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Acceptance of the Whole Buddhist Tradition (Dharmabytes Podcast)

By Centre Team on Mon, 14 Apr, 2025 - 10:44

Vishvapani’s usual good-natured and reflective approach is just the thing to start us off as he looks at how Sangharakshita’s initiative in founding the FWBO might be viewed in terms of the unity of Buddhism.

Excerpted from the talk Three Jewels Buddhism - Finding the Heart of the Dharma Traditions given at the Triratna Buddhist Order Weekend, Wymondham College, March 2008.

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We Are Just Buddhists - An Ecumenical Approach (Dharmabytes Podcast)

By Centre Team on Tue, 8 Apr, 2025 - 11:28

In his first public appearance since his eyesight began to deteriorate, Sangharakshita begins this new talk with reflections on his blindness, displaying remarkable equanimity and humour in the process. His main subjects, however, are six particular aspects of Buddhist life and practice which are given distinctive emphasis in the spiritual movement he has founded. Here, he defines the ecumenical approach to Buddhism that our practicing spiritual community takes. Excerpted from the talk The Six...

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No Protection Needed (Dharmabytes Podcast)

By Centre Team on Mon, 24 Mar, 2025 - 14:44

Buddhism is sometimes seen as weak or negative. Using examples from the Pali Canon and Mahayana texts, this lecture shows that, on the contrary, heroic and positive qualities are essential in the Buddhist spiritual aspirant’s quest for Enlightenment. Here, Sangharakshita tells the story of Devadatta who was trying to kill the Buddha. Excerpted from the talk The Heroic Ideal in Buddhism given in 1969.

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Buddhavagga (from the Dhammapada)

By Centre Team on Wed, 19 Mar, 2025 - 13:07

Beautifully read by Sangharakshita, these readings are taken from the oldest scriptural texts and evoke the real spirit of early Buddhism - the struggles, the joys and the triumphs of ordinary people who followed the path to Truth. Appears in Readings from the Pali Canon recorded in 2000 to mark the Digital Legacy project to begin transferring Dharmachakra’s archive to digital format!

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Giving Ourselves Completely (Dharmabytes Podcast)

By Centre Team on Thu, 23 Jan, 2025 - 16:03

In answering the question ‘What is Buddhism?’, Sangharakshita identifies higher evolution - the development of higher states of consciousness - with the twelve links in the progressive trend of the Buddha’s teaching of conditioned co-production. Here he defines the second link, that of faith, translated from the sanskrit shraddha. Excerpted from the talk entitled Buddhism and the Path of the Higher Evolution, part of the series The Higher Evolution, given in 1969.

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The Parable of the Rain Cloud (Dharmabytes Podcast)

By Centre Team on Thu, 26 Dec, 2024 - 11:00

Just as plants need soil, warmth, light, and rain to grow, so humans need health and leisure, spiritual friendship, intellectual clarity, and the ‘Rain of the Dharma’. Sangharakshita draws out the White Lotus Sutra’s ‘Parable of the Rain Cloud’, in a talk entitled The Rain of the Dharma given in the USA, 1993.

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The Drama of Cosmic Enlightenment (Dharmabytes Podcast)

By Centre Team on Thu, 5 Dec, 2024 - 11:00

Pursuing the theme of the Mahayana, Sangharakshita outlines its path, its historical roots and its principal scriptures, giving introduction to the White Lotus Sutra as a drama of cosmic enlightenment. Excerpted from the talk The Universal Perspective of Mahayana Buddhism, part of the series Parables, Myths and Symbols of Mahayana Buddhism in the White Lotus Sutra given in 1971.

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Truly Human Individuals (Dharmabytes Podcast)

By Zac on Tue, 5 Nov, 2024 - 13:07

In a paper of great clarity and insight, Sangharakshita introduces the figure of the Bodhisattva, who embodies the principle of perpetual self-transcendence.  Excerpted from the talk The Bodhisattva Principle, given in 1983, as part of the series Two Lectures to a Conference on Reality, Consciousness and Order.

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A Transforming Principle (Dharmabytes Podcast)

By Centre Team on Thu, 17 Oct, 2024 - 11:00

Previously unreleased and, rather famously, given off-the-cuff at the London Buddhist Centre, Sangharakshita gives us an enjoyable and stirring evocation of the great Tantric Guru of Tibet. Excerpted from the talk simply entitled Padmasambhava Talk given in 1979.

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The Analytical Knowledge of Courage (Dharmabytes Podcast)

By Centre Team on Mon, 30 Sep, 2024 - 13:47

The Sutra’s hero, Vimalakirti, a master of the Bodhisattva’s ‘Skilful Means’, discussed here in terms of the Four Analytical Knowledges, the Four Elements of Conversion, and the Magical Formulae. In this excerpt from the talk Sangharakshita describes the fourth of the Four Analytical Knowledges, that of Courage. From from the talk On Being All Things to All Men, part of the series The Inconceivable Emancipation - Themes from the Vimalakirti Nirdesha...

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