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by Free Buddhist AudioWelcome to Free Buddhist Audio. Here you'll find all the latest news and updates on the site - as well as podcast posts and other related downloads.
Recent podcasts
Building an Ethical Underworld - Lessons from the Mafia
04/09/2007
Over here, Clemenza! Ever wanted to know about 'General Systems Theory' - one of those subjects you always hear vague things about yet never quite know what it actually is? Ever wondered why we seem to love a good gangster? Well, then this is for you! To tell the truth, we would have picked this anyway for the podcast because the title was just so good! But it happens to be an excellent and very full short talk by Khemasuri on a growing area of contemporary Buddhist philosophical thought. This one requires a bit of concentration - but it pays off with her passionately argued case for embracing personal responsibility and community engagement as a way of effecting social change in our troubled world. Just like "going to the mattresses". But in a good way... Talk given at the Buddhafield Festival, Devon, 2007 Contents 01 'Evolution or extinction' by Sangharakshita (1971) - this talk as a response; the Buddha's basic teaching and experience; conceptual constructions of a specific time and culture - 'pratitya samutpada' ('dependent arising') and 'general systems theory' 02 The difference between causality and conditionality; Cartesian thinking - from the holistic to the mechanistic; conditionality through the whole of human culture and experience; properties of all systems; feedback mechanisms; systems evolving in complexity - evolution and change; points of instability - the possibillity of collapse; non-predictability and synergy 03 Repercussions for how we act; the Cartesian model of the world and its effect on behaviour; systems theory, actions and consequences; means and ends as the same thing 04 Social networks, systems and change; 'event-triggering process' - shocks to the system and creative response; change with a community of individuals; the properties of a living community 05 What the Mafia can teach us about supporting change; Fritjof Capra's ideas on the criminal underworld's success; what the Mafia does well as a community; towards an ethical underworld 06 What we can do individually and collectively; the revolutionary nature of the 'metta bhavana' meditation ('development of loving kindness'); actions and consequences again; taking risks; different ways of doing community; collective change is not comfortable - the validity of strong emotions 07 The importance of passing on knowledge and promoting another vision of the world; diversity; don't leave your values and principles at home; acting from the heart; the 'infinite game'; profound personal feedback from your efforts To help us keep this free, please think about making a donation.
Buddhist Parenting
24/07/2007
This is another great talk from the 'Dharma Warriors' series given at the Buddhafield Festival 2006. Karunagita is the author of 'Growing as a Parent - What Buddhism Has to Offer', and here she presents some of that material to an audience of summer loving practitioners under the blue skies of Devon. Settle back and enjoy the sound of drums, kids' voices, and Karunagita's perspectives on the challenges and opportunities of raising a child as part of your practice of the Dharma. She encourages us to see and accept the gifts of love, letting go and awareness (of our limitations and of our mortality) that are inherent in the life of any parent - and we catch a hint of the growth and wisdom that are possible for the heart as it opens to meet its experience in the most fundamental relationship of all. Talk given at the Buddhafield Festival, Devon 2006 To help us keep this free, please think about making a donation.
Latest Talks List from the Dharmachakra Archive
18/07/2007
Here is the latest version (in glorious technicolour) of our catalogue of audio recordings (mainly talks) by members of the Western Buddhist Order and other Buddhist speakers. The whole archive is now over 1500 recordings strong, and growing all the time as people send us material from all over the world. Only about a third of these are currently online, and this catalogue file itself has only about half of the recordings listed... We'll be adding new and older talks, audio books, interviews, seminars, guided meditations, retreat recordings, and question-and-answer sessions to the website regularly! Why not sign up for our updates email? And if you've any requests, please don't hesitate to ask.To help us keep this free, please think about making a donation.
Violence and Emptiness (re-posted)
18/06/2007
Please note, this is a re-posting of the previous podcast. If you've already downloaded it, please delete the previous file and use this one instead! The previous version has half missing... Sorry! A short but sweet talk from San Francisco's very own Suvarnaprabha, in which she explores the Buddhist vision of compassion through her own experience of meditation and contact with inmates within the U.S. prison system. Moving stuff. Talk given at the Western Buddhist Order convention, 2005 Contents 01 Survanaprabha - poem by Jimmy Santiago Baca; a personal interest in violence 02 Violence as resistance in meditation; compassion as not resisting experience 03 Prisoners talking about self-perpetuating violence 04 The vastness of compassion; the difficulty of talking about shunyata and compassion 05 An anecdote about selflessness; quote from Shunryu Suzuki To help us keep this free, please think about making a donation.
Violence and Emptiness
04/06/2007
A short but sweet talk from San Francisco's very own Suvarnaprabha, in which she explores the Buddhist vision of compassion through her own experience of meditation and contact with inmates within the U.S. prison system. Moving stuff. Talk given at the Western Buddhist Order convention, 2005 Contents 01 Survanaprabha - poem by Jimmy Santiago Baca; a personal interest in violence 02 Violence as resistance in meditation; compassion as not resisting experience 03 Prisoners talking about self-perpetuating violence 04 The vastness of compassion; the difficulty of talking about shunyata and compassion 05 An anecdote about selflessness; quote from Shunryu Suzuki To help us keep this free, please think about making a donation.
