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    Responding to Tragedy Paid Member

    By Tammy Greenstein
    As Tricycle’s contact for the Dharma Directory, I had the unusual privilege of speaking with practitioners from dozens of Buddhist communities across the country in the weeks following the September 11th attacks. From my conversations and correspondence I began to get a sense of the ways in which practice had shifted as a result of the disaster—as well as the ways in which it remained reassuringly steadfast. In the end, practice was revealed to be exactly what we say it is: a matter of life and death. More »
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    From The Academy Paid Member

    By Donald S. Lopez, Jr.
    One of the occupational hazards of being a professor of Buddhism, at least in the United States, is that one is inevitably asked at some point during the semester, “Are you a Buddhist?” Sometimes at the end of a lecture, I will ask, “Any questions?” and a student will raise her hand and say, “Are you a Buddhist?” Answers in the affirmative are often followed by, “Do you meditate?” From speaking to colleagues in departments of religious studies, I have determined that professors of New Testament are very rarely asked in class, “Are you a Christian?” and when they are, they do not receive the follow-up, “Do you pray?” More »
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    The Science of Enlightenment: Meditative Medicine Paid Member

    By Joe Loizzo
    Listening alongside His Holiness the Dalai Lama at a recent conference on meditation, I was inspired by the notion I was hearing that this century may be remembered less for its velvet revolutions than for the more obscure transformations that have softened the mechanized edges of medicine. Lately, new research areas bearing such names as "bio-individuality," "psycho-neuroimmunology" and "the quantum theory of consciousness" have quietly appeared. To many scientists, these areas are independent of the groundbreaking revolution in relativity, which let physicists see matter as part waves and science as pan religion. But if quantum physics has taught us anything, it is that what appears to be continents actually may be just as cohesive as oceans. Some observers of science see such breakthroughs as a "wave revolution" that is shifting Western science toward the wisdom of Asian traditions. More »
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    Buddha.com; The Web: Pure Land or Hell Realm? Paid Member

    By Mary Talbot
    In the metaphor of the diamond net of Indra, there is a glittering jewel at every juncture of the vast web of consciousness, a jewel intimately connected with, and reflecting, every other. It is a fitting analogy for virtual reality and the World Wide Web - an interconnected universe where one URL can ultimately link to every other. More »
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    On Gardening Paid Member

    PLANTING PARADISE Last summer about this time of year when the Dragon Tongue beans began to thicken their speckled fingers and clutch heavy to the vine, I helped plant a circular “house” of sunflowers with an eager passel of kids. This sunflower circle was a ragged ring of paradise planted on the far edge of the kitchen garden near our giant Rosebrook apple tree. More »
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    Life in the MUD Paid Member

    By Mitchell Kapor
    Imagine a world in which the inhabitants create their own physical environments and characters by writing them into existence. In this world, it is possible to converse, exchange gestures, express emotions, and even have sex. Such are the virtual worlds of MUDs (Multi-User Domains) - popular computer-based multi-player simulations which have evolved from the fantasy role-playing game “Dungeons and Dragons.” More »