This was wonderful!  Thank you for sharing this  helped me think differently about my aging body and the hopes of my learning more about the Buddha.

The soundscape in the Borneo rainforest is incredibly lush and varied. Most birds stop singing at night, but that's when insects and frogs take over. Longer version at https://youtu.be/HDrUq-eF_ZA

Night In The Borneo Jungle

Thunderstorms sound absolutely fascinating in the rainforest as the microphones pick up the beautiful detail of water droplets hitting the vegetation. Longer version at https://youtu.be/MN_JT6hAyMs

Thunderstorm in the Borneo rainforest

Over the course of the past few years, many of us have found ourselves dealing with loss. Yet our contemporary culture often doesn’t allow us the space we need to grieve. Meditation teacher Kimberly Brown believes that mourning takes time, and she works as a grief counselor to support people through difficult and complicated losses. In her new book, "Navigating Grief and Loss: 25 Buddhist Practices to Keep Your Heart Open to Yourself and Others," Brown lays out concrete tools to help us become better friends to ourselves as we grieve.

In this episode of Life As It Is, Tricycle’s editor in chief, James Shaheen, and co-host Sharon Salzberg sit down with Brown to talk about how we can learn to stay with our grief, why it can be so hard to ask for help, and how rituals can help us honor the losses in our lives.

Navigating Grief and Loss with Kimberly Brown

Over the course of the past century, many scholars have published historical biographies of the Buddha, attempting to present a simplified, chronological narrative. But according to Bernard Faure, these attempts to uncover the historical Buddha neglect the rich literary, mythological, and ritual elements of the story. Faure, a professor of Japanese religion at Columbia University, believes that the Buddha’s life story is one of the great myths of modern times. In his new book, "The Thousand and One Lives of the Buddha," he traces how the life story of the Buddha has been told across cultures, from early Buddhist texts to contemporary art forms of manga and science fiction.

In this episode of Tricycle Talks, Tricycle’s editor in chief, James Shaheen, sits down with Faure to discuss his favorite myths about the Buddha’s life, the risks of searching for a historical Buddha, and the creativity of the Buddhist tradition.

The Thousand and One Lives of the Buddha with Bernard Faure

This past fall, writer Sandra Cisneros published her first book of poetry in 28 years, "Woman Without Shame." Cisneros, best known for her 1984 novel "The House on Mango Street," is a poet, novelist, performer, and artist—and she’s also a Buddhist. In her new poetry collection, she offers insightful and characteristically blunt meditations on desire, memory, and how she has learned to love her aging body.

In this episode of Tricycle Talks, Tricycle’s editor in chief, James Shaheen, sits down with Cisneros to discuss her writing process, how she combines Buddhist practice with the indigenous spirituality of her childhood, and what it means to be a woman without shame. Plus, at the end of the episode, Cisneros reads two poems from her new collection.

Learning to Live without Shame with Sandra Cisneros

For 50 years, Pico Iyer has been traveling the globe, seeking out sacred sites from the hidden shrines of Tehran to the funeral pyres of Varanasi. Iyer believes that travel can help us confront questions that we tend to avoid or bypass when we’re at home, forcing us out of our usual routines and bringing us into contact with the “crisscrossing of cultures.” In his latest book, "The Half Known Life: In Search of Paradise," Iyer investigates how different cultures have understood the notion of paradise, recounting his travels to contested places including Jerusalem, Kashmir, Sri Lanka, and Ladakh.

In this episode of Tricycle Talks, Tricycle’s editor in chief, James Shaheen, sits down with Iyer to discuss the risks of the commercialization of paradise, the power of not knowing, and how we can find paradise in the midst of impermanence.

Searching for Paradise with Pico Iyer

According to the recently released COVID Response Tracking Study, Americans are the unhappiest they’ve been in fifty years. Between the pandemic, mass shootings, and ongoing environmental catastrophes, it can be easy to feel like we’re always in crisis—and to believe that the world is coming to an end. But journalist Emma Varvaloucas believes that this pessimism can become a self-fulfilling prophecy, and if we want to build a better future, we have to change how we relate to the news. Previously an executive editor at Tricycle, Varvaloucas now serves as the executive director of the Progress Network, a nonprofit media organization dedicated to countering the negativity of the mainstream news cycle. 

In this episode of Tricycle Talks, Tricycle’s editor-in-chief, James Shaheen, sits down with Varvaloucas to discuss how her Buddhist practice informs how she engages with the news, how we can stop doomscrolling, and what can happen when we pay attention to what’s going right.

An Antidote to Despair with Emma Varvaloucas

A world-renowned meditation teacher, Sharon Salzberg is the founding teacher at the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts. In her new book, "Real Life: The Journey from Isolation to Openness and Freedom," she weaves together Buddhist psychology, her own experiences, and insights from a variety of contemplative traditions to examine how we can live with greater creativity, connection, and joy. Through exploring the forces that keep us trapped in constriction, she lays out a path toward what she calls “real life,” or a life of spaciousness and freedom.

In today’s episode of Life As It Is, Tricycle’s editor-in-chief, James Shaheen, sits down with Salzberg to talk about what it means to live a real life, how we can break free of our habitual patterns, and how expansiveness makes love more available to us.

Opening to Freedom with Sharon Salzberg

A recent Spring Dawn in the Queets Rainforest inside the Olympic National Park
The air is cool and the light is filtered through a canopy of Sitka Spruce and Douglas Fir, Pacific Chorus Frogs crowded in an ephemeral wet-spot seemingly don't know if it's day or night as they sing around the clock here. The river sounds like a soft pillow in the distance, a dull roar that is more comforting than disturbing, fading away behind a biophonic meditation.

As twilight dawns with First light, local birds join the the chorus with the frog. Varied Thrushes with their nasally mysterious alarm-like cry. Pacific Wrens who seemingly believe that everyone needs to hear what they have to say. Song Sparrows with some of the happiest song ever to delight. A Chestnut-backed Chickadee that inspects the microphones, pulling little tufts of the wind protection to pad a nest. Northern Flickers and Chipmunks compete to see who has the best chatter.

All the while, the frogs continue on in cycles of chorused and cycles of silence, punctuated only by the occasional encounter trill or inquiring contact croak.

Northwest Soundscapes

Queets Rainforest, Vernal Dawn Chorus With Frogs

As a young oncologist, Anthony Back turned to Buddhism as a practical way of processing the suffering he encountered each day. Over time, his practice has become an essential support to his work in accompanying patients as they navigate illness and death, and it has radically transformed his understanding of what it means to provide care. Back currently serves as co-director of the University of Washington Center for Excellence in Palliative Care, where he trains clinicians to communicate more openly and effectively about serious illness. In addition, he regularly leads retreats on being with dying at the Upaya Zen Center with Roshi Joan Halifax.

In this episode of Life As It Is, Tricycle’s editor-in-chief, James Shaheen, and co-host Sharon Salzberg sit down with Back to discuss how he integrates his practice into his work as a physician, how he deals with burnout and moral injury, and what James Joyce and Virginia Woolf have taught him about paying attention.

A Different Kind of Healing with Anthony Back

This is the Growing Joy Meditation from Elisha Goldstein's 6-month online mentorship program A Course in Mindful Living. Find out more about the Fall, 2018 offering: http://acourseinmindfulliving.com

A Course in Mindful Living

Growing Joy 10 Minutes

Tricycle Talks: Listen to Buddhist teachers, writers, and thinkers on life's big questions. Hosted by James Shaheen, editor in chief of Tricycle: The Buddhist Review, the leading Buddhist magazine in the West.


Life As It Is: Join James Shaheen with co-host Sharon Salzberg and learn how to bring Buddhist practice into your everyday life.


Tricycle: The Buddhist Review creates award-winning editorial, podcasts, events, and video courses. Unlock access to all this Buddhist knowledge by subscribing to the magazine at tricycle.org/join

Learning to Live without Shame with Sandra Cisneros

Tricycle Talks

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