Tricycle | Awake in the World

If you haven't already, go ahead and vote on all the films on our Short Films Showcase—we have until Friday to decide which filmmaker rolls home with $1,000. We know that 25 films, even at 5 minutes a pop, is a lot, so we're featuring a few on the blog each day to help you make some key choices. More »

The Short Films Showcase voting continues. Because we know you don't have time to watch all 25 videos at once (even though they're only 5 minutes each) we're featuring couple on the blog each day to help you get through them. More »

This year's Tricycle | BuddhaFest Online Film Festival opens and closes with films by director Victress Hitchcock. The festival opener, Blessings: The Tsoknyi Nangchen Nuns of Tibet, is about a group of Western women who go to visit a group of nuns in Eastern Tibet who study under Tsoknyi Rinpoche. It's about the interactions between these two groups of women, the connections they make, and how they find ways to bridge the geographical and cultural gaps between them. It takes a hard look at the male dominated history of Buddhism in Tibet. It shows how these nuns—over 3,000 of them—are flourishing in over 35 nunneries. In short, it's an awesome and serious film. And, if you need another reason to watch, it's narrated by Richard Gere.  More »

What is the Tricycle | BuddhaFest Online Film Festival? The Tricycle | BuddhaFestOnline Film Festival is an online film festival hosted by Tricycle featuring six Buddhist films selected from the BuddhaFest film festival held in the Washington, DC area. (Learn more about the Washington-area event here.) How do I get access to see the films? All you need is an Online Festival Pass: $30 for Basic Members, $20 for Supporting and Sustaining Members. If you are currently a Basic Member, you can upgrade now and get your Festival Pass at the $20 preferred member rate. More »

Buddhist practice and Buddhist art have been inseparable in the Himalayas ever since Buddhism arrived to the region in the eighth century. But for the casual observer it can be difficult to make sense of the complex iconography. Not to worry—Himalayan art scholar Jeff Watt is here to help. In this "Himalayan Buddhist Art 101" series, Jeff is making sense of this rich artistic tradition by presenting weekly images from the Himalayan Art Resources archives and explaining their roles in the Buddhist tradition. Last week Watt unwound some of the confusion around peaceful and wrathful deities, and this week he leads us to pristine underestanding of wisdom deities. Himalayan Buddhist Art 101: Wisdom Deities More »

As we gear up for this year's Tricycle | BuddhaFest Online Film Festival we're revisiting some of the teachings that made last year's event so special. The following video is of Hugh Byrne at BuddhaFest in Washington, D.C. on June 19, 2011. For more information on the upcoming online festival (starts May 29) check out the schedule of films and dharma talks here. Hugh Byrne is a mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR), and somatic meditation teacher based in Washington DC, offering classes, consulting and retreats which give insight into pain management, and healing from trauma. More »

Who is the Angry Asian Buddhist? Nearly four years ago a blogger on the group blog "Dharma Folk" calling himself arunlikhati published a short blog post called "Angry Asian Buddhist," protesting the white-centric views of American Buddhist media and (some) American Buddhists themselves. Since then, he's become an outspoken critic of the various stereotypes swirling around the American dharma scene and an advocate of the discussion of race in our sanghas. arunlikhati now primarily blogs at "Angry Asian Buddhist", a site that has over the years proven to be no stranger to controversy. More »

Buddhist practice and Buddhist art have been inseparable in the Himalayas ever since Buddhism arrived to the region in the eighth century. But for the casual observer it can be difficult to make sense of the complex iconography. Not to worry—Himalayan art scholar Jeff Watt is here to help. In this "Himalayan Buddhist Art 101" series, Jeff is making sense of this rich artistic tradition by presenting weekly images from the Himalayan Art Resources archives and explaining their roles in the Buddhist tradition. Last week we explored gods and deities in Tantric Buddhism, and this week we will move the discussion onward to meditational deities. Himalayan Buddhist Art 101: Meditational Deities More »

Week 3 of Fleet Maull's online retreat, "Social Awakening: Realizing the Basic Goodness of Society," starts today! Throughout the month of May, Fleet will present a series of talks on how individuals can broaden their sense of spiritual path towards a more collective, societal level. This week's talk, "Social Virtuosity: Developing Confidence and Resilience Through the Discovery of Basic Goodness " is about learning how to settle into the fluidity that being open and trusting possesses. Through this fluidity, we will truly understand why society couldn't be anything other than innately good. Also, we will be able to establish a resilience to such an outlook, embracing our society no matter how hot and fetid its problems become. More »