This week Tarapalita looks at the Buddhas very first teachings and why they are still as mind blowing now as they were then.
Tarapalita explores the crucial importance of having people we look up to. The Buddha himself said spiritual friendship is the whole of the spiritual life. This week is a very personal exploration of why that might be true.
In this talk, Satyaraja tells us about his teachers and his relationship with them.
We will be hearing about two Buddhist Women from the time of the Buddha and their paths. These stories have been passed down through the generations, as they had been collected in the Therigathas, a collection of seventy-three poems in the canon of the earliest Buddhist literature.
By Sanghadarsini
In this talk, Arthaketu explores the figure of Padmasambhava and the dakini Suryachandrasiddhi - Sun, moon accomplished.
Unfortunately, due to an error in the recording, the last few minutes of the talk are missing.
In diesem Vortrag erzählt uns Gunavira von der Figur Padmasambhava.
In this talk, Tarapalita explores Padmasambhava by answering these three questions:
Who is Padmasambhava?
Why is he part of our tradition?
How can he be useful or important?
Padmavajra explores the idea of a portal, a gateway, passing from one space to another, and connects it with the concept of Bhardo.
If we wish to get a better understanding of the Buddha, it is good to look at his relationships with other people. Meghiya becomes the companion of the Buddha for a while, but as the text reveals, he is not one of the best companions.
Lalitaratna will talk about this relationship when the two of them are on the road together.
How do you navigate yourself on the Buddhist Path?
How do you choose the right direction of travel if you don’t know where you’re going or what the Goal is?
If the Goal is Enlightenment, do you understand what the Buddha means by Enlightenment?
Or is your understanding of it a bit vague and muddled?
The Buddha is specific.
Saddaloka will be looking at this whole area.
Yes. Is the short answer.
When we begin practising Buddhism, we can become a little too restrained, overly-”mindful”, even a bit stiff.
What is the place of fun, enjoyment, pleasure, in Buddhism?
And how can we make sure this element of enjoyment is present in our Buddhist practice?
By Padmasagara
In this talk, Tarapalita explores the Buddhist word Guhya, which means “secret.”
Bending the truth? Acidic or cutting speech? Verbal diarrhoea? Back stabbing people who aren’t present?
Put it all that rubbish in the bin, that is what the Buddha is recommending to his disciples.
We create our world with our speech and we massively affect the world of others as well with it.
Communication is a crucial area of life.
This week Tarapalita takes us on personal journey though the difficult and liberating teachings of the speech precepts.
Arthaketu picks up where he left off a year ago and goes deeper into the Buddhist images of the mandala, entering their worlds and exploring the symbolism associated with them, one by one. Or as you will see on the talk two by two.
Dust and lotus blossoms
In this talk, Padmasagara will dive into these two images.
We’ll see if we they can help us understand Buddhism more deeply…
…understand ourselves more deeply…
…and discover what we need to do to see more clearly and fulfil our deepest potential.
In this talk, Padmavajra explores how to approach the nature of the Buddha through the Five Jinas.
In diesem Vortrag, gehalten am Buddha- Fest 2025, teilt Dharmasara seine Vision für das Buddhistische Tor Berlin mit.
A few weeks ago, Padmasagara gave a talk on the Buddha’s encounter with a hateful dragon or ‘naga’ inside a fire chamber in a woodland camp.
Throughout the night they both produced smoke and flames, and it looked like nobody would get out alive.
The naga wanted to destroy the Buddha!
But the Buddha tamed its fury through the power of loving-kindness.
In the morning, he coolly stepped out of the fire chamber with the naga curled up asleep inside his begging bowl.
The end.
But actually that’s not the end of the story! It’s merely the beginning…
This week, Padmasagara will be continuing this tale from the life of the Buddha, which introduces us to other characters, strange lights in the sky, miraculous events, near-death experiences, and much more.
If you ever feel that things get too hot to handle, or that events and experiences have a tendency to burn, or that you find yourself confronted by ‘Dragons’ (whether externally or internally) then this might be a helpful talk for you!
Padmasagara will be drawing on eastern and western imaginative traditions and telling stories from the life of the Buddha to illustrate how it’s the power of Love that can help us find fulfillment in a burning world.
The first couple of meetings the Buddha had on the road after attaining Enlightenment might not be what you were expecting at all.
And the fact that they have been kept at the forefront of the tradition can gives one confidence in Buddhism somehow…
In this talk, Tarapalita follows the Buddha from the Bodhi Tree to the Deer Park where the Buddha first successfully managed to communicate what he had discovered.