Free Buddhist Audio
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!
Episodes
The Dharma meets androcentricity and culture wars. Maitrisiddhi 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 Taraloka Retreat Centre, as part of the series entitled Daughters of the Buddha: Lineage of Freedom, 2026.
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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. Vajragupta uses poetry and anecdotes to give four sug...
How do you get used to being Enlightened? What happened to the Buddha in the weeks after his breakthrough experience? Kamalashila 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 pro...
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, Satyaraja 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 'For the Attainment of Enlightenment' given at Padmaloka Retreat Centre, 202...
Here, Saddhanandi 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 Adhisthana, 2022.
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Sanghadhara 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...
Have we got what it takes to wake up? Sanghagita 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 doub...
Vessantara 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 Cambridge Buddhist Centre, 2016, as part of the series Aspects of Going For Refuge (Remastered).
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In this talk, Suryagupta 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 The Language of the Depths given at London Buddhist Centre, 2024.
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As part of Adhisthana's 2023 Triratna Day celebrations, Saddhanandi 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 Triratna Day Weekend: Is a Guru Necessary? Given at Adhisthana, 2023.
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Ratnaprabha 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 theWest London Buddhist Centre, 2017.
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We all need to find emotional equivalents to our intellectual understandings if our spiritual practice is to progress. Sangharakshita 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 The Buddha's Noble Eightfold Path, 1968.
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Vishvapani 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 sig...
Have we got what it takes to wake up? Sanghagita 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, de...
In the telling of the story of 'The Buddha's 4 Sights', Bodhinaga 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 Buddh...
Padmavajra 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 London Buddhist Centre, 2022.
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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? Subhadramati, an experienced and engaging Buddhist teacher, will explore these profound questions. This talk was given at London Buddhist Centre, 2024.
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This is pretty fantastic in its way. Danavira 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. T...
Ratnaghosha 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 London Buddhist Centre's Parinirvana Day Festival, 2008.
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