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Free Buddhist Audio has been serving free recordings of high quality, full-length Dharma talks since 2006. Over 3 million downloads and counting... Get our free weekly Dharma talk podcast with inspiring speakers on Buddhism, meditation and mindfulness. Tune in, be inspired!

Dying Into Freedom: Spiritual Death In the Triratna System of Practice 07/18/2026

Dying Into Freedom: Spiritual Death In the Triratna System of Practice As part of the series on Personal Development (system of practice) helps us understand how important spiritual death is in our lives. She explores the small moments of letting go which help us to break through ego clinging, allowing freedom and creativity to emerge. This talk was given at , 2026. *** Subscribe to the FBA podcast: A full, curated, quality Dharma talk, every week. | | /episode/index/show/dharmachakra/id/42100665

The Cremation Ground is Everywhere 07/15/2026

The Cremation Ground is Everywhere explores the symbolism of Padmasambhava's famous exile in the eight great cremation grounds. And explores the important teaching that (aṣṭa vijñānakāyāḥ) of the Yogacara are regarded in Tantric Buddhism as the eight great cremation grounds. So, we are always in the realm of decay and death. Yet the cremation ground is also the place of initiation, and in this masterful and fascinating talk, remembering his own teacher Sangharakshita's period of "exile" from respectable Buddhist circles in the 1960s in London, Padmavajra explores a significant series of initiations that Padmasambhava received during a crucial period in his life and mythic story. This talk was given at , on the men's Spring Great Gathering, 2026. *** Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: Bite-sized clips - Buddhist inspiration three times a week. | | /episode/index/show/dharmachakra/id/42100460

The Lineage of Practice 07/04/2026

The Lineage of Practice In this imaginative talk, which begins with an evocation of how unbelievably fortunate we are to be able to practice together in community, speaks to one of the four lineages of our sangha as drawn out by Urgyen Sangharakshita, Triratna's founder. He evokes the lineage of practice as a continuous chain of human inspiration and curiosity – from ancient peoples around the fire, to Siddhartha on the cusp of personal failure under the bodhi tree, to Sangharakshita in India, and finally to the current generation of practitioners who must embody and transmit the Dharma. This talk was given in March 2026 as part of the 'Live United' retreat, bringing together members of the Order holding positions of responsibility in Canada and the U.S. with visiting guests from Europe who also hold major responsibilities in Triratna. , 2026. *** Subscribe to the FBA podcast: A full, curated, quality Dharma talk, every week. | | /episode/index/show/dharmachakra/id/41907195

May Our Communication With One Another Be Sangha 06/27/2026

May Our Communication With One Another Be Sangha explores the profound lines from Sangharakshita's Dedication Ceremony: "Here seated, here practising My our mind become Buddha, May our thought become Dharma May our communication with one another be Sangha" Recorded at the Autumn Going for Refuge weekend retreat at , 2024. *** Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: Bite-sized clips - Buddhist inspiration three times a week. | | /episode/index/show/dharmachakra/id/41491720

Wisdom's Gathering: the Difference That Makes a Difference 06/20/2026

Wisdom's Gathering: the Difference That Makes a Difference speaks about Sangha as Dharma practice and how spiritual community and friendship with the admirable are part of our heritage in Triratna. A talk given on the International Gathering at Adhisthana, 2017. *** Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: Bite-sized clips - Buddhist inspiration three times a week. | | /episode/index/show/dharmachakra/id/41424610

A Blueprint for a New World 06/13/2026

A Blueprint for a New World Is it possible to create a society in which all social, economic, and political arrangements will support the development of true individuality? In this lecture, discusses a number of principles essential to the successful transformation of our current society. This talk is part of the series , given in 1976 and in 2026. *** Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: Bite-sized clips - Buddhist inspiration three times a week. | | /episode/index/show/dharmachakra/id/41423695

"This Is Truth! This Is Not Truth!": Beyond Outrage 06/06/2026

"This Is Truth! This Is Not Truth!": Beyond Outrage The Dharma meets androcentricity and culture wars. explores how we can relate to views on gender without polarising. She asks, how do we bring the Dharma to bear on our and others' deeply-held views? And how do we hold some of Sangharakshita's conditioned views? Honest, nuanced, sensitive. This talk was given at , as part of the series entitled , 2026. *** Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: Bite-sized clips - Buddhist inspiration three times a week. | | /episode/index/show/dharmachakra/id/41423660

Awakening As Gratitude 05/30/2026

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, Vajragupta 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. uses poetry and anecdotes to give four suggestions for "turning our lives into gratitude". He sees the practice of gratitude as a wisdom or insight practice. From the mind-set and perspective of gratitude, the world becomes larger, more beautiful and abundant, and we naturally wish to give back. This talk was 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/dharmachakra/id/40771735

Absorption - After the Enlightenment 05/23/2026

Absorption - After the Enlightenment How do you get used to being Enlightened? What happened to the Buddha in the weeks after his breakthrough experience? explores these questions in two ways - using the framework of our System of Meditation to shed light on the process that unfolded in the Bodhisattva's mind and body as Enlightenment dawned; and connecting us imaginatively with the symbolism and image of Muchalinda, the great serpent, coiling his body protectively round the meditating Buddha. This talk was given on the ’s International Retreat, 2008. Kamalashila passed away in October 2024, to learn more about him and his contributions to Triratna, visit *** 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/dharmachakra/id/40771725

Our Biggest Hindrance 05/19/2026

Our Biggest Hindrance When we Go for Refuge, we can only Go for Refuge to that which is lokuttara - 'beyond the world'. In the third talk in this series, speaks of the need for a total orientation of our being towards Enlightenment through setting up conditions (pratitya samutpada), and the development of the Five Spiritual Faculties. 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/dharmachakra/id/41348925

Enlightenment As Experience and Non-Experience 05/16/2026

Enlightenment As Experience and Non-Experience Here, speaks about the nature of enlightenment, as experience and as non-experience, based on Bhante's lecture of the same name, given to the Buddhist Society in 1975. Given on retreat 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/dharmachakra/id/40771705

Vajrasana, the Tree of Life and the Revolution of Consciousness 05/09/2026

Vajrasana, the Tree of Life and the Revolution of Consciousness reflects on the Buddha’s resolve to sit on the vajrasana beneath the Bodhi tree until he broke through conditioned existence and awoke. The talk explores vajrasana as the “diamond throne,” drawing on an audio excerpt from Sangharakshita to unfold its meaning as the central point of the cosmos: the spiritual axis where the Buddha awakens, and where the symbolism of the vajra, the tree of life, and the Bodhi tree all meet. From there, the talk evokes Buddhist cosmology, the six elements, and the emergence of life and consciousness as part of a vast evolutionary movement that culminates in the possibility of awakening. The second half of the talk reflects on what this awakening reveals about selfhood, individuality, and reality itself. 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/dharmachakra/id/40771675

Encountering Mara - Enlightenment Under Attack! 05/02/2026

Encountering Mara - Enlightenment Under Attack! Have we got what it takes to wake up? follows Siddhartha Gautama’s extraordinary quest to its turning point. In him we meet a seeker who turns down power, prestige and leadership, turning his back on the received wisdom of harsh asceticism, choosing instead something far more radical: to meditate alone in the comfortable shade of a beautiful tree. Here he meets Māra: tempter, accuser, embodiment of fear, desire, and doubt, unleashing everything he has to prevent Siddhartha’s awakening. This talk was given 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/dharmachakra/id/40771645

Steering For the Deep: The Awareness Aspect 04/25/2026

Steering For the Deep: The Awareness Aspect explores Sangharakshita's idea that fundamentally there is one spiritual experience, which has different aspects that we can unfold. Here he guides on how to contact and influence deeper levels of mind, culminating in the turning about of the basis, the transformation of the deepest level of mind. This talk was given at , 2016, as part of the series . *** Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone! Donate now: Subscribe to our Free Buddhist Audio podcast: A full, curated, quality Dharma talk, every week. Apple Podcasts: Spotify: YouTube: /episode/index/show/dharmachakra/id/40679905

The Power of Stories 04/18/2026

The Power of Stories In this talk, discusses the language of the depths, which refers to communication beyond the surface level of experience. She begins by exploring the power of stories. Part of the series given at , 2024. *** Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone! Donate now: Subscribe to our Free Buddhist Audio podcast: A full, curated, quality Dharma talk, every week. Apple Podcasts: Spotify: YouTube: /episode/index/show/dharmachakra/id/40664535

The Electric Charge of Communication 04/11/2026

The Electric Charge of Communication As part of Adhisthana’s 2023 Triratna Day celebrations, speaks to us about the ‘existential communication’ that can arise between a more, and a less, experienced practitioner. A communication that can take you to the limits of your own being and encourage you to stretch beyond them. Part of the series Given at , 2023. *** Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone! Donate now: Subscribe to our Free Buddhist Audio podcast: A full, curated, quality Dharma talk, every week. Apple Podcasts: Spotify: YouTube: /episode/index/show/dharmachakra/id/40664435

How to Communicate Well 04/04/2026

How to Communicate Well presents traditional Buddhist advice on communicating well, in particular the images that the Buddha used to teaches own seven-year-old son about the importance of truthfulness, and the poetry of Vangisa, encouraged by the Buddha to turn his love of communication into verses. A talk to the, 2017. *** Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone! Donate now: Subscribe to our Free Buddhist Audio podcast: A full, curated, quality Dharma talk, every week. Apple Podcasts: Spotify: YouTube: /episode/index/show/dharmachakra/id/40664330

Reason and Emotion in the Spiritual Life 03/28/2026

Reason and Emotion in the Spiritual Life We all need to find emotional equivalents to our intellectual understandings if our spiritual practice is to progress. outlines the positive emotions stressed in Buddhism, and concludes with a brief explanation of the stages of the Sevenfold Puja. Talk given as part of the series , 1968. *** Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone! Donate now: Subscribe to our Free Buddhist Audio podcast: A full, curated, quality Dharma talk, every week. Apple Podcasts: Spotify: YouTube: /episode/index/show/dharmachakra/id/39993120

A Deeper Rhythm 03/21/2026

A Deeper Rhythm explores the dynamic vision of Urgyen Sangharakshita in setting up a new Buddhist movement in the West, and asks how we might relate to him now. His central reference point in this provocative and moving talk is the Padmasambhava Abisheka - the initiation received by Sangharakshita in Kalimpong, India, in 1962 from the great Tibetan Lama, Kachu Rimpoche. The energy emanating from a simple shrine room–location of that significant meeting in Sangharakshita's life–reverberates through everything that came next, the bright and shadow sides. Voices and stories, told and untold, come echoing through as Vishvapani makes the case that a deeper examination of Sangharakshita's teaching and approach reveals a deeper rhythm to his life and work that is relevant to everyone practising in Triratna today. Talk given at on the men's UK & Ireland area Order weekend in November 2022. *** Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone! Donate now: Subscribe to our Free Buddhist Audio podcast: A full, curated, quality Dharma talk, every week. Apple Podcasts: Spotify: YouTube: /episode/index/show/dharmachakra/id/39993045

Encountering Mara - Enlightenment Under Attack! 03/14/2026

Encountering Mara - Enlightenment Under Attack! Have we got what it takes to wake up? invites us to follow Siddhartha Gautama’s extraordinary quest to its turning point. In him, we meet a seeker who turns down power, prestige and leadership, turning his back on the received wisdom of harsh asceticism, choosing instead something far more radical: to meditate alone in the comfortable shade of a beautiful tree. Here he meets Māra: tempter, accuser, embodiment of fear, desire, and doubt, unleashing everything he has to prevent Siddhartha’s awakening. How does he respond to each attack? Could we do as well? Are we ready to take our seat as he did, on the diamond throne of The Eternal Buddhas? This talk was given 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/dharmachakra/id/39992570

Encountering Reality - The 4 Sights 03/07/2026

Encountering Reality - The 4 Sights In the telling of the story of ‘The Buddha’s 4 Sights’, invites us to contemplate the people and events that have inspired us to change. What was The Buddha really like? We are told that the Buddha broke through into a radically different state of being, transcending ordinary human consciousness. What might it have been like to encounter that? There was something magnetic, awesome, mysterious, and powerful about The Buddha. Some people even ‘WOKE UP!’ just by being in his presence. This talk was given 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/dharmachakra/id/39992480

Within The Perfumed Chamber 02/28/2026

Within The Perfumed Chamber delivers an enthralling account of the Buddha's passing into Paranirvana. Drawing on events in the Mahaparanibbana Sutta, he elucidates the perfumed chamber of the Buddha's unconditioned mind. Delivered on Parinirvana Day at the , 2022. *** Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone! Donate now: Subscribe to our Free Buddhist Audio podcast: A full, curated, quality Dharma talk, every week. Apple Podcasts: Spotify: YouTube: /episode/index/show/dharmachakra/id/39977670

Brighter Than Gold 02/21/2026

Brighter Than Gold The Buddha's Enlightenment and his Parinirvana are the two key events in his life. But what significance do they hold for us in our approach to life - and death? , an experienced and engaging Buddhist teacher, will explore these profound questions. This talk was given at , 2024. *** Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone! Donate now: Subscribe to our Free Buddhist Audio podcast: A full, curated, quality Dharma talk, every week. Apple Podcasts: Spotify: YouTube: /episode/index/show/dharmachakra/id/39977615

Death and the Buddhist 02/14/2026

Death and the Buddhist This is pretty fantastic in its way. is one of the best speakers we know - he is very funny, can do poetic and profound, tends to the chaotic in his style, and has a particular genius for this kind of thing; this kind of thing being talking about death. The whole talk is a kind of respectful joyride through the hardest subject of all - sit back and enjoy a thoroughly adult treat that's likely to blow the heart wide open. Talk given at , Men's Event, 2000. *** Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone! Donate now: Subscribe to our Free Buddhist Audio podcast: A full, curated, quality Dharma talk, every week. Apple Podcasts: Spotify: YouTube: /episode/index/show/dharmachakra/id/39897820

Constant Change 02/07/2026

Constant Change commemorates the death of the Buddha not by focusing on death, but rather by focusing on the Buddha’s early life and the myriad manifestations of impermanence. Talk given by Ratnaghosha at the ’s Parinirvana Day Festival, 2008. *** Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone! Donate now: Subscribe to our Free Buddhist Audio podcast: A full, curated, quality Dharma talk, every week. Apple Podcasts: Spotify: YouTube: /episode/index/show/dharmachakra/id/39897695

We Are Born of Our Actions 01/31/2026

We Are Born of Our Actions traces the significance and depth of the Buddha’s teaching of karma, as well as addressing the complexities and common misconceptions that can often arise when we approach the topic. Having a clear understanding of the law of karma is vital if we are to transform our desires to be more in line with reality. We realize that on a path of training old habits run deep, and that we cannot control everything that happens to us. We can, however, always start where we find ourselves: in the present moment. Then we can begin to work on our reactions, gradually moving towards more and more of a sense of freedom in our lives. Part of the series , given at , 2022. *** Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone! Donate now: Subscribe to our Free Buddhist Audio podcast: A full, curated, quality Dharma talk, every week. Apple Podcasts: Spotify: YouTube: /episode/index/show/dharmachakra/id/39493630

The Spiral Path 01/24/2026

The Spiral Path talks about the spiral path and emphasises how it naturally unfolds. This talk was given at , 2014. *** Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone! Donate now: Subscribe to our Free Buddhist Audio podcast: A full, curated, quality Dharma talk, every week. Apple Podcasts: Spotify: YouTube: /episode/index/show/dharmachakra/id/39493580

Withdrawal and Engagement On Bodhisattva Path 01/17/2026

Withdrawal and Engagement On Bodhisattva Path Through the lense of Upaya 'the skilful means' of the Bodhisattva, explores the seemingly contradictory themes of withdrawal and engagement on the Bodhisattva path. She demonstrates how they are synthesised by drawing on the last four stages of the spiral / transcendental path and how they culminate in the arising of the bodhicitta. , 2023. *** Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone! Donate now: Subscribe to our Free Buddhist Audio podcast: A full, curated, quality Dharma talk, every week. Apple Podcasts: Spotify: YouTube: /episode/index/show/dharmachakra/id/39493385

Practice As Knowing Where You Stand 01/10/2026

Practice As Knowing Where You Stand In this talk describes the six realms as a mirror in which to fully know the particulars of our own self created universe. This talk was given at 2017. *** Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone! Donate now: Subscribe to our Free Buddhist Audio podcast: A full, curated, quality Dharma talk, every week. Apple Podcasts: Spotify: YouTube: /episode/index/show/dharmachakra/id/39493305

Vicious Circles and Doorways to Freedom 01/03/2026

Vicious Circles and Doorways to Freedom explores three great Buddhist symbols that describe the way things are: the wheel of life, the spiral path and the ultimate goal of Enlightenment. Together they form a guide to escape from the ultimate vicious circle into the complete freedom and fulfilment of Awakening. This talk was recorded at , 2020, as part of the series . *** Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone! Donate now: Subscribe to our Free Buddhist Audio podcast: A full, curated, quality Dharma talk, every week. Apple Podcasts: Spotify: YouTube: /episode/index/show/dharmachakra/id/39493105

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