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November 15, 2025

The Culture of Attention Is Collective


Tricycle’s Winter 2025 issue is here! In this issue, we consider social media addiction and the suffering we experience through scrolling, enjoy Zen lessons from Leonard Cohen, and reflect on the legacy of Joanna Macy. 

In this Letter from the EditorTricycle’s editor-in-chief, James Shaheen, contemplates the current digital landscape and what social media demands from us. He also considers what it might mean for us to withdraw from these demands, openly acknowledging the difficulty of doing so. He writes that social media’s “addictive allure has stolen the attention of millions, if not billions, much of it stoking outrage, deepening the polarizing divides that so afflict us today. …It turns out that pulling out isn’t so simple.” It’s not just a matter of individual will or self-control, he says, but a collective effort to change the culture of attention in the interconnected web of causes and conditions in which we are embedded. It’s about making the decision to turn our attention to the values our practice supports.

Also in the new issue, David L. McMahan considers how to grapple with this digital samsara; an essay from scholar Donald S. Lopez Jr. explores temptation and desire in the form of Mara; writer and activist Rebecca Solnit honors the legacy of the great ecologist Joanna Macy; and Shozan Jack Haubner reflects on the wisdom he received from musician and fellow Zen priest Leonard Cohen while caring for their dying teacher.

Enjoy these and other features in the new issue, now available online and in print

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