Tricycle | Awake in the World

You remember the uproar a year ago about a missing branch of the Bodhi Tree? As far as I know it was never resolved -- maybe the branch wasn't missing at all, and if it was, there was no clear trail to who took it, or damaged the tree. Here's an update that doesn't answer any interesting questions but says the tree is not looking so hot. Apparently the tree was diseased a few years back and needed some intervention, and the missing branch isn't helping much. Of course, it's not THE Bodhi Tree -- The article today says temple officials say it is a sixth-generation cutting from the original. More »

Check out the English version of pravda.ru for a Buddhist tie-in to the Virginia Tech killer. (They have an interesting take on the Imus situation too. If you're at all interested in how this Pravda connects with the well-known Soviet publication, see here. I'm guessing the Soviet one was a little less lewd, though the comments about the U.S. and Europe in the contemporary version wouldn't be out of place in the Brezhnev era. . . Brezhnev had incredibly intimidating eyebrows.) What this article really shows is a preposterous amount of overthinking and overanalysis bordering on the whimsical in our collective need to make sense of events like these. More »

The title of this post is (allegedly) the complete text of a speech made by D.T. Suzuki at U.C.L.A. back in the day. The story of this and other Buddhist ha-ha's here. (I realize ol' D.T. Suzuki is way way way out of fashion in contemporary Buddhist thinking, and is so for a lot of reasons, but once upon a time he was one of my -- and a lot of other people's -- first glimpses into something new. And people are still being introduced to Zen Buddhism -- D.T.'s own special blend of it, that is -- through his work. Someone is learning about Buddhism in one of his books right now! . . . Probably. Like, did anyone else try and read those Bernard Faure books, in school or out? Speaking of very hard to understand. More »

It was a pleasant surprise to see that fast-food giant Burger King has decided to give preferential treatment to providers of cage-free eggs and cruelty-free pork. It doesn't take much exposure to the horrors of how animals are raised for food to make even the most carnivorous human take pause. I've heard that farmers and those who deal with the animals while they are alive, and while they are being killed for our dinner plates, are (generally speaking) very strongly supportive of more humane ways for these animals to live and die. Of course, those of us walking by the tidy shrink-wrapped packages in the refrigerated section of the local supermarket don't have to think about this much if we don't want to. And not all of us have the luxury of choosing to pay more for organic / cruelty-free / cage-free whatever... More »

Kudos to Jeff Wilson, whose blog post at the end of December continues to inspire lively discussion. It’s a good bit of information to keep in mind that most Buddhists do not meditate; just like many of our Asian counterparts, we are often ignorant of other forms of Buddhist practice. Tibetans never referred to their dharma as “Tibetan dharma”; nor did Sri Lankans consider their dharma anything but dhamma. It is Western historical scholarship that began the study of comparative religion, and it is in the West where we find most forms of Buddhism thriving side by side. So it’s an excellent point Jeff makes: The forms of Buddhism most common among Western converts make up only a very thin slice of the global Buddhist pie. But do numbers matter? More »

There's no shortage of Buddhist websites these days---see our links for evidence---but few are as entertaining and wide-ranging as theworsthorse.net, edited by my friend Rod Meade Sperry. Taking pop-culture and sub-culture as its starting points, TWH covers a lot of ground. The feature articles exhibit the strength of the site: an unfailing ability to get to the salient dharmic core of the many shapes Buddhism is taking in modern culture. Generally, this is accomplished with humor, sensitivity, and intelligence. The reader participation is impressive---don't miss "Body Vows," the collection of tattoos submitted by practitioners, with their stories---and a feeling of community permeates the site, without social networking being the thrust of the whole thing. More »

The People's Daily Online reports that the rail link to Lhasa allowed many more Buddhist pilgrims to attend the December 27th Sera Bengqin Festival at Sera Monastery than in previous years. As the People's Daily put it, "Tibet ended its history without a railway in July 2006," but the railroad has brought more concern than jubilation for Tibetans, who understandably would rather diminish than strengthen their ties with "mainland" China. When the railway first opened I read about the Tibetan plateau's fragile ecosystem, home to several unique species, and rather like an island in biological terms. More »

Here I am, on Monday morning, writing my Friday blog entry. Whenever I'm late I think back to what was probably the first talk I heard on the five precepts, the standard ethical guidelines for us lay Buddhists. One of the many points made that had me shaking my head in resignation to the irrefutable logic of the precepts - at that point I was still learning the basics, but I already had that feeling that there was no turning back (arg!) - was a very interesting interpretation of the second precept, undertaking to abstain from taking the not-given. My teacher pointed out that one thing some of us often take from others without their giving of it is time. More »

I remember reading somewhere a while back (it's pretty foggy) about what a modern-day Zen teacher (or he might have been Tibetan) said when asked about the skillfulness or use of laughter. His response was something to the effect of "I love laughter, because you can't think conceptual thoughts when you're laughing." The room full of eager students no doubt broke down in side-splitting non-conceptual thought. It's an interesting point, but I'm not sure I agree with it. Concepts, some gross (in both senses of the word), some more subtle, are so often the basis of what is making us laugh that I have trouble believing that it just shuts off with the rising of the first giggle. I like the quote mostly because it is proof that Buddhist teachers aren't against laughter (and it is short enough to more or less remember). Personally, the dharma and humor have always been highly complementary, and I believe both cultivate the same healthy perspective on life. More »