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Meditation
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    Choosing a time to meditate Paid Member

    Posted by Sam Mowe on 08 Apr 2011
    Plan to meditate at about the same time every day. Some people find it best to sit first thing in the morning; others find it easier to practice at lunchtime, or before going to bed at night. Experiment to find the time that works best for you. Then make a commitment to yourself. Write it in your datebook.I suggest you start by sitting for twenty minutes of meditation three times the first week—but if you'd rather start with a shorter time and gradually lengthen it, that's fine. Decide before each session how long it's going to be. (Set an alarm if you're worried about knowing when the time is up.) You'll add one more day of meditation in Week Two, another in Week Three, and two in Week Four, so that by the end of the month you'll have established a daily practice. More »
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    Breath Meditation Instructions from Sharon Salzberg Paid Member

    Posted by Philip Ryan on 06 Apr 2011
    Sharon Salzberg is now leading a Tricycle Retreat on The Five Hindrances, the five negative thought patterns that interrupt our practice (and life). The following meditation instructions are from pages 46-51 of her bestselling book Real Happiness: More »
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    Awake at the Wheel Paid Member

    Posted by Philip Ryan on 05 Apr 2011
    Last week, several Tricycle staffers traveled to Carmel, New York to visit the Venerable Bhikkhu Bodhi at Chuang Yen Monastery. Sam Mowe describes it here and provides some visual aids. (The monastery was pretty mind-blowing.) But he left out the driving part. Carmel is a bit off the beaten path and it's easiest to get there with a car. I drove. I don't remember why but it was a bit like musical chairs: We were at the car rental place and everyone piled into the car and I was left outside and the only empty seat was the driver's. So exercising the millennia-old "driver's privilege" of controlling the radio, for the ride back I decided to pop in Awake at the Wheel: Mindful Driving with Michele McDonald, which we've had in the office for a little while, but, since we live in New York City, we haven't had much chance to put into practice. More »
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    What to do when mindfulness is not easy Paid Member

    Posted by Sam Mowe on 31 Mar 2011
    The primary approach of mindfulness is to pay attention to what's happening and to develop a different relationship to our experience so that we're not rejecting it or hating it, but we're also not overwhelmed by it. So mindfulness has an inherent sense of balance. But the reality is that there are times when mindfulness is not that easy. We may be exhausted, or we may not be able to find balance through coming back to the breath, or mental noting, or other techniques we employ, or our mindfulness may be too intermittent. So there are a whole host of approaches to help us come back into balance and once again be mindful. It's fine to explore these methods instead of following a traditional mindfulness practice. Sometimes people think, "Oh, I blew it, I can't do the real thing." But it's not like that at all. More »
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    Sharon Salzberg's Real Happiness is back Paid Member

    Posted by Sam Mowe on 29 Mar 2011
    Back by popular demand, Sharon Salzberg's Real Happiness is available to Tricycle Community members for the month of April. So if you missed the Tricycle Book Club discussion in February, or didn't get to ask Sharon all of the questions you wanted to, this is your opportunity. Sharon will also be hosting a Tricycle Retreat this upcoming month, entitled "The Five Hindrances." Our hope is that the book and retreat combination will help enrich your meditation practices.From Real Happiness: More »
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    Thanissaro Bhikkhu visits Tricycle Paid Member

    Posted by Philip Ryan on 23 Mar 2011
    Thanissaro Bhikkhu, known to friends as Than Geoff, is in New York City to give a talk tonight at the Moving Body Resources center and was kind enough to stop by the Tricycle office. The weather is cold and rainy here, with a bit of snow mixed in, so he's used to better at his San Diego-area home of Metta Forest Monastery, where he is abbot. We spoke with him about a wide range of topics, including the Buddhist take on forgiveness and reconciliation. He then led us in a 20-minute guided meditation. We'll post the video of this next week. Than Geoff led one of our most popular Tricycle Retreats ever in January, which you can visit here. More »