Tricycle Talks

Podcast series featuring leading voices and thinkers in the contemporary Buddhist world

Apr 13, 2018

The Mindful Way to Kick a Craving

With Judson Brewer

The second of the four noble truths teaches that craving leads to suffering. But that would be obvious to anyone struggling with addiction. Psychiatrist Judson Brewer, who is the director of research at the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care and Society at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, brings mindfulness practice to the treatment of addiction. Here, Brewer talks to Tricycle contributing editor Amy Gross about the mechanisms in the brain that activate when we have cravings and how Buddhist teachings can help combat a wide variety of addictions.

Listen Now on Tricycle | iTunes | SoundCloud

Feb 27, 2018

How Buddhist and Muslim Stereotypes Conceal the Real History

With Johan Elverskog

In the 13th century, Muslim soldiers attacked the Buddhist monastery Nalanda in India. This event is held up as an example of how Muslim invaders were responsible for the eventual destruction of Buddhism in the Indian subcontinent. But it is far from the full story. Here, history professor and Chair of Religious Studies at Southern Methodist University, Johan Elverskog, talks to Tricycle editor and publisher James Shaheen about common misconceptions about the history of Islam and Buddhism, which are often rooted in stereotypes. Elverskog also debunks the assertion that the Mughal invasions were the sole cause of Buddhism’s waning on the subcontinent, a long-held narrative often used to justify Islamophobia.

Listen Now on Tricycle | iTunes | SoundCloud

Jan 17, 2018

The Task Is Being You

With Mark Epstein

The Buddha had a prescription to end suffering—the eightfold path. But can the Western tradition of psychotherapy build upon these essential steps? Here, Buddhist psychotherapist and bestselling author Epstein talks with Tricycle contributing editor Amy Gross about how the two realms of wisdom view the idea of self as both problematic and helpful. Drawing from his new book, Advice Not Given: A Guide to Getting Over Yourself, to discuss the ways meditation illuminates aspects of ourselves that we’re afraid or ashamed of, allowing us to let go of the identities that constrict us.

Listen Now on Tricycle | iTunes | SoundCloud

Tricycle is more than a magazine

Subscribe now for dharma talks, e-books, and more

Dec 30, 2017

What Do Buddhists Mean When They Talk About Not-Self?

With Guy Armstrong

The foundational Buddhist concept of “no-self” can be a headbanger. What does it mean that our self is fundamentally empty? And if that’s true, who are we? In our latest Tricycle Talks podcast, Insight meditation teacher Guy Armstrong explains the concept to Tricycle contributing editor Amy Gross. Drawing from his book Emptiness: A Practical Guide for Meditators, he breaks down what happens when we stop constructing a sense of “I, me, mine” and begin to let go of the extraneous mental activity that leads to unnecessary suffering.

Listen Now on Tricycle | iTunes | SoundCloud

Dec 05, 2017

(Part 2) Mindfulness in Prison and Beyond: On Retreat at the Engaged Mindfulness Institute

With Fleet Maull

Go behind the scenes at a recent retreat with Acharya Fleet Maull in the second part of this Tricycle Talks episode. You’ll hear from four people going through the training about why they practice mindfulness and how it helps the populations they serve.

Listen Now on Tricycle | iTunes | SoundCloud

Nov 21, 2017

(Part 1) Mindfulness in Prison and Beyond

With Fleet Maull

In this two-part Tricycle Talks episode, Tricycle’s web editor, Wendy Joan Biddlecombe, speaks with Acharya Fleet Maull at the Engaged Mindfulness Institute in Deerfield, Massachusetts, about his work, and why he’s moving beyond prisons to train the next generation of mindfulness teachers.

Listen Now on Tricycle | iTunes | SoundCloud

Oct 13, 2017

Why (Science Says) Buddhism Is True

With Robert Wright

In this episode of Tricycle Talks, best-selling author Robert Wright speaks with Tricycle’s web editor, Wendy Joan Biddlecombe, about how evolutionary psychology supports what the Buddha taught us about suffering and not being satisfied in the present moment. In the talk, Wright explains why we haven’t evolved past difficult emotions such as anxiety and how mindfulness meditation can provide a way to work through—and maybe even free us from—them.

Listen Now on Tricycle | iTunes | SoundCloud

Oct 03, 2017

When Your Sangha’s Sex Scandal Goes Viral

With Shozan Jack Haubner

Shozan Jack Haubner, the pen name of a Zen monk, went to the monastery in search of wisdom—and left with a sex scandal. Haubner joins Tricycle’s executive editor Emma Varvaloucas in this podcast to discuss how writing helps him unravel the “big things” in life; the patterns of behavior commonly seen in communities where sexual abuse occurs between teacher and student; and his advice for any group that has a problem that’s been driven underground. “It’s alive,” he says, “and it’s calling for you to deal with it.”

Listen Now on Tricycle | iTunes | SoundCloud

Aug 03, 2017

How Religion Can Bring Peace to a Fearful World

With Michael Kinnamon

We live in a world of fear. But need we be driven by it? In this episode of Tricycle Talks, Dr. Pilar Jennings, a Tibetan Buddhist practitioner and psychotherapist, speaks with Michael Kinnamon, former Dean of the Lexington Theological Seminary and author of the The Witness of Religion in an Age of Fear, about the restlessness, anxiety, and even panic characteristic of contemporary society.

Listen Now on Tricycle | iTunes | SoundCloud

Jun 21, 2017

Breaking Down Love to Practice It in Each Moment

With Sharon Salzberg

Love isn’t just a feeling, says meditation teacher Sharon Salzberg. It’s an ability.

Listen Now on Tricycle | iTunes | SoundCloud

Film Club

Buddhist films and discussion for the Tricycle Community

Ta’ang

Chinese filmmaker Wang Bing turns to the war-torn northeastern border of Myanmar in Ta’ang, a documentary that follows villagers of the Ta’ang ethnic minority as they flee to China, escaping an escalating civil war. In two refugee camps, some of the displaced attempt to create reasonably safe living conditions; others go deeper into China searching for work in sugarcane fields. Ta’ang captures the constant insecurity, instability, and disorientation that come with life as a refugee as well as the complexities—and emotional toll—of the choices Ta’ang families face.

Directed by Wang Bing