Via Three Teachings by Joanna Macy Inbox The Tricycle Community

 

Browse our online courses » July 24, 2025 The Work of Our Time   On July 19, the world lost Joanna Macy, tireless scholar, Buddhist, ecologist, and activist. But her legacy and teachings endure, and will continue to inspire us all.  “Macy was widely respected for her roll-up-the-sleeves leadership in grassroots efforts to address the social and environmental crises of our day. Through books, talks, workshops, and trainings, she helped thousands overcome fear and apathy in the face of uncertainty and respond to societal upheaval with constructive, collaborative action. A longtime Buddhist practitioner, she brought a dharma-inflected sensibility to her life’s work, embodying a compassionate interpersonal ethic akin to her friend Thich Nhat Hanh’s interbeing,” writes Joan Duncan Oliver in an obituary for Macy. Famously linking Buddhism and general systems theory, Macy drew a pathway from intellectual understanding to embodied knowing. By focusing on mutual causality, she celebrated conversation and connection.  In that spirit, this week’s Three Teachings highlights three of the many conversations the renowned ecological and social activist had with Tricycle over the years. For more from Macy, see here. Forward today's teachings to a friend » The Dharma and Destiny of a Planet People With Joanna Macy At Tricycle’s 2022 Buddhism and Ecology Summit, Macy discussed our interdependence as “planet people,” and the strength we can derive from recognizing our shared and interconnected identities. Watch now » The Work of Our Time With Joanna Macy In April 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic was escalating around the world, Macy spoke with Tricycle’s editor-in-chief, James Shaheen, about moving forward in times of great despair, and transforming grief into action. Listen now » Allegiance to Life With Joanna Macy In a 2012 interview with Tricycle publisher Sam Mowe, Macy discussed a widening sense of self, the tactic of “don’t-know” mind in relation to environmental action, the common source of pain and the power to heal.  Read more » Follow Us

Via FB

 

Via lgbtqnation // Gay educator & U.S. citizen detained for hours at border

 

Via FB

 

Via Ram Dass - Love Serve Remember Foundation //

 

Compassionate action allows us to wake up to some of our motives and to act with more freedom. It gives us the chance to put ourselves out on the edge, and if we are willing to take a clean look at what we see there, we can come to know ourselves better. We can’t change what is arising in us at any moment, because we can’t change our pasts and our childhoods. But when we stop being strangers to ourselves, we increase the number of ways we can respond to what arises.

Via Daily Dharma: This Very Moment

 

Browse our online courses »

This Very Moment The only place we can rest is in this very moment, living deeply and richly and fully right now, meeting each person and event with an open heart. This is where we have a chance to meet joy, to come home to our breath and our true nature. Laura Burges, “Living from the Inside Out” CLICK HERE TO READ THE ARTICLE

A Pathless Land By C. W. Huntington, Jr. A translator considers the trouble with desiring and striving to be awakened. Read more »

Via Dhamma Wheel | Right Speech: Refraining from Harsh Speech

 

TRICYCLE      COURSE CATALOG      SUPPORT      DONATE

RIGHT SPEECH Refraining from Harsh Speech Harsh speech is unhealthy. Refraining from harsh speech is healthy. (MN 9) Abandoning harsh speech, one refrains from harsh speech. One speaks words that are gentle, pleasing to the ear, and affectionate, words that go to the heart, are courteous, and are agreeable to many. (DN 1) One practices thus: “Others may speak harshly, but I shall abstain from harsh speech.” (MN 8) How does there come to be non-insistence on local language and non-overriding of normal usage? In different localities they call the same thing by different words. So whatever they call it in such and such a locality, without adhering to that word one speaks accordingly, thinking: “These people, it seems, are speaking with reference to this.” (MN 139)

Reflection One way of speaking harshly is to dominate how words are used and understood. Too often we listen to others barely enough to project our own meaning onto their words and wait impatiently for the opportunity to jump back in and speak again. Right speech is a two-way street and involves learning from others at least as much as conveying our own perspectives to them. Refraining from speaking without listening is healthy. Daily Practice Practice listening when you are talking with people. Actively attend to what they say and try to understand in their own terms what they mean. Assume you don’t automatically understand them and practice inquiring into their words and phrases and attending to their non-verbal clues with an open mind. It may be that people are saying things from which you can learn something new. Right speech includes right listening. Tomorrow: Reflecting upon Mental Action One week from today: Refraining from Frivolous Speech Share your thoughts and join the conversation on social media #DhammaWheel Questions? Visit the Dhamma Wheel orientation page.

Tricycle is a nonprofit and relies on your support to keep its wheels turning. Donate »

© 2025 Tricycle Foundation 89 5th Ave, New York, NY 10003

 

Browse our online courses »

Be Willing to Commit Calming and stilling are the willingness to commit to just being wholeheartedly present in one moment at a time, to commit to one breath, to commit to the sense of our feet touching the ground. To know this, we begin to train the mind. Christina Feldman, “Blindfolding Mara” CLICK HERE TO READ THE ARTICLE

The Long Night of Life By Jack Kerouac In an essay from The Buddhist Years: Collected Writings by Jack Kerouac, a new collection of previously unpublished writings, the Dharma Bums author recalls his own introduction to the dharma and realizations about suffering. Read more »

Via Dhamma Wheel | Right Intention: Cultivating Appreciative Joy

 

TRICYCLE      COURSE CATALOG      SUPPORT      DONATE

RIGHT INTENTION Cultivating Appreciative Joy Whatever you intend, whatever you plan, and whatever you have a tendency toward, that will become the basis upon which your mind is established. (SN 12.40) Develop meditation on appreciative joy, for when you develop meditation on appreciative joy, any discontent will be abandoned. (MN 62)  The near enemy of appreciative joy is ordinary joy. (Vm 9.100)

Reflection The “sublime state” of appreciative joy does not simply mean joy as a pleasant mental feeling or the emotion of uplifted joy. It is not just feeling good but feeling good in a particular set of circumstances—when you observe or contemplate good things happening to others. Ordinary joy is self-referential, while appreciative joy is more universal and focused on the good fortune of others. Daily Practice Learn to discern the different ways joy can manifest in your experience. In particular, see if you can get a good felt sense of what the special quality of appreciative joy feels like. This is the emotion of feeling good about good things happening to other people. Practice calling to mind the goodness of others, and then settle into the emotion of wishing them well and appreciating their success in a way that is not about you. Tomorrow: Refraining from Harsh Speech One week from today: Cultivating Equanimity Share your thoughts and join the conversation on social media #DhammaWheel Questions? Visit the Dhamma Wheel orientation page.

Tricycle is a nonprofit and relies on your support to keep its wheels turning. Donate »

© 2025 Tricycle Foundation 89 5th Ave, New York, NY 10003