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Teacher-led discussions of dharma in daily life
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Tibetan Yogas of Body, Speech and Mind with Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche

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During the month of January we'll be reading Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche's Tibetan Yogas of Body, Speech and Mind at the Tricycle Book Club. Pick up a copy and join the discussion below.Tricycle Talks: Listen to an audio interview with Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche.Welcome to the discussion group. I wish you all a Happy New Year. While you are reading my latest book, Tibetan Yogas of Body, Speech, and Mind, I invite you to practice the meditations in the videos that will be posted here in the weeks to come, and to share your experiences, questions, and comments with me and with each other.  More »
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Old Plum Mountain The Story of the Berkeley Zen Center

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Welcome to the Tricycle Film Club! Each month, Tricycle Supporting and Sustaining Members will be treated to a select feature-length film, presented in partnership with Alive Mind Cinema and BuddhaFest 2012. The benefits of membership continue to grow, so if you're not already a Supporting or Sustaining Member, upgrade now and watch Old Plum Mountain: The Berkeley Zen Center—Life Inside the Gate as soon as you're ready! And to celebrate our launch, we're screening a second film this month, Being in the World: A Celebration of Being Human in a Technological Age. More »
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Obstacles & Roadblocks What keeps you from practicing?

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As practitioners, we're all familiar with the obstacles that arise during our practice—the "five hindrances" of desire, aversion, laziness, restlessness, and doubt are traditionally the most common roadblocks. But what, specifically, are the things that keep you away from your practice? Is it some manifestation of those pesky hindrances? Or is it something else, such as a lack of time, self-discipline, or a proper space? In this discussion we'd like to explore obstacles to practice. And then, ultimately, we’d like to hear how you are working to overcome these obstacles. After all, we all get stuck. How do you get unstuck?Image: Liu Bolin More »
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Building the First Holistic Center for Homeless Youth

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Nearly half of all homeless youth have experienced sexual, physical or psychological abuse by an immediate family member.   Some youth become homeless when their parents die of poverty or AIDS, others are turned out because of parental neglect or drug abuse and still others because they identify as lesbian, gay or transgender.   All of the homeless youth living in shelters, couch-surfing or working the streets have suffered from trauma, anxiety, fear, isolation, loneliness and hopelessness. And yet, our homeless system in America is built upon a philosophy of addressing external conditions—such as offering temporary shelter, occasional meals and intermittent health care. Venturing within—to work with the root causes of sustained homelessness—is viewed as experimental and too costly.  And so, most homeless youth become homeless adults. More »
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How to Train a Wild Elephant: And Other Adventures in Mindfulness with Jan Chozen Bays

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During the month of November, we'll be reading Jan Chozen Bays's How to Train a Wild Elephant: And Other Adventures in Mindfulness at the Tricycle Book Club. Pick up a copy and join the discussion below. People often say to me, “I’d love to practice mindfulness, but I’m so busy I can’t seem to find the time.” More »
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Buddha Standard Time: Awakening to the Infinite Possibilities of Now with Lama Surya Das

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Many of us feel that the modern efforts to save time have backfired, bringing onerous new problems of their own. Our technological advances and constant availability have blurred the line between leisure time and work. No sooner do we wrap our minds around a new computer program than it becomes obsolete. We can end up wasting precious minutes stuck on the phone with someone on the other side of the world, trying to figure out how to reset the computer brain in our dryer, or stove, or espresso machine. It takes time to learn how to do online banking, connect with friends on Facebook, master the complexities of smartphones and GPS units, and download a best seller to our e-readers. When Excel crashes and the work is lost after we’ve spent an hour entering data for a deadline, our blood pressure skyrockets. There’s even technology to fix stress created by technology. More »
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Cultivating Compassion in Your Community with Karen Armstrong and the Compassionate Action Network

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The Charter for CompassionOn February 28, 2008 Karen Armstrong won the $100,000 TED Prize and made a wish for help creating, launching and propagating a Charter for Compassion. After the Charter was unveiled to the world on November 12, 2009, the Compassionate Action Network (“CAN”) launched an effort to create the first “Compassionate City” in Seattle. On April 24, 2010, the mayor and city council affirmed the Charter for Compassion and proclaimed the city’s support for a 10-year Compassionate City Campaign, making Seattle the first city in the world to become a Compassionate City. More »
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Karen Armstrong on Religious Fundamentalism As we approach the anniversary of 9/11, a religious scholar looks at the fear behind fundamentalism

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In the wake of 9/11, we struggled with the consequences and lessons of that terible day, as did all organizations concerned with spiritual traditions. The Winter 2001 issue, the first to appear after 9/11, featured responses from a number of respected Buddhist figures, among them Acharya Judy Lief, who wrote: More »
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Minding Closely: The Four Applications of Mindfulness with B. Alan Wallace

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The Buddha formulated the four close applications of mindfulness as antidotes to four habitual misunderstandings that are the root of suffering in everyday life. We mistake the aggregation of mental and physical phenomena called the body for the abode of a real self. We mistake feelings aroused toward apparent phenomena for genuine happiness. We mistake the mind for a real self. And we mistake apparent phenomena for real objects. These mistakes lead to distorted perceptions, thoughts, and views that generate mental afflictions like sensual craving and hostility, which produce endless unnecessary suffering. More »
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JuBus and Christian Buddhists What is the relationship between your religious roots and your current Buddhist practice?

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About a year ago, in his piece "Christian Buddhism?" on Buddhist Geeks, Dennis Hunter suggested that we Buddhists ought to more seriously consider the influence of Christianity when we speak of Buddhism in the West. More »
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What led you to Buddhism?

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I would like to hear from community members about what it was that led you to become interested in and/or begin practicing Buddhism.I know one man who, after a lifetime of being an "overachiever"—getting straight A's throughout his school years and graduating from an Ivy League university at the top of his class—had a full psychological and existential breakdown, feeling that all the knowledge and skill he had gained was useless because, at a very fundamental level, he didn't even know who or what he was. When he began to study dharma and practice meditation he saw that, "there are some things you just can't learn in school." More »
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The Heart of the Revolution A Tricycle Book Club Discussion with Noah Levine

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The Buddha was a revolutionary, a radical advocate for personal and social transformation. He rejected the religious forms of his time and renounced all forms of greed, hatred, and delusion. He dedicated his life to going "against the stream," to the subversive path of an outlaw transient. He wasn't afraid to speak out against the ignorance in this world's political, social, and religious structures, but he did so from a place of love and kindness, from an enlightened compassion that extended to all living beings. The Buddha's teachings are not a philosophy or a religion; they are a call to action, an invitation to revolution.-Noah Levine, The Heart of the Revolution More »
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Compassion in Action A Special Event for May: Tricycle honors the New York Zen Center for Contemplative Care

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Koshin Paley Ellison and Robert Chodo Campbell Aging, sickness, and death are unavoidable, yet we seem to arrange our lives so that we don't have to see them. If we could embrace the reality of death, our lives would lighten and become more genuine and joyful. More »
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Work, Sex, Money: Real Life on the Path of Mindfulness by Chögyam Trungpa A Tricycle Book Club Discussion with Carolyn Rose Gimian

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Work, sex, and money: these are among the most powerful elements of everyday life, and they are topics that preoccupy us, almost every day. In relationship to work, innumerable books, articles, TV programs and internet sites give career advice, tell you how to dress for the workplace, deal with bullies or bosses, ask for a raise, or be an effective manager.  Our obsession with sex and relationships is addressed, and titillated, in print and by film, television and the internet, whether we prefer fiction, the tabloids, or “reality” TV. Money has become an increasing source of anxiety. How to save, how to spend wisely, how to make more money, how to do more with less, exhilaration when the stock market rises, panic when we lose our job: we have lots of issues with money. More »
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Ordinary Recovery: Mindfulness, Addiction, and the Path of Lifelong Sobriety A Tricycle Book Club Discussion with William Alexander

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Let me offer you two autumn fragments from a larger story, many seasons long. More »
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Sex and the Spiritual Teacher A Tricycle Book Club Discussion with Scott Edelstein

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This book is about spiritual teachers who have sex with their students, the suffering that such encounters often cause, and what all of us can do about it. This is not a book of finger-pointing or whistle-blowing. Nor does it defend or apologize for spiritual teachers who lose their way. In fact, as we will see, the more we attack or defend wayward teachers, the more we encourage their waywardness. Instead, this book is intended to create greater safety and spiritual intimacy between spiritual teachers and their students, and among members of spiritual communities. More »
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Living This Life Fully: Stories and Teachings of Munindra A Tricycle Book Club Discussion with Mirka Knaster

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Diminutive yet striking in his signature white robes and white hat, Munindra was an enthusiastic, energetic, and immensely inquisitive Bengali meditation master who had a profound impact on people everywhere he went, even on many who never met him. Those whose lives he touched remember him not only for his erudition and expert guidance but, most importantly, for his embodiment of dharma—he lived what he taught. Through his presence and actions, Munindra made otherwise abstract ideals come alive. Living This Life Fully: Stories and Teachings of Munindra focuses on those ideals or qualities that lead to awakening: mindfulness, compassion, loving-kindness, determination, conviction, integrity, generosity, delight, curiosity, one-pointedness of mind, equanimity, relinquishment, wisdom, patience, vigor, and virtuous conduct. More »
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The Spirit of the Buddha A Tricycle Book Club Discussion with Martine Batchelor

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Martine Batchelor joins us here to discuss her new book, The Spirit of the Buddha. Formerly a nun in the Korean tradition of Zen Buddhism, Martine is the author of several books and is a frequent contributor to Tricycle. She led a Tricycle Retreat, "Break Your Addictive Patterns," in the summer of 2010, and lives in France with her husband Stephen.From the introduction of The Spirit of the Buddha: More »
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Real Happiness: The Power of Meditation A Tricycle Book Club Discussion with Sharon Salzberg

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From the introduction of Real Happiness:For thirty-six years, I’ve taught meditation to thousands of people, at the Insight Meditation Society retreat center in Barre, Massachusetts, which I cofounded in 1975, and at schools, corporations, government agencies, and community centers all over the world. I’ve introduced the techniques you’re about to encounter to groups of Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, schoolteachers, police officers, athletes, teenagers, army chaplains and medics, doctors, nurses, burn patients, prisoners, frontline workers in domestic violence shelters, new moms and dads. My students come from every walk of life, ethnic background, and belief tradition. More »