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    Announcing the BuddhaFest Short Films Showcase Paid Member

    Posted by Sam Mowe on 21 Feb 2012
    What does it mean to be "Awake in the World"? Tricycle and BuddhaFest are partnering to present a showcase of short films. Send in your video interpretation of 5 minutes or less on what it means to be awake in the world. Top prize is $1,000. Be creative. Be unique. Use your imagination as well as your heart. Winners will be featured at the BuddhaFest Film Festival in Washington, DC on June 14-17, as well as online here at tricycle.com.Details here. More »
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    Meditation Month: Day 13 Paid Member

    Posted by Emma Varvaloucas on 13 Feb 2012
    Lucky day 13. With all the luck from today and all the love accumulating in advance for tomorrow, here's hoping that today is a good day to be a meditator. As for me, I'm not sure yet—I haven't had a chance to practice yet today. But I'm excited to, and I will. Over the weekend I re-read Bhante Henepola Gunaratana's book Mindfulness in Plain English. It was the first book on meditation that I ever read. I love that book. I owe a lot to it. And reading it again made me feel like I did the first time I read it: just so excited. Like a child. More »
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    Buddha Buzz: E-blessings, Art, and Ceasing to Be Human Paid Member

    Posted by Emma Varvaloucas on 10 Feb 2012
    Buddhism and modernity have sat down together at the table once more. Last Friday, the China Daily published the article "Buddhist temple offers e-blessing service," which covered one innovative method of controlling crowds, reducing the burning of incense, and making some money: sending blessings via text. Guiyuan Temple in Wuhan, China, in cooperation with China Mobile, is charging people 3 to 10 yuan (normal text messages, according to the article, cost 0.15 yuan) to send a blessing text, which includes the phone number of the person for whom the blessing is meant for. While China Mobile forwards the text to the appropriate person, the blessing appears on an LED board outside the temple, where monks are chanting prayers for all the texters and textees. More »
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    Buddha Buzz: Burma, Uganda, and a Rare Genetic Mutation Unleashed Paid Member

    Posted by Emma Varvaloucas on 03 Feb 2012
    A few weeks ago on the Tricycle blog we featured the guest post Burma in 2012: A Political Report Card, by Deborah Weinberg. The post spoke of freedom, hope, and progressiveness, but Weinberg expressed enough skepticism of Burma's government to end with the line, "We’ll find out in the coming months if the progress is real and a genuine road to freedom."  It was cheering, then, to read this piece of news from yesterday: Monastic Council Restores Status of Released Monks. From the article: The official body that governs Buddhist monastic affairs in Burma has restored the status of three monks who were released from prison last month after serving more than four years behind bars for their involvement in the 2007 Saffron Revolution. More »
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    The Shape of the Question Paid Member

    Posted by Emma Varvaloucas on 02 Feb 2012
    Last month, we published the essay Starting Points by Tricycle's Features Editor Andrew Cooper, about approaching issues of race in our Buddhist communities. In light of the positive and productive dialogue that essay engendered, we've decided to publish another "oldie but goodie" by Cooper. This one, The Shape of the Question, was first published in Inquiring Mind, in an issue highlighting the teachings of Tibetan Dzogchen, Advaita master Hari Lal Poonja, and Toni Packer. In the article, Cooper explores non-dual dharma, crafting a historical perspective on the longstanding debate of sudden versus gradual enlightenment.     More »
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    Remembering Jane Imamura Paid Member

    Posted by Emma Varvaloucas on 30 Jan 2012
    Other Friday evenings found Whalen and Snyder in Berkeley for the study group with Rev. Kanmo Imamura and Jane Imamura at the Berkeley Buddhist Temple. Together the Imamuras were descended from the most important old families of Jodo Shinshu Buddhism, yet they welcomed the young men, going so far in the subsequent years as to turn their little church publication—the Berkeley Bussei—over to the artist Will Petersen for a time. Snyder, Whalen, Ginsberg, and Kerouac all published early poems in its pages. The benevolent Imamura family gave both Snyder and Whalen their first contact with people actually practicing Buddhism instead of purely discussing its philosophies and traditions. —David Schneider, from "Lives Well Shared: The Friendship of Philip Whalen and Gary Snyder" More »