Tricycle Talks

Roger R. Jackson, a scholar and professor emeritus of Asian Studies and Religion at Carleton College, delves into the captivating life of Saraha, a 10th-century mystic and a foundational figure in Vajrayana Buddhism. They explore Saraha's fierce critiques of delusion, his legacy in Tibetan Buddhism, and the significance of his poetic form, the Doha. Jackson emphasizes the transformative role of the body in tantric awakening and discusses Saraha's radical insights on compassion and emptiness, making ancient wisdom accessible for contemporary audiences.

Sameet Kumar is a clinical psychologist at the Memorial Cancer Institute and Moffitt Hematology and Cellular Therapy program. His work focuses on mindfulness-based approaches to grief and loss. In his new book, How to Grieve What We’ve Lost: Evidence-Based Skills to Process Grief and Reconnect with What Matters, which he co-wrote with four other therapists, he lays out concrete strategies for finding meaning and cultivating resilience in the face of loss.In this episode of Life As It Is, Tricycle’s editor-in-chief, James Shaheen, and meditation teacher Sharon Salzberg sit down with Kumar to discuss how we can work with the embodied experience of grief, what feelings of powerlessness can teach us about equanimity, and how distress can motivate us to examine what really matters.

When journalist Katy Butler first committed to the Buddhist precepts, it didn’t occur to her to consider her two abortions in their light. Now, fifty years later, she has come to understand abortion in the context of harm reduction and the alleviation of suffering. In her article in the November issue of Tricycle called “Abortion and the First Precept,” she discusses the Buddhist ethics of abortion and why she believes abortion can be a wrenching, sacred, and even morally necessary act.In this episode of Tricycle Talks, Tricycle’s editor-in-chief, James Shaheen, sits down with Butler to discuss the stigmas and hurdles she encountered in her experience of abortion, how the realities of women’s lives have long been overlooked by Buddhist teachers and communities, and how she thinks about Buddhist ethics in terms of harm reduction.

Vajra Chandrasekera is a novelist based in Colombo, Sri Lanka. His new novel, Rakesfall, follows two characters as they're reincarnated across histories and worlds from the mythic past to modern Sri Lanka to the far future Earth through endless epicycles of love, violence, and betrayal.In this episode of Tricycle Talks, Tricycle’s editor-in-chief, James Shaheen, sits down with Chandrasekera to discuss the weaponization of religious myths in Sri Lankan Buddhism, why he describes himself as an “unbuddhist,” how rituals anchor and retell history, and the role of haunting and possession in his work.

BJ Miller, a palliative care physician and co-founder of Mettle Health, shares his profound journey after a tragic incident left him disabled. He discusses viewing recovery as a creative act and how art transformed his understanding of disability. Miller emphasizes the importance of a compassionate approach in palliative care and reflects on the interplay between suffering and identity. His experiences with dying patients have reshaped his appreciation for life, highlighting the value of interdependence and community in navigating mortality.

Thich Nhat Hanh was one of the most influential figures in contemporary Buddhism, from his founding of the Order of Interbeing and the Plum Village Tradition to his popularization of Engaged Buddhism. Yet his background is often overlooked.Adrienne Minh-Châu Lê, a Columbia University PhD candidate in international history, is one of the first scholars to examine Thich Nhat Hanh in the context of the global Cold War and Vietnam’s anticolonial movement. In an interview in the August issue of Tricycle, Lê discusses Thich Nhat Hanh’s background and the religious and political landscapes that shaped him.In this episode of Tricycle Talks, Tricycle’s editor-in-chief, James Shaheen, sits down with Lê to discuss the role that Buddhism played in building and promoting Vietnamese cultural identity in the face of colonial rule, the origins of Engaged Buddhism, how exile shaped Thich Nhat Hanh’s approach to teaching, and why he chose to return to Vietnam at the end of his life.

Cortland Dahl, a Buddhist scholar and meditation teacher, dives into the essence of Buddhism and meditation. He discusses how meditation fosters honesty and reveals abstract concepts like no-self and emptiness. Dahl emphasizes the transformative nature of Tibetan meditation and how principles like non-harming can be integrated into daily life. He also explores the journey to awakening through compassion, detailing the role of bodhicitta in alleviating suffering. The conversation sheds light on navigating personal growth within the complexities of life.

Anu Gupta is an educator, lawyer, research scientist, and meditation teacher, and his work focuses on harnessing mindfulness and compassion practices for social change. In his new book, Breaking Bias: Where Stereotypes and Prejudices Come From—and the Science-Backed Method to Unravel Them, he weaves together Buddhist teachings and insights from modern neuroscience to lay out practical tools for dismantling bias within ourselves and in the world around us. In this episode of Life As It Is, Tricycle’s editor-in-chief, James Shaheen, and meditation teacher Sharon Salzberg sit down with Gupta to discuss what it looks like to imagine a world without bias, how our fundamental ignorance of our interconnectedness distorts our perceptions, the dangers of getting stuck in outdated stories about ourselves and others, and how we can access and strengthen our innate capacity for compassion.

Mindfulness has become ubiquitous as a practice. Yet according to meditation teacher Andrew Holecek, mindfulness is not enough to meet the challenges of the modern world. Holecek is a teacher in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition who leads workshops on meditation, dream yoga, and preparing for death. In his new book, I'm Mindful, Now What?: Moving Beyond Mindfulness to Meet the Modern World, he lays out the limitations of mindfulness and offers an overview of a variety of meditation techniques that can lead to deeper transformation, including the esoteric practices of reverse meditation and bardo yoga.In this episode of Tricycle Talks, Tricycle’s editor-in-chief, James Shaheen, sits down with Holecek to discuss why meditation is the most natural thing we can do, how we can learn to nurture our meditation by destroying it, and the importance of “waking down” into the messiness of embodied life.

Ada Limón is the 24th Poet Laureate of The United States and the author of six books of poetry. Her most recent project, You Are Here: Poetry in the Natural World, is a collection of poetry that she edited in collaboration with the Library of Congress focused on how poetry can help us reconnect to the world around us.In this episode of Tricycle Talks, Tricycle’s editor-in-chief, James Shaheen, sits down with Limón to discuss how poems bring us into the present moment, her practice of loving-kindness and how it influences her writing, why she believes poetry can help us decenter our sense of self, and how writing can be an act of offering something back to the planet. Plus, she reads a few poems from her recent collections.