Tricycle Online Retreats

Sharon Salzberg on

Kindness

Become a Tricycle Community Sustaining Member and participate in this retreat and Tricycle Online Retreats throughout the year.

Kindness Week One

November 30, 2009

Free Trial Teaching

Kindness Week Two

December 7, 2009

Sustaining Members Only

Kindness Week Three

December 14, 2009

Sustaining Members Only

Winter 2009

Vol. 19, No. 2

Do Nothing
A guided meditation by Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse Rinpoche

Dharma Wars
Buddhist bloggers beat each other up

Give the gift of dharma!

in this issue

Dharma Wars

By Zenshin Michael Haederle

It’s hardly news that Buddhists sometimes disagree— there is a long and colorful history of Buddhist teachers debating one another, often quite forcefully, over their understanding of the dharma. And American Buddhism has weathered its share of internecine conflicts, including sex scandals, financial shenanigans, and power abuses.
My Bad

I have heard people say, “The first time I sat down in the zendo, I knew I was home.” That certainly didn’t happen to me. Over thirty-five years ago, soon after I paid my first visit to the Berkeley Zen Center, there was a one-day sitting, and Abbot Mel Weitsman suggested to me that, since I was a beginner, I could just sit in the morning and leave at lunch.
Right Acting

I went to the Lee Strasburg Institute, which teaches an approach to acting that originated with Stanislavski in the Moscow Art Theatre. The first thing you do when you start to study is, you sit in a chair and try to become aware of your body and your muscles, releasing all tension.
The Heart of the Matter

By Thich Nhat Hanh

The quality of your action depends on the quality of your being. Suppose you’re eager to offer happiness, to make someone happy. That’s a good thing to do. But if you’re not happy, then you can’t do that.

daily dharma

Untie the Boat, December 24th, 2009

web features

Walking the Walk

By Pamela Gayle White

It was all going so well. Until this afternoon. I’ve been participating in the annual Chenrezi retreat in Swayambhu, next to Kathmandu, Nepal. My heart teacher, Sherab Gyaltsen Rinpoche, is leading 1,800 participants, virtually all of whom are Nepalese or Tibetan, in three and a half weeks of practice.
Jodo Shinshu: The Way of Shinran

Over the past few years, Tricycle has featured a number of articles about Jodo Shinshu, or Shin Buddhism, which developed from the insight of Shinran (1173-1263), a Japanese monk that Rev. Dr. Alfred Bloom calls a "towering figure" in Buddhism. Read the articles below to get a sense of Shinran and his teachings, and the modern practice of Jodo Shinshu.
Jeweled Demise

By Vicki Mackenzie

On the few occasions when I had visited him in his small room to ask a dharma question, his replies had been blunt and brief. To all external appearances, at least, he wasn't anything extraordinary. What were these curious and strangely moving relics? I began a journey of discovery to understand their meaning.
What Does Being a Buddhist Mean to You

Can teachers effectively spread the dharma through cyberspace? Are social networking sites a tool for change or a waste of time? We asked Tricycle readers what they thought, and this is how they responded. "If the Buddha were alive today, he would be blogging his teachings and holding web conferences. Well, he’s doing just that, in the form of living Buddhist teachers."
Growing Ground

By Steve Krieger

It began as a fine plan: replace the primitive outdoor toilets at our rural, monastic-style Zen Center. The head monk at the time was an idealistic German, and he made the final call to install composting toilets. CTs are based on a beautiful principle. It’s a principle with great metaphorical as well as practical value.

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tricycle blog

Taking a Risk

In order to practice, we have to surrender, we have to take a risk. Otherwise what we’re doing is standing back in order to judge, in order to feel superior. Often the obstacle is fear: we don’t think we’ll ever succeed. And so we’d rather stand apart and be cynical, to feel protected in that [...]

Finding Nirvana

When we’re idealistic, we—and many practitioners in Asian Buddhist countries as well—imagine that nirvana exists somewhere high in the Himalayas, reserved for monks who have meditated for the whole of their life. My own teachers—and other wonderful masters like Shunryu Suzuki Roshi—emphasize that nirvana is to be found here and now. In the morning and evening [...]

Caring for Others

The Buddha has suggested that we are without a mother and father to take care of things for us. Mother Earth, once thought to be all-forgiving and capable of absorbing any abuse we could heap upon her, is not the infinitely benevolent resource we thought she was. As we learn of our own mothers at [...]

The Happiness Revolution

To be truly happy in this world is a revolutionary act because true happiness depends upon a revolution in ourselves. It is radical change of view that liberates us so that we know who we are most deeply and can acknowledge our enormous ability to love. We are liberated by the truth that every single [...]

Facing Fear

Fear is what happens when reality collides with our personal fiction. Our practice is based on expectations—expectations about who we are, why we are practicing, and what our practice should be. As our hope disintegrates, it may be replaced by fear. Our characteristics, personality, all of our beautiful plans and ideas are like snowflakes about [...]

A Crossed Wire: Sharon Salzberg in The Huffington Post

Sharon Salzberg, who is leading Tricycle’s first online retreat, also found the time to pen this piece for the Huffington Post: “A Crossed Wire: A Call for Help.” Here’s a sample: I had a strange experience the other day. The landline in my NYC sublet had intermittently stopped working, for days on end. No dial tone, [...]

Just Now

The mind can do wonderful and unexpected things. Meditators who are having a difficult time achieving a peaceful state of mind sometimes start thinking, “Here we go again, another hour of frustration.” But often something strange happens; although they are anticipating failure, they reach a very peaceful meditative state. My first meditation teacher told me [...]

Zen Healthcare in the 21st Century

The New York Times reported on the much-needed hospital chaplaincy work of monks from the New York Zen Center for Contemplative Care. The piece sheds light on the increasing need for chaplaincy work in hospitals, where resources are stretched very thin and bedside care isn’t what it used to be (if it ever was.) Wendy Cadge, [...]

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