Episodios

  • Breathing Mindfulness with Sarah Shaw

    Breathing Mindfulness with Sarah Shaw
    Apr 23 2025
    Over the course of the last hundred years, breathing mindfulness has become the most popular method of meditation around the world. Yet its history remains largely unrecorded. In her new book, Breathing Mindfulness: Discovering the Riches at the Heart of the Buddhist Path, scholar Sarah Shaw provides a historical survey of some of the methods of breathing mindfulness and how they developed. In this episode of Tricycle Talks, Tricycle’s editor-in-chief, James Shaheen, sits down with Shaw to discuss how breathing mindfulness is linked to the seven factors of awakening, the central role of joy in meditation, why the tradition of samatha, or calm, meditation has been marginalized and suppressed, and what we can learn from thinking about traditions of breathing mindfulness as part of a vast ecosystem.
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    1 h
  • How to Stay Engaged without Burning Out with Daisy Hernández

    How to Stay Engaged without Burning Out with Daisy Hernández
    Apr 16 2025
    For the next few episodes of Life As It Is, Tricycle’s editor-in-chief, James Shaheen, and meditation teacher Sharon Salzberg will be talking about specific themes that have been coming up in their practice, with a particular focus on navigating our current social and political climate. In this episode, they discuss how to stay engaged without burning out—and how cultivating equanimity can provide a necessary balance between wisdom and compassion. Later in the episode, they’re joined by Daisy Hernández, a journalist and Tricycle contributing editor, to talk about how equanimity can be a support in times of uncertainty, how Buddhist practices have guided her work as a journalist, and what’s on her equanimity cultivation list.
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    58 m
  • The Edge of Language with Arthur Sze

    The Edge of Language with Arthur Sze
    Apr 9 2025
    For poet and translator Arthur Sze, poetry offers a way to ask difficult questions without any expectation of an answer. “It helps us slow down, hear clearly, see deeply, and envision what matters most in our lives,” he told Tricycle in a 2020 interview. “When one reads a poem, one has to pay attention to the sounds of words, to the rhythm of language, [and] experience the dance and tension between sound and silence.” His twelfth book of poetry, Into the Hush, experiments with this dance between sound and silence in presenting a startling portrait of the nuclear age, chronicling the plight of vanished languages and species and asking how to live fully in the face of catastrophe. In this episode of Tricycle Talks, Tricycle’s editor-in-chief, James Shaheen, sits down with Sze to discuss the generativity of emptiness, how poetry stays present tense, and what it means for art to awaken us to what is.
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    56 m
  • Classroom Mindfulness Put to the Test with Emma Varvaloucas

    Classroom Mindfulness Put to the Test with Emma Varvaloucas
    Mar 26 2025
    Emma Varvaloucas is the executive director of the Progress Network, a nonprofit media organization that aims to take a constructive approach to solving some of our most intractable problems. In her article in the February issue of Tricycle called “Classroom Mindfulness Put to the Test,” she explores the surprising results of recent research on mindfulness programs for adolescents. In this episode of Tricycle Talks, Tricycle’s editor-in-chief, James Shaheen, sits down with Varvaloucas to discuss how mindfulness first entered the classroom, whether mindfulness is developmentally appropriate for adolescents, and the importance of pairing mindfulness with broader access to mental health services.
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    54 m
  • The Grieving Body with Mary-Frances O'Connor

    The Grieving Body with Mary-Frances O'Connor
    Mar 19 2025
    Grief is often thought of as a psychological phenomenon. Yet loss also has a profound impact on our bodies, often affecting our cardiovascular, endocrine, and immune systems. As a Professor of Clinical Psychology and Psychiatry at the University of Arizona, Mary-Frances O’Connor specializes in studying the physiology of grief. In her new book, The Grieving Body: How the Stress of Loss Can Be an Opportunity for Healing, she draws from her clinical research and her personal experience to explore the toll that loss takes on our bodies—and what this can teach us about care, compassion, and interdependence. In this episode of Life As It Is, Tricycle’s editor-in-chief, James Shaheen, and meditation teacher Sharon Salzberg sit down with O’Connor to discuss the phenomenon of dying of a broken heart, how grieving can be thought of as a form of learning, how meditation can change how we show up for others, and the challenges of rediscovering a sense of purpose in the wake of loss.
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    1 h y 16 m
  • A Journey through Buddhist History with Donald S. Lopez Jr.

    A Journey through Buddhist History with Donald S. Lopez Jr.
    Mar 12 2025
    Donald S. Lopez Jr. is the Arthur E. Link Distinguished University Professor of Buddhist and Tibetan Studies in the Department of Asian Languages and Cultures at the University of Michigan and a longtime Tricycle contributing editor. In his new book, Buddhism: A Journey through History, he lays out a comprehensive introduction to the history of Buddhism, tracing its development across continents and centuries. In this episode of Tricycle Talks, Tricycle’s editor-in-chief, James Shaheen, sits down with Lopez to discuss the challenges in attempting to tell any single history of Buddhism, how translation has contributed to Buddhism’s survival as a tradition, the debates surrounding Buddhism’s decline in India, and the story of the Buddha’s nemesis and would-be assassin.
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    46 m
  • Uprooting Harmful Habits with Valerie (Vimalasara) Mason-John

    Uprooting Harmful Habits with Valerie (Vimalasara) Mason-John
    Feb 26 2025
    Valerie (Vimalasara) Mason-John is a senior teacher in the Triratna Buddhist Community, and their work focuses on how Buddhist teachings can support a sustainable path to recovery. In their new book, First Aid Kit for the Mind: Breaking the Cycle of Habitual Behaviors, they lay out practical tools for uprooting harmful habits, building emotional resilience, and reconnecting with our bodies. In this episode of Tricycle Talks, Tricycle’s editor-in-chief, James Shaheen, sits down with Mason-John to talk about how they first developed a practice of meditation after their experience in solitary confinement, how the Buddha’s teachings have supported their path to recovery, and how they’ve come to understand addiction from a Buddhist perspective. Please note that this episode includes mentions of sexual assault and suicidal ideation.
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    48 m
  • Planting the Seeds of Happy Relationships with Kimberly Brown

    Planting the Seeds of Happy Relationships with Kimberly Brown
    Feb 19 2025
    Kimberly Brown is a meditation teacher and author based in New York City. In her new book, Happy Relationships: 25 Buddhist Practices to Transform Your Connections with Your Partner, Family, and Friends, she lays out a practical guide to help us cultivate and maintain healthy relationships with the people who matter most to us. In this episode of Life As It Is, Tricycle’s editor-in-chief, James Shaheen, and meditation teacher Sharon Salzberg sit down with Brown to discuss how mindfulness can help us navigate conflict in relationships, the power of changing how we pay attention to the people around us, and why she believes happy relationships are possible for everyone. Plus, Brown leads a guided meditation.
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    56 m
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