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    What Does It Take? Paid Member

    “If you see a greater pleasure that comes from forsaking a lesser pleasure, be willing to forsake that lesser pleasure for the greater one,” writes Thai forest monk Thanissaro Bhikkhu, paraphrasing the Buddha in this issue’s Dharma Talk. The restraint our teachers speak of seems so simple, and yet how often, after periods of steady practice, do we find ourselves relapsing into a life governed by the pursuit of petty pleasures? After all, if we buy the logic of a greater pleasure won through restraint—freedom from the pull of impulse and, ultimately, from suffering itself—shouldn’t restraint be a breeze? More »
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    The Clinton Koan Paid Member

    What is the sound of one hand clapping? What was your face before you were born? These Zen koans have seeped into the English vernacular as "riddles." What characterizes a riddle, however, is to ask a question, then gleefully wait for the (often ridiculous) "right " answer. These days Washington has produced a veritable glut of riddles. Usually smutty, they are told at a pitch that turns elevators, taxis, and street vendor carts into stand-up comedy clubs, In Zen, koan practice primes an awakening to a reality that dwarfs the small sense of "me" and renders senseless one's own socially conditioned, ego-bound habits of linear, logical thinking This environment does not curry favor with hard-edged opinions, condemnation or holy superiority. Yet, oddly enough, for all the humor and irrationality inherent in koans, the right/wrong rhetoric of the beltway - by comparison - looks like kindergarten sophistry; not innocent, but rather too childish to contain contradiction. More »
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    Selling Water by the River Paid Member

    It’s not unusual for Tricycle to cover the enormous diversity of Buddhism, but in this particular issue, the spectrum is about as broad as it gets. At one end, we have the barbaric destruction of the Buddhas of Bamiyan. At the other, Mirabai Bush speaks of introducing contemplative practices to American power spots such as Harvard University and the bio-tech giant, Monsanto. In one place, sublime expressions of Buddhism are destroyed; in another, it is used as a new and civilizing agent of change. More »
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    Net Worth Paid Member

    By Helen Tworkov
    One story retold from the life of the Buddha concerns a mother who loses her child. Distraught, the woman wanders aimlessly, clutching her dead infant to her breast. When she hears that the great sage Shakyamuni is expounding the dharma nearby, she goes to him and asks, "Why has this happened to me?" In response, the Buddha sends her on a mission: to collect one mustard seed from each household in the village that has never known death. Only when the woman returns empty-handed, does she begin to find solace. Two thousand and five hundred years after this legendary event, the information superhighway (see this issue's special section) is being heralded as the great revolution of our age, an unparalleled breakthrough that will generate radical changes in our daily lives. Nothing, however, suggests that these changes will have any effect on a mother who loses a child. More »
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    On Tap Shoes Or a Harley Paid Member

    By James Shaheen
    When Tricycle cover designer Frank Olinsky proposed the current cover, I wasn’t sure if I was looking at Newsweek or Time. After a few seconds, my eyes began to focus on the fifty—count ’em, fifty—Tricycle covers. A few on our staff objected, “But it doesn’t look like a Tricycle cover.” And yet, it was nothing but Tricycle covers. I got to thinking: Sometimes Buddhism in the West doesn’t look like Buddhism, what with all its Western trappings. And yet, if you look closely, you’ll see that the dharma has found its way into nearly every nook and cranny of our culture, from intensive retreats at often remote locations to the everyday lives of ordinary folks. In a section we dubbed “Three Lives,” the lives of three very different Americans cross the Buddha’s path in unexpected ways. More »
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    A Word of Dissent Paid Member

    By James Shaheen
    A friend of mine who begins each morning on the cushion used to get on my nerves carrying on about oceanic oneness. Not long after September 11, though, he was hopping mad and pinning his hopes on a “daisycutter,” the most devastating conventional weapon in our military’s arsenal. Espousing absurdly reductionist views about the “clash of civilizations”—courtesy of Harvard’s Samuel P. Huntington—he quoted the eminent professor with dramatic flair: “The fault lines between civilizations will be the battle lines of the future.” Such big ideas! Where, I wondered, had he hidden his cushion?More »