Another excellent talk, from the Buddhafield project. Amaragita takes a look at Buddhist practice in the light of parenting, and has a lot of good things to say about the everyday business of staying with our experience, embracing the hard bits and releasing the joy.
As an added bonus, listen for some lovely singing throughout!
Talk given at the Buddhafield Festival in 2006.
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A lovely talk this month, from the excellent Dhivan. Be prepared for the odd surprise as he considers the relationship between what we think we may know about the Buddha, and what the historical evidence suggests.
As Dhivan sifts the information that’s come down to us, we meet several different versions of a human being as he blurs with the archetypal presence he has also come to represent. Yet whichever manifestation we prefer, more than anything this talk brings us face to face with the rich and moving legacy of a brilliant and truly compassionate individual, changing the world he took part in, stepping out of history “with the walk of a lion, the walk of a swan”.
Talk given at the Cambridge Buddhist Centre, 2008
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Happy Holidays, Everyone! So, this is as close as we could get to a Christmas edition… You know, ‘Buddha Nature – easily confused for ‘incarnation’, all that…
No? Oh, well, what this most definitely is is an absolute cracker of a talk from Sagaramati. A brilliant, scholarly-but-accessible, look at the origins and development of the Tathagatagarbha (Buddha Nature) school of Buddhist thought through the lense of early Buddhist scripture.
Many misunderstandings are addressed as Sagaramati (aka. Professor Robert Morrison), with his usual wry, testy humour, takes us back to basics in considering just how – if at all – Tathagatagarbha doctrine is in harmony with Buddhist tradition. And he surprises himself in the process, evoking a path of practice rooted in kindness and a vision of ever-present possibility for all of us.
Talk given in 2004.
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Ok, buckle up. ‘Padmasambhava’ by Danavira is, as we’ve come to expect from the man, a rollicking ride of a talk. Actually, ‘talk’ doesn’t really do it justice: try incantation, wrong-footing evocation, dramatic monologue and enactment through storytelling, with a good dose of chanting and singing thrown in – some planned, some spontaneous. Sprinkle in a healthy quotient of hilarity and excitement and you’ve pretty much got yourself a knock-out, world-spinning excursion into the magical realism of the Great Guru, the Second Buddha, the Master of Enchantments. Be shaken by this. Be beguiled…
Please note: In this talk Danavira uses and adapts verses from the excellent ‘Self-Liberation Through Seeing With Naked Awareness’ by John Reynolds (Station Hill Press 1989)
Talk given at Padmaloka Retreat Centre, 2001
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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
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