What We’re Reading

SIT: 28 Days to a Rock-Solid Daily Meditation Habit
by Bodhipaksa
Wisdom Publications, 2026, 256 pp., $19.95, hardcover

Bodhipaksa, a meditation teacher who struggled to sit consistently, arrived at a counterintuitive conclusion: Willpower has nothing to do with it. SIT recommends a twenty-eight-day program built around cultivating behavioral habits rather than resolving them—microhabits, working with resistance, and reframing setbacks as part of the path. The author, grounded in Buddhist teachings and modern psychology, gives an honest assessment of the gap between knowing meditation matters and actually practicing it. This is a useful guide for anyone who keeps meaning to sit and doesn’t.

Beyond Wellness: How Restoring the Religious Roots of Spiritual Practices Can Heal Us
by Liz Bucar
Tarcher, 2026, 256 pp., $30.00, hardcover

Religion scholar Liz Bucar argues that popular spiritual practices—such as yoga, mindfulness, sound therapies, and psychedelics—lose efficacy when severed from their religious roots. A self-described “none” who is religiously unaffiliated but deeply curious, Bucar guides readers “walking a path between dogmatic religion and bland spirituality,” showing how the religions behind these practices make them more meaningful and effective. Beyond Wellness skillfully navigates the sensitive space between organized religion and secular wellness culture. You might reconsider answering “none” after reading this book.

Engaged Compassion: Seven Practices to Cultivate Resilience, Connection, and a Joyous Life
by Lobsang Tenzin Negi
Simon & Schuster/Simon Element, 2026, 272 pp., $28.00, hardcover

A former monk, Lobsang Tenzin Negi grew up in the Indian Himalayas, trained at the Institute of Buddhist Dialectics in Dharamsala, and later brought that experience to Emory University, where he developed CBCT (Cognitively Based Compassion Training). Engaged Compassion presents the seven practices at the heart of the program, which combine Buddhist meditation with neuroscience and psychology. “If we understood how powerful compassion is,” Negi writes, “we would live differently.” Visit tricycle.org/podcast for a conversation with the author.

Scholar’s Corner

Mind, Text, and Reality in Buddhist Studies: Engaging the Scholarship of Rupert Gethin
edited by Paul Fuller and Indaka Weerasekera
Bloomsbury Academic, 2025, 272 pp., $115.00, hardcover

This Festschrift honors Rupert Gethin, Emeritus Professor of Buddhist Studies at the University of Bristol and president of the Pali Text Society, whose work on abhidharma, meditation, and cosmology has influenced the field for decades. With a foreword by Charles Hallisey of Harvard Divinity School, this volume brings together the voices of scholars such as Collett Cox, Peter Skilling, and Ajahn Amaro—organized around three areas key to Gethin’s scholarship: early and modern Buddhist teachings, abhidharma studies, and textual studies. Topics range from Gandhari manuscripts to Buddhism and AI, reflecting the breadth of Gethin’s contributions.

What We’re ReReading

A Human Approach to World Peace by His Holiness the Dalai Lama

First published in 1984, this monograph is the Dalai Lama’s concise argument that compassion, not ideology or military force, is the only lasting foundation for a peaceful world. “Speaking simply as a human being,” he identifies four commitments—universal humanitarianism, compassion as the pillar of peace, interfaith harmony, and individual responsibility—that remain as urgent as when he first set them down. Reissued by Wisdom Publications to mark His Holiness’s 90th birthday, it includes a new foreword by Richard Gere and a new addendum in which the Dalai Lama reaffirms his original conviction. The world he described then is still the world today. Free and commemorative editions are available.