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Articles by John Korda
Dr. Bokin Kim on Materialism and Suffering
Photo by Vinicius Amano | https://tricy.cl/2IN1jST Before I came to the US from Korea, I was under the impression that middle-class Americans were living a worry-free existence. They were materially affluent and had access to technology that streamlined their lives, and from where I stood, that seemed like enough for a flourishing human life. In 1979, I moved to Pittsburgh, and the following year, I started my doctoral studies at Temple University in Philadelphia.
Five Drinkable Tea Remedies
Photo by Mike Kenneally | https://tricy.cl/2tvW1TR It is said that whenever students would ask him a question, Zen master Joju (Jpn. Joshu) would answer, “Go drink tea.” Although seemingly random, his pithy instruction points to the most salient tenets of Zen: return to the moment, accept the truth just as it is, and trust your experience of it. It’s as simple as drinking tea. Yet as we know, it’s not that easy.
Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom Review
Students from the Lunana Primary School in Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom Buddhist teachings tell us that the antidote to our propensity for suffering is the noble eightfold path, guidelines that promote ethical conduct infused with compassion and wisdom. Yet in our day-to-day we cling to what we think are the ideal conditions for our personal happiness—the perfect relationship, passion, career, or city to live in that we imagine will bring us fulfillment.
Purify Your Motivation
Photo by Diego Guzmán | https://tricy.cl/3lhu5JO The 9th-century Zen master Linji Yixuan said, “There is a true person of no rank who is always coming and going from the portals of your face.” Who is this true person? Through Zen practice, I came to realize that this person is someone who can bring dhyana [meditation], prajna [wisdom], and sila [ethics] together so that they are informing one another. That’s the Buddhist ideal.
Are There Different Types of Mindfulness Meditation?
[This article is part of the 10 Misconceptions about Buddhism series] There are hundreds of forms of Buddhist meditation, some for developing deep states of concentration and mental bliss, some for analyzing the constituents of mind and body to find that there is no self, and some for meeting the Buddha face-to-face. Among these, mindfulness, commonly assumed to be the primary form of Buddhist meditation, has only recently risen to prominence.
Living in a World That No Longer Exists
A photo (likely staged) of books that remained intact after a 1940 bombing razed London’s Holland House. | Photograph from Wikipedia I There is no heavier fate than to live in a time that is not your own. —Vasily Grossman, “Life and Fate” Our moment is rife with impermanence. Nearest to us is that form of impermanence familiar to Buddhists: birth, aging, sickness, and death.
Lost in Quotation
Artwork by Tricycle Editors Many people who don’t know much about old Buddhist texts often know one passage from the Pali canon: the part of the Kalama Sutta (Anguttara Nikaya 3.65) stating that old texts can’t be trusted. Quotes from this passage come in many shapes and sizes. Some of them are short sound bites, like the message that was rubber-stamped on the envelope of a letter I once received: Follow your own sense of right and wrong.
The Freedom to Breathe
Photo by Anne | https://tricy.cl/2ualH7U I am skinny-dipping. Stripping off my clothes, running into the water, diving down naked to disappear for a few breaths from the shouts and sounds of the world. Shedding clothes, embarrassments, care. The surface breaks as I return for air. For a few moments, I am free, opened, beyond place, beyond space. And then I am here.
How to Survive Election Night and Beyond
Image by Charles Deluvio | https://tricy.cl/34frpX0 Holy Buddha. . .it’s almost the election. There’s no doubt that there is a lot going on, so it’s natural to feel paralyzed or despondent. But we invite you to consider what you can do in this moment and the moments to come: vote, volunteer, and take care of yourself and others. At the very least, we encourage you to pause before refreshing the homepage of your most frequented newsite as the results roll in.
Compassionate Equality
magazine In Brief, TeachingsTeachings A brief teaching from the Dalai Lama By The Dalai Lama Winter 2020 Illustration by André da Loba It’s true that in specific circumstances where you have the ability to alleviate the suffering of another person or to protect another person from suffering, there is, in that sense, an inequality. One person has a capacity that the other person does not.
Opinion: Are Corporations Anti-Dharma?
Photo by reynermedia | https://tricy.cl/2mMhksg It seems to be commonly assumed among Buddhist social activists that there is something fundamentally and ethically suspicious about business and economics. Corporations, in particular, are seen as a destructive force. Are they?
Finding Lovingkindness on a Busy City Street
Trike Daily Meditation MonthMeditation & Practice Finding lovingkindness on a busy city street By Rick Heller Mar 09, 2016 Image by Kevin Doncaster | http://tricy.cl/1RPaRHl Lovingkindness in Buddhism is considered to be part of a constellation of four worthy attitudes called the Brahma viharas. Besides lovingkindness, the other attitudes are compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity. Sympathetic joy is a curious attitude that is not a distinct concept in American culture.
Stupa Survives Wildfire at Shambhala Mountain Center
Trike Daily Buddha BuzzNews The Shambhala Mountain Center protects its stupa from wildfires, China enacts questionable new labor plans for Tibetans and destroys Muslim religious sites, and Thai women speak out against the patriarchy. Tricycle looks back at the events of this week in the Buddhist world. By Emily DeMaioNewton and Karen Jensen Oct 03, 2020 Shambhala Mountain Center's Great Stupa | Photo courtesy Shambhala Mountain Center Nothing is permanent, so everything is precious.
A Little Wisdom
Liberate this film! Watch this film—and a new one every month—when you subscribe to Tricycle now. Gain immediate access to everything we have to offer: video teachings, e-books, our 29-year magazine archive, and more.
A Black Lives Matter Lovingkindness Meditation
Trike Daily Teachings for Uncertain Times Chopra offers an adaptation of a traditional metta meditation to address the killing of black men by police officers. By Tricycle Feb 05, 2017 Tricycle is offering free access to select articles during this uncertain time. Your contribution helps make content like this possible. Show your support for as little as $1.
The Precept of Non-lying in Buddhism Explained
Lying is something we learn not to do as small children. Aesop’s fables and many children’s stories teach us about lying. I remember well my mother reading Pinocchio to me, not just as a story but as an amusing warning about the dangers of lying. One of the most famous of Aesop’s fables is “The Boy Who Cried Wolf.” And then, perhaps when we are a little older, we learn about George Washington and the cherry tree he cut down.
Every 28 Hours
Jae C. Hong/Associated Press Over the last week we’ve heard a great deal about how a Florida jury reached a verdict of not guilty for George Zimmerman in the death of Trayvon Martin. We’ve seen an international response of outrage over this decision. But something we’ve seen little of is a serious discussion of the daily, centuries-old demonization of black men that festers like a disease beneath Martin’s death.
Real Change: A Succession Star on the Power of Empathy
Tricycle Talks Actor Arian Moayed believes that theater—like meditation—can help us understand each other. By Tricycle Sep 29, 2020 Tricycle is pleased to offer the Tricycle Talks podcast for free. If you would like to support this offering, please consider donating. Thank you! Arian Moayed is perhaps best known for his role as Stewy in the HBO series Succession.
The Happiness Metric
On Friday evenings in Thimphu, the capital of Bhutan, men, women, and children throng the main street, flowing together in a slow dance. Swaggering teenage boys, arms slung over each other’s shoulders, speak in surprisingly gentle voices. Stray dogs assertively cohabit the city. One often hears singing—on sidewalks, pouring out of windows, on construction sites.
Smokey the Bear Sutra
Photo by Milkovi | https://tricy.cl/3iZPJBa Every so often, Tricycle features an article from Inquiring Mind, a Buddhist journal that was in print from 1984–2015 and now has a growing number of back issues archived at inquiringmind.com.
What To Do When The Anger Gets Hot
Photo © William Klein. What makes me angry? That’s an interesting question. I don’t get angry. If you ask the monks and teachers who were with me in Tibet or India, I’m sort of known for not getting angry. I do get irritated sometimes. Especially being diabetic. If I explain something and people don’t understand and then I try my best to talk to them and they still don’t get it, then I get a nervousness within me, and I’m thinking, “What is the use of talking?
Tibetan NYPD Officer Accused of Spying for China
Trike Daily Buddha BuzzNews A Tibetan police officer in Queens is accused of acting as a spy for China, Ladakhis unite to boycott local elections, and the town of Swastika, New York, votes to keep its name. Tricycle looks back at the events of this week in the Buddhist world. By Emily DeMaioNewton and Karen Jensen Sep 26, 2020 NYPD officer Baimadajie Angwang is accused of acting as a spy for China. | NYPD Nothing is permanent, so everything is precious.
Two Young Graduates Return to Ladakh, Looking to Give Back
Trike Daily CommunitySociety & Environment The Siddhartha School has changed the lives of many children in Ladakh. Now, two young alums of the school are giving back to their community in new ways. By Dana Sawyer Sep 21, 2020 Tsewang Chuskit and Stanzin Angmo Last year, Ladakh became its own union territory of India, separating it from the state of Jammu and Kashmir. It now has a certain level of political autonomy, but Ladakh’s worries are far from over.
Buddha Buzz Weekly: Buddhist Streaming Site Coming Later This Year
Trike Daily Buddha BuzzNews The Buddhist Film Foundation will launch a streaming site for Buddhist films, the Dalai Lama writes an op-ed about the climate crisis, and a monk advocates for peace at the India-China border. Tricycle looks back at the events of this week in the Buddhist world. By Emily DeMaioNewton and Karen Jensen Sep 19, 2020 The Buddhist Film Foundation plans to launch a streaming site for Buddhist films in late 2020. Nothing is permanent, so everything is precious.
Gyaltsen Choden: Living History
Gyaltsen Choden with H.H. the 14th Dalai Lama in Dhondenling Tibetan Settlement, Kollegal, Karnataka circa 1970 In 1959, tens of thousands of Tibetans followed their spiritual leader, Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, into exile. Many of us are familiar with the dramatic flight through the Himalayas to the Indian subcontinent, and the 1959 “Tibetan Uprising” that occasioned it. But few experienced it like Gyaltsen Choden did.
Dear Abbey Dharma Mindfulness Path
Photo by Joachim Aspenlaub Blattboldt | https://tricy.cl/32tmZK3 Dear Abbey Dharma, I’ve been traveling the mindfulness meditation path for two years and have been progressively adding to my formal and informal practice, but it feels as if I’ve hit particularly rough terrain on the path. As I’ve become more aware of my own mindfulness, it seems that I’ve also become more aware of how I mindlessly hurt myself and others.
Real Change: Economic Justice for All
Tricycle Talks The executive director of the Strong Economy for All Coalition discusses the fight for a fair wage, engaged Buddhism, and how meditation changed his activism. By Tricycle Sep 15, 2020 Tricycle is pleased to offer the Tricycle Talks podcast for free. If you would like to support this offering, please consider donating. Thank you! Buddhism’s four noble truths start with the truth—and the inevitability—of suffering. So what does that mean for an activist?
How to Stay Calm This Back-to-School Season
Trike Daily FamilyMeditation & Practice As children return to the (online and in-person) classroom, parents may be freaking out. Meditation can help. By Hannah Sherman Sep 14, 2020 Image courtesy DrawKit If you’re a parent worried about the start of the school year, you’re not alone. Many parents and caregivers are overcome with uncertainty about how to manage a complicated re-entry and make sure their kids stay safe, healthy, and sane as COVID-19 continues to spread through the fall.
Buddha Buzz Weekly: Health Insurance for Monks
Trike Daily Buddha BuzzNews The Sri Lankan government announces an insurance program specifically for Buddhist monks, Buddhist studies professors participate in a scholar strike, and Sea-Tac airport gets a meditation room. Tricycle looks back at the events of this week in the Buddhist world. By Emily DeMaioNewton and Karen Jensen Sep 12, 2020 Buddhist monks attend the inaugural session of the new parliament, in Colombo, Sri Lanka on August 20.
Liberating Impermanence
One of the first lessons the Buddha ever taught is the impermanence (anicca) of things, but the tectonic shifts we are witnessing today may still leave us feeling unprepared. Only a decade ago, after all, nobody could have predicted that our democracy would be fighting for its life, or that xenophobic ethno-states would threaten the global order. But even these astonishing developments look almost trivial alongside a worldwide pandemic that has probably claimed the life of somebody you know.
Creating a Life of Integrity: A Virtual Event
Creating a Life of Integrity: Our Path to Joy A Virtual Event With Joseph Goldstein and Gail Stark In a world turned upside down, where do we find our compass? For a year, Gail Stark, guided by Joseph Goldstein, practiced intensely–and joyously!–with the 10 paramis, the qualities of a Buddha. It was a transformative year and Gail’s new book, Creating a Life of Integrity: In Conversation with Joseph Goldstein, will be the map to her upcoming course offered by New York Insight Meditation Center.
The Hit Netflix Show Indian Matchmaking Has a Surprising Connection to Buddhism
Trike Daily Pop cultureArts & Culture Matchmaker Sima Taparia chants the daimoku to help her clients find the one. By Lakshmi Gandhi Sep 09, 2020 The Netflix show revolves around professional matchmaker and SGI practitioner Sima Taparia. | Netflix © 2020 There’s a moment in Indian Matchmaking—the hit Netflix reality show that centers on a Mumbai-based matchmaker who works with clients in both the United States and India—that led many Buddhist viewers to take notice.
Shin Buddhism: A Path of Gratitude
Artwork by Artokoloro / Alamy When I was a young child, my family had a walnut tree in our yard. One day, while I was playing on the lawn, my mother asked if I could see the walnuts themselves growing on the tree. Unaware that walnuts grow inside of a green husk, I pictured them with their brown shells and couldn’t see any. Because my expectation was different from how they actually appeared, they were invisible to me.
Darkhan
Liberate this film! Watch this film—and a new one every month—when you subscribe to Tricycle now. Gain immediate access to everything we have to offer: video teachings, e-books, our 29-year magazine archive, and more. Subscribe Now Director: Gulshat Omarova Country: USA, Russia, Italy Year: 2019 The darkhans of Buryatia, a Buddhist region of Siberia, were craftsmen and blacksmiths highly esteemed for their artistic skills, ability to work with fire, and shamanistic talent.
Real Change: Pandemic of Love
Tricycle Talks The story behind one mutual aid fund and the woman who started it. By Tricycle Sep 08, 2020 Tricycle is pleased to offer the Tricycle Talks podcast for free. If you would like to support this offering, please consider donating. Thank you! Since the pandemic began earlier this year, mutual aid funds have become a major resource for people suffering from the burden of job loss and financial strain.
What Do Alms Gatherers Eat in COVID?
Bhikkhunis engage in masked and socially distanced pindadata at Dhammadharini Monastery in Penngrove, California on July 7, 2020. From left: Samanerin Kaccayana, Ven. Sucitta Theri, Ven. Sobhana Theri Anagarika Dhammavara | Photo courtesy Dhammadharini Monastery Tricycle is offering free access to select articles during this uncertain time. Your contribution helps make content like this possible. Show your support for as little as $1.
Mongolians Protest Chinese Language Policy in Schools
Trike Daily Buddha BuzzNews Mongolians protest Chinese language policy in schools, the Rubin Museum makes plans to reopen next weekend, and Wednesday’s full moon marked a special day for many Buddhists. Tricycle looks back at the events of this week in the Buddhist world. By Emily DeMaioNewton and Karen Jensen Sep 05, 2020 Children in a Mongolian kindergarten learn a folk dance in Darhan Muminggan, United Banner, north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.
Confessions of a White Buddhist
Homeless Buddha, Izhar Patkin and Nam June Paik collaboration, 1992. Photo by Chris Gomien, Courtesy Carl Solway Gallery. Buddhists in the United States include fifth-generation Americans of Chinese and Japanese heritage, second-generation Korean-Americans, recent immigrants from Laos, Thailand, Vietnam, and Cambodia and their American children, along with converts from European, African, and Latino backgrounds.
Real Change with Sharon Salzberg
Tricycle Talks In the first episode of the Real Change podcast series, Sharon Salzberg discusses her new book Real Change and how her meditation practice keeps her grounded in times of great despair. By Tricycle Sep 02, 2020 Photo © 2017 Tawni Bannister Tricycle is pleased to offer the Tricycle Talks podcast for free. If you would like to support this offering, please consider donating.
Still Running: Zen in Motion
Photo by Ryoji Iwata | https://tricy.cl/2Eth3sK Why, exactly, do runners run? “Most runners run not because they want to live longer, but because they want to live life to the fullest,” the acclaimed novelist Haruki Murakami, who is also an elite marathon runner, wrote in his 2009 memoir, What I Talk About When I Talk About Running.
Buddha Buzz Weekly: Thai Monk Backs Marriage Equality
Trike Daily Buddha Buzz Buddhist monk Shine Waradhammo shows his support for Thailand’s LGBT+ community, a monk in Cambodia falls victim to a government-backed smear campaign on Facebook, and new reports shed light on Rohingya resettlement. Tricycle looks back at the events of this week in the Buddhist world. By Emily DeMaioNewton and Karen Jensen Aug 29, 2020 Thai Buddhist monk Shine Waradhammo has been openly showing his support for the LGBT+ community in Thailand.
Tricycle: The Buddhist Review
Students with Syracuse University’s Buddhist Meditation Association visit Dai Bosatsu Zendo in New York’s Catskill region in 2019. | Photo By Junjie Ren For years, members of the Hyde Park Zen Group have gathered each Wednesday to spread out their cushions around the altar in Rockefeller Memorial Chapel, a cavernous space modeled after a medieval cathedral with soaring vaulted ceilings, stained glass windows, and a 200-foot bell tower.
Unmasking the Self
magazine Brief TeachingsMeditation & Practice Awareness cannot be taught, and when it is present it has no context. All contexts are created by thought and are therefore corruptible by thought. Awareness simply throws light on what is, without any separation whatsoever.
Think Not Thinking
magazine InsightsMeditation & Practice Try it. According to Brad Warner, it’s not as hard as they say. By Brad Warner Fall 2007 Photo by Philipp Berndt on Unsplash | https://bit.ly/2MfUpFR People who are new to Zen practice have all kinds of weird ideas about the state of nonthinking. Some people envision it as some kind of trippy spaced-out sorta thing. I’ve even heard the term mushiryo (“not-thinking”) consciousness thrown around as if it was some way-cool and mysterious altered state.
Topping the Charts for Freedom
Ani Choying Drolma | All photos courtesy of the Nuns’ Welfare Foundation of Nepal Ask Ani Choying Drolma how she made the transition from battered daughter of poor Tibetan refugees to international singing sensation, founder of the Nuns’ Welfare Foundation of Nepal, and coauthor of Singing for Freedom, an unabashedly candid autobiography that made waves in France before being published in a dozen other countries (an English translation was published in June 2009 in Australia and New Zealand...
The Authentic Life
Lewis Richmond as a serious new priest at Tassajara Monastery, circa 1974; Photograph courtesy of Lewis Richmond One thing that makes Lewis Richmond so interesting to speak with is that he is a person of so many interests.
Creating Merit Through Noble Wishes
Photo by Amberlei Hellewell | https://tricy.cl/2QpScYS The Mirror of Essential Points The king of perfect dedication Is the means of increasing the root of virtue. This teaching is the specialty of Shakyamuni, Which is not taught by other teachers. —Nyoshul Khen Rinpoche Without prayers of aspiration, expressing one’s noble wishes, our meditation lacks something important, a certain vital richness. Your aspirations must be inspired by the altruistic spirit of bodhicitta, awakened heart-mind.
Brief Teachings: The Seal of Sila
The Pali word sila (“discipline, restraint”) recalls the word “sealant” in English. When you want to close a crack, you use a sealant and seal it off. You lay the foundation for a house and cover all the cracks, so no water will seep in, no insects will enter, and the foundation won’t collapse. As a result, the foundation for your house remains firm and is sturdy enough to build upon. Sila is like that when it comes to meditation. It’s the foundation.
Love Is All Around
Photo by Pixabay My root spiritual teacher, Nyoshul Khenpo, once said that a moment of enlightenment is a moment when we realize “the blessings that are always pouring forth.” We are, by nature, endowed with qualities of absolute goodness—purest love, compassion, wisdom, and tranquility. Those radiant qualities are intrinsic to our being. They are among the “blessings” to which Khenpo refers.
Zen and the Art of Begging
Zen students on alm-rounds in Olympia, Washington. It is the day for takuhatsu in Olympia, this small city in the State of Washington. After zazen and morning ceremony, we eat a modest breakfast of oatmeal and tea and still feel hungry. This is good, as one should not go begging on a full stomach. The rain has held off, but it is misty, windless, and raw. Streets and alleys are full of puddles.
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