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    A Common Thread Paid Member

    On June 8, 230 Buddhist teachers gathered at the Garrison Institute in Garrison, New York, for the Maha Teacher Council, a conference on the future of Buddhist practice in North America. Following the conference, we asked 11 participants the following question: Buddhism is very diverse—some would even say that the different traditions represent different religions. What was the common Buddhist thread that brought you all together? My teacher, Ajahn Buddhadasa, talked of “buddhayana.” We are all the sons and the daughters of the Buddha, carrying the teachings of awakening and compassion. In the West, we are getting to know one another, and we are getting beyond sectarianism. No one of us can do everything—monastic practice, social activism, environmental work—so we all have a place in the greater mandala that includes us all. —Jack Kornfield, Spirit Rock Meditation Center More »
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    True Dharma Eye Paid Member

    By Zenshin Michael Haederle
    According to the calendar spring is just 10 days away, but winter still has its icy grip on Montreal, Canada. Wearing an oversized parka and a borrowed pair of boots, Kazuaki Tanahashi carefully picks his way down a slush-encrusted sidewalk while I hover protectively, worried that he will lose his footing. “I’m all right,” he insists, but I’ll have some explaining to do if something happens to a national treasure on my watch. More »
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    Skill in Questions Paid Member

    By Thanissaro Bhikkhu
    When we read the account of the Buddha’s last night, it’s easy to sense the importance of his final teaching before entering total nibbana: “Now, then, monks, I exhort you: All fabrications are subject to decay. Bring about completion by being heedful.” These words call attention to themselves because they were the last he ever said. That may be why it’s so easy to overlook the importance of what the Buddha did right before saying them. In a gesture extremely gracious—given that he had been walking all day, had fallen severely ill along the way, and now was about to die—he offered one last opportunity for his followers to question him. More »
  • Tricycle Community 7 comments

    Buddhism and Religious Diversity Paid Member

    By Rita M. Gross
    It is a fact that we live in a religiously diverse world. Religious diversity can and often does result in grave misunderstanding, hostility, and, as we know all too well, conflict, with unacceptable costs to human life and well-being. For this reason, among others, it is incumbent on responsible people to know how to think clearly and compassionately about religious diversity. For Buddhists, it is important in thinking about such issues to use Buddhist tools and views, lest our attitudes and actions simply reflect the biases and reactions we have absorbed from the surrounding culture. More »
  • Tricycle Community 8 comments

    A Right to the Dharma Paid Member

    This article is part of an online special section about Nichiren Buddhism. We hope that by gathering these articles in one place and making them freely available, our Buddhist conversation will be broadened and that we can, all of us, more fully know ourselves in knowing one another. Read the other articles here. More »
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    20 Years, 20 Stories Paid Member

    It’s not uncommon for artists to remark that it was only years after completing a poem, say, or a musical composition or a sculpture, that they began to recognize fully what the thing was all about. Looking back over the first two decades of Tricycle, I think we can see something similar at work. Since the first issue appeared in the fall of 1991, we have been approaching a deeper understanding of what we can and should be doing—indeed, of what we are doing and have been doing through the years. But it has taken time for this purpose to become evident. More »