Tricycle Talks

Anne C. Klein is a professor of religious studies at Rice University, a lama in the Nyingma tradition, and a founding teacher at Dawn Mountain Center for Tibetan Buddhism in Houston. Her new book, Lamplight on Your Path: Adzom Drukpa's Guide to Dzogchen's Foundational Practices, provides the first English translation of a classic Tibetan practice manual. Considered a companion text to Patrul Rinpoche’s beloved Words of My Perfect Teacher, Lamplight on Your Path offers a commentary on Jigme Lingpa’s foundational practices, or ngondro, that prepare the mind for the state of wholeness and freedom at the heart of the dzogchen tradition.

In this episode of Tricycle Talks, Tricycle’s editor-in-chief, James Shaheen, sits down with Klein to talk about what the foundational practices are and why they’re considered so essential, how chanting helps us to internalize and embody the teachings, the relationship between effort and effortlessness in dzogchen practice, and how the foundational practices can untie the knots that bind us to samsara.

Marisela B. Gomez is a dharma teacher, physician-scientist, and public health scholar. She recently cowrote a book with Valerie Brown called Love Is Liberation: Five Contemplations for Daily Ethical Living. Drawing from Thich Nhat Hanh’s five mindfulness trainings, the book presents ethical guidelines aimed to help us transform suffering in ourselves, our communities, and our world, particularly in the context of injustice and oppression.

In this episode of Life As It Is, Tricycle’s editor-in-chief, James Shaheen, and meditation teacher Sharon Salzberg sit down with Gomez to discuss how she was first introduced to the five mindfulness trainings, why the mindfulness trainings are like spiritual friends, and how contemplating the trainings can offer us a path back to our values. Plus, Gomez leads a guided meditation.

On October 14, 1956, B. R. Ambedkar, the Dalit activist and chief architect of the Indian constitution, led nearly half a million followers in a mass conversion to Buddhism. The conversion set in motion the development of a religious movement known as Navayana, or New Buddhism, which positioned Buddhism as a fierce rejection of Hindu nationalism and caste politics. In Ambedkar’s reading, Buddhism was uniquely suited to support a revolutionary reconstruction of Indian society grounded in religious transformation. In the years since his death, many Dalits have followed his example and converted to Buddhism as a form of protest and resistance.

In honor of the seventieth anniversary of Ambedkar’s conversion, Tricycle’s editor-in-chief, James Shaheen, sat down with scholar William Edelglass, who has written extensively about Ambedkar’s life and legacy. In this episode of Tricycle Talks, Edelglass discusses why Ambedkar believed reform was inadequate and true change required complete annihilation of caste, how Ambedkar viewed social conflict as the primary cause of suffering, Ambedkar’s reimagining of the Buddha’s life story, and how Ambedkar understood Buddhism as a path of collective freedom from violence and social inequality.

Steven Hall, aka Nirosta Steel, has been making ambitious experimental music for more than forty years, though most of it has gone unreleased. This summer, the Indiana label ULYSSA dug through decades of Hall’s archives to put together his first album in years, MY SKYSCRAPER, which quickly rose to critical acclaim. Drawing from his longtime collaboration with Arthur Russell and building on their notion of “Buddhist pop,” the album presents four decades of Hall’s work, spanning folk, disco, and experimental synth-pop.

In this episode of Tricycle Talks, Tricycle’s editor-in-chief, James Shaheen, sits down with Hall to talk about his winding path to music, what he learned from his time with Allen Ginsberg and Larry Fagin, his friendship with Arthur Russell and Russell’s notion of “Buddhist bubblegum,” and how Buddhism literally saved his life.

Maria Heim is a professor of religion at Amherst College. Her new book, How to Truly Love: An Ancient Guide to a Life of Kindness, presents a fresh and accessible translation of a chapter from the Path of Purification, a meditation manual by the great 5th-century sage Buddhaghosa. Through a careful exploration of the brahmaviharas, or sublime attitudes, Buddhaghosa offers practical strategies for releasing anger and hatred and finding freedom.

In this episode of Tricycle Talks, Tricycle’s editor-in-chief, James Shaheen, sits down with Heim to discuss why Buddhaghosa considers love a kind of attention, how love can help us see more clearly, why meditation requires a foundation in morality, and how attention to the particular can help us cultivate a universal sense of love for all beings.