Kulaprabha has been involved co-leading retreats on the Brahma Viharas for about 15 years. This talk is distilled from from that experience. In September 2001, before and after the Twin Towers attack, Kulaprabha was on a six week retreat in Italy and was one of only a few people on that retreat who knew what had happened and knew about the shock that had reverberated round the world. Some of her reflections from that time are included in the talk.
The Brahma Viharas are a mandala of four meditation practices on loving-kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy and equanimity. Each practice is different in its primary focus but simillar in its means of focussing - asking us to consider ourselves, a good friend, someone we know but not well, someone we dislike or who dislikes us, and finally asks us to contemplate all beings wherever and in whatever circumstances we can imagine them. So there's a lot to contemplate in these meditations!
The talk focusses on the Dharmic context of the Brahma Viharas and how to bring that context into our sitting practice. You can find lead throughs of the actual meditation practices elsewhere on Free Buddhist Audio. Search for metta bhavana (loving kindness), karuna bhavana (compassion), mudita bhavana (sympathetic joy) or upekkha bhavana (equanimity).
Here's a quite unusual and unexpectedly intimate talk from Sangharakshita, given at the wonderful old converted church that is now the resplendent Sheffield Buddhist Centre in the UK. Some lovely, evocative accounts from his personal dreamlife – tales of mediaeval monks! - and a significant and highly personal exploration of the whole area of Buddhist views on rebirth and re-becoming. Much food for thought here from a wholly atmospheric and clearly enjoyable occasion.
Here Samantabhadri expertly and imaginatively tackles the theme of Wisdom, using the verses in the third section of Tsongkhapa's short text on the "Three Principle Aspects of the Path". Dharma themes of the laksanas, suffering, niyamas, self - and no-self - are interwoven with more personal reflections, and with thought-provoking quotations - ".... emptiness, activity and compassion are not three things, but one thing looked at from three different points of view...." 
This is the second talk from the 2009 UK Women's Order / Mitra Event. Vajratara guides us through the second section of Tsongkhapa's short text on "The Three Principle Aspects of the Path". The verses contain some strong and striking images for what it feels like being caught in Samsara and they come to life in Vajratara's talk. She relates how she nearly came to death herself swept away by a Indonesian river and that was just an ordinary river current, never mind the current of Samsara! At the end of the talk she suggests that of the Bodhicitta practises we might take up - the puja or the various reflections on the suffering of beings - the most useful and effective Bodhichitta practice is the practice of sangha, of spiritual community. Now there's a thought!
Saddhanandi says at the beginning of this talk that she's concerned she won't fully convey the depth of inspiration she feels about her theme - she shouldn't have worried, she does it full justice. Her various approaches to her subject include renunciation as giving up unreal expectations, as giving up compulsion, as continuity of purpose and commitment to values, as establishing freedom, as not being blown by the worldly winds. One of her telling quotes is " ... there is no spiritual development without renunciation, and no renunciation without spiritual development ..."
The first four tracks in this collection are short talks given before meditation sessions on an Order Six Element Practice retreat at Taraloka. After that there are six tracks where Kulaprabha leads through the full practice. The final two tracks are variations on the Consciousness Element stage of the practice and are based on the description of the the Six Element Practice which the Buddha gives in the Dhatuvibhanga Sutta of the Majjhima Nikaya.
The Bodhicaryavatara is an 8th century text written by Shantideva, a Buddhist monk from the monastic 'university' at Nalanda, India, and Dhammadinna presented this material over three sessions on an Order retreat called "Teaching the Bodhicaryavatara." She says at the beginning that she isn't giving a formal talk and, indeed, the title is her description of what she was doing.... sharing some thoughts on the Bodhicaryavatara. 
This talk provides a really good working context to help your meditation practice. Best to lie down comfortably as you listen to Padmadharshini's description of the anatomical and physiological processes involved in breathing. She's a yoga teacher as well as a meditation teacher and she draws on both those sets of skills to give this talk. And as you lie there, she'll help you tune into your own own body with some very simple exercises and suggestions. Expect to come away with some very practical tips on how to become more aware of your breathing body. 
This is the first guided reflection in the series 'Night Lily Garden of the Midnight Way - Emptiness and the Great Compassion'.
This is the third guided reflection in the series 'Night Lily Garden of the Midnight Way - Emptiness and the Great Compassion'.