditation really is at , 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. Apple Podcasts: Spotify: /episode/index/show/dharmabytes/id/39960965

Dharmabytes from Free Buddhist Audio

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