Why do we suffer?

In this talk, Dharmaprabha explores conditioned co-production through her personal experience of living with a chronic illness. She traces the early formulations of pratitya samutpada back to the Pali canon and discusses how the four noble truths and the spiral path can guide our practice in challenging times. Excerpted from the talk entitled The Heart of the Dharma given at North London Buddhist Centre 2015. *** 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 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@FreeBuddhistAudio1967  

Saddhanandi explores the effect of the Worldly Winds in our lives, and the need to know what are susceptible to. Then the need for personal instructions in the area of Dharma Practice, and where we might get that input from: reflection, a Kalyana Mitra, Reaction Practice. Excerpted from the talk entitled Milarepa: Inspiration From the Lineage Retreat (5 of 6) given at Taraloka Retreat Centre as part of the series Milarepa: Inspiration From the Lineage Retreat, 2022. *** 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 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@FreeBuddhistAudio1967  

Here Subhuti expounds on the analogy of the three lakshanas as like a magical show. Using opportunities that difficulties present us with along with meditation evokes a transcendent response within us. Excerpted from the talk entitled Eight Verses for Training the Mind: Talk 4, part of the series Eight Verses for Training the Mind given at Madhyamaloka, Birmingham, 2004. *** 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 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@FreeBuddhistAudio1967

Reflecting on her favourite lines from the Paranibbana Sutta, Jvalamalini explores how to become an island in the midst of the eight worldly winds, especially how to steer through praise and blame, and fame and infamy by developing true individuality, and spiritual receptivity. Excerpted from the talk Make Yourself An Island - A Talk On the Parinibbana Sutta given at Bristol Buddhist Centre 2011. *** 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 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@FreeBuddhistAudio1967  

Vajragupta introduces the 'Eight Worldly Winds' and how we can recognise and work with them. He's the author of the popular book 'Sailing the Worldly Winds' which explores the same territory. Excerpted from the talk entitled Introducing the Worldly Winds given at Oxford, 2012. *** 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 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@FreeBuddhistAudio1967  

Shantigarbha explains the parable of the Burning House, from the White Lotus Sutra, and explains what he sees as the cry of inspiration it holds for taking action on climate change. Excerpted from the talk A Cry of Inspiration In the Parable of the Burning House given at Cardiff Buddhist Centre 2024. *** 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 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@FreeBuddhistAudio1967  

The scholarly monk Analayo says it is important for us, as Buddhists, to take care of nature as we take care of our own body. We have a responsibility, he says, to cause no harm and to respond to the climate crisis with mindfulness, ethics and compassion. Saddhavasini introduces a guided Karuna Bhavana for the natural world designed to bring you close to the suffering of our natural world and to cultivate the metta and compassion needed to meet and address that suffering with skillful action. Excerpted from the talk Karuna Bhanva For the Natural World, as part of the on-line Touching the Earth retreat, Aryaloka Buddhist Center, 2020. *** 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 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@FreeBuddhistAudio1967

How might we respond, as Buddhists, to the emerging environmental crises facing the planet? Gunopeta explores the implications of what happens when we open our hearts to our deep emotional response to these crises. With the aid of guided meditation, poetry, ritual, and our felt connection to nature and the holiness of place, we can learn to "touch the Earth with love." Excerpted from the talk Touching the Earth with Love given at Aryaloka Buddhist Center 2020. *** 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 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@FreeBuddhistAudio1967  

One of the contradictions of modern environmentalism is that a concern for ‘nature’ embodies a separation between humans and the living world. Ketumati develops a profound critique of our usual assumptions and a revised version of holistic thinking. Excerpted from the talk From the 'Nature' Delusion to the Wisdom of the Earth given at Adhisthana as part of the series Wisdom of the Earth: Philosophy and the Climate Crisis, 2023. *** 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 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@FreeBuddhistAudio1967  

Shraddhavani invites us to engage with the facts about our contributions to climate change through basic activities such as eating, living in our homes and travel. She then asks us to get in touch with those seemingly simple, everyday feelings that tend to govern our choices in these areas –– the feelings of wanting, resistance and not knowing, which we as Buddhists can relate to the poisons of greed, hatred and delusion. Excerpted from the talk Transforming Our Poisons - Liberating Our Choices, which was followed by a led meditation. Part of Touching Earth: Buddhist Approaches to Care of Nature retreat at Aryaloka Buddhist Center, 2020. *** 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 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@FreeBuddhistAudio1967