Free Buddhist Audio

Today's FBA Podcast recounts the harrowing and revelatory tale of Kisa Gotami in a talk entitled "A Life-Changing Encounter" by Jvalamalini. In the story, Kisa Gotami's grief for her dead child is completely transformed after her contact with the Buddha through the experience of compassion and insight, leading her to a life of spiritual commitment and renunciation.

Part of a series from Cambridge Buddhist Centre on the Six Distinctive Emphases of the Triratna Buddhist Community, today's FBA Podcast from Aryajaya is entitled "Commitment is Key". Here she discusses Going for Refuge to the Three Jewels, a thread that runs through all Buddhist traditions but which is drawn out strongly as a central principle in the Triratna tradition.

Today's FBA Podcast is entitled "The Way to the Beyond" by Vimalavajri. Here she offers some reflections on how the Mahaparinibbana Sutta gives us glimpses of awakening by looking at three topics: Ananda's request for last instructions, the Buddha's comforting of Ananda's grief, and the mystery of the Parinirvana itself.

Continuing with our journey through the Five Buddha Mandala, we find ourselves at the centre with Vairocana. Today's FBA Podcast is entitled Sitting At the Centre of the Mandala by Vessantara. How do we balance the teachings of effort and openness? One way is through the image of the sun and relaxed being. The practice of the Dharma is simply to come back. Yet of course this requires effort. Another question is the balance between practical and mythical approaches : can we hold both at once? What do we give significance to? what do we make real ? can we open to a world of richer and deeper meaning? This is the eleventh and last talk of Padmaloka's 2012 Winter Retreat and is part of the series The Mandala of the Five Buddhas.

Continuing around the mandala, we now enter the realm of story and imagination with a journey to the northern realm. In today's FBA Podcast we move around to the North to meet Amoghasiddhi: Courage and Creativity. Amoghasiddhi is also connected with Spiritual Rebirth, we hear how this relates to insight, becoming more than we are, and the way in which we draw up courage and creativity to transform ourselves and maybe make a difference in the world. This talk is part of the series The Mandala of the Five Buddhas.

Continuing around the mandala, in today's FBA Podcast we meet Amitabha in a talk by Padmasuri simply called Amitabha.

Continuing around the mandala, we enter the realm of Ratnasambhava, the golden Buddha of the South. In "A Personal Take On Upekkha, this weeks FBA Podcastby Ratnavandana. Continuing the series of personal talks on each of the Brahma Viharas from the 2015 Rainy Season Retreat, Ratnavandana shares an intensely honest, psychologically intimate, beautifully forensic history of her personal relationship to the practice of upekkha (equanimity) throughout her spiritual life. We hear about ways to assess what is going on in the subtler realms of our experience – and how to look to move beyond them so we too can live like a river…

Having now entered the mandala, we begin in the East with Akshobya on the theme of Integration with "The Five Aspects of Dharma Life – Integration", this weeks by FBA Podcast. Subhuti delves into the fundamental principles behind Integration and invites his hearers to apply them deeply in their own lives. We begin by taking fully responsibility for our karmic agency. This talk is part of the series The Five Aspects of the Dharma Life.

For the next month or so we'll be entering the mandala with a variety of talks and reflections from members of the Triratna Buddhist Order. We'll begin at the beginning with "Entering the Mandala" by Vessantara for the first FBA Podcast in this series. Vessantara introduces Mandalas, in terms of personal, symbolic and specifically buddhist representations. He then invites us to enter the Mandala as a initiatory voyage of discovery and development, making reference to the System of Practice and the need to balance effort with openness. This talk is part of the series The Mandala of the Five Buddhas.

Today's FBA Podcast is entitled "Sanghakaya and the Heart's Release" by Maitreyi. She describes having somewhat of an epiphany on first hearing the term 'Sanghakaya' in a talk by Subhuti in India. It seemed to give expression to a whole direction and momentum of her life and practice, while simultaneously both deepening and opening out the mystery of the enlightened mind, expanding beyond any sense of individual consciousness or attainment. This talk is about the Sangha Jewel and it's place in the spiritual life, given at the Manchester Buddhist Centre on Triratna Night, 14 December 2015.