Tricycle | Awake in the World

Segyu Rinpoche is the founder of the Juniper school, whose apt motto is "Buddhist Training for Modern Life." In this four-part retreat, the Brazilian-born teacher in the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism introduces us to the the four building blocks of transformation—meditation, balancing emotions, cultivating compassion, and developing insight. In his opening talk, Awakening the Mind and Meditation, Segyu Rinpoche instructs us in meditation, which he calls "the cornerstone of transformation." With his detailed instructions on posture and breathing, he emphasizes the importance of a steady and consistent practice if we're truly serious about training our minds. More »

Meditation month is wrapping up, and though I'm pretty sure I've achieved nothing, I have—I hope—developed some insight into "real happiness." The most pronounced of these is the insight that real happiness isn't so great. In fact, for anyone with half an imagination, it's opposite ("fake happiness," "conventional happiness"?) is far superior. While conventional happiness is filled with bouts of joy and connection, not to mention endless congratulations, awards and achievements, Cold Beer and Beautiful Girls, real happiness has something to do with sustained attention and—can't forget—accords with reality. More »

As we near the close of Meditation Month at Tricycle, I thought it'd be nice to leave you with some good reading. It's not easy to maintain a meditation practice for many of us. As laypeople especially, it's difficult to see ourselves through the clutter of life to the cushion. This is why it's important to make sure that our surroundings are conducive to practice. I find Thanissaro Bhikkhu's writing on this particularly helpful. As a busy layman, I need all the help I can get, and I've found the Thai forest monk's most recent book, With Each & Every Breath, particularly helpful. This is what he writes on how to optimize our surroundings for a steady meditation practice: More »

Biography and autobiography in Tibet are important sources for both education and inspiration. Tibetans have kept such meticulous records of their teachers that thousands of names are known and discussed in a wide range of biographical material. All these names, all these lives—it can be a little overwhelming. The authors involved in the Treasury of Lives are currently mining the primary sources to provide English-language biographies of every known religious teacher from Tibet and the Himalaya, all of which are organized for easy searching and browsing. Every Tuesday on the Tricycle blog, we will highlight and reflect on important, interesting, eccentric, surprising and beautiful stories found within this rich literary tradition. More »

The following is a guest post by writer and teacher Lisa Kremer.   Be mindful of the passing of time, and engage yourself in zazen as though saving your head from fire. —Dogen, 13th-century Japanese Zen master Eyes closed, the body comes into focus. I feel the touch of the ground beneath my sitting bones, the touch of my hands resting on crossed legs. The breath takes over; layers of the mind unfold. But today, on the threshold of the cave of consciousness, the walls of the cave—my body—grab hold. It is as if the vrittis (the whirling of thought and emotion) are embedded in the flesh itself. The skin, the muscle, the organs, the bones pulsate, calling me back. Look at me, my body says. Stay with me. Yes, watch me. Keep me safe. More »

The Wisdom 2.0 conference, a four-day gathering of the Silicon Valley crowd to address the intersections of spirituality, mindfulness, and technology, took place this past weekend. Author and conference attendee Jay Michaelson blogged his experiences at the summit here on the Tricycle blog throughout the weekend. Today's post covers the last day of the conference, which was yesterday. Let’s Get Real More »

The Wisdom 2.0 conference, a four-day gathering of the Silicon Valley crowd to address the intersections of spirituality, mindfulness, and technology, is taking place this weekend. Author and conference attendee Jay Michaelson will be blogging his experiences at the summit here on the Tricycle blog throughout the weekend. At Wisdom 2.0 today, I was talking with a senior dharma teacher, a veteran of the scene for thirty-odd years. “It used to be,” he told me, “that you could pretty much know everything that was going on in the American Buddhist scene. Now, it’s grown so much that that’s impossible, and it’s totally out of our control—and that’s okay.” More »

Many predominantly Buddhist countries in lower Asia are also home to substantial populations of Muslims. Likewise, a number of Muslim countries are home to Buddhist minorities. Majority-minority relations can be contentious, but add ethno-religious lines to the mix and things can easily degenerate from prejudicial policy-making to unbridled violence. (Take Rakhine Buddhist violence against the Rohingya Muslims in Burma, for example, which Tricycle covers in its most recent issue.) More »

The Wisdom 2.0 conference, a four-day gathering of the Silicon Valley crowd to address the intersections of spirituality, mindfulness, and technology, began yesterday. Author and conference attendee Jay Michaelson will be blogging his experiences at the summit here on the Tricycle blog throughout the weekend. Wisdom 2.0 opens with a challenge: “I hope we won’t be self-congratulatory this weekend.” Like many future Buddhists, I played ultimate Frisbee in college. Back then, there was a movement to make Ultimate an Olympic sport—a movement that ultimately failed because the hippies who made up the Ultimate Players’ Association didn’t want their countercultural niche invaded by the mainstream. More »