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The Stages of the Spiritual Path

by Sangharakshita

Practising Buddhism (so much harder than understanding it) involves breaking the chain of the twelve negative links, or nidanas, by moving onto the spiral path, here described in its twelve stages.

Talk given in 1966.

This talk is part of the series Introducing Buddhism.

Tracks (click play to listen)

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1. Review of the present series of talks (4:39) 
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2. Putting theory into practise: Bodhidharma and the Chinese Emperor (6:55) 
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3. An episode from the Upanishads: Indra, Virochana, and the teacher Prajapati (8:30) 
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4. The law of conditionality: cyclical and progressive (10:40) 
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5. Where does the spiritual path begin? (dukkha) (8:38) 
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6. The law of conditionality: cyclical and progressive (8:44) 
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7. Five kinds of rapture (piti) (9:37) 
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8. The arising of tranquility (passaddhi) (1:12) 
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9. The arising of happiness (sukha) (4:04) 
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10. The arising of samadhi (6:51) 
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11. Three levels of samadhi (3:02) 
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12. Knowledge and vision of things as they really are (yathabhuta-nyana-dassana) (1:18) 
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13. 'Turning-away-from' (nibbida) (4:29) 
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14. The arising of dispassion (viraga) and freedom (vimutti) (3:13) 
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15. Looking at our reactions (2:08) 


Total running time: 1:24:00