Tricycle | Awake in the World

I'm happy to let you all know that Tricycle was awarded first prize in the Historical Travel category by the North American Travel Journalists Association (NATJA) for "Fearsome Roots in a Quiet Forest" by David Taylor. The article covered David's trip to North Carolina's Smoky Mountains in search of the elusive ginseng plant. It ran in the summer 2006 issue. Sharing first prize was Travel + Leisure; National Geographic Travel was runner up. Tricycle's managing editor, Ian Collins, did a great job editing the piece. Congratulations to him and David both! And while we're beating our chests, I can't forget to mention that this year, Tricycle received the Folio Silver Award for best spiritual title. More »

The Hindustan News reports that Gyansen Lama, a Tibetan monk in his 20s, is crawling all the way from Tibet to Bodh Gaya, the site of the Buddha's enlightenment beneath the Bodhi Tree. He has already cleared Nepal and, as of January 3, 2007, is about 110 kilometers from his goal. (He reportedly covers about 7 kilometers a day on average.) Curious crowds have gathered along the route to watch the spectacle of a monk wrapped in sackcloth with woolen gloves moving along the road "at a snail's pace." It is not clear how Gyansen Lama and his entourage of two monks crossed the border out of Tibet, but the ground in India must certainly feel softer and warmer than the roads in Tibet, where wool gloves seem like faint protection. - Philip Ryan, Webmaster More »

Maria Sudekum Fisher of the Associated Press reports on the growing number of services for Buddhists behind bars in an article printed in the Houston Chronicle (now on the Buddhist Channel.) The article cites Lama Chuck Stanford, the Buddhist representative of the Kansas City Interfaith Council, the Prison Dharma Network in Boulder, the Buddhist Peace Fellowship, Zen Mountain Monastery's National Buddhist Prison Sangha, and St. More »

Templestay Korea, an organization that first invited visitors to experience Korean Buddhist temple life during the 2002 World Cup Tournament, was hosting over 50,000 would-be Buddhists by 2005, according to the New York Times. The brainchild of Korea’s largest Buddhist order—the Jogye Order of Korean Buddhism—the program invites international guests to live the life of a monk for several days. Offerings vary to suit visitors’ tastes, and can include brief walking meditation retreats, sitting meditation, and calligraphy. Not all are so enthusiastic about the program, however, although it has grown to include 50 temples. One American scholar in Korea expressed tentative concern about the program’s merit. More »

A sutra was unearthed from one of the Buddhas of Bamiyan destroyed by the Taliban (and according to Swiss filmmaker Christian Frei, Osama Bin Laden) in 2001, according to Taiwan's China Post. The document, discovered by a German team, contains markings that may indicate a sponsor of the Buddhas' construction. (The city and monasteries in the Bamiyan valley were wiped out by Genghis Khan, according to a tendentious account of Afghan Buddhism.) Similar documents have been found inside Japanese Buddhas, but this is the first recorded instance of one being found inside an Afghan Buddha. More »

I would like to take this opportunity to intruduce Wellsprings of the Great Perfection, a book on the early Dzogchen masters and their poetry. It's a labor of love I've been working on over the last twelve years. Here are some excerpts: Throughout history great individuals have appeared to inspire others. They formulate their insights to help others transform their lives, and find meaning and happiness, even liberation and enlightenment. The philosophy and stories of these great ones, passed down by the first recipients, often have such a force and strength that thousands of years later, their lives and values continue to be sources of inspiration. The present recipient—always at the end of a long line, like at the water tap from a pipe originating at a mountain spring—must hear of the origin of the teaching and its teacher, to know and have trust in its authenticity, before turning on the water and drinking. More »

The Buddhist Channel reports on terrible atrocities committed to Indian Dalits. This is news because of the anniversary of Ambedkar's conversion to Buddhism, and the continued incentives for Dalits to leave the caste system. -Philip Ryan, Webmaster More »

*update* now there's video of the killing taken by a Romanian climber, first shown on Romanian TV, available on Youtube in English: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGrOh52p_aI the galling Chinese acknowledgement of the shooting, via the Australian paper The Age the climbers' accounts of the shooting, from mounteverest.net. -Andrew Merz, Associate Editor More »

The new hi-tech railroad to Lhasa, Tibet, has been getting lots of press lately, as much for its technological innovations as for the threat it poses to Tibetan culture; easier access means that many more Chinese settlers, who already greatly outnumber Tibetans in the capital. However, in case you were thinking the situation in Tibet had slowed to a colonial economic creep, here's a story straight from the days of the Iron Curtain. The BBC is reporting that a group of British climbers witnessed Chinese soldiers shoot and kill a young Tibetan nun trying to flee to Nepal with a group of other Tibetans. -Andrew Merz, Associate Editor More »