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  • Tricycle Community 13 comments

    The Quiet Life Paid Member

    By Sokei-An Shigetsu Sasaki
    Peaceful in body, peaceful in speech, The bhikkhu peaceful and well-concentrated Who has rejected the world's bait Is called "one at peace." -The Buddha, Dhammapada 378 PERHAPS YOU CANNOT imagine such a practice as that which has been current among my people. In China or Japan, monasteries are built on a mountaintop or on the edge of a cliff. From there you can see a thousand miles before your eyes. In winter, when the valley is covered with snow, you feel you are in a world of silver. No color is before your eyes. In the valley it is so quiet. In the daytime when the monks are meditating, if there is any sound in the temple it will be only that of a mouse or a rat. More »
  • Tricycle Community 0 comments

    Like a Pig In... Paid Member

    By Geshe Sonam Rinchen
    THE INDIAN MASTER Atisha (984–1052 CE) used the metaphor of a pig and its activities to illustrate the chaos which confusion causes. More »
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    Power of Conviction Paid Member

    By Thanissaro Bhikkhu
    ACCORDING TO THE BUDDHA, there is one thing that doesn't disappoint. When you pursue Awakening, it's not going to lead to disappointment. Quite the contrary, it goes wildly beyond your expectations, wildly beyond your hopes. Even just the first taste of the Deathless, stream entry, is enough to produce a seismic shift in your whole awareness, your whole understanding of what you think you are and what's possible in life, and in the importance of your own actions. Once you reach that state, your conviction in the Buddha, the Dhamma, and the Sangha is unshakeable. Your standards for what counts as true happiness get ratcheted up immeasurably. More »
  • Tricycle Community 5 comments

    Do the Thoughts Ever Stop? Paid Member

    By Bob Sharples
    THE BIGGEST HINDRANCE to our meditation is constant intrusive thoughts. This is normal for everyone and from the beginning you should expect it. The nature of our mind is to think, and it is childish to imagine that we can simply turn that process off when we wish to. Our minds have been almost completely out of control for most of our life. Recognizing this can help us to be practical and patient—it may take us some time and a lot of skillful practice to tame the crazy “monkey mind.” My own meditation practice was helped when I came across the instruction that while I have thoughts I am not those thoughts. When you stop to examine your thoughts you start to see that they have a life of their own, they come and go, generally in a random, idiosyncratic way. Recognizing the constancy of our endless thinking process is said to be one of the important early steps we take on the meditation path. More »
  • Tricycle Community 0 comments

    The Quiet Life Paid Member

    Sokei-An Shigetsu Sasaki, a Japanese Zen pioneer in the West, describes some of the many differences between his American lay followers and the monks back home. More »