Podcasts

Prasadavati invites us to explore how meditation can serve our lives on and off the cushion, and especially during challenging times. Excerpted from the talk entitled Befriend Your Mind given at Buddhistisches Tor Berlin, 2025. *** Help us keep FBA Podcasts free […]

Equanimity is the deepest level of metta: metta imbued with seeing reality. Maitrisiddhi brings in Kisa Gotami, Hiroshima and her own mother's death. Can we hold the paradox of loving, yet letting go? Can we drop the drama, and see […]

Image of the sea and the raft: we hold onto our raft, but this brings suffering – can we let go, enter the sea and become spiritually reborn? This is the question Arthabandhu asks us.  Spiritual death does not only […]

Orientation towards Enlightenment is a keynote talk by Kusaladevi marking both the Buddha's enlightenment over 2,500 years ago and the 30th anniversary of the Nottingham Buddhist Centre. Exploring themes of lineage, connection, and the symbolism of the Vajrasana as a […]

Vaddhaka delves into the Buddha's unanswered questions; questions that Vacchagotta, Malunkyaputta and others asked him. Among them: 'What happens to a Buddha after death?' And what happens at our own death; what did the Buddha really say; and why did […]

Maitreyabandhu draws out the deeper meaning and finer detail of five different poems, each around the theme of death with the final poem focusing on spiritual rebirth. By discussing the background of the poems and poets, the intricacies of their […]

In this talk Alokadhara explores these beautiful verses which evoke the Buddha, his qualities and the profundity of his teaching. Excerpted from the talk entitled Celebrating the Buddha Pingiya's Praises to the Way to the Beyond given at Padmaloka Retreat […]

How do you navigate yourself on the Buddhist Path? How do you choose the right direction of travel if you don't know where you're going or what the Goal is? If the Goal is Enlightenment, do you understand what the […]

Back in the Buddha's time, it's thought that there were lots of people who were looking for meaning, going from teacher to teacher. Sometimes they were householders, sometimes royalty, but they were all shopping around – shopping for wisdom. The […]

As part of the series on Personal Development (system of practice) Parami 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 […]

Padmavajra explores the symbolism of Padmasambhava's famous exile in the eight great cremation grounds. And explores the important teaching that The Eight Consciousnesses (aṣṭa vijñānakāyāḥ) of the Yogacara are regarded in Tantric Buddhism as the eight great cremation grounds. So, […]

In this imaginative talk, which begins with an evocation of how unbelievably fortunate we are to be able to practice together in community, Candradasa speaks to one of the four lineages of our sangha as drawn out by Urgyen Sangharakshita, […]

Padmavajra 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 […]

Dhammamegha  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 Triratna Buddhist Community International Gathering at Adhisthana, 2017. *** Help us keep FBA Podcasts […]

Samādhi is the Sanskrit word for a state of peaceful, integrated absorption the mind can reach through meditation.And people’s faces in meditation have been a source of fascination (and distraction) for documentary filmmaker Hartley Woolf since he began his own […]

Today we meet three Buddhists with a full time professional painting practice, exhibiting at The Art Pavilion in Mile End Eco Park. And we’re treated to a generous and intimate conversation about the tensions and creative dynamics between an explicitly […]

In Triratna, learning to understand what is truly beautiful is seen as a path to Enlightenment itself. In this episode we find ourselves exploring this in an unexpected and extraordinary way at the seat of all Buddhist paths and myths, […]

Enter Hinterland sober bar, “the realm beyond what’s known”… And meet founders Sanghadhara and Stephen Jeffreys in their cosy, cool, poetic, liminal space for a cocktail and meaningful conversation about how Buddhism and the Dharma can inform modern culture—and people’s […]

Home Retreats help us inject some of the powerful teachings of the Buddha directly into our everyday lives. This week we’re joined by Balajit, Singhashri and Viveka to talk about what lies behind their latest week-long collaborative venture with The […]

Mandarava has always been a maker. Her way into puppetry came initially through trying to make sense of deep family grief. Mandarava’s work is brimful of magic – filtered through fairy tales, her own deep immersion in illustrative art and […]

The mind liberated from the pressure of the will is unfolded in symbolsW.B. YeatsThese days, mindfulness is everywhere. How can engaging with images – with imagination itself – take our awareness deeper and help us connect with something truly transformative? […]