Wisdom Collection |
The best of Tricycle's member-supported content |
Search Results: desire
-
1 comment
An Everyday Aspiration
In early spring, I moved to a house in a village at the edge of Cambridge, England, where I work as a writer and administrator in a local Buddhist center. I share this small house overlooking cornfields with two friends, both of whom are also Buddhist. Though our living arrangements are not formally oriented toward communal practice, we take for granted that each of us will try our best to support the others; we know we can assume a certain vocabulary and a familiarity with shared ideals and approaches to our practice. So when one of my housemates upbraided me a few weeks back for not doing my share of the housework, he reminded me—without sanctimony—of the bodhisattva aspiration. More » -
20 comments
The Fertile Soil of Sangha
TWO THOUSAND five hundred years ago, Shakyamuni Buddha proclaimed that the next Buddha will be named Maitreya, the “Buddha of Love.” I think Maitreya Buddha may be a community and not just an individual. A good community is needed to help us resist the unwholesome ways of our time. Mindful living protects us and helps us go in the direction of peace. With the support of friends in the practice, peace has a chance. More » -
4 comments
Intuitive Action
After so much suffering in Nirvanic castles, what a joy to sink into this world! —Zen Master Seung Sahn Some time ago, Zen Master Soeng Hyang (Bobby Rhodes), the guiding teacher of the Kwan Um School of Zen, gave a talk to a group of students. Afterward, during questions and answers, one of her students began to ask about all the problems in her life and how sad and perturbed she was. “I don’t know what to do,” she said. When the student had finished, Zen Master Soeng Hyang looked at her kindly and simply asked, “Well, can you just trust all that?” In other words, instead of deciding that this experience is good or bad, can you just be with it and see where it wants to guide you? Can you ask what the experience and thoughts are telling you instead of trying to make them all stop? More » -
7 comments
Is the Buddha Winking at Extinction?
Worlds on worlds are rolling everFrom creation to decay,Like the bubbles on a riverSparkling, bursting, borne away. —Percy Bysshe Shelley SO PROFOUND is the largely human-caused contraction of plant and animal life on this planet that biologists are now referring to the current period as the beginning of the Sixth Great Extinction. More »
