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The Flute Teacher
A Poet’s Journey through a Chinese Prison
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The Buddhist Review
Back Issues
A Poet’s Journey through a Chinese Prison
Why self-mastery is self-defeating
The Avatamsaka Sutra in art
Restoring Zen’s female lineage
Distinguishing between problems of human birth and problems of human making
Can tradition and science both fit? An interview with Thupten Jinpa Langri
Contributors include Tom Wudl, Mary Fowles, and Luis González Palma
A selection of letters sent by Tricycle readers
A letter from Tricycle’s editor, James Shaheen
The experience of the sublime exceeds our capacity for representation. The world is excessive: every blade of grass, every ray of sun, every falling leaf is excessive. None of these things can be adequately captured in concepts, images, or words. They overreach us, spilling beyond the boundaries of thought. Their sublimity brings the thinking, calculating […]
To make my sitting practice a daily priority.To spend less time being social with strangers, online.To think twice before acting on the heart’s closings.To not expect too much, and be grateful for what is.To make room for the unavoidable unpleasantness.To not cling to pleasant things, people, or moments.To have compassion for my imperfections, and those […]
Distorted perceptions are like a mirage. Deceived by a mirage, a deer runs quickly toward what it perceives as water. As he runs, he sees that the water-like mirage is still far ahead of him. So he keeps running toward it to drink. When he is even more tired and thirsty, he stops and looks […]
Many times I hear students say, “I don’t want to think—I just want to sit.” They fear that any analytical process is too “mental” and will only lead to more of the conceptual, discursive thinking that already overburdens the Western approach to life. For example, one time, when I led a program on Contemplative Meditation, […]
Compassion is not just an emotion one might feel after reading something sad or heartbreaking. Our compassion is a source of energy and strength. It is the basis for our actions in the world. ♦ From Zooburbia: Meditations on the Wild Animals Among Us, by Tai Moses © 2014 Parallax Press. Reprinted with permission of the […]
The path to uncovering our heart’s positive qualities is a radical one. It is fraught with the demons of the heart/mind that in Buddhism we call Mara. Mara is the aspect of heart/mind that creates roadblocks, gives excuses, procrastinates, and urges us to avoid all the unpleasant mind states that accompany the healing of awakening. […]
Empty-handed I entered the world Barefoot I leave it. My coming, my going— Two simple happenings That got entangled. ♦ From Japanese Death Poems, compiled by Yoel Hoffman. © 1998 Tuttle Publishing. Reprinted with permission of the publisher.
One particular difficulty, which is one of the most effective catalysts to awakening the heart, is experiencing the pain of remorse. Sometimes we get a glimpse of the fact that we’re living from vanity or unkindness or pettiness, and we feel a cringe of conscience. This is the experience of remorse, which arises when we […]
Every revolution needs fresh poems that is the reason poetry cannot die. It is the reason poets go without sleep and sometimes without lovers without new cars and without fine clothes the reason we commit to facing the dark and resign ourselves, regularly, to the possibility of being wrong. Poetry is leading us. It never […]
Two Buddhist scholars expand on popular misconceptions about Buddhism.
Q&A with a Buddhist chef
A contemporary artist on environmental Buddhism
Cultivating the spirit of awakening
An interview with Zen master and former priest Ruben L. F. Habito
Strengthening our natural capacity for awareness
The limitations of bearing witness at Auschwitz
Two new Buddhist takes on how to stay sober
Buddhist writer Clark Strand is disillusioned with American Buddhism. That is, he avows, with the exception of Soka Gakkai International (SGI), the world’s largest lay Buddhist institution, whose presence has been steadily growing on American shores as well as abroad. Founded in Japan in 1930, the organization now boasts 12 million members in 192 […]
Parting words from Gary Snyder (and Cold Mountain)
Tricycle’s food columnist serves up a risotto that packs a soft punch.
On leaving Boudhanath
Transforming our lives through meditation
The art and practice of apple tree grafting
The gift of awareness