At the Tricycle Book Club: An Interview With David Loy September 7, 2010
Posted by Sam Mowe in : Books, Interview, Tricycle Community , add a comment
David Loy is going to be at the Tricycle Book Club Monday, September 20 to discuss his latest book, The World is Made of Stories.
If you are planning on joining the conversation (or aren’t sure yet and need some convincing), you will enjoy listening to a Q&A about the book between Loy and Tricycle’s Joan Duncan Oliver. During the interview Loy explains the big subject of his little book: what constitutes a story and why it matters. He also reads an excerpt from the The World is Made of Stories.
Listen to it here the Tricycle Book Club. If you’re not yet a Tricycle Community Member you’ll have to sign up in order to give it a listen, but—don’t worry!—it’s free and easy.
Buy the book from Wisdom Publications here.
David Loy is a frequent Tricycle contributor. His previous books include The Great Awakening: A Buddhist Social Theory and The Dharma of Dragons and Daemons. He is the Besl Professor of Ethics/Religion and Society at Xavier University in Cincinnati.
David Loy at the Tricycle Book Club September 1, 2010
Posted by Sam Mowe in : Books, Buddhism, Events, Tricycle Community , add a commentJoin us Monday, September 20 at the Tricycle Book Club for the discussion of David Loy’s The World is Made of Stories. In this small book about big ideas, Loy attempts to tell the story of stories by engaging in a playful, energetic dialogue with wisdom quotations from a wide variety of sources. Everything that we know, Loy contends, we know from stories. He writes: “We play at the meaning of life by telling different stories.”
If stories hold this much power, and we’re all storytellers (Loy also points out that to not tell a story is to tell a story), then what can we take away from this understanding? What stories should we tell about ourselves and our world?
Come talk it out with us at the Tricycle Book Club. It’s free and easy to sign up. We’re looking forward to seeing you there.
Buy the book from Wisdom Publications here.
David Loy is a frequent Tricycle contributor. His previous books include The Great Awakening: A Buddhist Social Theory and The Dharma of Dragons and Daemons. He is the Besl Professor of Ethics/Religion and Society at Xavier University in Cincinnati.
Freeing the Body, Freeing the Mind: Yoga & Buddhism August 20, 2010
Posted by Philip Ryan in : Buddhism, Buddhist Teachings, Tricycle Community , 1 comment so far
Starting Monday, we’ll be discussing the new book Freeing the Body, Freeing the Mind: Writings on the Connections Between Yoga & Buddhism in the Tricycle Community Book Club.
Freeing the Body, Freeing the Mind
Shambhala Publications, 2010, $18.95 paper
For a 30% discount, use the code BODYMIND when you purchase it!
“The main thrust of this book has to do with the possibility of freedom and how great teachers like the Buddha, Patanjali, Dogen, and Nagarjuna, among others, understood freedom and consequently described a path, or at least repeatable techniques, that create the conditions for genuine realization. All of the contributors herein are practitioners first and thinkers second, and we are all writing from personal experience having practiced within and between these two systems for many years.”
—from the introduction to Freeing the Body, Freeing the Mind
Over the years, I’ve found it increasingly frustrating that Yoga is continually reduced to a body practice and Buddhism to a mind practice. This makes no sense at all. Anyone who has practiced deeply in both traditions knows that the Buddha gave attention to the body and Patanjali to the mind, and that both traditions value ethical precepts and commitments as the foundation of an appropriate livelihood.
Read the rest of Michael Stone’s introduction here. (You need to be a member of the Tricycle Community to view Book Club content, but it’s easy to join, and free!)
The book is edited by Michael Stone. The foreword is by Robert Thurman. Contributors include Ajahn Amaro Bhikku, Shosan Victoria Austin, Frank Jude Boccio, Christopher Key Chapple, Eido Shimano Roshi, Ari Goldfield and Rose Taylor, Chip Hatranft, Ming Qing Sifu (Daniel Odier), Roshi Pat Enkyo O’Hara, Sarah Powers, Jill Satterfield, Mu Seong, and Michael Stone .
Church bans yoga July 29, 2010
Posted by James Shaheen in : Buddhism, Random Notes, Tricycle Community , 7 commentsReading the tabloids is a bad habit I’ve developed this summer. I’ve weaned myself off most of them, though, but I can’t quite quit the British tabloid the Sun (”Got a story? We pay £££”). Today’s edition reports that a Methodist church near Manchester has banished an over-50s yoga group, leaving elderly yogis throwing up their hands. The church’s new minister fears the yogis could be preaching “rival religions”—more specifically, Hinduism and Buddhism. Iris Turner, a 64-year-old yogini, isn’t happy with the church’s new minister, Rev. Amanda Roper: “Her views are extreme,” she tells the Sun. “We are hurt, disappointed and offended.” Mrs. Turner invited Rev. Roper to take part in the classes “to allay her fears.”
A few more of today’s Sun headlines:
“Muslims Pray in the Wrong Direction“:
Indonesians have been facing Africa, not Mecca, when praying: The Sun reports that “Indonesia’s highest Islamic body has admitted making a mistake when issuing advice on which direction followers should pray in.”
“Nuns on the Run from Retirement“:
Two French nuns have taken flight because their mother superior wants to put them in a retirement home.
I think it’s the Sun’s spiritual coverage that keeps me coming back.
Image: Taken from the New Concorde Area Arts & Recreation District’s site. The Ohio organization offers yoga classes at a Methodist Church.
Coming Soon to the Tricycle Community: A Discussion on the Poems of “the angry monk,” Gendun Chopel July 19, 2010
Posted by Monty McKeever in : Art, Books, Buddhism, Events, News, Random Notes, Tibetan Buddhism, Tricycle Community , 2 comments
Join us at the Tricycle Community Poetry Club from July 26th through August 2nd for a discussion with Professor Donald S. Lopez Jr., the translator and editor of In the Forest of Faded Wisdom: 104 Poems by Gendun Chopel. A highly regarded modern Tibetan poet, Gendun Chopel is also known as “the angry monk.”
Here is Lopez’s commentary on poem number 33. The poem itself is below:
When Gendun Chopel departed from his home in Amdo, setting off for Lhasa and Drepung Monastery in 1927, he was accompanied by an uncle and his son, Gendun Chopel’s cousin. The three parted ways in Lhasa, with the uncle becoming a meditator and the cousin doing odd jobs to earn money to support Gendun Chopel and his father. Several years after arriving in Lhasa, the cousin was killed in an accident. Gendun Chopel wrote this poem about his death.
This is perhaps Gendun Chopel’s most poignant poem, combining powerful Buddhist imagery with a deep expression of grief. There are many Buddhist stories of equanimity at the death of others, even family members, because death is the fate that awaits all those born into samsara. Gendun Chopel knows that to be true—he alludes to classical Buddhist teachings at several points in the poem—yet this knowledge does little to counter the sense of loss at the death of his childhood friend.
33.
The wealth of the world is mist on the mountain pass.
My closest friends, but guests on market day.
Uncertain joys and sorrows are last night’s dream.
I think and think; they have no essence.
Led by the unknown envoy of Yama,
My friend wanders the long and narrow path to the next life.
Sublime refuge, three divine foundations,
Please be his compassionate guide.
Being born then dying is the nature of samsara.
Its manifestation, the illusion that nothing changes.
The royal decree of relentless Yama
Has befallen my helpless friend.
When the drizzle of past prayers and deeds is falling
The afternoon rainbow appears, seeming so real.
When the sun of yearning begins to shine
It vanishes in the realm of invisible sky.
Dear childhood friend, radiant half of my heart,
When the flower of youth blossomed,
The streams of our minds mixed.
Where in the six realms could you be now?
At the end of three days of bountiful friendship
In the narrow riverbed of Gyisho Lhasa
We promised to meet before too long.
The time has come to meet within a dream.
All beings, old, young, those in between,
See what unpredictable death looks like.
Yet there is no means to end the inner grief
Of those left behind by childhood friends.
To feel remorse at someone’s death is foolish;
It only ruins the body and mind.
Yet I cannot overcome the accustomed,
This habit of mind so long familiar.
As your body lay dying, a skeleton’s image appeared;
Hoping only to remain alive,
You stared with death’s eyes,
If what they say is true, it devours my heart.
In the way things appear to the ordinary mind,
You are still with me; you seem so real.
When the bow of memory is bent,
It only causes an empty heart.
Pondering how love and friendship endure,
I dispatch to my friend in the land beyond
The few good things I’ve done
In the field of the infallible three jewels.
Rodney Smith at the Tricycle Community Book Club July 13, 2010
Posted by Sam Mowe in : Buddhist Teachings, Tricycle Community , add a comment
Join us Monday, July 26 at the Tricycle Community Book Club for the discussion of Rodney Smith’s Stepping Out of Self-Deception: The Buddha’s Liberating Teaching of No-Self. Smith dives into the depths of the Buddha’s teachings on no-self and impermanence, while remaining accessible and skillfully avoiding the risk of superficiality. It’s one of those rare books that will appeal to both newcomers and to those with experience on the spiritual grind.
From the introduction:
The Buddha’s Eightfold Path can either build upon or dismantle the sense-of-self, depending upon how we use it. When aligned within its proper orientation, the path appears like a perfectly formed diamond, each link complementing the beauty of the whole. After my meeting with Nisargadatta, the Buddha’s teaching became breathtaking in its simplicity and elegance. The entire path was, and had always been, accessible. Prolonged retreats in silence or conversations over dinner had the same reference point. Nothing was ever at odds with its opposite. Every practice and action had its place and appropriate time, but never contradicted nor enhanced what was already here. Everything was perfectly together, and every movement arose from that perfection.
This was the beginning of my understanding of lay Buddhism. A lay Buddhist is one who fully embodies his or her entire life of work, family, and relationships without spiritually prioritizing any activity. From this perspective all moments are equally precious, and whether we are practicing formal meditation on retreat or showing up for ordinary moments of our lay life, freedom is never diminished. The unequivocal resolve not to move away from where we are is essential. Once we abandon the belief that there is a more spiritually useful moment than the one we are in, we have embraced our life and infused it without he energy for awakening.
Rodney Smith is the founding and guiding teacher of the Seattle Insight Meditation Society and a guiding teacher of the Insight Meditation Society, Barre, Massachusetts.
Book Club members can receive a generous 30% discount on the book and free shipping in the US through our friends at Shambhala Publications. Order your book here and type in the sales code: NOSELF. This offer ends August 6.
Bonnie Myotai Treace on Generosity and Attention July 12, 2010
Posted by Monty McKeever in : Buddhism, Buddhist Teachings, Environment, Meditation, Mindfulness, News, Tricycle, Tricycle Community, Zen , add a commentWeek 2 of Bonnie Myotai Treace’s Tricycle Retreat begins today. In this week’s talk she elaborates on last week’s theme of generosity and introduces the theme of attention. While stressing the importance of attention in practice she tells a story of a Japanese Emperor that visited a Zen master asking for a great teaching. In response to the Emperor’s request the master painted a calligraphy of the character for ‘attention.’ The Emperor thanked him but stated he was looking for more of a teaching than one simple character. Upon being asked to elaborate on this teaching, the master’s response was simply to once again paint the character on another piece of paper and hand it to him. This apparently went on for quite some time. Eventually the Emperor saw that this repetitive action WAS the great teaching—that one must come back to attention again and again and again.
Myotai Sensei also discusses the shared pain people are feeling regarding tragic oil spill in the gulf. She explains,
For most of us there is an experienced common pain around what has been happening in the Gulf of Mexico on a daily basis. For most of us, we awaken and its not too long into the day until we are reminded of the visceral reality of the situation—the pain of the organic physical death of a life system and the coating of oil onto dolphins, sea turtles, pelicans, and plankton. The pain is real and is in our bodies. “What to do?”, “how to do”, and “where to place our mind, our effort, our attention”, are real questions.
The challenge of attention when in pain is how to not deny the pain as it is and also not to reify it. I want to take a moment together, in terms of that kind of challenge—the call of attention when there is pain present, whether it is physical, environmental, or psychological—and practice together the generosity, the dedication to be true, real, and awake, and the skillful attention that does not deny or reify our pain.
Sustaining Members can watch the whole talk here. To become or learn more about Sustaining Membership, click here.
Bonnie Myotai Treace is the Founder and Spiritual Director of Hermitage Heart, and Bodies of Water Zen. Myotai teaches from Gristmill Hermitage, the retreat house of Hermitage Heart in Garrison, New York.
Bonnie Myotai Treace established and was the Abbess of the Zen Center of New York City (Fire Lotus Temple) and served for over a decade as the Vice Abbess of Zen Mountain Monastery. Rigorously trained in koan Zen as well as in the subtle school of Master Dogen’s Zen, she studied for over twenty years both the Rinzai as well as Soto lines of Zen Buddhism. The first dharma heir of John Daido Loori Roshi of the Mountains and Rivers Order, she received full transmission in 1996 in the Harada-Yasutani lineage.
Watch her first video, “Nothing to Give: Giving It All” here.
Learn about Myotai Sensei’s sangha, Hermitage Heart. Order a Water Mala Bowl (as seen in the video) which includes a donation to Myotai Sensei’s sangha.
Deep Roots Need Good Soil
Posted by Monty McKeever in : Buddhism, Buddhist Teachings, Tricycle Community , 3 commentsToday’s Daily Dharma:
If you have a supportive sangha, it’s easy to nourish your bodhicitta, the seeds of enlightenment. If you don’t have anyone who understands you, who encourages you in the practice of the living dharma, your desire to practice may wither. Your sangha—family, friends, and copractitioners—is the soil, and you are the seed. No matter how vigorous the seed is, if the soil does not provide nourishment, your seed will die. A good sangha is crucial for the practice. Please find a good sangha or help create one.
-Thich Nhat Hanh, “The Fertile soil of Sangha”
Read the complete article here.
Sign up to receive Tricycle’s Daily Dharma email here.
This is Getting Old: A discussion on aging at the Tricycle Community Book Club June 24, 2010
Posted by Philip Ryan in : Books, General, Tricycle Community, Zen , add a comment
We’re discussing Susan Moon’s new book, This is Getting Old: Zen Thoughts on Aging with Humor and Dignity, at the Tricycle Community Book Club this week. You can also listen to an interview with the author before moving on to the discussion. Bodhipaksa (known online for, among other things, his Fake Buddha Quotes) calls Susan Moon “one of Buddhism’s funniest writers.”
Moon is the former editor of Turning Wheel and author of the comic cult classic The Life and Letters of Tofu Roshi. Her new book deals with everything from caring for her aged mother to going on camping trips with her children to the difficulties of sitting zazen as we age in this tender and moving account of a life lived, aging and all.
Much of it is simultaneously poignant and funny. For example:
I’m learning to meet my most intimate needs without a significant other now. I keep a long-handled bamboo backscratcher on my bedside table. I’ve named it “My Husband.” It’s like having my cake and eating it, too—I’m getting those hard-to-reach places between the shoulder blades scratched without having to pick up anyone else’s socks.
Discuss Susan Moon’s This is Getting Old here—you’ll need to join the Book Club on the Tricycle Community, but it’s easy—and free.
Book Club members can receive a generous 30% discount on the book and free shipping in the US through our friends at Shambhala Publications. Order your book here and type in the sales code: OLDBONES. This offer ends 6/30.
Blogwatch: Musings June 16, 2010
Posted by Monty McKeever in : Buddhism, Buddhist Teachings, General, Meditation, Random Notes, Review, Tibetan Buddhism, Tricycle Community, Tricycle Retreats , add a commentI recommend checking out Musings by author, teacher, translator—and blogger—Ken McLeod. An excellent
teacher, McLeod does just this in the vast majority of his blog: He teaches. Through simple practice tips and personal reflections, McLeod strikes an impressive balance between simplicity and depth which makes his blogs both instantly accessible as well as very useful. It is very practice-oriented and can serve as a great online resource for any regular meditator with an internet connection.
While his recent Tricycle Online Retreat contained lengthy in-depth talks on his translation of the 11th-century Indian Tilopa’s Ganges Mahamudra text, Ken’s blog often contains much simpler references. For example, in November he posted a blog using the fairy tale about Goldilocks and the three bears to explain the Middle Way.
In his most recent post, he discusses the topic of “capacity” as it pertains to meditation practice.
In a previous note, I talked about willingness, know-how and capacity as they apply to practice. Here, I go into more detail on capacity.
Capacity has four dimensions: depth, staying power, versatility, and resilience.
To develop depth, let your attention rest on the breath (or other object of attention) and let the object completely absorb you. Do this for short periods, being clear and aware. If you do this for too long, you will likely fall into trance states, a form of dullness, or start to block experience, a form of suppression.
To develop staying power, rest in the experience of breathing, letting the resting become more and more complete, resting with whatever arises, relaxation, tension, etc. You can do this for longer periods, but only as long as actual resting is happening. When you aren’t able to rest, take a break and come back.
To develop versatility, rest attention in the experience of breathing in different situations. Begin with easier situations and extend to more challenging ones. Again, short periods of clear stable attention are better.
And to develop resilience, learn to recognize the rhythms of practice, work deeply when conditions are right, and take a break when you feel dull, brittle, or tired. Resilience develops through the combination of making efforts and taking breaks before the effort causes any damage.”
Visit Musings here.