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Search Results: desire
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Sexual Misconduct
Author Nancy Baker is currently leading a Tricycle community discussion about sexual misconduct and the third Zen precept. You can join the discussion here. More » -
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Love Becomes Her
I grew up an only child in suburban Los Gatos, California. One of my closest friends, Maria, came from a large, warm, rambunctious Chilean family. I envied the love that seemed to surround her. Maria’s most cherished possession was her bicycle. She rode it everywhere and took very good care of it. She had such a passion for that bike that she learned everything about how it worked and what it needed, and eventually got a job repairing bikes for other people. The love she felt for her bike made it glow—made it seem like the most desirable object on earth. More » -
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Who's Zoomin' Who? The Commodification of Buddhism in the American Marketplace
After the Buddha attained enlightenment under the Bodhi tree in Bodhgaya, he walked the dusty roads to the Deer Park in Sarnath, where he delivered his first sermon, The Sutra of the Turning of the Wheel of Dharma. Here for the first time he described life’s conditions in terms of the Four Noble Truths, declaring desire, craving, “thirst” as the driving force that keeps us stuck in the mire of suffering called samsara. More » -
Green Koans Case 41: The Meaning of Suffering
CASE #41: The Meaning of SufferingShakyamuni asked, “What is wisdom?” and when no one could answer, added: “It is the ability to perfectly understand and patiently accept the truth of suffering.”BACKGROUND:Perfectly understand To understand a thing holistically, from beginning to end, rather than merely in terms of its parts—the latter constituting only knowledge.Patiently accept To accept without reservation—that is, without any attempt to alter the reality of a given phenomenon.The meaning of suffering Refers to the foundational teaching of Buddhism—the Four Noble Truths: More » -
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Chanting For Stuff
A common criticism I hear of Nichiren Buddhists, and of Soka Gakkai International members in particular, is that we practice Buddhism for material gain, to get stuff. Well, we do, but it’s a good thing. Really. I was raised a Buddhist and, as such, have a pretty good grasp on the idea of the impermanence of all things. I try to look beneath the surface and identify deeper significance and the connections between things. But even with this perspective, I still live in human society. I am still a human being, subject to all the potential emotional entanglements and flare-ups that brings. Try as I may to focus on the fact that the jerk who cut me off on the freeway is really a manifestation of my own sense of helplessness about my environment, on a bad day he remains the jerk who cut me off. More » -
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Sleeping with the Hungry Ghost
Hungry ghost, a morphology all by itself between our realmsHungry ghost: that dwells in consciousness, torments our desireSexy ghost, a performer, a demon, a gadflyTo never have enough be enough get enoughDancing on coalsIn a state of mind, bewitched, unsettled over what he thinks or she thinks, what they thinkWhat the “I” thinks: hieroglyph for the hungry ghostUnsatisfied—dancing on nails!Jostled by waves, the real kind, that pull you underTurbulent in a shadow realm between waking and sleepHungry ghost with sacrifices in the sand, hewn characters inthe mind, arms and legs that are brisk strokes of gestures in air, in language, flailing about, writing with the skeletal stylus of the hungry ghostSleeping with the hungry ghost who writes your book More »
