Dhivan started us out with What Do We Really Know About the Buddha? In this lovely talk, Dhivan sifts the information that’s come down to us, we meet several different versions of a human being as he blurs with the archetypal presence he has also come to represent. Then we have a beautiful short talk by Aryashila: “The Dharma is Everywhere.” In this FBA Dharmabytes Podcast, Aryashila uses the challenging poetry of Leonard Cohen and others, as well as her own deep life experience, to show that reality does not conform to ordinary wishes, but yet facing it squarely can be supremely uplifting, not sad.
Next up: Kulaprabha offering a reading from the ‘Perfection of Wisdom’ titled: “The Knowledge of the Suchness of the Skandhas”. From the guided “Reflection on the Five Skandhas” in the series “Night Lily Garden of the Midnight Way – Emptiness and the Great Compassion”, yet another of our gleaming FBA Dharmabytes.
And then in our next full length FBA Podcast Amoghavajra asks us, what is it that gladdens your heart? In the “The Tale of Maha-Kassapa” Amogahvajra takes us back 2,500 years to the birth of a boy called Kassapa and tells the story of how he grows up happily and eventually meets the Buddha, becomes his disciple and gains Enlightenment. He is known as a superb meditator and was foremost among the bhikkus for practising austerities. According to Amoghavajra’s story, one of the teachings that the Buddha gave to Kassapa was to attend to whatever gladdens the heart.
And finally, Dhammadinna asks: “What Does It Mean To Be Human?” We have choices and possibilities, pleasure and pain. This FBA Dharmabytes Podcast is an exploration of the balance of karma and karma vipaka. From the talk “The Preciousness and Rarity of Human Life” by Dhammadinna, the second in a five-part series from Tiratanaloka’s retreat on the “Four Mind Turnings” of the Tibetan tradition.
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