FBA Volunteers In Search of Dharma

This summer, Mary Salome and a group of volunteers from the San Francisco Buddhist Center started up a DIY fundraiser with a dual purpose: raising funds is one, the other is to make more talks from the FBA archives available online.

As an avid user of Free Buddhist Audio Mary once inquired as to why there weren’t more talks by women available online. She expressed an interest in wanting to help with this, and a project was born. We selected a handful of cassette tapes and MiniDiscs from our archive and sent them along to Mary.

She shared with us, “Originally we thought we would not be able to restore the audio to broadcast quality and so wanted to provide transcripts alongside the audio.  I knew that it would not be possible for me to do this all on my own so I saw it as an opportunity to engage with other people around the work.”

Mary enthusiastically organized the tapes and put a call out for more volunteers from the San Francisco Buddhist Center sangha, naming the project: “Dharma Tape History Detectives.”

“The process itself has been meaningful as a way to make what could be very solitary work into community work. Just speaking for myself, I find it inspiring that people are spending time writing out the words to a talk with a very dedicated and committed practice of mindfulness”

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Check out the list of talks they are preparing:

Six Part Series on the Five Buddha Mandala, given on a women’s summer retreat, August 1985 (location as yet unknown – may be revealed on the tapes)

Transformation: Creating the Mandala of the Five Buddhas, Vidyasri
Akshobya, Vimala
Amitabha: The Buddha of Infinite Light, Padmasuri
Amogasiddhi: The Lord of the Dance, Sridevi
Ratnasambhava, Parami
Vairocana: The Illuminator, Anoma

The Four Right Efforts – four talks by Sridevi, Vimala, Sanghadevi and Ashokasri (on two cassettes)

Buddhist Revival in India, Padmasuri

Coursing Through the Worldly Winds, Dayanandi 1999

On Atisha: A Life in the Service of Compassion, Dayanandi 1999

A Future in the Dharma: Enjoying Meditation, Dayanandi 1999

Order Puja, Led by Bhante Sangharakshita, Sangharakshita 1983

Open Up The Thatched, Dayanandi

Standing Steady as a Mountain, Mahamati

Chapters: Principles, Practice and Potential, Ratnadharani 2007

One Great Glorious Mistake, Vajradharshini 2005

In Harmony with Friends and Brethren, Srivati 2002

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You can make a donation to the Dharma Tape History Detectives fundraiser on First Giving or Just Giving. If you see a talk in our archive list that you’d like to sponsor, email Mary@freebuddhistaudio.com when you make your donation. Each audio recording undergoes a process of digitizing, transcribing, & copy editing that will take about ten hours per talk. They suggest a donation of $50 (that’s $5 an hour — quite a bargain!) but any amount will start the process. You’re also welcome to sponsor the general effort rather than a specific talk.

The Free Buddhist Audio Team would like to thank the San Francisco Buddhist Center Volunteer Detectives for taking on this project. We are looking forward to discovering and sharing what’s on they discover and to increasing the number of talks in our archive by women. Many Sadhus to all of you!

Today’s FBA Dharmabyte is the classic reading of the ““The Parable of the Rain Cloud” from The White Lotus Sutra. The reading is followed by a thought-provoking and beautiful explanation of this Buddhist teaching by Sangharakshita.

This talk, “The Rain of the Dharma”, was given in 1994 in the USA.

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Today’s Dharmabyte features the lovely Vajradharshini in an excerpt from her talk “The Transitoriness of Life and the Certainty of Death.” In “Dying with Fearlessness” we are reminded that at the time of death only the Dharma is of benefit.

Talk given at Tiratanaloka Retreat Centre 2005.

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Spreading the Dharma

Sharing our Practice

Connecting our Community Worldwide

Dharmabytes – The New Podcast from Free Buddhist Audio

What’s a Dharmabyte, you ask? Why, it’s a little bite-sized piece of Dharma! A pithy few minutes from one of over a thousand full-length Dharma talks in the Dharmachakra digital archives. Hand-selected by our team twice a week, they’re great for inspiring, reminding and sharing with friends. And, as ever, it’s all completely free!

Beginning February 3rd with the theme of The Arising of the Bodhicitta – and moving into themes of Parinirvana and Death, Karma, and Compassion – we invite you to join us, by subscribing here: Dharmabytes (opens in iTunes online).

The Gift of the Dharma – delivered wherever you are!

Take a Dharmabyte with you on the train, in the car, on your daily walk. Digest it with your breakfast, sip it with your morning coffee or tea. Pass it on to others… These little nuggets are sure to inspire meaningful reflections throughout the day.

Not sure what a podcast is? Check out our podcast information page, or take a look at this Wikipedia entry.

As always, we are passionately committed to maintaining free access to our talks, so that you and other practitioners can tune into the Dharma whenever you want, wherever you are, for as long as you like. We’d like that to be the case for generations to come…

Show your support for Free Buddhist Audio!

In this talk “Loving What Is” Vajrapriya shares his own nitty gritty practice of dealing with hatred, clearing the way for a more mettaful response. “Metta is what arises when you realize that being human isn’t easy.” With an introduction by Jnanavaca. To read about some of our volunteers who helped make this talk available, please see our post on Triratna News.

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