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!

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

What Kind of Buddha Will You Become? 02/02/2026

What Kind of Buddha Will You Become? Here explores various ways of contemplating the qualities and virtues of a Buddha. This fifth talk in the series on the Five Stages of Spiritual Life goes into the theme of spiritual rebirth and what that means for us. 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/39960900

Nothing is Random 01/19/2026

Nothing is Random Here, talks about Milarepa, the consequences of his actions and the law of karma. His understanding deeply affected his life, can it do the same for us? Excerpted from the talk given at , 2011. *** 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/39756610

Karma and the Six Realms 01/15/2026

Karma and the Six Realms offers a good, pithy introduction (not to say quirky - check out the football references!) to the traditionally thorny and rather misunderstood area of karma and rebirth, teasing out its relationship to Buddhist ethics in general. Instant karma is yours... Excerpted from the talk given in Manchester, 2000. *** 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/39695975

To Be A Human Being 01/12/2026

To Be A Human Being Here, reflects on the question of why the Buddha apparently left this suffering world rather than returning to lead all beings to freedom, as a Bodhisattva promises to do. In doing so, he 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. Excerpted from the talk 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/39695810

An Upward Spiraling Trend 01/08/2026

An Upward Spiraling Trend Here, explores conditioned co-production through her personal experience of living with a chronic illness. She traces the early formulations of pratitya samutpada back to the Pali canon and discusses how the four noble truths and the spiral path can guide our practice in challenging times. Excerpted from the talk given at 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/39626500

Glimpses of The Beyond 01/05/2026

Glimpses of The Beyond interweaves her personal experience of turning away from suffering and towards joy, with the teaching of the spiral path. Excerpted from the talk entitled given at , 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: /episode/index/show/dharmabytes/id/39625130

The Story of Bahiya 01/01/2026

The Story of Bahiya Ordinary experience is governed by the endless round of the Wheel of Life, which can be gradually halted by treading the spiral path to Enlightenment until progress becomes irreversible. Excerpted from the talk entitled given by in 1965 as part of the series . *** 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/39564335

Taking Responsibility for Our Mental States 12/30/2025

Taking Responsibility for Our Mental States An alive and dynamic spiritual community is vital to the individual flourishing of those that participate in it. In this keynote talk gives his reflections on over 30 years of practising within the LBC Sangha. Excerpted from the talk 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/39564220

Living in the Present 12/29/2025

Living in the Present A thoughtful, sympathetic talk by i on the most delicate of tasks in any life - how to live in the present moment. Exploring the subtle aspects of past and present, of memory and expectation, we encounter impermanence as the touchstone of our experience through storytelling (Bahiya of the Bark Garment) and the practice of writing - especially poetry. A lovely set of challenges to become 'citizens of the present' and inhabit properly our own potential for change.Excerpted from the talk , 2001. *** 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/39552150

Think Deeply, Stand Up and Celebrate 12/29/2025

Think Deeply, Stand Up and Celebrate In this talk, given at a sangha retreat for the Sangha, gives an inspiring talk about creating spiritual community. He starts with the end in mind: Becoming our best self. Exploring and cultivating this is a prerequisite for becoming a true individual and creating a spiritual community. From the talk entitled , 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/39552110

Context is Everything 12/18/2025

Context is Everything This talk delves into the concept of 'Sangha' and its deep connections with truth and relationships. shares personal reflections and experiences, emphasising the importance of community and spiritual friendships in understanding and embodying Dharma. He offers a deep dive into how interconnectedness is fundamental to understanding the nature of reality. Excerpted from the talk entitled given at , 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. Apple Podcasts: Spotify: /episode/index/show/dharmabytes/id/39438930

We Are Deeply Connected to Each Other 12/17/2025

We Are Deeply Connected to Each Other explores how war, destruction and conflict are on the increase in the world, as are conflicted and destructive individual lives. How do we live in a way that brings about a less conflicted world and a more creative, integrated way of being? Excerpted from the talk entitled 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/39438725

Collectively and Individually Spreading the Dharma 12/16/2025

Collectively and Individually Spreading the Dharma explores gender and leadership under the five aspects of Sangharakshita’s teaching of the true individual. Excerpted from the talk given in the context of Triratna Regional Order Weekend held at the , 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/39424745

The Spirit that Comes Through Us 12/09/2025

The Spirit that Comes Through Us On this special Dharma night, interviewed local Buddhist artist Amitajyoti about her work and practice. Excerpted from , 2016. More on Amiyajyoti’s work: *** 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/39336185

Everyone Needs the Dharma- Milarepa’s Song 12/05/2025

Everyone Needs the Dharma- Milarepa’s Song Here, emphasises the importance of distinguishing Buddhism as a universally applicable path of development from the specifically Eastern cultural forms it has been associated with in the past, and explains why an authentic, non-sectarian Buddhist movement is needed in the West. Excerpted from the talk entitled part of the series , 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. Apple Podcasts: Spotify: /episode/index/show/dharmabytes/id/39290080

Dharmabytes from Free Buddhist Audio

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