Free Buddhist Audio
Free Buddhist Audio

FBA Podcast: Good Friends

By Sadayasihi on Sat, 28 Mar, 2020 - 13:00

Kalyana Mitrata is spiritual friendship, even ‘the lovely intimacy’, the need for close and supportive connections with others in treading the path. Ratnaprabha  explores why the Buddha said spiritual friendship is ‘the whole of the Buddhist Life’. Is it as important now as it was in the Buddha’s time? Is a Kalyana Mitra the same thing as a guru or teacher? How can we make the intimate connections in our lives really stimulating and nourishing? How do we...

Free Buddhist Audio
Free Buddhist Audio

Dharmabyte: Keeping Good Company

By Sadayasihi on Thu, 26 Mar, 2020 - 13:00

Here Padmasuri shares stories of friendship between the early Buddhist nuns and the Buddha. Featuring glimpses into the lives of Mahapajapati, Patajara, Dhammadinna, Kisagotami, Mitta, Queen Mallika. Many of these women would have gone forth for friendship, a sort of cradle of friendship, in which the truth teachings would be held and practiced. Just so then, so now.

Exerpted from the talk The Buddha Was a Friend As We Can Be a Friend, the fourth and final in a...

Free Buddhist Audio
Free Buddhist Audio

FBA Podcast: Spiritual Friendship and the Tantric Rites

By Sadayasihi on Sat, 21 Mar, 2020 - 13:00

Vajratara introduces the theme of spiritual friendship or kalyana mitrata. What is spiritual friendship? How is it distinguished from ordinary friendship? How can we make friends? What is the difference between vertical and horizontal friendship? Using stories, personal anecdotes and images she introduces the overall theme to prepare for more talks in this series, which focusses on the tantric rites and friendship.

This talk is part of the series Spiritual Friendship and the Tantric Rites, given at a ...

Free Buddhist Audio
Free Buddhist Audio

Dharmabyte: Sangha Doesn’t Happen By Chance

By Sadayasihi on Thu, 19 Mar, 2020 - 13:00

Suryamati reminds us that the spiritual life is difficult to practice on one’s own. Here we here the story of Meghiya where the Buddha advises that spiritual friendship is needed for the heart’s release.

How do we be a sangha member? How do we help others in their practice of sangha?

Here, we get an introduction to the teaching on the Samgrahavastus, the four means of unification.

From the talk entitled Building the Buddhaland given at Sangha Night, Sheffield Buddhist Centre,...

Free Buddhist Audio
Free Buddhist Audio

FBA Podcast: A Helping Hand

By Sadayasihi on Sat, 14 Mar, 2020 - 13:00

Ratnaghosha reflects on how friendships and connections are woven into the tapestry of his life, how other people give our lives a sense of richness and abundance. In the sangha, people are passing on the Dharma through their relationships – living, breathing Dharma is passed on through spiritual friendship. The Buddha was the original spiritual friend, exemplifying for us that Enlightenment demands communication.

From a series of talks given during the Year of Kalyana Mitrata at the Cambridge Buddhist...

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: 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 Centre Features
Buddhist Centre Features

Lokeshvara - Five Thoughts On Friendship As A Spritual Path

By Candradasa on Thu, 29 Oct, 2015 - 22:55

Lokeshvara in lovely form, as befits his subject, sharing some thoughts around the idea of friendship (specifically kalyana mitrata in the Buddhist tradition) as a full spiritual path in and of itself. 

His five perspectives go easily beyond any cliches about the importance of friendship. What we get instead is a deeply felt and considered, always sympathetic and practical look at what it takes to transform ourselves by being a friend to others. 

To locate the practice in the Triratna Buddhist Order he draws...

Buddhist Centre Features
Buddhist Centre Features

Viriyakirti - La Lluvia del Dharma (Revisada)

By Candradasa on Wed, 28 Oct, 2015 - 05:28

Introducing the theme of kalyana mitrata - the Buddhist idea of beautiful friendship as a full spiritual path - Viriyakirti, the newest and youngest Order member in Latin America, revisits Urgyen Sangharakshita’s celebrated talk The Rain of the Dharma as a basis for looking at what makes friendship a practice in itself…

Una charla en Español y en Inglés.

View all posts from the Pan-American Convention 2015

Paramabandhu
Practical Buddhism: Mindfulness and Skilful Living in the Modern Era

15 Points For Friendship

By Paramabandhu on Tue, 19 Feb, 2013 - 15:31
Review by Free Buddhist Audio.

A useful look at the role friendship plays in our lives as practising Buddhists, following a classic ‘15 Points’ model… A good-humoured, honest approach to understanding what the Buddha means when he talks about spirtual friendship being the whole of the spirtual life.

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