Spreading the Dharma

Sharing our Practice

Connecting our Community Worldwide

At Free Buddhist Audio we take as much time with our images as we do our audio! We love hand-picking each of the images to go with the themes of the talks, as well as to seek out unique western representations of Buddhism to use in our publications. We’d like to take a moment to thank two artists whose work we have used either on the site, or in our newsletters.

Back in 2007 Suzanne Martino granted us permission to use a series of Buddhist images she had created through her ‘found material’ style of artistic expression. Suzanne shares that her “process is constant: looking for materials, thinking about how to use them, taking phrases that pass through my mind, or experiences that I have had, and creating a way to flesh them out.” In checking out more of her work as I write this I see so much humor juxtaposed with the human condition. She further writes in her online portfolio: “Perhaps the greatest driving force in my work is to find ways to relate to the human experience. In my own attempts to understand myself, I make an attempt through artistic commentary to look at the ways in which our humanity unfolds, sometimes with seriousness, sometimes with humor and hopefully always with a bit of whimsy and imagination.”

If you’d like to see more of her work, (which we highly recommend!) check out her online gallery at www.skymindstudio.com.

And then more recently while preparing a Thank You card for our donors, I wanted to find an image that I could include to represent our interconnectedness with one another. I had just heard a friend describing her deepening appreciation of the symbolism in Indra’s Net, which had very much piqued my interest.

So I did a little internet image search, typing ‘Indra’s Net’ into the box… Before me lay a sea of colorful computer-generated images, and in the midst of these lay a lovely painting featuring symbols of time, space and, of all things, an elephant in full Indian regalia. The title took me by surprise: “Taking a Stroll Through Indra’s Net.” After contemplating the piece for a while, I decided to write to the artist and inquire if we could use it in an upcoming email communication with our supporters.

Sandy Clift, the artist, was delighted, saying: “I am so glad that you enjoyed my painting. Although I live in Fulton, New York, USA,  I have always been very interested and inspired by Buddhism.  I have had very strong feelings about the interconnectedness of all things, living and non-living.  I would be honored to have you use my work on a note card, and I am thrilled that it would be used in this particular way. I am always amazed at the connections I have made using art and the Internet. It has been a pleasure having your email arrive in my mailbox. This kind of thing is what makes doing art worthwhile.”

Sandy’s work can be viewed in her online gallery.

We are grateful to be able to include artist’s work in our Dharma site! Thank you to both Suzanne and Sandy for sharing their art with all of us! Find more arts on FBA in our Community Places: Triratna Arts.

~ Viriyalila, Free Buddhist Audio Team

Spreading the Dharma
Sharing our Practice
Connecting our Community Worldwide

Engagement with the Arts has long been a distinctive feature of the Triratna approach to the Dharma and Sangharakshita’s view of spiritual practice in general. Free Buddhist Audio is very pleased to announce our growing collection of talks in the realm of Art & Literature. As well as a keystone recording featuring Sangharakshita in discussion with the celebrated poet Kathleen Raine, our Triratna Arts section now features a fantastic series from the Poetry East project organised at the London Buddhist Centre.

Showcasing the work of well-known contemporary poets, exploring the relationship between poetry and spiritual life, Maitreyabandhu, Director of the London Buddhist Centre, hosts bi-monthly conversations between award-winning contemporary poets and himself, also a recently decorated poet. So far Fiona Sampson, Hugo Williams, Mimi Khalvati, and David Constantine interviews have been uploaded and shared through Free Buddhist Audio’s Community Places.

Essential listening for lovers of the Arts!

The Poetry East format is simple: each poet is asked to provide two or three poems from the canon that have influenced their poetry; which are read first, leading the audience into a short interview with the poet, hosted by Maitreyabhandhu. He explores with them their creative life and work with emphasis on their influences, and poets they admire. This is followed by a poetry reading and questions and answers from the floor.

As the live evening is preceded by a short led meditation in order to provide the best listening conditions externally and internally, the team at Free Buddhist Audio would like to offer the same for our listening audience. Browse our guided introductions, led practices and other meditation resources from practitioners all over the world.

The team at Free Buddhist Audio is working hard to create dynamic webspaces where our community of practitioners share their understanding of the Buddha’s teaching. We need your generous contributions to continue our work. Please consider a donation to Free Buddhist Audio today!

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This podcast talk by Dharmavadana is a great exploration of how poetry can be an ally in the spiritual life, and analyzes the ways in which it occupies a similar atmosphere to meditation.

Talk given at West London Buddhist Center

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