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Articles by Kurt Spellmeyer
Losing My Religion
Before I changed my mind about rituals, the 5:00 a.m. chanting at our retreats always felt like a pointless chore—except the final sutra. That “sutra,” though, wasn’t really one at all, but a long poem called the Hsin Hsin Ming, or Inscription on the Mind of Faith, attributed to Chien-chih Seng-ts’an (Jianzhi Sengcan), the third Great Ancestor of Chinese Zen.
Zen Priest Kurt Spellmeyer on Emptiness
Photo by Kirk Lai Sometimes we do things to release ourselves from suffering that aren’t actually liberating. . . and that have the effect of prolonging our suffering. For example, let’s say you have a job that’s very demanding, and you have a high-stress environment, and your day is long. Pressure, pressure, pressure. . . and then around 3:00 pm, you find yourself really tired, and you know you have hours to go.
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.
Awakened by Beauty
Photographs by Michael Kenna / Trunk Archive Beauty has always been for Buddhism an intractable koan, a conundrum it has never quite resolved. To most of us, a life without beauty would seem scarcely worth living at all, and yet the dharma has kept it at arm’s length for the last twenty-five centuries.
Ah, But the Breezes . . .
"L'Aiguille de la republique, Chamonix, France, 1958," © Bradford Washburn, Courtesy of Panopticon Gallery, Waltham, MA Often a spiritual quest begins with the word but. I have everything I need to make me happy, but I am not happy . . . For my neighbor Sally, the quest began many years ago in a villa in southern France. It was a beautiful villa, covered with bougainvillea and facing the Mediterranean, and she was in the company of loving friends. “But I just couldn’t be happy,” she remembers.
For Buddhists, we are all connected and in this life, together
Kurt Spellmeyer, Correspondent Published 10:00 a.m. ET Jan. 31, 2019 MyCentralJersey.com is launching a three-part series on the NJ caregiver crisis in print and online this week. Jenna Intersimone, @JIntersimone Ordinarily, we experience the world as somewhat separate from ourselves. When we look at flowers, cars, and people on the street, it can be like watching a movie screen from a seat 10 or 20 paces away. So familiar does this sense of distance feel that we almost never notice.
Was Buddha Divine or Human?: Kurt Spellmeyer
It’s long past the proper time for me to confess that I nearly failed my first Buddhism class in college four decades ago. On the exam, I made all kinds of mistakes, among them confusing Bodhidharma, the monk who brought Zen from India to China, with dharmakaya, a term often used to describe buddhanature. The professor, a young Tibetologist who had already published several books, kindly gave me a final grade of C for reasons I decided not to ask about.
Every day is New Year’s Day for Buddhism
Kurt Spellmeyer, Correspondent Published 8:00 a.m. ET Jan. 3, 2019 What we're working on for the weekend of Dec. 28. Jenna Intersimone, @JIntersimone Kurt Spellmeyer(Photo: ~File) In a letter to a friend, Einstein wrote, “The distinction between past, present and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion.” Buddhists would be the first to agree.
Best Tricycle Stories of 2018
Trike Daily Best of Tricycle A selection of some of our favorite features and interviews from this past year By Tricycle Dec 19, 2018 Photo by Steve Vandesande Jr | https://tricy.cl/2PK5Q6w Enjoy our top stories from 2018, which included Buddhist teachings to avoid numbness in the wake of a tragedy, an exploration of the deep spiritual questions in a popular Netflix documentary about a controversial cult leader, and advice on finding happiness from a death and dying educator.
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We accept article submissions on a rolling basis. While we can only consider submissions relating to Buddhism, however obliquely, we believe that there is a Buddhist approach to anything and everything. Also, please send work that reflects your knowledge and interests rather than trying to anticipate Tricycle’s. It might be helpful to browse our website to get a sense of our current content. We look forward to seeing your work.
Waking Up by Breaking Down Barriers
Actually, it’s dharma wherever you are with our online dharma talks, available when you subscribe. Unlock Tricycle’s treasury of video teachings by over 70 teachers today. Actually, it’s dharma wherever you are with our online dharma talks, available when you subscribe. Unlock Tricycle’s treasury of video teachings by over 70 teachers today. Actually, it’s dharma wherever you are with our online dharma talks, available when you subscribe.
Buddhist Uncertainty and Wisdom
The Buddha’s search for enlightenment began when he left home. Because modern people travel so easily, we may not appreciate the weight of this decision in his time, the 6th century BCE, when most people never ventured farther than a few miles from their birthplace. From almost any spot on the plains where the Buddha spent his childhood, he could see the open sky. But now, as the fields and hamlets fell away, he entered a jungle whose tangled canopy cast him in deep shadows.
Opposites and the Middle Way
The human mind operates in a way that seems perfectly natural. It organizes everything into “binaries”—that is, pairs of opposites. Each “up” has its “down,” each “heaven” its “hell.” Good and bad are binaries, and so are beautiful and ugly, sacred and profane, rich and poor — the list goes on and on. Binaries help us organize experience, which would otherwise appear utterly chaotic, but at certain moments, we still recognize that reality is never so black-or-white.
Enlightenment means 'deconditioning' the mind
The Buddhist scriptures, known as sutras, say that the Buddha — after his enlightenment — didn’t think that anyone would understand what he had experienced. But just when he decided that he would keep his enlightenment a secret, a brahma — a god — suddenly appeared and begged him to share with others what he’d learned.
A Buddhist Priest Explains Why You're Addicted to Your Cell Phone
Photo by Warren Wong | http://bit.ly/2EHjfLU About two years ago, I lost my phone. Waiting at Newark International Airport, I heard the cancellation of my Chicago flight, closed down by a blizzard. I took out my phone to call home, but then I learned about another plane, soon departing from a different terminal. Stampeding down the concourse with the crowd, I must have dropped my aging Samsung.
Buddhism finds eternal life beyond the self
The soul’s eternal life is a cornerstone belief of many religions, not only Christianity and Islam but also Hinduism. Yet Buddhism teaches the very opposite: the impermanence of everything, including the self. Adherents to those other religions might find the Buddhist viewpoint absolutely baffling. If we’re here today and gone tomorrow, what’s the point of existing at all? Christians and others might react this way because they see death as the Big Problem.
Is the Dharma Democratic?
The Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama, was born into a tribal group, the Shakyas, who made their home in northeast India. Millions of his followers still refer to him as Shakyamuni, “sage of the Shakya tribe.” In the same breath, though, they might also worship him as “the World-Honored One.” The two epithets are used so interchangeably that it’s easy to overlook the contrast they express: “Shakyamuni” refers to a local holy man, “World-Honored One” to the bearer of a wisdom meant for all humanity.
New Year's resolutions and Buddhist vows
At the beginning of every year, we Americans make resolutions. According to a recent NBC poll, the top resolutions for 2018 include getting healthier and better organized, living life more fully, spending less wastefully, trying out new hobbies, traveling more, and devoting added time to reading. We often make these resolutions in good faith, but by February we’ll start to see columnists writing with regret about their failure to keep their word.
Why You're Addicted to Your Phone
About two years ago, I lost my phone. Waiting at Newark International Airport, I heard the cancellation of my Chicago flight, closed down by a blizzard. I took out my phone to call home, but then I learned about another plane, soon departing from a different terminal. Stampeding down the concourse with the crowd, I must have dropped my aging Samsung. In the weeks that followed, I added “Buy a phone” to my list of undone tasks, but as each list replaced the former one, something held me back.
Buddhism and the Market
At the close of a seven-day Zen retreat I attended many years ago, the Japanese teacher urged all of us to say something about our experience. A number of Americans stood up and described how transformative they found their many hours on the cushion. They spoke of inner barriers falling down and turning points in their life’s journey. An artist who had been immobilized by a creative block reported that ideas had come pouring out.
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