Dharmabytes from free buddhist audio

Free Buddhist Audio

Dharmabytes features bite-sized dharma, three times a week, from the Free Buddhist Audio archives. Themed in conjunction with our weekly full length talk podcast, these are inspiring short extracts from over 5,000 talks on Buddhism, meditation and mindfulness!

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1,442 episodes
Updated July 27

Episodes1442

Newest first

July 27 · 3 min
As Ordinary As Your Own Breath
Image of the sea and the raft: we hold onto our raft, but this brings suffering - can we let go, enter the sea and become spiritually reborn? This is the question Arthabandhu asks us. Spiritual death does not only mean esoteric meditation practices; it means confronting the vagaries and difficulties of life with honesty and courage and seeing what we can learn from them. By opening up to new experiences, life becomes more vivid and enjoyable - if we can just face the fear. Excerpted from the talk entitled The Sea As Spiritual Death given at Young Men Retreat, Padmaloka Retreat Centre, 2012. *** Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone! Donate now Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: Bite-sized clips - Buddhist inspiration three times a week. Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube
July 27 · 4 min
Light as an Orientating Feature
Orientation towards Enlightenment is a keynote talk by Kusaladevi marking both the Buddha's enlightenment over 2,500 years ago and the 30th anniversary of the Nottingham Buddhist Centre. Exploring themes of lineage, connection, and the symbolism of the Vajrasana as a point of orientation in a suffering world. Kusaladevi reflects on how Dharma practice and the life of a Buddhist Centre offer a bridge from disorientation towards the transcendental through the light of the Dharma. Excerpted from the talk entitled Orienting Towards Enlightenment given at the Nottingham Buddhist Centre, 2026. *** Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone! Donate now Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: Bite-sized clips - Buddhist inspiration three times a week. Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube
July 22 · 7 min
A Hot Debate
Vaddhaka delves into the Buddha's unanswered questions; questions that Vacchagotta, Malunkyaputta and others asked him. Among them: 'What happens to a Buddha after death?' And what happens at our own death; what did the Buddha really say; and why did the renowned Buddhist scholar Paul Williams convert from Buddhism to Roman Catholicism? Excerpted from the talk entitled Death and the Self, and the Buddha's Unanswered Questions given at Stockholm Buddhist Centre, 2010. *** Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone! Donate now Subscribe to the FBA podcast: A full, curated, quality Dharma talk, every week. Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube
July 22 · 3 min
Between the Heaves of Storm
Maitreyabandhu draws out the deeper meaning and finer detail of five different poems, each around the theme of death with the final poem focusing on spiritual rebirth. By discussing the background of the poems and poets, the intricacies of their structure, and bringing in a Buddhist interpretation of the themes raised in the poems, Maitreyabandhu shows us the importance and profundity of poetry and how it can help us to explore Dharmic themes more deeply. Here he discusses the poem "I heard a Fly buzz – when I died - by Emily Dickinson. Excerpted from the talk entitled A New Knowledge of Reality-Buddhism and Poetry given at Padmaloka Retreat Centre, 2018. *** Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone! Donate now Subscribe to the FBA podcast: A full, curated, quality Dharma talk, every week. Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube
July 15 · 2 min
The Drum of the Deathless
In this talk Alokadhara explores these beautiful verses which evoke the Buddha, his qualities and the profundity of his teaching. Excerpted from the talk entitled Celebrating the Buddha Pingiya's Praises to the Way to the Beyond given at Padmaloka Retreat Centre, 2014. *** Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone! Donate now Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: Bite-sized clips - Buddhist inspiration three times a week. Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube
July 15 · 4 min
Angulimala
Dhivan relates tales of some of the colourful characters who visit the Buddha to receive teachings.Here, we here about a killer-bandit named Angulimala. Excerpted from the talk A Courtesan, a Killer and a King given at Bristol Buddhist Centre, 2016. *** Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone! Donate now Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: Bite-sized clips - Buddhist inspiration three times a week. Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube
July 15 · 1 min
A Sense of Urgency
What was the Buddha really like? Jayabodhi explores this important question with particular emphasis on how this is related to our own lives and how we may follow in the footsteps of the Buddha ourselves. Excerpted from the talk entitled What the Buddha Was Really Like given at Birmingham Buddhist Centre, 2017. *** Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone! Donate now Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: Bite-sized clips - Buddhist inspiration three times a week. Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube
June 30 · 4 min
True Individuals and Spiritual Communities
Sangharakshita outlines his view of the historical background to current world problems (essentially, problems within and between groups), which can only be solved by people either withdrawing support from groups or influencing them positively through an experience of Spiritual Communities. Excerpted from the talk entitled Evolution or Extinction: Current World Problems given as part of the series Where do we go from here?, 1971. *** Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone! Donate now Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: Bite-sized clips - Buddhist inspiration three times a week. Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube
June 23 · 4 min
Dedicated to Peace
Partisan politics, hurricanes and earthquakes, mass shootings, nuclear threats … our world at times feels like a living nightmare. Sunada reflects: How do we as Buddhists respond, individually and as a sangha? And how do we keep our sanity? Excerpted from the talk entitled Practice During Times of Chaos and Uncertainty given on a Sangha Day celebration at Aryaloka Buddhist Center, 2017. *** Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone! Donate now Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: Bite-sized clips - Buddhist inspiration three times a week. Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube
June 18 · 2 min
Shared Going for Refuge
Here, Prajnamati describes how a range of dharma practices can be seen as a finding of the point of freedom where a more creative option becomes apparent as an alternative to the more familiar reactive choices. In ethical practice this is developing a sensitivity to the wholesome quality of skilful intentions, in meditation finding a way of relaxing in to the practice and in sangha engaging in a free association of individuals, as an individual, from one's point of freedom. Excerpted from the talk entitled The Point of Freedom, given at Bristol Buddhist Centre, 2017. *** Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone! Donate now Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: Bite-sized clips - Buddhist inspiration three times a week. Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube
June 18 · 4 min
A Case for Reverence
The Bodhisattva called 'Never Direct' saw the Buddha in everyone, yet his practice of bowing received a mixed response. Drawing on themes from the White Lotus Sutra, Aryadasa delves into how different framings of the spiritual life can profoundly change our understanding of Buddhism and its practice. Excerpted from the talk entitled A Bodhisattva On His Knees given at Sheffield Buddhist Centre, 2025. *** Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone! Donate now Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: Bite-sized clips - Buddhist inspiration three times a week. Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube
June 16 · 3 min
The Compassion Aspect of Wisdom
Khemasuri introduces the Bodhisattva Ideal, central to Mahayana Buddhism, by describing the training of the novice Bodhisattva and the arising of the will to Enlightenment. Excerpted from the talk entitled Becoming a Bodhisattva given at Sheffield Buddhist Centre, 2012. *** Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone! Donate now Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: Bite-sized clips - Buddhist inspiration three times a week. Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube
June 8 · 3 min
By the Sound of this Majestic Drum
Vijayasri explores confession's illuminating and transformational properties through the Mahayana sutra, The Sutra of Golden Light. Excerpted from the talk entitled the Sutra of Golden Light: What Is the Role of Confession In Buddhism? Given at Birmingham Buddhist Centre, 2023. *** Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone! Donate now Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: Bite-sized clips - Buddhist inspiration three times a week. Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube
June 8 · 4 min
We Don't Really Know Anything About Anything
Nagavajri gracefully introduces some points one may find helpful before studying any Mahayana sutra, giving some context to this rich vein of the Dharma. Excerpted from the talk What Do I Need to Know Before Reading a Mahayana Sutra? Given as an introduction to the Vimalakīrti Nirdeśa (The Inconceivable Emancipation) at a sub30 Adhisthana retreat, 2025. *** Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone! Donate now Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: Bite-sized clips - Buddhist inspiration three times a week. Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube
June 8 · 2 min
Unlimited Spaciousness of the Buddha
Akasaraja explores the nature of presence and absence in encounters between people and concludes that we can only be truly present when we are "absent", i.e. when we get out of the way. And the Buddha embodies this "presence" through "absence" in a way we cannot truly comprehend. By being "absent", he is completely and utterly present. The Buddha is the embodiment of reality itself and, as such, is always present. Excerpted from the talk entitled Why Did the Buddha Leave Us? Or Did He? Or Was He Ever Really There? given at Shrewsbury Triratna Buddhist Centre, 2025. *** Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone! Donate now Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: Bite-sized clips - Buddhist inspiration three times a week. Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube
June 3 · 5 min
Overcoming spiritual individualism
The full moon in May is celebrated as the anniversary of the Buddha's Enlightenment and his victory over the demon Mara. Sangharakshita explains what Mara represents and how he can be overcome. As well as containing much that will fascinate experienced Buddhists, this is also an excellent introductory lecture. Excerpted from the talk entitled The Buddha's Victory given in 1987. https://www.freebuddhistaudio.com/audio/details?num=169 *** Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone! Donate now Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: Bite-sized clips - Buddhist inspiration three times a week. Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube
June 3 · 32 min
A Multitude of Perspectives
Nagasiddhi invites us to experience the dharma imaginatively: through art and heart. He outlines the turning points or 'rites of passage' in the Buddha's mythic life story as he introduces the In the Footsteps of the Buddha home retreat offered by the Triratna Buddhist Community. In this excerpt from the talk entitled Rites of Passage, he speaks about the numerous perspectives the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas take. Visit 'In the Footsteps of the Buddha' for more resources from this retreat: https://thebuddhistcentre.com/footsteps *** Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone! Donate now Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: Bite-sized clips - Buddhist inspiration three times a week. Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube
May 15 · 4 min
At the Brink of Enlightenment
In this moving talk based on Sangharakshita's 1969 talk 'Breaking through to Buddhahood', Suddhaka shares some of his experience as an Order Member to illustrate how we might move beyond our unhelpful psychological conditioning. Excerpted from the talk Breaking Through Psychological Conditioning talk given at Brixton Buddhist Centre, 2017. *** Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone! Donate now: https://freebuddhistaudio.com/donate Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: Bite-sized clips - Buddhist inspiration three times a week. Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/dharmabytes-from-free-buddhist-audio/id416832097 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4UHPDj01UH6ptj8FObwBfB
May 15 · 5 min
A Journey of Discovery
Dhivan considers what we can learn from the story of the noble quest of the Buddha. This story is recounted in the Discourse on the Noble Quest (Ariyapariyesana-sutta) in the Middle-length Discourses (Majjhima-nikaya). In it we can almost believe we are hearing a memory of the Buddha's own words, as he recounts his going forth, his study under great meditation teachers, his eventually leaving them, his austerities, and finally his awakening. Dhivan draws out some of the continuing significance of the story of the noble quest, as a kind of blueprint for the model of the Dharma life as heroic self-development. Excerpted from the talk The Buddha's Noble Quest given at Bristol Buddhist Centre, 2016. *** Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone! Donate now: https://freebuddhistaudio.com/donate Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: Bite-sized clips - Buddhist inspiration three times a week. Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/dharmabytes-from-free-buddhist-audio/id416832097 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4UHPDj01UH6ptj8FObwBfB
May 5 · 4 min
Confronting Mara
How can we work with our own inner voices that undermine our practice and limit our lives? Shubhavyuha draws this out, using the stories of early Buddhist women encountering 'Mara' - the embodiment of all that holds us back. Excerpted from the talk entitled 'I See You, Mara' from the Daughters of the Buddha: Lineage of Freedom retreat at Taraloka Retreat Centre, 2026. *** Help us keep FBA Podcasts free for everyone! Donate now: https://freebuddhistaudio.com/donate Subscribe to our Dharmabytes podcast: Bite-sized clips - Buddhist inspiration three times a week. Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/dharmabytes-from-free-buddhist-audio/id416832097 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4UHPDj01UH6ptj8FObwBfB