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Tricycle Retreat: Meditation in Motion
Jill Satterfield has taught meditation and yoga exercises in a number of different traditions. For our February Tricycle Retreat, "Meditation in Motion," which begins on Feburary 6th, Jill will lead us on a journey of meditation combined wih movement. We're all aware that some sort of movemment practice is essential for a healthy lifestyle, yet many of ua delay putting it into practice. In February you'll have to chance to put an end of delaying and excuses and join us on a journey toward peaceful, healthy living.
In teh preview of her Week 1 teaching below, Jill discusses different ways of doing breathing exercises, which, she points out, can get a little boring. Join us at tricycle.com February 6th for Meditation in Motion with Jill Satterfield.
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Bonnie Myotai Treace, Sensei to teach at NYC's Japan Society
Bonnie Myotai Treace, Sensei, is coming to teach at NYC's Japan Society! In March and April, she will be leading a six-week workshop called "Exquisite Way: Japanese Aesthetic Principles and Zen Practice." The workshop will cover zazen instructions for any Zewbies (that's Zen newbies), and will then discuss the following:
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Tricycle Talks: Ken McLeod speaks to Richard Eskow, Part 2 of 3
At the 2011 Buddhist Geeks conference (the next will be in Boulder in August 2012) Tricycle Contributing Editor Richard Eskow spoke to teacher and translator Ken McLeod. Their conversation was so fruitful they decided to meet up after the conference and continue talking, and they were gracious enough to share it with us. Part 2 of their conversation is below.
In this second of three installments, they discuss the controversial idea of the Buddha as a scientist. This sounds very clinical and rational, but McLeod points out that the very idea of being a scientist is itself based on a set of beliefs. "Science," McLeod says, "is the unacknowledged religion of our age."
Part 1 of this discussion is here.
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Tricycle Community Members Respond to Film Club's Being in the World
Our current Film Club movie is Tao Ruspoli's Being in the World, a discussion of what it means to be human, and how to be human, in a world dominated by impersonal technology. The film features interviews with prominent philosophers and footage of remarkable humans: among them, a flamenco guitarist with a beard like Santa Claus and the soul of a true poet, a graceful juggler, and a female chef who whips up food in a hot pink chef's jacket.
It's a beautiful film with deep, layered messages and meanings. As Tricycle community member MarkG commented:
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Art of Gandhara in Tricycle's Gallery
Images of art from Gandhara (modern day NW Pakistan and eastern Afghansitan) are now on display in Tricycle’s gallery. These images are pulled from a larger collection of art, published in a bound catalogue representing an exhibition held at the Asia Society Museum in New York City in 2011. The pieces were on loan from museums in the cities of Karachi and Lahore, Pakistan.
The art of Gandhara is exciting and stunning, embodying a confluence of Vedic, Persian, Syrian, Hellenistic culture. Most of the art dealing with Buddhism came during the flourishing time of the Kushan people, around 1st C.E. During this time a large number of stupas were established, and a considerable portion of sculpture from Gandhara provided adornment for these temples.
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Tricycle Talks #5: Roshi Bodhin Kjolhede
Bodhin Kjolhede is the roshi and abbot of the Rochester Zen Center in Rochester, New York. Founded by Philip Kapleau in 1966, RZC is one of the oldest and largest centers of Zen practice outside Asia.
Roshi Kjolhede is leading the January Tricycle Retreat, The Precepts as Practice, and speaks to us in the Tricycle Talk about whether "enlightened masters" can move beyond the need to follow the precepts, how the precepts differ from the Ten Commandments, and how someone who has fallen off the wagon and is not living according to the precepts can get back on track.
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The 6th and 7th Precepts
6. I resolve not to speak of the faults of others, but to be understanding and sympathetic.
7. I resolve not to praise myself and disparage others, but to overcome my own shortcomings.
The fourth teaching of Roshi Bodhin Kjolhede's Tricycle Retreat, The Precepts as Practice, narrows our focus from analyzing all the Precepts, as we have done with Roshi Kjolhede's guidance so far, to looking in depth at just two: Precepts 6 and 7, given above in the form used in Roshi Kjolhede's sangha at the Rochester Zen Center. (Note: This is most likely not the etymology of the phrase, "at sixes and sevens"!)
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Tao Ruspoli on his film Being in the World
We have a wonderful film showing now at the Tricycle Film Club. Being in the World, presented by Alive Mind Cinema, is a celebration of human beings and our ability to find meaning in the world around us. It features interviews with some renowned philosophers, from Harvard to Berkeley, along with footage of modern day masters—people who have learned to respond creatively and sensitively to the requirements of their craft. The film is directed by Tao Ruspoli, who was singled out by Moviemaker magazine as one of the "10 Young Filmmakers To Watch" in its spring 2008 issue. Tricycle Supporting and Sustaining Members can watch the film here. Not a member? Become one here.
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Buddha Buzz: Yue-yue, Jon Kabat-Zinn, and an Anonymous Monk
Our first Buddha Buzz item this week was brought to my attention by a Tweet from the blogger behind American Buddhist Perspective, Justin Whitaker. It's about a photo that recently struck a chord with China and the world, of an anonymous monk praying over the dead body of a man in a Chinese train station:
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The importance of spiritual friends
Too often, January is a time for breaking vows and letting ourselves down, and with the gloomy weather on top of it all, we can find ourselves feeling down in the dumps. To remedy this, and to keep ourselves and our practices on track in 2012, we enlisted Roshi Bodhin Kjolhede of the Rochester Zen Center—sometimes called the Boot Camp of American Zen—to keep us on course.
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Tricycle Talks: Ken McLeod speaks to Richard Eskow, Part 1 of 3
At the 2011 Buddhist Geeks conference (the next will be in Boulder in August 2012) Tricycle Contributing Editor Richard Eskow got into a bunch of stimulting conversations. One of those he spoke with was a fellow frequent contributor to Tricycle, teacher and translator Ken McLeod. They decided to meet up after the conference and continue their conversation, and they were gracious enough to share it with us. Part one of their conversation is below.
In this wide-ranging discussion, they touch on a fascinating point that Eskow characterizes as a "dirty little secret" of the dharma: the question of paying for teachings. Listen below.
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Tricycle Talks: Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche
Listen to Tricycle's Sam Mowe speak with Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche about his new book Tibetan Yogas of Body, Speech, and Mind, which we're currently reading at the Tricycle Book Club. Topics include: What is the relationship between body, speech, and mind? How do these three "doors" serve as entrances and exits to the spiritual path? How does identifying where our pain is help us to transcend it? Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche is the founder and spiritual director of Ligmincha Institute. Recognized as one of the few Bön masters now living in the West, he is known for his clear, engaging style and his ability to bring the ancient Tibetan teachings into a contemporary format that is relevant for Westerners.
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Tricycle Retreats: The Five Grave Precepts
In this, the third teaching of his Tricycle Retreat, "The Precepts as Practice," Roshi Bodhin Kjolhede delves into the Five Grave Precepts, the first half of the Ten Cardinal Precepts. Here they are as spoken in Roshi Kjolhede's own sangha, the Rochester Zen Center:
1. I resolve not to kill, but to cherish all life. 2. I resolve not to take what is not given, but to respect the things of others. 3. I resolve not to misuse sexuality, but to be caring and responsible. 4. I resolve not to lie, but to speak the truth. 5. I resolve not to cause others to abuse alcohol or drugs, nor to do so myself, but to keep the mind clear.
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Buddha Buzz: Religious Freedom, Swastikas, and the Giving High
We're starting off this week's Buddha Buzz with a pretty clear example of religious intolerance in Hudson, Wisconsin. Don Chering, a Buddhist, put up an American flag and a string of Tibetan prayer flags on the day that his son left for U.S. Army basic training. The flags stretch across the front of his house and over his garage door.
Soon, his landlady contacted him with an order from the Homeowners Association in charge of the housing complex where Chering lives to remove the flags (it's unclear as of yet if they are requesting that the American flag be removed as well).
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Special Karma
This fall a copy of Merry White Benezra's novel Special Karma: A Zen Novel of Love and Folly arrived in the Tricycle office. The book closely tracks the experiences of the narrator, Iris (modeled on the author,) as she makes her way through an unspecified Zen Monastery dealing with an unspecified and unscruplulous Roshi. Those who have paid attention to the Zen scandals that finally broke through to the mainstream recently will know just what is being referred to, and Ms. Benezra clearly speaks from experience. But even if you have no idea what the book might be based on, you will still be able to understand the book.
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Tricycle Talks: Patrick Groneman, Executive Director of the Interdependence Project
Welcome to our second Tricycle Talk: our new audio interviews with Buddhists of note.
Today Tricycle Editorial Assistant Emma Varvaloucas speaks with Patrick Groneman, the Executive Director of the Interdependence Project (IDP). Not familiar with IDP or their work? Listen to the interview below to hear about IDP's mission, their experiences meditating at Occupy Wall Street's Zuccotti Park, and whether bearing witness at protest sites is a truly effective social activism tool.
As Groneman says in the interview, it is important to examine your own intention when meditating in public:
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See Zen Practice from the Inside with Old Plum Mountain
If you haven't done a sesshin, you can take a peek into this rarified (yet totally ordinary) world with the documentary Old Plum Mountain: The Berkeley Zen Center—Life Inside the Gate, directed by Ed Herzog and now showing at the Tricycle Film Club.
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Richard Gere to receive prestigious George Eastman Award
Actor/activist Richard Gere, who recently made headlines by calling China "the largest hypocrisy in the world" has been tapped to receive the prestigious George Eastman Award. He will attend a ceremony to receive the award on February 16th in Rochester, New York. (Gere hails from nearby Syracuse.) The award is given out for "distinguished contribution to the art of film." Tickets to the event (which are a bit pricey) go on sale January 17th. The giver of the award, George Eastman House itself is a magnificent museum celebrating photography and film in a beautiful historic building.
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Burma in 2012: A Political Report Card
This guest blog post is from Deborah Weinberg, who is currently traveling in Burma (Myanmar). The post originated as an email to the author's friends and was forwarded to Tricycle—it is being published with her permission. In it, she tells us of Burma's new year political report card: A fresh wind of freedom is in the air, she says. Burma recently gained political attention when U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited the country in late November, ending a fifty-year estrangement between the U.S. and Burma. Despite this and though the government has been promising to continue reforms, Weinberg writes, "The generals are still holding the cards."
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