Home › on practice

on practice
  • Tricycle Community 2 comments

    Calm Abiding Paid Member

    By Ogyen Trinley Dorje, The 17th Karmapa
    There are many methods for creating a mind that is one-pointed and joyful, the most important of which is meditation. The Buddhist tradition offers a multitude of diverse meditations. It is said the Buddha taught eighty-four thousand gates of samadhi [one-pointed concentration]. We first meditate on calm abiding [shamatha], as it is indispensable and easiest for those who are beginning to practice. More »
  • Tricycle Community 8 comments

    Attention Means Attention Paid Member

    By Charlotte Joko Beck
    THERE'S AN OLD ZEN STORY: a student said to Master Ichu, "Please write for me something of great wisdom." Master Ichu picked up his brush and wrote one word: "Attention." The student said, "Is that all?" The master wrote, "Attention. Attention." The student became irritable. "That doesn't seem profound or subtle to me." In response, Master Ichu wrote simply, "Attention. Attention. Attention." In frustration, the student demanded, "What does this word 'attention' mean?" Master Ichu replied, "Attention means attention." For "attention" we could substitute the word "awareness." Attention or awareness is the secret of life and the heart of practice. Like the student in the story, we find such a teaching disappointing; it seems dry and uninteresting. We want something exciting in our practice! Simple attention is boring: we ask, is that all there is to practice? More »
  • Tricycle Community 0 comments

    Spaces in the Sky Paid Member

    By Stephen Batchelor
    In July 1972, I climbed a narrow passageway in a sandstone cliffside and emerged to stand on the head of a 180-foot-tall Buddha in Bamiyan, Afghanistan. Twenty-nine years later, in July 2001, I stayed on the fourteenth floor of the Marriott Hotel between the twin towers of Manhattan’s World Trade Center as a participant in Tricycle’s tenth-anniversary conference, “Buddhism: Does It Make a Difference?” In March Taliban forces had shelled the Bamiyan statue and reduced it to rubble; in September, suicide bombers brought down the twin towers and in so doing reduced the Marriott to rubble. Places where I and others had once stood, whether admiring the gentle Afghan countryside or the urban grandeur of New York, were now just spaces in the sky. More »
  • Tricycle Community 0 comments

    Waking Up The Nation Paid Member

    By Thich Nhat Hanh
    When so many people die, we are shocked by it, and that shock can wake us up and it can help make awareness and mindfulness last. During this time, people are in a position where they have the capacity, and the opportunity, to look deeply into their situation and the situation around the world. That is why it is so important to make use of our suffering and not just complain about it. We have within us the seeds of despair, of anger, but we also have the seeds of compassion, awakening, Buddha-nature, and mindfulness. The teacher, the spiritual leaders, and the media play a very important role during this time. They can help water the seeds of wisdom and compassion, or they can continue to water the seeds of anger and fear—and that is what they are doing right now. America is getting angrier and more afraid every day because the negative seeds are being watered, and that is why we need people who have the capacity to water the good seeds. More »
  • Tricycle Community 1 comment

    The Real Enemy Paid Member

    By Nawang Gehlek Rimpoche
    This article is part of Tricycle's Winter 2001 special section, "September 11: Practice and Perspectives." Read the other articles in the section here. More »
  • Tricycle Community 0 comments

    Nothing to Regret Paid Member

    By Clark Strand
    Case Twenty: The Day of the Lord Enter into the rock, and hide thee in the dust, for fear of the Lord, and for the glory of his majesty. The lofty looks of man shall be humbled, and the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day. For the day of the Lord of hosts shall be upon every one that is proud and lofty, and upon every one that is lifted up; and he shall be brought low: And upon all the cedars of Lebanon, that are high and lifted up, and upon all the oaks of Bashan, And upon all the high mountains, and upon all the hills that are lifted up, And upon every high tower, and upon every fenced wall . . . (Isaiah 2:10-15) More »