Tricycle Editors' Blog

We’ve moved!

Philip Ryan — Tue, 27 May 2008 19:46:10 +0000

The Tricycle Editor’s blog has moved from this space over to blog.tricycle.com. Please reset your browsers, links, and minds accordingly. In our new space we will bring in many more blogging voices, so if you’re bored by the voice you normally find here (ah-hem!) don’t worry, relief is on the way!

Daniel A. Bell on “China’s Class Divide”

Sarah Todd — Wed, 21 May 2008 15:29:52 +0000

An op-ed by Daniel A. Bell in today’s New York Times seeks to dispel myths about young students in China–and addresses the government’s moral obligation to help those in need:

A few days later, I was due to lecture on John Rawls’s theory of justice. By then, the huge toll of the earthquake had become apparent and the national mood had turned grim. Before the class, four students came to my office, raising doubts about the relevance of the “abstract” theories I was teaching and urging me to use more concrete examples. So I tried hard to think of an example that the students could grapple with.

Finally I came up with a good one (or so I thought). According to Rawls, the state should give first consideration to the worst-off members of the community. But which “community” matters? Do the state’s obligations extend outside national boundaries? For example, the cyclone in Burma caused more deaths than the Chinese earthquake. Should China help the victims of the Burmese cyclone, even if it means less aid for the rescue mission in China?

One Answer to Carbon Woes: Blowin’ in the Wind

Sarah Todd — Tue, 20 May 2008 21:29:37 +0000

An article in Salon points out,

“For under 2 cents a day per household, Americans could get 300 gigawatts of wind by 2030. That would:

Reduce carbon dioxide emissions from electricity generation by 25 percent in 2030.
Reduce natural gas use by 11 percent.
Reduce cumulative water consumption associated with electricity generation by 4 trillion gallons by 2030.
Support roughly 500,000 jobs in the U.S.”

All we need is an administration that will let it happen.

The Biological Boon Behind Incense

Sarah Todd — Tue, 20 May 2008 19:54:59 +0000

A new study reveals one reason why incense and spiritualism go together like zendos and zafus. Beyond the symbolic tradition of burning incense lies a biological benefit: it can help ease anxiety and depression. When scientists administered incensole acetate, a compound found in incense, to mice, the compound affected them in “brain areas known to be involved in emotions as well as in nerve circuits that are affected by current anxiety and depression drugs.” Adds Gerald Weissmann, M.D., Editor-in-Chief of The FASEB Journal, “This study also provides a biological explanation for millennia-old spiritual practices that have persisted across time, distance, culture, language, and religion–burning incense really does make you feel warm and tingly all over!” Read all about it over in Science Daily.

A Buddhist reponse to Cyclone Nargis

Sarah Todd — Tue, 20 May 2008 14:42:57 +0000

From NPR: Alex Chadwick talks with Ashin Thitzana, a Burmese monk in the Los Angeles-area, for a Buddhist interpretation of the Myanmar cyclone tragedy.

“Where are the monks?”

Sarah Todd — Mon, 19 May 2008 18:54:49 +0000

“Before September, there were over 30,000 monks in Rangoon alone. Now there are 6,000. Where are the monks? That is the question.”

- Ashin Nayaka, visiting scholar at Columbia University and a founder of the Buddhist Missionary Society in Jackson Heights, in today’s New York metro. The article recommends visiting http://www.burmesemonks.org/ for more information; unfortunately, the story is not available online.

News in Brief

Sarah Todd — Fri, 16 May 2008 19:18:59 +0000

The junta in Burma has raised its estimated death toll to 78,000, with 56,000 missing. [CNN]
Harvard Professor (and former Obama aide) Samantha Power and Washington Post Editorial Page Editor Fred Hiatt talk about Burma and the moral and political complexities of intervention. [NPR]
In China, at least 5 million people are left homeless in the aftermath of the largest earthquake the country has seen in 58 years. The country continues to struggle to recover the injured and dead while grappling with aftershocks and landslides. [Times Online]
The 17th Karmapa, Ugyen Trinley Dorje, makes his first visit to the United States. [New York Times]

“Sorry,” CNN tells China

Sarah Todd — Fri, 16 May 2008 18:51:34 +0000

From the New York Times:

CNN apologized to China after the government strongly complained about remarks made on April 9 by the CNN commentator Jack Cafferty. During a broadcast that came after riots in Tibet, Mr. Cafferty said China’s leaders were “basically the same bunch of goons and thugs they’ve been for the last 50 years.” China demanded an apology, and angry Chinese accused CNN of biased news coverage. An earlier apology was rejected. But recently China’s Foreign Ministry highlighted a second apology, saying it came in a letter sent by the CNN president, Jim Walton, to China’s ambassador to the United States.

One-Liners from Lama Surya Das

Sarah Todd — Fri, 16 May 2008 16:00:46 +0000

Some pithy Words of Wisdom from Lama Surya Das:

That which we call “I” is just impermanent, ownerless karma rolling along.

Don’t take it personally.

Reality is not all it’s cracked up to be.

I’m enlightened enough for now.

Don’t forget to medicate the ferrets.

Two Buddhists, Fifteen Feet

Sarah Todd — Thu, 15 May 2008 16:41:44 +0000

Also in today’s NYTimes: a feature on Michael Roach and Christie McNally, two Buddhist teachers who consider themselves (celibate) spiritual partners. Roach, 55, who ordained as a monk in 1983, and McNally, 35, live in a yurt, say that they are never more than fifteen feet apart and “admit to a hands-on physical relationship that they describe as intense but chaste.” Okie dokie.