Buddhistisches Tor Berlin Podcast

In this Episode, Padmasagara explores the concluding line of a famous zen saying: "Seeing into one’s own true nature, realising Buddhahood.” Drawing from a 9th-century Japanese monk, Kukai's poem, Padmasagara delves into themes of impermanence and beauty expressed through vivid nature and human imagery. Linking the verses to meditation, he discusses its role in clarifying perception by transcending thought worlds and embracing the truth of impermanence. He encourages us to embark on a shared journey of self-exploration, inviting us to fathom the true nature of both ourselves and the world around us. Through this collective exploration, the potential for an enduring sense of joy that transcends boundaries may be gained.

We began our journey by contemplating the first line of this famous saying from the Zen tradition: “A special transmission outside the scriptures. No dependence on words. Direct pointing to the mind. Seeing into one’s own true nature, realising Buddhahood.” In this Episode, we explore the third week of the 'Essence of Meditation' course, drawing inspiration from the third line of a Zen saying : "Direct pointing to the heart-mind."  Join us as we navigate the intricacies of metta bhavana meditation, a practice often considered challenging. Inspired by the insights of Zen hermit/monk Ryokan, Padmasagara guides us in simplifying and grounding the metta bhavana, making it accessible and effective. Discover how to cultivate loving-kindness in a straightforward manner, with direct impacts on our hearts and the hearts of all beings. 

We began our journey by contemplating the first line of this famous saying from the Zen tradition: “A special transmission outside the scriptures. No dependence on words. Direct pointing to the mind. Seeing into one’s own true nature, realising Buddhahood.” In this Episode, we explore the third week of the 'Essence of Meditation' course, drawing inspiration from the third line of a Zen saying : "Direct pointing to the heart-mind."  Join us as we navigate the intricacies of metta bhavana meditation, a practice often considered challenging. Inspired by the insights of Zen hermit/monk Ryokan, Padmasagara guides us in simplifying and grounding the metta bhavana, making it accessible and effective. Discover how to cultivate loving-kindness in a straightforward manner, with direct impacts on our hearts and the hearts of all beings. 

We began our journey by contemplating the first line of this famous saying from the Zen tradition: “A special transmission outside the scriptures. No dependence on words. Direct pointing to the mind. Seeing into one’s own true nature, realising Buddhahood.” In this Episode, we explore the third week of the 'Essence of Meditation' course, drawing inspiration from the third line of a Zen saying : "Direct pointing to the heart-mind." Join us as we navigate the intricacies of metta bhavana meditation, a practice often considered challenging. Inspired by the insights of Zen hermit/monk Ryokan, Padmasagara guides us in simplifying and grounding the metta bhavana, making it accessible and effective. Discover how to cultivate loving-kindness in a straightforward manner, with direct impacts on our hearts and the hearts of all beings.

Welcome to the third podcast episode of Padmasagara's 4-week meditation course, exploring 'The Essence of Meditation.' This week, we delve into the second line of the Zen tradition saying: "No dependence on words." What does this mean for our lives, and how does it impact us? Join us as we explore these questions, guided by mindfulness of breathing meditation and the captivating story of Zen master Hakuin's quest for healing from 'zen sickness.' As we unfold Hakuin's journey, discover how it sheds light on essential aspects of meditation for your own practice. This is week two of our 4-week course, focusing on the Zen saying: "A special transmission outside the scriptures. No dependence on words. Direct pointing to the mind. Seeing into one's own nature, realizing Buddhahood." Don't miss out – tune in and join the exploration!

Welcome to the second podcast episode of Padmasagara's 4-week meditation course, exploring 'The Essence of Meditation.' This week, we delve into the second line of the Zen tradition saying: "No dependence on words." What does this mean for our lives, and how does it impact us? Join us as we explore these questions, guided by mindfulness of breathing meditation and the captivating story of Zen master Hakuin's quest for healing from 'zen sickness.' As we unfold Hakuin's journey, discover how it sheds light on essential aspects of meditation for your own practice. This is week two of our 4-week course, focusing on the Zen saying: "A special transmission outside the scriptures. No dependence on words. Direct pointing to the mind. Seeing into one's own nature, realizing Buddhahood." Don't miss out – tune in and join the exploration!

Welcome to the first podcast episode of Padmasagara's 4-week meditation course, exploring 'The Essence of Meditation.' This week, we delve into the second line of the Zen tradition saying: "No dependence on words." What does this mean for our lives, and how does it impact us? Join us as we explore these questions, guided by mindfulness of breathing meditation and the captivating story of Zen master Hakuin's quest for healing from 'zen sickness.' As we unfold Hakuin's journey, discover how it sheds light on essential aspects of meditation for your own practice. This is week two of our 4-week course, focusing on the Zen saying: "A special transmission outside the scriptures. No dependence on words. Direct pointing to the mind. Seeing into one's own nature, realizing Buddhahood." Don't miss out – tune in and join the exploration!

Talk given by Padmasagara on 2026-02-28. In this talk, Padmasagara picks up threads from his last talk on The Wheel of Life and turns to the story of the Japanese Zen master Hakuin, who at one point in his life pushed himself so hard in practice that he became seriously unwell. Describing exhaustion, fearfulness, and physical distress, Hakuin sought help from a mountain hermit who diagnosed him with what he called "meditation sickness".Drawing on this encounter, the talk explores how we can bring our existing habits and tendencies into our Buddhist lives, sometimes creating tension and imbalance even as we try to practise sincerely. Taking a small meditative workshop approach, Padmasagara reflects on what Hakuin’s experience might mean for practitioners today and offers practical tools that can help make practice less strained, more alive, and sustainable. To break out of our habitual patterns.Enjoyed this talk? You are warmly invited to visit Buddhistisches Tor Berlin in Kreuzberg in person. Join us for meditation, Dharma talks, and courses that support practice in everyday life. Find out more at: ☸️ https://buddhistisches-tor-berlin.de 🏰 https://rote-burg.de 📸 https://instagram.com/buddhistischestorberlin 

Talk given by Padmasagara on 2025-12-06.This talk explores the story behind the Karaniya Metta Sutta, one of the Buddha’s earliest and most important teachings on metta, or loving-kindness.The talk begins with the context in which this teaching was given: a deep and unsettling forest, filled with strange sounds, shadows, and fear. From there, the story turns inward, pointing to the "forest of the heart": the inner landscape where emotions arise, move, and seek expression in our lives.Reflecting on how easy it is to lose touch with this inner world, the talk asks what it means to really listen to the heart, and how Buddhist practice, and metta in particular, can help us connect more honestly with ourselves, with others, and with the world.Enjoyed this talk? You are warmly invited to visit Buddhistisches Tor Berlin in Kreuzberg in person. Join us for meditation, Dharma talks, and courses that support practice in everyday life. Find out more at: ☸️ https://buddhistisches-tor-berlin.de 🏰 https://rote-burg.de 📸 https://instagram.com/buddhistischestorberlin 

Talk given by Dharmasara on 2025-11-15.In this talk, Dharmasara explores the role of community and friendship in Buddhist practice and the potential of spiritual life lived together.Reflecting on his own experience, he describes how an initial search for a teaching gradually opened into a network of friends, teachers, and fellow practitioners, revealing new ways of understanding and deepening relationships.Looking at the Sigalovada Sutta, the talk explores the six key relationships the Buddha encourages us to honour, and considers why friendship and responsibility within relationships are so central.Enjoyed this talk? You are warmly invited to visit Buddhistisches Tor Berlin in Kreuzberg in person. Join us for meditation, Dharma talks, and courses that support practice in everyday life. Find out more at: ☸️ https://buddhistisches-tor-berlin.de 🏰 https://rote-burg.de 📸 https://instagram.com/buddhistischestorberlin 

Talk given by Dharmasara on 2026-02-07.In this talk, Dharmasara explores the Buddha’s final days and his Parinirvana, complete Enlightenment beyond birth and death. An event that tells us much about the meaning of Enlightenment, the nature of the mind, and the spirit in which Buddhism is to be practised.Drawing on three stories from the Mahaparinibbana Sutta, Dharmasara paints a picture of the Buddha’s final teachings, his actions at the age of 80, and the lasting lessons for practitioners in today’s world.Enjoyed this talk? You are warmly invited to visit Buddhistisches Tor Berlin in Kreuzberg in person. Join us for meditation, Dharma talks, and courses that support practice in everyday life. Find out more at: ☸️ https://buddhistisches-tor-berlin.de 🏰 https://rote-burg.de 📸 https://instagram.com/buddhistischestorberlin 

Talk given by Tarapalita on 2025-11-08.In this talk, Tarapalita explores the Buddha’s teaching in the Meghiya Sutta, a clear and practical teaching on the conditions that support genuine spiritual progress.The Buddha outlines five key factors that lead to what he calls the heart’s release: regular contact with spiritual friends, a wholehearted commitment to ethics, careful and kind speech, the cultivation of refined and skilful energy (especially in meditation), and deep insight into impermanence and the nature of reality. Together, these conditions shape a life that naturally moves towards freedom rather than clinging.Enjoyed this talk? You are warmly invited to visit Buddhistisches Tor Berlin in Kreuzberg in person. Join us for meditation, Dharma talks, and courses that support practice in everyday life. Find out more at: ☸️ https://buddhistisches-tor-berlin.de 🏰 https://rote-burg.de 📸 https://instagram.com/buddhistischestorberlin 

Talk given by Arthaketu on 2025-11-29.To become free, it is helpful to have a system to practice within. In this talk, Arthaketu guides us through the Triratna System of Practice/Meditation, designed to support us on the path from the beginning all the way to freedom.The five stages of the Triratna system are presented in their traditional order: Integration, Positive Emotion, Spiritual Death, Spiritual Rebirth, and Spiritual Receptivity. Particular attention is given to the initial stages: Integration and Positive Emotion, showing how becoming more whole, present, and emotionally balanced lays the groundwork for deeper transformation and freedom.Enjoyed this talk? You are warmly invited to visit Buddhistisches Tor Berlin in Kreuzberg in person. Join us for meditation, Dharma talks, and courses that support practice in everyday life. Find out more at: ☸️ https://buddhistisches-tor-berlin.de 🏰 https://rote-burg.de 📸 https://instagram.com/buddhistischestorberlin 

Talk given by Dharmasara on 2025-11-01.In this talk, Dharmasara explores the meaning of Sangha, the third jewel of Buddhism, and what it really means to create a genuine spiritual community.Sangha is not simply the sum of all Buddhists or everyone who comes to a centre. It is a high ideal and a practice in its own right, one that seeks to bring wisdom and compassion into the world through friendship, communication, and shared commitment.Enjoyed this talk? You are warmly invited to visit Buddhistisches Tor Berlin in Kreuzberg in person. Join us for meditation, Dharma talks, and courses that support practice in everyday life. Find out more at: ☸️ https://buddhistisches-tor-berlin.de 🏰 https://rote-burg.de 📸 https://instagram.com/buddhistischestorberlin 

Talk given by Vidyadaka on 2025-09-20.In this talk, guest speaker Vidyadaka from Padmaloka Retreat Center explores the question "What is the Dharma?" using the river as a guiding analogy. Drawing on verses from the Dhammaguṇavandanā, part of the Tiratana Vandana, he reflects on the qualities of the Dharma, how it guides, supports, and carries us along the path of practice.Enjoyed this talk? You are warmly invited to visit Buddhistisches Tor Berlin in Kreuzberg in person. Join us for meditation, Dharma talks, and courses that support practice in everyday life. Find out more at: ☸️ https://buddhistisches-tor-berlin.de 🏰 https://rote-burg.de 📸 https://instagram.com/buddhistischestorberlin 

Talk given by Padmasagara on 2026-01-31.In this talk, Padmasagara reflects on commitment at its most practical level, moment by moment, here and now. Rather than focusing only on big ideals, we can ask ourselves: What are we turning towards right now? Where is our attention going, and how does this shape the direction of our lives?Drawing on the Tibetan Wheel of Life, the talk explores how our habits, choices, and patterns of attention can either keep us stuck or open the way to freedom. Commitment is not a single decision, but something we renew again and again through the countless small moments of everyday life.Enjoyed this talk? You are warmly invited to visit Buddhistisches Tor Berlin in Kreuzberg in person. Join us for meditation, Dharma talks, and courses that support practice in everyday life. Find out more at: ☸️ https://buddhistisches-tor-berlin.de 🏰 https://rote-burg.de 📸 https://instagram.com/buddhistischestorberlin

Talk given by Sanghadarsini on 2026-01-24.In this talk, Sanghadarsini reflects on life, death, and friendship following a recent visit to the Triratna Sangha in Essen, where she spent time with her friend and fellow Order Member Taracitta in the final days of her life. Shortly after returning to Berlin, Sanghadarsini received the news that Taracitta had died peacefully.The talk weaves personal remembrance with a recount of the Buddha’s final days before his Parinirvana, as recorded in the Pali Canon. These accounts, preserved in remarkable detail by his followers, offer profound insights into the nature of Buddhahood, the Dharma. Connecting it all with a quote from Sangharakshita (Living Ethically): "The middle way is to appreciate life as much as we can but not hang on to it, and to appreciate death when it comes but neither to long for it nor fear it."Enjoyed this talk? You are warmly invited to visit Buddhistisches Tor Berlin in Kreuzberg in person. Join us for meditation, Dharma talks, and courses that support practice in everyday life. Find out more at: ☸️ https://buddhistisches-tor-berlin.de 🏰 https://rote-burg.de 📸 https://instagram.com/buddhistischestorberlin

Talk given by Padmasagara on 2026-01-17.What does it really mean to commit your life to something? And what might a commitment to a Buddhist way of life look like today?In this talk, Padmasagara reflects on the Triratna approach to ordination, an ordination described as being neither monastic nor lay. Drawing on his own experience of training and ordination, including the four-month ordination course in Spain, he explores the inspiration, challenges, and transformation involved in making such a commitment.Enjoyed this talk? You are warmly invited to visit Buddhistisches Tor Berlin in Kreuzberg in person. Join us for meditation, Dharma talks, and courses that support practice in everyday life. Find out more at: ☸️ https://buddhistisches-tor-berlin.de 🏰 https://rote-burg.de 📸 https://instagram.com/buddhistischestorberlin 

Talk given by Padmasagara & Tarapalita on 2026-01-10.How does a journey unfold from commitment to the transformation of one’s life? In this talk, Padmasagara and Tarapalita share their personal training journeys and experiences of ordination.The session is audience-interactive and includes reflections on what a Buddhist Order is and why it is needed, how one asks for ordination, what happens during the ordination process, and why one receives a new name, and what that name signifies.Enjoyed this talk? You are warmly invited to visit Buddhistisches Tor Berlin in Kreuzberg in person. Join us for meditation, Dharma talks, and courses that support practice in everyday life. Find out more at:☸️ https://buddhistisches-tor-berlin.de🏰 https://rote-burg.de📸 https://instagram.com/buddhistischestorberlin

Talk given by Tarapalita on 2026-01-03.With the start of a new year, it can be helpful to reflect on commitment rather than resolutions. In this talk, Tarapalita explores what it means to commit to values and to a path, especially in times of uncertainty and turbulence. What is commitment, and how does it shape our inner life and the world around us? This talk invites you to reflect on commitment in your own life.Enjoyed this talk? You are warmly invited to visit Buddhistisches Tor Berlin in Kreuzberg in person. Join us for meditation, Dharma talks, and courses that support practice in everyday life.Find out more at:☸️ https://buddhistisches-tor-berlin.de🏰 https://rote-burg.de📸 https://www.instagram.com/buddhistischestorberlin