Home › Blog › Random Notes

Random Notes
  • Tricycle Community 0 comments

    All Aboard for Shigatse Paid Member

    Posted by tricycleblog on 04 Apr 2007
    China's at it again, extending its railroad network from Lhasa to Shigatse, seat of Tashi Lhunpo Monastery, traditional seat of the Panchen Lama (a political prisoner of the Chinese government since 1995.) The railroad China built to Lhasa has a lot of superlatives attached to it, longest, tallest, coldest, whatever. Anyway, it's a great achievement. Why are totalitarian states so good at railroads? The more repressive the government, the more they like to play with trains. (So apparently Mussolini didn't make the trains run on time. But he still talked about trains.) I suppose that should make Americans feel better about Amtrak. More »
  • Tricycle Community 2 comments

    BuddhaTrain Paid Member

    Posted by tricycleblog on 12 Mar 2007
    Gee, I wish I could ride this train. But it doesn't seem to be in the cards right now. In the meantime I'm left wondering what's happened to Big Red Buddha. Does anyone know? Like a lot of Republican candidates, BRB doesn't seem to have survived the November elections. I haven't seen Miso on any soymilk cartons either. And I've been looking. I'm also considering starting a campaign against the annoying contextual ad, "Buddah Monk Ringtones". You've probably seen it if you've been poking around the Buddhist web. More »
  • Tricycle Community 1 comment

    Railway brings "huge surge" of visitors to Tibet Paid Member

    Posted by tricycleblog on 15 Feb 2007
    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 »
  • Tricycle Community 1 comment

    Stealing Time Paid Member

    Posted by amerz on 05 Feb 2007
    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 »
  • Tricycle Community 3 comments

    the Dha-ha-ha-harma Paid Member

    Posted by amerz on 26 Jan 2007
    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 »
  • Tricycle Community 1 comment

    Buddhist Self-Love and Blessed Contraceptives Paid Member

    Posted by tricycleblog on 24 Jan 2007
    From the department of Wasting Your Time on the Web: Jef Poskanzer has a page on his site reproducing a chart that supposedly appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle in December 1994. The chart, titled "Religion and Sexual Ethics," lists a variety of (mostly) sexual topics, and says how these topics are viewed in various religions. The  topics may be categorized under these headings: Blessed Morally Acceptable in Most Cases Neutral or No Clear Position Morally Unacceptable in Most Cases, and Condemned The Chronicle is said to have made the chart "based on official reports and expert advice." So how does Buddhism do? More »