Tricycle | Awake in the World

In “What’s at Stake as the Dharma Goes Modern?” Tricycle contributing editor Linda Heuman explores the challenges posed to contemporary Buddhists and, by extension, to practitioners of all faith traditions by modern assumptions and attitudes. Heuman combines rigorous thought and research with concern for the actual living reality of religious practice: More »

Happy Belated Independence Day to India! The birthplace of Buddhism celebrated its 66th anniversary of independence on Wednesday. In another celebration, the San Francisco Zen Center, one of the largest sanghas in the United States, turned 50 on Monday, granting us the once in a lifetime opportunity to see a Shakyamuni Buddha bobblehead traversing the streets of San Francisco: More »

Next week we'll begin Shinzen Young's month-long Tricycle Online Retreat "What is Mindfulness?"  Through talks and guided practices, Shinzen will elucidate how mindfulness is defined from numerous points of view and discuss factors that could facilitate or inhibit a global mindfulness revolution. The practice sessions will parallel the talks and offer an experiential point of view. Retreat participants will also be guided in Breath Focus and explore how this practice develops four aspects of mindful awareness: concentration power, sensory clarity, equanimity, and insight. In this video, Shinzen Young speaks with Polly Young-Eisendrath, a Jungian psychologist and a student of Shinzen's, about the Vipassana he teaches and why it's important for students to understand the commonalities between different forms of mindfulness practice. More »

In a rare burst of creative energy, the Tricycle team went a step further when it came to illustrating Thanissaro Bhikkhu's article "Lost In Quotation," a piece about what we miss when we don't read the whole sutta. We actually created the art ourselves: We know. Artistic genius. In all seriousness, the amount of "fake Buddha quotes" in circulation, especially on the Internet, is staggering. Those Post-It note quotes might look nice on your refrigerator and in your day-planner, but they can actually be problematic. People end up formulating their perception of what the Buddha said based on these snapshot quotes that are often totally made up. More »

Week 2 of Josh Korda's retreat Making Friends with Your Demons and Hungry Ghosts: Buddhist Tools for Recovery begins today. Josh continues to explore and dismantle the magical illusion that we can get rid of life's stresses and discomforts by particular (often addictive) behavior patterns. Developing a peaceful breath along with cultivating wholesome mental states gives us the space to separate self-critical mental chatter from cyclically destructive behavior. The space cultivated by an easeful breath-body allows one to avoid being pushed and pulled by feeling of fear, despair and worry. This week, Josh offers the second and third foundations of mindfulness, a focus on feeling, moods and thoughts as another method to explore and ultimately let go of incessant, harmful states. 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. This week Jeff explains how teaching lineages are represented in paintings. Himalayan Buddhist Art 101: Teaching Lineages Depicted in Paintings More »

You might have seen it mentioned in last Friday's Buddha Buzz that there's a new interview between Stephen Batchelor and Don Cupitt over at the Secular Buddhist Association website called "The Future of Religion: A Dialogue." Tricycle printed its own dialogue between America's #1 Buddhist Atheist (that's Stephen) and Anglican priest Don Cupitt back in 2003 that you can read here. This new conversation between the two, which originally occurred in London in May, is extremely interesting but rather a lot to wade through. Here's a small excerpt—if it piques your interest, make sure to head on over to the Secular Buddhist Association website to read the conversation in its entirety. More »

Guess who's Buddhist now? Bill Clinton. Everybody's favorite proponent of the fourth precept ("I did not have sexual relations with that woman") is apparently learning how to meditate with the help of a Buddhist monk. I know, the article doesn't look too reliable. But still, it wouldn't surprise me if Bill were the latest public figure to jump on the Buddh"ish" bandwagon. The other Clinton has also been involved in Buddhist affairs this week. Here she is at the Shwedegon Pagoda in Burma, looking very happy indeed. 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. This week Jeff shows us how to properly read a painting. Reading a Painting, Part 1 More »