Dharmabytes from free buddhist audio

Today's FBA Dharmabyte is one of several short segments about the New Society from the talk "New Society Weekend 2011" given at Birmingham Buddhist Centre.  In it, thoughts on various topics were offered by young people in the Triratna Buddhist Community. In this segment, entitled "Starting a Young Person's Group," Ben Niblock speaks on a personal level about his experiences with developing programs for young sangha members - the doubt and uncertainty of teaching the Dharma, discovering oneself by building supportive practice conditions for others, and the challenge of bringing the special energy of this environment into new groups and new places.

Today's FBA Dharmabyte is one of three short talks on the topic of "Inspiring Young People with the Dharma" given at given at Sheffield. Entitled "Choice in Young People's Practice," Vidyaruci speaks on the wealth of choice for young people and the importance of getting clear on making the right choices in order to seize every opportunity available to practice well going forward in life.

Today's FBA Dharmabyte is one of three short talks on the topic of  "Inspiring Young People with the Dharma" given at given at Sheffield. Entitled "Inspiring Young People," Kate, a member of the young sangha, offers her thoughts on being a young person in the Triratna Buddhist Community and about getting engaged in the workings of the sangha.

Today's FBA Dharmabyte is a set of closing remarks from Padmavajra following Guhyavajra's talk "Concepts, Symbol and Dharma as Sambhogakaya" given at Padmaloka Retreat Centre on a Going for Refuge Retreat in 2001. Entitled "The Dharma is Received" Padmavajra reflects on Dharma Day and the importance of that moment of the first full understanding of the Buddha's teachings by Kondanna.

Today's FBA Dharmabyte is a segment from Sangharakshita's talk "The New Man Speaks" given in 1971. Entitled "What Do We Celebrate on Dharma Day?" here Sangharakshita speaks to the meaning of the Buddhist Dharma Day festival - a commemoration of the first impact of the enlightened man on the unenlightened world.

Today's FBA Dharmabyte is drawn from Sangharakshita's talk "Looking at the Bodhi Tree" given in 1999. Entitled "Gratitude for the Bodhi Tree" in this segment Sangharakshita brings our attention to an overlooked story immediately following the Buddha's Enlightenment, in which the Buddha expresses deep gratitude to the tree which sheltered him - a lesson in both gratitude and in how the Buddha regarded the natural world.

Today's FBA Dharmabyte is a segment from Satyajit's talk "Awakening to the Earth - An Inconceivably Vast Undertaking" given at Buddhafield's Green Earth Awakening event in May 2013.  Satyajit is one of the founders of the Buddhafield festival and has spent many years exploring the connections between Buddhism and work to change the world for the better. Entitled "Awakening to the Earth" here Satyajit poetically evokes the deep feelings of beauty and potential in life when we make contact with the natural world, and how this connection inspires us to share those feelings with others.

Today's FBA Dharmabyte is another segment from an early series of talks in 1976 by Sangharakshita on the Sutra of Golden Light. Entitled "An Understanding of Nature," this piece is from the talk "Nature, Man and Enlightenment". Sangharakshita here reveals a richer way of understanding nature and seeing it in its spiritual depths - bringing in the concepts of cyclic existence and the furthest reaches of perception and cosmos.

Today's FBA Dharmabyte is from an early series of talks in 1976 by Sangharakshita on the Sutra of Golden Light. Entitled "Man's Use of Nature," it's part of the talk "Nature, Man and Enlightenment". In the sutra, the struggle and resolution of the conflict between our desires and aspirations are symbolically portrayed by the figures of the Monk and Drdha, the Earth-Goddess. Here, Sangharakshita discusses man's use of natural resources, and the Buddhist duty to become loving stewards of our environment.

Today's FBA Dharmabyte is from Kamalashila, stemming from the deep connections he feels between Buddhist practice and the environment. Entitled "Deep Ecology," it's a short segment of his excellent talk called "Buddhism and the Natural World: Deep Ecology, Deep Dharma". Here he relates deep ecology to the ethics and insight of practicing the Dharma.

Our FBA Dharmabyte today is entitled  "Indra's Net," by Akuppa. It is an excerpt of Akuppa's full talk called "Buddhism and Ecology," which will be featured later this week. Here, Akuppa discusses a commonly-used symbol when we speak about Buddhist principles and ecology, Indra's Net. He asks how Indra's Net works well as a metaphor, and perhaps where it falls short.

What do we revere? Is reverence a Buddhist practice? When we bow, does it mean we are unworthy? Our FBA Dharmabyte today is from Suvarnaprabha of the San Francisco Buddhist Center. In "Reverence as a Path," Suvaranaprabha explores "the problem of how to translate knowing into being" with quotations by Urgyen Sangharakshita, Lama Suyra Das, and Shunryu Suzuki.

Our FBA Dharmabyte today is from one of the founders of the San Francisco Buddhist Center. In this excerpt from "The Individual, the Group and the Spiritual Community" Karunadevi explores the dangers and benefits of practicing within a sangha using the Buddha's teaching on the mental fetters and various commentaries by Sangahrakshita.

Our FBA Dharmabyte today is an interesting, down to earth talk from the Director of the San Francisco Buddhist Center. In "Ethics and Speech: What Am I Trying to Say?" Padmatara discusses the ethics of speech as well as authenticity, kindness and miscommunication. She has been working with ways to bring more awareness to her own communication and is still learning from resistance and obstacles along the way.

In our FBA Dharmabyte today, Viriyalila conjures up the image of the rock tumbler to explore how the practice of sangha creates jewels. But it's the granite bottomed rivers in NH that gets evoked - in their crystal clarity and beauty may the Bodhicitta arise. "Bodhicitta Arising through Collective Practice," is one of three short talks given at Aryaloka Buddhist Center, November, 2010 titled "Three Perspectives On the Practice of Spiritual Friendship".