Free Buddhist Audio News - Mental Health, the Sangha, and Vishvapani's Words

Welcome to the news update from Free Buddhist Audio, the free download and streaming service from the Dharmachakra sound and text archives. To receive more regular update information on the site, you can always subscribe to our own blog.

Hello, and welcome to this week's update. Three excellent new things for you today... First up, check out our new podcast. In this episode, we have Mindfulness For Just About Everything by Paramabandhu, a timely and invaluable talk inviting us us to consider the lessons Buddhist techniques around meditation and mindfulness training can bring to the field of mental health - especially to problems with depression and addiction.

This talk is also available on the website itself, fully indexed (ie. split into detailed tracks), and including a question-and-answer session on the material.

Next, we have a wee jewel from the San Francisco Buddhist Center - Suvarnaprabha's What is the Sangha?, an introduction to the idea of spiritual community in Buddhism. Suvarnaprabha is a thoroughly delightful guide as she explores her subject with a depth of feeling that comes startling through at times. There are also plenty of laughs here - it's a human and grounded presentation of one of the Dharma's best kept secrets, one of its greatest potential gifts to the West.

And finally, we have just added to the transcription archive Vishvapani's collection of thoughtful essays and articles on Buddhism in the West in general, and the FWBO in particular. These are worth some time - dealing, as they do, with many of the thorny issues that have arisen in these early phases of the development of the FWBO as an attempt to articulate the Buddha's teachings for our very different age. Vishvapani's is a sympathetic and honest voice, and he addresses his subject matter with an exemplary forthrightness and an appropriate lack of certainty.

Enjoy the updates - and stay tuned for more!