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Articles by Michele McDonald
Commonwealth Cyber Initiative helps launch new start-ups
The Commonwealth Cyber Initiative Accelerator (CCI+A) program is a jam-packed, five-month innovation program that’s fueling cybersecurity entrepreneurship across Virginia. It’s teaching professors and start-ups what it takes to bring technology to market, including how to pitch to a panel of investors and industry leaders.
See the best photos of 2024 from the Maine Trust for Local News Original
Normally in Maine, people are pretty much done with winter by the end of March. Last year, however, the Portland area did not get as much snow as usual. And as this March 23 storm dropped large, white flakes, people seemed to welcome it. I found this pair on the Eastern Promenade swinging away in silence, seemingly immersed in the morning tranquility brought by the storm. It was an unexpected and happy find for me to stumble upon them, and I quickly positioned myself to capture the scene.
In photos: Best of September
Lucy Johnson of Cheverus shoots in the second half against Scarborough. Derek Davis/Staff Photographer A group of burlap bag-clutching children, ages 8 to 10, chase swine in the Pulling Ring during the Pig Scramble on September 29 at the Fryeburg Fair. Ben McCanna/Staff Photographer Arthur Barnard leans toward his grandson Leland as they present him with his second birthday cake at their home in Topsham.
In photos: The Great Bridge Switcheroo
Workers move about the site as demolition of the Veranda Street Bridge starts on Friday night. Derek Davis/Staff Photographer A worker sprays water on the work site as large excavators begin the demolition of the Veranda Street Bridge. Derek Davis/Staff Photographer Debris falls as large excavators begin the demolition of the Veranda Street Bridge. Derek Davis/Staff Photographer Callan Cassidy watches as demolition of the Veranda Street Bridge begins on Friday night.
In photos: Maine summer in full swing
Photo by Shawn Patrick Ouellette Mary Thurlow 62, of Saco sits with her feet in a kiddie pool along with her father, Fred Blow, 93, at Blow’s home on June 29. Thurlow said they purchased the pool earlier this season for the dogs but decided to take it over for the day to help beat the heat. The dogs are Ru, center, looking up at Mary, and Ellie, on right looking toward Fred.
Guo Gu Answers Your Questions
Trike Daily Meditation Month 2021Meditation & Practice In our final Meditation Month offering for 2021, teacher Guo Gu offers suggestions for choosing the right amount of time to practice and dealing with discomfort, and discusses the differences between creative and meditative absorption.
Rehearsing Suffering
Art by Kathleen MacGregor | https://tricy.cl/3w551eQ A major obstacle to meditation is the tendency of our mind to get stuck in negative thinking. The mind “rehearses” the scenarios that bother us, ultimately because it wants to resolve the problem and to find a way out. Unfortunately, it may get stuck in its track like the needle of the gramophone stuck in a groove, repeating the same track ceaselessly.
Meditation Month 2021: Let Go and Break Through
Trike Daily Meditation Month 2021Meditation & Practice Week 4 of Guo Gu’s guided meditation videos With Guo Gu Mar 22, 2021 This week, Guo Gu explains the term “silent illumination,” a principle we can use to guide us in meditation both when we are scattered and when in perfect concentration. Silent illumination is actually one way to express a Chan (Jp., Zen) concept of awakening. Silence is in the intrinsic freedom within us and our inherent selflessness.
The Nature of the Mind
Trike Daily Meditation Month 2021Teachings Understanding the qualities of the mind is essential to mahamudra practice, a kind of meditation that points to the emptiness of all phenomena. By H.E. 12th Zurmang Gharwang Rinpoche Mar 21, 2021 Photo by Alfred Schrock | http://tricy.cl/3cTRlLb When we meditate, we wonder: what is the mind? What is consciousness, or awareness? In some ways the mind may seem unreal. It is not something tangible.
Honoring Asian American Buddhists, Countering AAPI Hate -
Trike Daily RaceSociety & Environment To mourn those who have been lost, we honor the myriad contributions of Buddhists of Asian descent. By Tricycle Mar 19, 2021 A memorial at an Atlanta massage parlor where a white gunman is accused of killing eight people, six of whom were of Asian descent. | Robin Rayne/ZUMA Wire The violence and xenophobic rhetoric against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders didn’t start with COVID-19.
Responding to Anti-Asian violence
Trike Daily RaceSociety & Environment How one Buddhist temple is responding to anti-Asian violence As told to Daniel Burke by Bishop Noriaki Ito Mar 19, 2021 Higashi Honganji Buddhist Temple in downtown Los Angeles | Higashi Honganji On the night of February 25, a man climbed over the fence protecting the Higashi Honganji Buddhist Temple in downtown Los Angeles.
A Buddhist Memorial for Those We’ve Lost
Trike Daily COVID-19Meditation & Practice Four Buddhist teachers hold a service on the anniversary of the official declaration of the coronavirus pandemic. By Tricycle Mar 16, 2021 On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization declared that COVID-19 was a global pandemic.
Meditation Month 2021: Contemplation and Perception
Trike Daily Meditation Month 2021Meditation & Practice Week 3 of Guo Gu’s guided meditation videos With Guo Gu Mar 15, 2021 Welcome back for week three of Meditation Month, our annual challenge to sit all 31 days of March. If you’re just joining us, Meditation Month teacher Guo Gu is leading a series of four free guided meditation videos. Guo Gu is the founder of and a teacher at the Tallahassee Chan Center and the Sheng Yen Associate Professor of Chinese Buddhism at Florida State University.
Becoming a Buddhist Climate Scientist
Tricycle Talks Dekila Chungyalpa is a conservation scientist and director of a faith-based, climate-change initiative. In this podcast, she shares how Buddhist teachings on emptiness, impermanence, non-attachment, and compassion sustain her. By Tricycle Mar 10, 2021 Tricycle is pleased to offer the Tricycle Talks podcast for free. If you would like to support this offering, please consider donating.
Meditation Month 2021: Breathe & Experience
Trike Daily Meditation Month 2021Meditation & Practice Week 2 of Guo Gu’s guided meditation videos With Guo Gu Mar 08, 2021 Welcome back for week two of Tricycle Meditation Month, our annual challenge to sit all 31 days of March. If you’re just joining us, our Meditation Month teacher Guo Gu is leading a series of four free guided meditation videos.
Being in Body Time
Trike Daily Meditation Month 2021Body & Mind Unlike our minds, our bodies always exist in the radical present. By Lama Willa Blythe Baker Mar 06, 2021 Photo by Gabrielle Henderson | http://tricy.cl/3c3qITq The following has been adapted from Willa Blythe Baker’s Dharma Talk, The Art of Somatic Mindfulness. In this series, Willa explains how we can develop awareness through careful attention to the body.
Rising From the Tsunami
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 Jeremy Perrin and Hélène Robert Country: Japan, France Year: 2019 View Trailer Ten years ago, Japan was devastated by a tsunami, which some survivors say tore a hole in the veil between the living and dead.
Finding Patience
Photo by Jordan Whitt on Unsplash | https://tricy.cl/2kwyXRk When I was a child, I was told many times, “Be patient” or “Patience is a virtue.” I would relate to these words in much the same way I would to the order “Eat your spinach.” To me, “Be patient” meant “Grin and bear it,” or that I should repress my feelings about the disagreeable aspects of life. This is not what is meant by patience from the Buddhist perspective, however.
In photos: Ice, an otherworldly beauty
Photo by Gregory Rec An ice disk measuring about 5 feet in diameter is frozen in place in the Kennebunk River between Kennebunk and Arundel on Feb. 1. Photo by Gregory Rec A telemark skier makes his way up a slope near the summit of Saddleback Mountain, where buildings and trees are coated in rime ice on Feb. 5. Rime ice is formed when water droplets in supercooled clouds come in contact with objects that are also at a temperature below freezing.
Visiting Teacher: Guo Gu
magazine Openings, Visiting Teacher A Q&A with Guo Gu, founder of and teacher at the Tallahassee Chan Center and Sheng Yen Associate Professor of Chinese Buddhism at Florida State University By The Editors Spring 2021 Photo by Myosen Sprott Where did you grow up?I was born in Taiwan and grew up in the New Jersey–New York area. When did you become a Buddhist and why?
Buddhist Contemplation: Nine Helpful Tips
Illustration by Mikel Jaso In the breakneck speed of this modern age, slowing down to contemplate and meditate is increasingly difficult. But to fully incorporate the dharma we need to step on the brakes. The dharma is not fast food. It’s slow food. To ingest, digest, and metabolize the teachings properly we have to take our time and chew on things. The three prajnas, or “wisdom tools,” of hearing, contemplating, and meditating are designed to facilitate this embodiment of the dharma.
A Day in the Dharma with the members of the Village Zendo, a Soto and Rinzai Zen center in New York City
magazine A Day in the Dharma, Openings Practitioners of this Lower Manhattan sangha adjust to life in the pandemic. Photographs by A. Jesse Jiryu Davis Spring 2021 Photo by A. Jesse Jiryu Davis The Village Zendo in New York City’s Soho neighborhood has been closed since March 2020, so its members have been attending virtual meditation sessions, chanting over video chat, gathering for remote retreats, and sharing other distanced activities online.
Meet a Teacher: Miles Bukiet
magazine Teachings Bukiet presents innovative practices that address the needs of younger meditators. By Adrienne Bard de Palazuelos Spring 2021 Illustration by Agata Nowicka For most of his 32 years Miles Bukiet has been a seeker. More recently he became a meditation teacher, developing a program that speaks to those who—from his vantage point—are the young people.
Buddhism by the Numbers: Armenia
magazine By the Numbers, Openings Dharma activity in the republic where freedom of religion became law only in 2015, some 14 years after the country became independent from Russia in 1991 By The Editors Spring 2021 Buddhism in Armenia: Portion of the population that identifies as Buddhist: < 0.1% Single-religion households: 96% Year the Armenian constitution was amended to allow freedom of religion: 2005 (The Armenian Apostalic Church remains the national church, however, and enjoys...
11 Ways to Find Your Inner Peace and Happiness Now
Inner peace is possible, and you don't need to meditate on a mountaintop or break the bank for a wellness retreat in order to find it. Carving out time to relax is wonderful, but it's amid the frantic pace of everyday life when we need serenity the most: That moment when you're stuck in the pharmacy line and the contents of your bag spill on the floor just as your phone starts ringing?
Dalai Lama Transforming Anger to Patience
https://tricy.cl/2uqGh0S | Photo by Vladimir Pustovit Last August [1991—eds.], in a vast tent pitched in a meadow in the Valley of the Vizere in the Dordogne region of France, His Holiness the Dalai Lama expounded the dharma to an audience of five thousand. The week-long teaching took the form of a commentary on the Bodhicaryavatara (The Way of the Bodhisattva), the celebrated text written by the eighth-century Indian adept, scholar, and poet Shantideva.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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...
Letters to the Editor
“Racial Justice Is Everyone’s Work” (June 2, 2020) | Pro Shots/Alamy Live News In late May, protestors began pouring into the streets to demand an end to the long and disturbing history of police violence against people of color, which had recently claimed more lives, including that of George Floyd, whose public killing was captured on video.
A Day in the Dharma: Quarantine Edition
magazine A Day in the Dharma, Openings An inside look at how six Buddhist teachers are coping with the coronavirus quarantine By The Editors Fall 2020 Sebene Selassie | Photographs courtesy the subjects Insight Meditation teacher Sebene Selassie attends Instagram Live dance parties called Club Quarantine, DJ’ed by D-Nice. She and her dharma friends (along with up to 200,000 other people) participate together.
Teachings for Uncertain Times: Racism Is a Heart Disease
Trike Daily Teachings for Uncertain Times And it’s curable, says insight meditation teacher Ruth King By Tricycle Feb 17, 2017 Ruth King Tricycle is offering free access to select articles during this uncertain time. In honor of Black History Month, Tricycle is presenting a special video series, “Teachings for Uncertain Times,” featuring 13 teachers of color, here on our blog, Trike Daily, throughout February. The videos are free to watch.
May 2020 AIAA Bulletin
AIAA Calls Upon U.S. Policymakers to Protect Mission-Critical Aerospace and Defense Workforce and Supply Chain Tomorrow’s Technology Leaders: The 20 Twenties 2020 Sperry Award Winner Moving Technology Forward As Fast As He Can Making an Impact: Education Achievement Awards Northern Ohio Section Livestreams Distinguished Lecture “First State, First Step” Hosted at University of Delaware FIT Dinner Meeting Hosted JPL Propulsion Engineer AIAA Delaware Section Adapts to the Coronavirus Pandemic...
Opinion: Distance learning offers opportunities during coronavirus
By Michele McDonald Published 10:39 am EDT, Wednesday, April 8, 2020 A library sits empty at the KT Murphy Elementary School on March 17, 2020 in Stamford, Connecticut. A library sits empty at the KT Murphy Elementary School on March 17, 2020 in Stamford, Connecticut. Photo: John Moore / Getty Images Photo: John Moore / Getty Images Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Image 1 of 1 A library sits empty at the KT Murphy Elementary School on March 17, 2020 in Stamford, Connecticut.
Opinion: Distance learning offers opportunities during coronavirus
By Michele McDonald Published 10:39 am EDT, Wednesday, April 8, 2020 A library sits empty at the KT Murphy Elementary School on March 17, 2020 in Stamford, Connecticut. A library sits empty at the KT Murphy Elementary School on March 17, 2020 in Stamford, Connecticut. Photo: John Moore / Getty Images Photo: John Moore / Getty Images Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Image 1 of 1 A library sits empty at the KT Murphy Elementary School on March 17, 2020 in Stamford, Connecticut.
Five Practices to Change Your Mind
Leave yourself alone! Zen teacher Barry Magid describes the practice of just sitting. Imagine sitting down in front of a mirror. Your face automatically appears. There is no effort required; the mirror is doing all the work. You can’t do it right or wrong. The Zen Buddhist practice of “just sitting” is like that. When we sit, our mind automatically begins to display itself to us. Our practice is to observe and experience what appears moment after moment.
How to Find Inner Peace and Happiness in the Chaos
Inner peace is possible, and you don't need to meditate on a mountaintop or break the bank for a beach yoga retreat in order to find it. Carving out time to relax is wonderful, but it's amid the frantic pace of everyday life when we need serenity the most: After all, you don't live in a yoga retreat, you live in the real world. That moment when you're stuck in the pharmacy line and the contents of your bag spill on the floor just as your phone starts ringing?
Master Sheng Yen Homeless in New York
Photo provided by Dharma Drum Mountain Cultural and Educational Foundation, All Rights Reserved Master Sheng Yen has dedicated his life to spreading the teachings of Chan Buddhism in China and in the West. In this excerpt from his new autobiography, Footprints in the Snow, Master Sheng Yen tells the story of his arrival in New York and how he learned to live without a home. After I resigned from my post as an abbot in Taiwan, Dr. C. T.
An Interview with Jack Kornfield
Jack Kornfield today (left) and as a young monk in Thailand, 1969 (right). Left photo by Glen Mckay, courtesy Jack Kornfield; Right photo courtesy Jack Kornfield. Jack Kornfield was trained as a Buddhist monk in Thailand, Burma, and India. After majoring in Asian Studies at Dartmouth, in 1967 he went to Thailand with the Peace Corps looking for a Buddhist teacher. Upon his return, he earned a doctorate in clinical psychology.
Roshi Pat Enkyo O'Hara- Tricycle
Henrik Sorensen | Getty I sit here, Dappled by the sun filtering through the leaves, a child chases a pigeon, the old man naps there on the bench, a white moth flits by, occasions of joy, always right here. Say the word joy, and what comes to mind? To me, joy seems to come unbidden, just erupting at the oddest times. It isn’t possible to plan for joy, yet when it comes, it is an unmistakable overflowing of feelings of delight in the world and its mysteries.
The Joy of Letting Go: Spring Cleaning Inside and Out
Trike Daily Meditation Month 2021Meditation & Practice Sister Ocean, who is ordained in the Plum Village tradition by Thich Nhat Hanh, offers some spring cleaning tips. By Hai An (Sister Ocean) Mar 19, 2021 Image by Martin K. | http://bit.ly/2FhHmBr Before entering the monastery I was never one to put energy into housekeeping. But I’ve learned that when I have time to clean, and especially when I have other people to do it with, I enjoy tasks such as washing dishes and sweeping mindfully.
Finding Patience
Photo by Jordan Whitt on Unsplash | https://tricy.cl/2kwyXRk When I was a child, I was told many times, “Be patient” or “Patience is a virtue.” I would relate to these words in much the same way I would to the order “Eat your spinach.” To me, “Be patient” meant “Grin and bear it,” or that I should repress my feelings about the disagreeable aspects of life. This is not what is meant by patience from the Buddhist perspective, however.
Brief Teachings Summer 2018
Imagining Your Ideal Self You can spend the rest of your days attempting to become some imagined, perfect person, but I recommend you don’t waste your life striving to become some unattainable version of yourself. You’ll never reach the place of perfection, and that’s perfectly all right. The path to perfection will only lead to exhaustion and disappointment; meanwhile, your actual life will be passing you by.
5 Myths of <em>Challenger</em> Shuttle Disaster Debunked
A cloud of vapor engulfs the space shuttle Challenger in a picture taken on the morning of January 28, 1986. The disaster claimed the lives of all seven astronauts on board, including high school teacher Christa McAuliffe, and brought NASA's human spaceflight program to an abrupt but temporary halt. Now, on the 25th anniversary of the tragedy, the story of what exactly happened to Challenger remains clouded by faulty memories and misinformation.
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