Tag Archives | Ratnadhya

Michael Lunts has been combining music, both popular and classical, with his passion for drama for just about as long as he can remember, working in regional and West End theatre as both actor and Musical Director. He has created a series of one-man classical shows, performed all over the world, on the lives of composers such as Chopin, Rachmaninov and Schubert. Michael is a Buddhist with the ordained name of Ratnadhya.

PRINCIPAL TEXTS OF THE KHUDDAKA NIKĀYA VOLUME 3

Anonymous / Various Translators
Read by Ratnādhya, Taradasa
22 hours 55 minutes

In this, the final volume in Dharma Audiobooks’ compilation of the Principal Texts of the Khuddaka Nikāya, the major work, and in some ways the most unusual, is Milinda’s Questions. For while the other two, the Buddhavaṃsa and the Cariyāpitaka, may date from the early years of Buddhism, there is no doubt that Milinda’s Questions comes from a later period. Continue Reading →

PRINCIPAL TEXTS OF THE KHUDDAKA NIKĀYA VOLUME 2

Anonymous / Various Translators
Read by Jinānanda, Elizabeth English, Ratnādhya, Taradasa, Vishvantara, Tejasvini
25 hours 33 minutes

This is Volume 2 of Dharma Audiobooks’ ground-breaking overview of Principal Texts of the Khuddaka Nikāya, the fifth section of the Sutta Pitaka in the Theravāda Pāli Canon. Far less known than the first four (Dīgha Nikāyā, Majjhima Nikāya, Saṁyutta Nikāya, Aṅguttara Nikāya) perhaps because of its character as an anthology rather than a self-contained work, it nevertheless contains gems which are only too easily overlooked or even underappreciated! Continue Reading →

PRINCIPAL TEXTS OF THE KHUDDAKA NIKĀYA VOLUME 1

Anonymous / Various Translators
Read by Jinānanda, Elizabeth English, Ratnādhya, Taradasa
25 hours 10 minutes

The Khuddaka Nikāya is different in character from the other four Nikāyas of the Sutta Pitaka in the Theravada Pāli Canon in that rather than being a single work it is, as its customary translation ‘Minor Anthologies’ suggests, a collection of independent works. A true anthology! Continue Reading →

PEAKS AND LAMAS

By Marco Pallis
Read by Ratnadhya
18 hours 18 minutes

Peaks and Lamas is one of the classic early 20th century accounts of travelling in the Himalayas on the borders of Tibet. It is, in its way, on a par with the more famous Mystery and Imagination in Tibet by Alexandra David-Néel (also available on Dharma Audiobooks). It describes two journeys in the 1930s, one physically active and one more of spiritual investigation. It starts as the title suggests, as a mountaineering adventure, when a group of English climbers set out to climb unconquered peaks in the Himalayas. Continue Reading →

THE DIAMOND SUTRA THE HEART SUTRA THE SUTRA OF HUI NENG

THE DIAMOND SUTRA
THE HEART SUTRA
THE SUTRA OF HUI NENG

Read by Ratnadhya
5 hours 7 minutes

These three sutras are the most important texts for the Chan (Chinese) and Zen (Japanese) Buddhist traditions, though they are very different in character and provenance. The Diamond Sutra (Vajracheddikā Prajña Pārāmitā Sutra in Sanskrit) has the distinction of being “the earliest complete survival of a dated (11 May 868) printed book’. It was found in the Dunhuang Caves in China in 1900. The title, Diamond Cutter, outlines its purpose, which is to cut through ignorance to attain to perfect wisdom or ultimate reality. Continue Reading →

Ratnadhya

THERAGĀTHĀ

THERAGĀTHĀ – Poems of Early Buddhist Monks

Translated by Mrs Caroline Rhys Davids and Ajahn Sujato
Read by Ratnadhya and Tejasvini
10 hours 46 minutes

The Theragāthā is one of the most striking texts in the Pāli Canon. It is a collection of 264 poems or verses – some short, some long – by monks who, traditionally, lived at the time of the Buddha, and which expressed their experience of insight, the culmination of their spiritual path. In fact, it is generally recognised now that this collection was added to over the years, so that some of the verses date from a later time. Continue Reading →

GREAT DISCIPLES OF THE BUDDHA

GREAT DISCIPLES OF THE BUDDHA
Their Lives, Their Works, Their Legacy

By Nyanaponika Thera & Hellmuth Hecker
Edited by Bhikkhu Bodhi
Read by Ratnadhya, Nicolette McKenzie, William Hope
18 hours 20 minutes

Twenty-four of the Buddha’s most distinguished disciples are brought to life in ten chapters of rich narration. They include monks who were very close to him throughout his life, including Sāriputta and Mahāmoggallāna; his cousin and companion Ānanda; his principal women disciples, including the nun Isidāsī and his lay disciple, the courtesan Ambapāli; and the serial killer Angulimāla whose character was transformed after meeting the Buddha. Continue Reading →

AMBEDKAR AND BUDDHISM

AMBEDKAR AND BUDDHISM
Bonus Recording: Annihilation of Caste

By Urgyen Sangharakshita
Bonus Recording: Annihilation of Caste By Dr B. R. Ambedkar
Ambedkar and Buddhism read by Ratnadhya – Annihilation of Caste read by Sagar Arya
11 hours 30 minutes

Dr Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar was one of the most remarkable figures in the 20th century. Born an Untouchable – the lowest element of Indian society deemed to be outside the caste system, and literally ‘untouchable’ – he rose from abject village poverty to become the architect of the new Constitution of India following its independence from Britain in 1947. A combination of exceptional talent, hard work and determination, vision and luck took him to Harvard and the LSE, and then back to his home country. Continue Reading →

THE RAINBOW ROAD

THE RAINBOW ROAD
From Tooting Broadway to Kalimpong – Memoirs of an English Buddhist

By Urgyen Sangharakshita
Read by Ratnadhya
19 hours 28 minutes

Having realized, as a 16 year old in pre-WWII London, that he was a Buddhist, the early life of Dennis Lingwood and his path to becoming a bhikkhu named Sangharakshita is a most extraordinary personal story. He was serving as a signals officer in India when, at the conclusion of the War, he threw away his official identity cards, took off his uniform, donned yellow robes and set off, barefooted, along the dusty paths of India as a spiritual seeker, begging for his food, as the Buddha did 2,500 years ago. Continue Reading →

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