Buddhist Centre Features
Buddhist Centre Features

Podcast: Manjusvara - Part 1: Twenty Years in the Western Buddhist Order

By Sadayasihi on Fri, 12 Jul, 2019 - 14:57

“Do not use Buddhism to protect yourself from life… use it to celebrate life”

Manjusvara - poet, musician, fundraiser - died while leading at retreat at Dhanakosa in 2011. Here he is, in 2007, giving a talk marking the twentieth anniversary of his ordination.

He explores the history of his engagement with the Triratna Buddhist Order (previously the Western Buddhist Centre), starting with his first encounter with the London Buddhist Centre and taking in many significant learnings along the way...

Free Buddhist Audio
Free Buddhist Audio

FBA Podcast: The Buddha Was a Friend As We Can Be a Friend

By Sadayasihi on Sat, 2 Mar, 2019 - 14:00

Our FBA Podcast is by Padmasuri entitled The Buddha Was a Friend As We Can Be a Friend. The fourth and final in our series of talks to mark the Year of Kalyana Mitrata at the Cambridge Buddhist Centre.

Subscribe to the FBA podcast

Free Buddhist Audio
Free Buddhist Audio

Dharmabyte: Friendship Arises From Metta

By Sadayasihi on Thu, 28 Feb, 2019 - 14:00

In today’s FBA Dharmabyte we offer an excerpt from a talk by Vajratara entitled: Friendship Arises from Metta. To have friends, we need to learn to be a friend. Friendship is an active practice, not to be left to chance.

Using the Buddha’s advice to Sigalaka, Vajratara gives some practical guidance on how to be a good hearted, supportive, consistent, beneficial and loving friend.

From the talk entitled How To Be A Friend given at Sheffield Buddhist...

Free Buddhist Audio
Free Buddhist Audio

Dharmabyte: At the Heart of the Sangha

By Sadayasihi on Thu, 21 Feb, 2019 - 14:00

In today’s FBA Dharmabyte, At the Heart of the Sangha Dhammamegha speaks about Sangha as Dharma practice and how spiritual community and friendship with the admirable are part of our heritage in Triratna.

From the talk Wisdom’s Gathering: The Difference That Makes a Difference given on the Triratna International Gathering at Adhisthana, 27 August 2017.

Subscribe to the Dharmabytes podcast

Free Buddhist Audio
Free Buddhist Audio

FBA Podcast: Spiritual Friendship and the Heart's Release

By Sadayasihi on Sat, 16 Feb, 2019 - 14:00

Our FBA Podcast this week is by Maitreyi entitled Spiritual Friendship and the Heart’s Release. Our teacher Sangharakshita has said: “It is in friendship (maitri) that we may find the emotional equivalent of the intellectual understanding of the doctrine of ‘no self’”. The gift of these teachings can help us move beyond self-clinging into a deeper and far more mysterious connection with one another; a Greater Love.

This was the keynote talk given at Taraloka for the...

Free Buddhist Audio
Free Buddhist Audio

Dharmabyte: Spiritual Friends

By Sadayasihi on Thu, 31 Jan, 2019 - 11:00

In today’s FBA Dharmabyte, we hear an excerpt entitled Spiritual Friends. Sujiva explores friendship in general & Spiritual Friendship (Kalyana Mitrata) in particular, drawing upon his personal experience in this heart-felt talk.

The full talk, Facebook Friends, Real Friends, Spiritual Friends, was given at the Auckland Buddhist Centre as a part of a Dharma night series.

Subscribe to the Dharmabytes podcast

Buddhist Voices
Buddhist Voices

50 Years, 50 Voices: Amalavajra and Jayaraja (Highlights)

By Satyalila on Wed, 26 Sep, 2018 - 19:15

It’s a practice for the fundraiser and it’s a practice for the potential donor… a sort-of cremation ground in the Padmasambhava sense.
Amalavajra
 

It’s kind-of like I’m definitely feeling like I’m Santa Claus…
Jayaraja

Amalavajra’s Annals

In 1968 I was not even a gleam in my Dad’s eye, because he wasn’t to meet my Mum for another two years, on a ferry to a twenty-something villa holiday in Sicily.

In 1978 I was five years old and had spent half my life...

Community Highlights
Community Highlights

Buddhism and Islam - New Writing from Sangharakshita

By Sadayasihi on Fri, 10 Aug, 2018 - 14:43

Buddhism and Islam - New Writing from Sangharakshita

By Sadayasihi on Fri, 10 Aug, 2018 - 14:43

Starting in his teenage years by reading three translations of the Koran, Sangharakshita has long taken an interest in the cultural, philosophical and mystical sides of Islam, and in 1982 he led a seminar on Al-Ghazali’s The Duties of Brotherhood in Islam. In this article, written in July 2018, he reflects on this earlier interest, with further thoughts about contact today between Buddhists and Muslims, post ‘9/11’.

This piece is open to all and can be read on Sangharakshita’s website: ...

Buddhist Voices
Buddhist Voices

50 Years, 50 Voices: Aryadhi (Highlights)

By Satyalila on Tue, 7 Aug, 2018 - 15:30

 I think it was the missing piece of the jigsaw, as it were.

Aryadhi’s Annals

In 1968 I was 6 years old, final year at infant school and struggling with the outside world as I experienced it through school.

In 1978 I was 16 and studying for ‘A’ levels, on the brink of adulthood but feeling an outsider, never really fitting in and very afraid.

In 1988 I was working in a classical music publishers in London and leading a life immersed in the arts – in and...

Pages