JAN CHOZEN BAYS, M.D., is a Zen teacher and pediatrician. Her article “Mindful Eating” is adapted from a new book of the same name, which draws on knowledge from both occupations. “For many years,” she tells Tricycle, “I’ve been inventing mindful eating exercises. What finally got me writing was the current epidemic of obesity among children and teenagers. Mindful eating is available to everyone. It’s cheap, and it has positive side effects as its benefits spread to all other aspects of our life.”
TOM KILLION makes woodcut prints of the California landscape using traditional Japanese tools and handmade papers. His print is taken from the new book Tamalpais Walking, which he says “represents a lifetime of work on Marin County’s storied Mount Tamalpais.” It is Killion’s second book collaboration with poet Gary Snyder. Killion lives and works in Point Reyes, California, and is beginning a new series of prints that depict California treescapes.
A Naropa University graduate, freelance journalist, and fiction writer, SHELL FISCHER recently won the Bronx Council on the Arts Chapter One Award for her novel “The Joy of Mom.” Her article “On the Cushion, In the Street” profiles the Interdependence Project in New York City. She tells Tricycle, “The group’s youthful energy and enthusiasm remind me of my time at Naropa, where creativity and mindfulness seemed to flourish and then collide to produce something entirely new. If a new path is to be forged for Buddhism in this country, the ID Project seems likely to lead the way.”
VICTORIA RUE, Ph.D., is a Roman Catholic woman priest. In “Ordination as Equals,” she writes about her time in Thailand with the monastic community led by Venerable Dhammananda, the first nun to be ordained in the Thai Theravada tradition in the 21st century. As one of the first women ordained in the Roman Catholic tradition, Dr. Rue notes, “Dhammananda and I both think it is only a matter of time before male hierarchies see the error in their exclusion of women.”
BARRY EVANS, who considers himself a “recovering civil engineer,” helps lead a meditation group in Eureka, California. In his article “I Like It…But Is It Meditation?” Evans writes about the many daily activities that can be approached as opportunities for meditation practice, from kayaking to solving the New York Times crossword. He tells Tricycle, “My favorite part of meditation is ringing the bell.”