Tricycle Talks

In this podcast, they discuss the importance of embracing life's challenges, finding joy through resilience and gratitude, and discovering happiness in the present moment. They also touch on cultivating sustainable happiness, appreciating the little things in life, and embracing childlike wonder and awe. The episode includes a guided meditation and reflections on unity and true nature.

In this conversation, Seth Segall, a Zen priest and psychologist, shares insights from his book on ethics and human flourishing. He explores the virtues of different traditions, highlighting how compassion and courage enhance our lives. Segall discusses the significance of everyday courage and the collective responsibility of ethics, critiquing individualism's impact on society. He emphasizes the transformative power of acceptance in the face of loss, illustrating how wisdom and self-restraint contribute to personal growth.

Laura Burges is a lay-entrusted teacher in the Soto Zen tradition, and she has been leading retreats on recovery at the San Francisco Zen Center for over twenty years. In her new book, The Zen Way of Recovery: An Illuminated Path Out of the Darkness of Addiction, she brings together Buddhist wisdom and the teachings of recovery programs to lay out a sustainable path to sobriety and freedom.In this episode of Life As It Is, Tricycle’s editor-in-chief, James Shaheen, and meditation teacher Sharon Salzberg sit down with Burges to discuss her own story of overcoming addiction, the central role of surrender in both Zen and recovery, how atoning for past wrongs can free us to live more fully in the present, and why she believes humor is an essential component of Buddhist practice.

It can be so easy to feel like we’re not enough or that we’re somehow insufficient. According to meditation teacher Tara Brach, this feeling of unworthiness is fundamentally a disease of separation, as it alienates us from ourselves and the people around us. For Brach, one way to free ourselves from this trance of unworthiness is the practice of radical acceptance.In the twentieth-anniversary edition of her classic book, Radical Acceptance: Embracing Your Life with the Heart of a Buddha, she uses a blend of psychology and Buddhist insights to lay out a path to freedom in the face of pervasive feelings of inadequacy and isolation.In this episode of Tricycle Talks, Tricycle’s editor-in-chief, James Shaheen, sits down with Brach to discuss what she’s learning by revisiting the book now, why she believes we’re living in a collective spiritual crisis, and how we can learn to recognize our own basic goodness.

Sunita Puri, a palliative medicine physician, discusses unlearning assumptions around death, the importance of language in illness, and regarding death with reverence. She explores the field of palliative care and the integration of arts in healthcare. The podcast also touches on contemplative practice, the spiritual aspect of death, and expressing gratitude through a guided meditation.

Vanessa R. Sasson, author of 'The Gathering', discusses the resilience and relevance of Buddhist women, motivations for writing fiction, and the role of mythology in the Buddhist world. The podcast explores the formation of the women's community, the power of women imagining a different future, challenging expectations and exploring renunciation, the impact of renunciation on relationships, the speaker's transition from academia to fiction writing, engaging with education and responsibility, and the role of the fabulous in Buddhism.

Meditation teacher Oren Jay Sofer discusses contemplative practices for meeting a world in crisis. They explore qualities of the heart for navigating personal and political crises, the power of everyday devotion, reclaiming the right to rest, and the role of curiosity in empathy and connection.

Lama Rod Owens is an author, activist, and authorized lama in the Karma Kagyu School of Tibetan Buddhism. In his new book, The New Saints: From Broken Hearts to Spiritual Warriors, he draws from the bodhisattva tradition to rethink the relationship between social liberation and ultimate freedom, putting forth the notion of the New Saint. In the process, he pulls from the wisdom of the Old Saints of Tibetan Buddhism and the legacy of Black liberation movements.In this episode of Tricycle Talks, Tricycle’s editor-in-chief, James Shaheen, sits down with Owens to discuss why he believes that the apocalypse is an opportunity for awakening, the power of connecting with our ancestors and unseen beings, why the New Saint is not necessarily a good person, and how fierceness can be a form of awakened care.

Jenny Odell, a writer and artist celebrated for her books "How to Do Nothing" and "Saving Time," dives deep into our fraught relationship with time and productivity. She discusses the emotional complexity of climate grief and how it intersects with our daily lives. Odell emphasizes the power of stillness and interconnectedness, exploring how moments of forced relaxation can reshape our perception of time. She intriguingly frames burnout as a spiritual issue and highlights how love can transcend linear time, inviting listeners to embrace a more profound, shared existence.

Michael Imperioli has a knack for playing mobsters and villains. Best known for his roles as Christopher Moltisanti on The Sopranos and Dominic Di Grasso on The White Lotus, the Emmy Award–winning actor has made a career out of exploring addiction and afflictive emotions on screen. Offscreen, though, Imperioli is a committed Buddhist practitioner. In 2008, he and his wife took refuge with Garchen Rinpoche, and during the pandemic, they began teaching online meditation classes together, exploring Tibetan Buddhist texts like The Thirty-Seven Practices of a Bodhisattva. Though his practice no doubt influences his creative work, Imperioli prefers to focus on the everyday ways that Buddhism has restructured his life. For him, Buddhism offers a way to liberate harmful emotions and cultivate patience and compassion on a day-to-day level.In this episode of Tricycle Talks, Tricycle’s editor-in-chief, James Shaheen, sits down with Imperioli to talk about the dangers of the instrumentalization of Buddhist practice, what The White Lotus can teach us about craving and dissatisfaction, and whether he believes that liberation is possible in this lifetime.