Tag: Pali Canon

Ratnaprabha is a brilliant storyteller. Here, he shares the Alavaka Sutta where an troll tries to trick the Buddha with a series of spiritual questions, which the Buddha answers with calmness and clarity, converting the troll to become a Dharmapala, a protector of the Dharma. 

From the full talk entitled The Story Hatthaka given at Stockholm Buddhist Centre, 2007, as part of a two-part series with the companion talk: ...

Dhivan offers this short discourse showing the Buddha addressing a group of people called the Kalamas, who have heard all too many religious teachers telling them what to think, even when it contradicts what the last teacher said. The Buddha instead advises them how to judge for themselves about religion. He also teaches them how to practice the brahma-vihara meditations, and to think for themselves how effective they are.

Talk given at Bristol Buddhist Centre as...

Vishvapani looks behind the veils of history, legend and the texts themselves to conjur a vivid, felt image of the Buddha’s personality. In a series of beautifully observed close-up drawings from the Pali Canon we are left with a portrait of spiritual genius that is both enigmatically distant and thoroughly human.

From the talk The Buddha’s Personality, part of the series Gautama Buddha, given at London...

The Buddha said that just as the taste of the ocean has but one taste, the taste of salt, so the Buddha’s teaching has one taste, the taste of freedom. Liberation, freedom or emancipation are the essence of the Buddha’s vision. In this wide ranging talk Padmavajra explains the conditions necessary to secure this heart’s release.

This talk is part of the series ‘The Taste of Freedom’ Revisited given at ...