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  • Tricycle Community 4 comments

    The Teacher-Student Relationship Paid Member

    Posted by Philip Ryan on 03 Aug 2010
    I recently picked up Alexander Berzin's book Wise Teacher, Wise Student: Tibetan Approaches to a Healthy Relationship. The topic is a crucial one for Buddhism and one that has been much on my mind lately. I was familiar with Berzin's writing, and I knew this was one of his themes (he wrote a Tricycle article called "Practical Advice Regarding Spiritual Teachers" some time ago) but the new book seemed very familiar. More »
  • Tricycle Community 1 comment

    Strict Practice Paid Member

    Posted by Philip Ryan on 29 Jul 2010
    Student: Would you explain more what you mean by "strict practice"? Suzuki Roshi: Strict practice? Things are already going in a very strict way. There is no exception. Wherever there is something, there is some rule or truth behind it that is always strictly controlling it, without any exception. We think we care for freedom, but the other side of freedom is strict rule. Within the strict rule there is complete freedom. Freedom and strict rule are not two separate things. Originally we are supported by strict rules or truths. That is the other side of absolute freedom. Student: Could you give us more examples that apply to our individual lives? Suzuki Roshi: When you get up you should just get up. When everyone sleeps you should sleep. More »
  • Tricycle Community 2 comments

    Thin Places Paid Member

    Posted by Philip Ryan on 28 Jul 2010
    Today's Daily Dharma: There is a term in the Celtic tradition that I find resonates with something fundamental about Zen practice. The Celts spoke of “thin places,” places like caves or wells or other special sites where the boundary between the mundane and magical was permeable. To me, Zen practice offers a kind of thin place, a “place” where we can discover that there is fundamentally no separation between ourselves and others, that what we seek is always so close, always right here. Roshi Pat Enkyo O'Hara, An Introduction to Zen (Spring 2009) Read the full article: An Introduction to Zen More »
  • Tricycle Community 13 comments

    Buddhist Teachers on Facebook Paid Member

    Posted by Monty McKeever on 27 Jul 2010
    A 10-second history of the internet: First, there was a Big Bang (millions of individual little websites spewing out randomly into a vast virtual cosmos) followed by a Big Crunch (everybody slamming together onto social networking sites) then evolution (various websites fighting for survival and the top spot in a brutal Darwinian mess). In recent years, Facebook, having all but slain its feebler and shallower rival MySpace, has emerged the victor in this evolutionary struggle and now boasts over over 500,000,000 active users, about one eighth of the entire planet's population. Certainly, there are both benefits as well as dangers that come with the internet and social networking.  Among the benefits is that we can now instantly share information and ideas and stay connected with vast numbers of people like never before, but this goes hand-in-hand with one the site's biggest dangers: It is a highly discursive place. More »