Tricycle Talks

A pioneer in end-of-life care, Frank Ostaseski brings his Buddhist practice—and a startlingly respectful compassion—to the bedsides of people who are face to face with dying. In his new book, The Five Invitations: What Death Can Teach Us About Living Fully, he has learned lessons that “are too important to be left to our final hours”: By turning away from death, he says, we also turn away from the preciousness of life and our ability to live fully. Ostaseski guides us through what is otherwise scary territory with kindness, warmth, wisdom and humor. As Rachel Naomi Remen, M.D., writes in her exquisite introduction, “Death, like love, is intimate, and that intimacy is the condition of the deepest learning.” Contributing editor Amy Gross sits down for a conversation with Ostaseski about his work in our latest Tricycle Talk. Gross teaches mindfulness-based stress reduction at the Open Center in New York City. His lessons can help all of us—the sick and the well, the old and the young—live a life of bravery, intimacy, honesty, and ease, even alongside our fear of dying.

In the debut episode of Tricycle Talks, contributing editor Amy Gross speaks with practicing psychiatrist Mark Epstein on Buddhism and psychotherapy. Epstein emphasizes that there is dukkha (suffering) in every place at every time and that psychotherapeutic practices can help alleviate this suffering. Epstein's new book, The Trauma of Everyday Life, also explores this topic.

Tricycle contributing editor Amy Gross speaks with author Katy Butler about modern medicine's often misguided approach to end-of-life care. Butler's bestselling book, Knocking on Heaven's Door: The Path to a Better Way of Death, chronicles the author's own experience of her father's slow decline following a devastating stroke. "There comes a point," Butler says, "when death becomes a blessing and living becomes a burden." In this episode of Tricycle Talks, Butler tells us what we need to know—and conversations we need to have—to make responsible medical decisions for ourselves and loved ones as we approach the end of life.

In this episode of Tricycle Talks, Tricycle's founding editor Helen Tworkov speaks with the Tibetan Buddhist teacher and writer Andrew Holecek about how to prepare for what he calls the “once in a lifetime opportunity” of death and dying. Holecek explains how the practices that ensure a peaceful death are vital to a well-lived life. His latest book is Preparing to Die: Practical Advice and Spiritual Wisdom from the Tibetan Buddhist Tradition.

In this episode of Tricycle Talks, two Tricycle contributors—David Urubshurow and international political consultant Joel McCleary—speak to associate editor Alex Caring-Lobel about their teacher, Geshe Wangyal, America's first lama. Politicized at a young age in Soviet Russia, Geshe Wangyal immigrated to New Jersey to develop the telecode for the CIA that would aid the Dalai Lama's escape from Tibet, work to lift political proscriptions on US visits by the Dalai Lama, and train, after the Tibetan resistance, the first generation of Tibetan Buddhist scholars in America. The story of how Tibetan Buddhism first came to the West is a little-known slice of Americana that brings together Cold War intrigue, Buddhist philosophy, and the Gong Show.

In the latest episode of Tricycle Talks, contributing editor Amy Gross speaks with Roshi Pat Enkyo O'Hara, Abbot of the Village Zendo in New York City, on how to cultivate compassion for ourselves through honest reflection, breaking down any sort of “fixed self-identity,” and living in the present moment. Enkyo is the Co-Spiritual Director of the Zen Peacemakers Order and is known for her social activism and teachings on sexuality, race, class, and health.

In this episode of Tricycle Talks, contributing editor Amy Gross speaks with renowned meditation teacher and best-selling author Sharon Salzberg. Co-founder of the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts, Salzberg was among the first to bring mindfulness meditation practice to the West. Her new book, Real Happiness at Work, helps us cultivate mindfulness, compassion and awareness at work. In this podcast, Gross and Salzberg speak on the practices that can help us bring these qualities into our workplace and infuse our work with greater meaning.

In this episode of Tricycle Talks, Allan Badiner and Don Lattin discuss the complex relationship between spiritual practice and psychedelic experiences. They also examine a new wave of clinical research that uses psychedelic drugs to treat PTSD, addiction, depression, and other mental illnesses. Badiner is the editor of Zig Zag Zen: Buddhism and Psychedelics, an inquiry into the moral, ethical, and spiritual implications of blending Buddhist thought with the use of hallucinogens. Lattin is a reporter and author of the bestselling book The Harvard Psychedelic Club.

In this episode of Tricycle Talks, Pamela Gayle White, a Tricycle contributing editor who recently completed her residency as an interfaith chaplain at the University of Virginia (UVA) Medical Center, shatters the taboo as she speaks with four of her former colleagues at UVA about what they've learned from their years of working with the dying.

In this episode of Tricycle Talks, Tricycle managing editor Emma Varvaloucas speaks with author and Tricycle contributing editor Jeff Wilson about how Buddhism influences and is appropriated by minority-Buddhist cultures in the United States and elsewhere. Wilson explains how an evangelical impulse has overtaken some mindfulness advocates. His latest book is Mindful America: The Mutual Transformation of Buddhist Meditation and American Culture.