Home › insights

insights
  • Tricycle Community 0 comments

    Insights & Outtakes Fall 2005 Paid Member

    I'LL DRINK TO THAT More »
  • Tricycle Community 1 comment

    Searching for Self Paid Member

    By Dzigar Kongtrül Rinpoche
    Holding to an ordinary notion of self, or ego, is the source of all our pain and confusion. The irony is that when we look for this "self" that we're cherishing and protecting, we can't even find it. The self is shifty and ungraspable. When we say "I'm old," we're referring to our body as self. When we say "my body," the self becomes the owner of the body. When we say "I'm tired," the self is equated with physical or emotional feelings. The self is our perceptions when we say "I see," and our thoughts when we say "I think." When we can't find a self within or outside of these parts, we may then conclude that the self is that which is aware of all of these things—the knower or mind. More »
  • Tricycle Community 11 comments

    The Zen of Confidence Paid Member

    By So Sahn
    My hope is that all practitioners of the Way completely believe in their true self. You should neither lack confidence nor give rise to pride.Mind is fundamentally equal and the same, and thus there is no real distinction between "ordinary people" and "sages." Nevertheless there are, in reality, those who wander in darkness and those who have been awakened to their true nature, thus distinguishing "ordinary people" from "sages." Following the instruction of a teacher, a practitioner may attain, in an instant, his true self, thereby realizing that he is ultimately no different from the Buddha. Hence it is said, "Originally, there is nothing," which means simply that one must not underestimate oneself, and lack confidence. This is the teaching of "sudden enlightenment." More »
  • Tricycle Community 0 comments

    Selective Wisdom Paid Member

    By Bhikkhu Nyanasobhano
    For most of us born in the Western world, remote from Buddhism of any institutional kind, knowledge of the dhamma has come entirely from books and, occasionally, spoken words, some quite excellent and informative, certainly. But this kind of learning still retains a somewhat ethereal air in the absence of actions, traditions, and spiritual observances in which we can participate. More »
  • Tricycle Community 0 comments

    The Spookiness of Ego-Mind Paid Member

    I intellectually understand the Buddhist notion of the self as the source of so many of our problems, but I don’t know how to apply that understanding to daily life? How can I battle the self off the cushion? More »