One of the questions we ask ourselves in evaluating articles is, in what way does this matter to our readers? What is at stake in the issues that a particular piece explores? Since we are a Buddhist publication, for many of our articles, the answer is obvious. The value of pieces on Buddhist teachings and practice, for instance, goes without saying. And narratives by practitioners do what good narrative writing is intended to do—act as a lens to better examine one’s world and one’s own life. But for the historical pieces based on scholarship, the answer may not be immediately clear, although such pieces are no less important in understanding our traditions. As an example, a topic we have been exploring for years is Buddhist modernism. As best I can recall, the first time the term appeared in Tricycle was in an interview with Jacqueline Stone, then a professor of Japanese studies at Princeton University. In it, Stone laid out Buddhist modernism’s origins:

Buddhist modernism began in the late nineteenth century, as Asian Buddhist leaders and Western converts … sought to present Buddhism as the answer to the so-called crisis of faith brought on by the alleged incompatibility of Christianity and the modern rational-scientific worldview. So certain elements were abstracted from the larger religious context and presented as constituting the core or essential teachings of Buddhism, and other elements—elements that always had been a vital part of the tradition—were marginalized.

Stone adds that “the point is not that Buddhist modernism is wrong. Actually, I think it is part of Buddhism’s continuous interpretive effort to frame itself in accordance with the demands of time and place.”

Not long after that, on Stone’s advice, Tricycle’s features editor, Andrew Cooper, interviewed the scholar Robert Sharf (Summer 2007), to take on a subject that in Stone’s interview was all but an aside. In fact, with other scholars like Donald S. Lopez Jr., Sharf was one of the first to open modern Buddhist studies as a legitimate field of research, notably with his 1995 paper “Buddhist Modernism and the Rhetoric of Meditative Experience”; likewise, Lopez’s seminal Prisoners of Shangri-La (1998); A Modern Buddhist Bible: Essential Readings from East and West (2002); and his inaugural lecture at the University of Michigan, “The Making of Modern Buddhism” (2001), anticipate works that follow, among them, David McMahan’s The Making of Buddhist Modernism.

In this issue, Seth Segall’s review of McMahan’s new title, Rethinking Meditation: Buddhist Meditative Practices in Ancient and Modern Worlds, continues our exploration. Like all good works of scholarship, McMahan’s rests on the surface of a much deeper ocean, drawing from the research of those who preceded him and building upon it. Rethinking Meditation reflects a central concern of the author: while Buddhism is often presented as a means by which to deconstruct our world, it is itself constructed within ever-changing historical and cultural contexts. As we learned much earlier from the work of Sharf and Lopez, the Buddhism we practice today bears little resemblance to the Buddhism of even a few centuries ago. To quote Segall’s review, “McMahan demonstrates how every culture and historical era reinterprets and repurposes Buddhist practice to make it relevant to its place and time.”

We often dismiss ideas as, well, mere ideas. But Buddhist history for Buddhist practitioners, to cite an approach used by the late scholar and Tricycle contributor Rita Gross (Fall 2010), can reveal otherwise hidden assumptions, sectarian attachments, and personal biases. And isn’t shedding light on such blind spots a big part of why we practice Buddhism in the first place?

The post Mere Ideas? appeared first on Tricycle: The Buddhist Review.

Karen Ready

Tricycle readers are probably unaware of just how much the magazine’s copy editor, Karen Ready, has shaped their reading experience. Karen arrived in 1991 to work on the second issue and has been untangling awkward prose and cutting through confusing clauses with her red pen ever since. This will be her final issue. Of her years at Tricycle, Karen says that she has enjoyed “the chance to work with authors whose work I admire. Although I am not technically a Buddhist, I have been meditating for 50 years now and am deeply interested in what we’ve published, from practices to book reviews.” Her favorite article is one of the few she didn’t copy edit: Spalding Gray’s interview with the Dalai Lama, which appeared in our first issue.

Sunita Puri

Sunita Puri, MD, is a memoir and nonfiction writer, a palliative medicine physician, and an associate professor of Clinical Medicine at the UMass Chan Medical School. Whether she’s writing research-backed essays for journals like JAMA Internal Medicine or personal reflections on death for the New York Times and the New Yorker, Puri always grounds her work in human stories. In her book That Good Night: Life and Medicine in the Eleventh Hour, she weaves together the end-of-life narratives of her patients with her own journey to understand life’s temporality. In “A Gift,” Puri navigates love and loss through the lens of impermanence.

Devin Berry

Devin Berry is a meditation teacher, youth advocate, and father from Oakland, California. Since beginning his Buddhist practice in 1999, Berry has undergone training with the East Bay Meditation Center, Spirit Rock, and Insight Meditation Society. Berry is passionate about the liberation of marginalized communities and has cofounded the Men of Color Deep Refuge Group at EBMC and Deep Time Liberation, an ancestral healing journey for Black Americans.

With his teaching rooted in buddhadharma and daily mindfulness, Berry’s practice focuses on putting metta (lovingkindness) and karuna (compassion) in action.

Rebecca Li

Rebecca Li, PhD, who reflects on her nonlinear path to dharma transmission in “Translating Silence,” is a Chan Buddhist teacher in the lineage of Master Sheng Yen. Since beginning her practice in 1995, she has trained with Master Sheng Yen, Dr. John Crook, and Simon Child. Li received dharma transmission from Simon Child in 2016, making her a third-generation dharma heir in the Dharma Drum Lineage of Chinese Chan. The following year, she founded Chan Dharma Community, dedicated to supporting practitioners in deepening their practice. She currently teaches meditation and dharma classes, gives public lectures, and leads retreats in North America and Europe.

The post Featured Contributors appeared first on Tricycle: The Buddhist Review.

On “Taking the Ache Out of Attachment” by Ven. Thubten Chodron, Fall 2023:

I

found the article to be a very potent and evocative teaching. Venerable Thubten Chodron had us contemplate dying and what that might mean beyond the material world of grasping, holding, and clinging.

I was brought to the moment-to-moment ingredients of my life. I turned inward and leaned in, inquiring: What is here? Who am I? What am I becoming as I detangle attachments and loosen into no-self, no other?

It is all gray matter—not quite smoke and mirrors, but clouds. How do I grasp at clouds the way I grasp things that are tangible and seemingly real, and how can I ungrasp them if not by releasing the very notions themselves?

So as I turned toward my suffering, I saw it more clearly—the root of the cause, and the cause of the root. I embrace emptiness in formless form. This too is a practice in grief. Thank you, Venerable Thubten Chodron.

– Kissiah Young

As the summer went on, I found less and less room for my “things.” Reading Venerable Thubten Chodron’s article gave me some helpful clues to practice minimizing attachment and find more space to enjoy and use. Thank you

– Mary Martell

On “The Big Picture” by Anne C. Klein, Fall 2023:

Thank you Anne C. Klein for sharing your article in the Fall 2023 issue—I had a strong heart opening while reading it. I once had a similar “serendipitous glimpse of awakening,” and the idea of the present moment being perfect has continued to guide me ever since. Reading your article, I was reminded of the book The Master and His Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World, in which the neuroscientist and philosopher Iain McGilchrist expounds on the right-brain experience of direct unnamed wholeness and interconnectedness. It seems absolutely clear to me that he was talking about the very same “pristine awareness” described in Dzogchen. This noncoincidence points to an experience of awakening available here and now, for all beings. You just have to learn to notice, and your article reminded me of this.

– Sion Williams

On “The Problem of Shape” by Clark Strand, Fall 2023:

Clark Strand’s commentary in is a wonderful example of how a poem belongs equally to the poet and the reader. To me, a dragonfly is its wings. We do indeed go through life as if we were a wingless dragonfly. But if we open our eyes and flex our shoulders, our near-invisible, horizontal wings can carry us anywhere. And dragonflies never keep to a straight trajectory. Thanks also to Tricycle for its (horizontal) openness to this very American haiku.

– Mary Wilson

The winning haiku by Mariya Gusev in the Fall 2023 issue is magnificent. As is the accompanying art by Matthew Richardson. They made my day!

– Lois Rodenhuis

On “An Academic Like No Other” by Sarah Fleming, Fall 2023:

Thank you so much for this wonderful profile of Professor Robert Buswell. I chanced upon Dr. Buswell’s book The Zen Monastic Experience a few years ago and learned so much from it—and “unlearned” even more, given that most of my reading about Zen and Chan consisted of books by Western practitioners who had neither the scholarship nor the depth of practice of Professor Buswell. And while I’d had a little exposure to Korean Buddhism, I had no idea that for depth, profundity, and diversity it was fully the equal of the better-known Chinese and Japanese traditions.

I so appreciate Tricycle’s going out of its way to feature great scholar-practitioners, from Donald S. Lopez Jr. to Anne C. Klein to Dr. Buswell. Humble lay practitioners like myself, with no grasp of the primary languages, would have nothing to practice and no context for it were it not for these amazing teachers. Thank you, Sarah Fleming!

– Kevin Knox

♦

To be considered for the next issue’s Letters to the Editor, send comments to editorial@tricycle.org, post a comment on tricycle.org, or visit us on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter.

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I am a grateful LWOP (Life Without Parole) convict at the California Correctional Institution who eagerly awaits each issue of Tricycle. Currently our world is very dysfunctional, and the devaluation of human life has sadly become normalized in mainstream society. I am so, so pleased to tell you about a group of men who have come together to become ambassadors of change at this institution. Our group is called Lives Worthy of Purpose. LWOP–condemned men attend our weekly motivational meetings to promote hope and positive change and living amends to those we’ve harmed in the past. We have a #LivesWorthyOfPurpose Facebook page that highlights the men, including myself, who have joined in solidarity to promote a non-violent, positive lifestyle. I personally have the teachings of Buddhism to thank for changing my life and shedding light on a world that requires empathy, compassion, and kindness to create balance as well as prosperity. There are good-quality men behind bars here who are working very hard at evolving into men who deserve a chance at freedom someday.

– Respect, Scott D.

***

EDITOR’S NOTE: Tricycle is evolving with the times. As the print edition enters its thirty-third year of publication, there’s also growing interest in our posts on tricycle.org and our twice-monthly podcasts: Tricycle Talks with editor-in-chief James Shaheen, launched in 2017, and Life As It Is with James and Buddhist teacher Sharon Salzberg, launched in 2021. Here is some of the feedback we’ve received from our listeners. 

I have been listening to your podcasts for quite a while, and I enjoy the variety of subjects and topics that you discuss. I particularly like the interviews with the authors of articles featured in the current issue of Tricycle. I feel much more connected to the author, the article, and the message conveyed by the article after having listened to the author. That deepens the experience for me, and I am grateful.

– Dave Gerlits

On “Let Life Come to You” with Pico Iyer, Tricycle Talks, March 7, 2023:

I am 71, and for the first time in my life I took the opportunity to listen to an interview with someone who, through experience and knowledge, has provided me with a very enriching understanding of the wonderment of being human and the possibilities available to us all. I admire Mr. Iyer for exhibiting a “don’t-know mind” throughout his many world travels, and I certainly appreciate his ability to welcome inclusivity with all peoples and cultures.

– Randy Nelson

On “Tired of Pretending to Be Me” with Joseph Goldstein, Tricycle Talks, June 9, 2021:

While I invariably find your podcasts to be just as high-caliber and informative as the magazine as a whole, I wanted to say that Mr. Shaheen’s interview with Joseph Goldstein is not just a wonderful interview but one of the most lucid and useful Q&As on meditation practice I’ve ever experienced. Shaheen and Goldstein have real chemistry, and what a privilege to get a taste of Joseph’s lifetime of deep lay practice. Extremely inspiring. 

– Kevin Knox

You have to appreciate someone who can use Janis Joplin to illuminate deep principles.

Thank you for the explanation of No Self. After fifteen years of studying Mindfulness and never, ever coming close to understanding that concept, one sentence from Joseph and I get it—lack of self-centeredness. Every time Tricycle offers an article or podcast, there is always a little nugget to be mined.

– Sue Legree

♦

To be considered for the next issue’s Letters to the Editor, send comments to editorial@tricycle.org, post a comment on tricycle.org, or visit us on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter.

The post Letters to the Editor appeared first on Tricycle: The Buddhist Review.

Growing old is not all bad. A young friend recently complained that he was unable to shake off self-consciousness about how he looked and sounded. With some irony I told him that the great thing about getting older is that as you begin to fall apart, people stop looking at you altogether. Aside from joint pain and the occasional blow to one’s vanity, age can come as a great relief, affording unexpected privacy, even when in public. Now, despite my habits of cynicism and irascibility—my personality isn’t much more than a habit after all—I can grudgingly though gratefully acknowledge that I am content.

In the days that followed the exchange with my young friend, it was a special joy to reflect on the nature of my contentment—a sense of completeness: nothing need be added or, for that matter, subtracted. Nowadays, work, personal relations, and social life sail along pleasantly enough. Until, say, I get a call from the sort of friend who likes to dangle new and shiny things before my eyes. Before I know it my competitiveness is awakened, a resentment is born, and I feel a pressing desire to be seen again, if only just one more time. Worse, the pettiness of it all deals a blow harsher than anything age can muster. In a brief moment, I have become someone who is not content. How to come back?

In “The Big Picture,” the Buddhist scholar Anne Klein (Lama Rigzin Drolma) writes about Dzogchen, the tradition in which she teaches and practices. The word is commonly translated as “The Great Perfection,” although Klein prefers “The Great Completeness,” a translation I find far more relatable. The notion that I am perfect, or even a part of perfection, is pretty tough to digest, and apparently, I’m not alone. In this month’s episode of Tricycle Talks, Klein describes an exercise that she sometimes assigns her students: sitting face-to-face in pairs, they tell each other, “You are perfect.” It’s an awkward moment; like me, the students squirm at such a notion. Yet, as I remarked to Klein, completeness is another matter altogether; it’s precisely the wholeness I experience when I am content. And what I tend to forget is that whatever state I’m in, there is no need to “come back.” A moment of awareness—always available to us—reminds me that I am already there, already whole, already complete.

Self-deprecating humor aside, practice over the years, with its ups and downs, its moments of clarity and its long slogs through struggle, its joys and miseries, has made a difference. I am far less likely to brood over my imperfections, or even consider them as such; or kick myself for taking the bait the world is in fact always dangling before us. As an exaggerated sense of agency subsides, a sweet surrender takes hold, allowing me to relax into a life that, as Klein puts it, “is backlit by completeness.”

Yes, practice has made a difference. And, maybe, too, I’m just getting old.

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Tenzin Gyurmey

Tenzin Gyurmey Dorjee, the 36-year-old Tibetan artist featured in “Memories in Exile,” came to an interview with the writer Adele Tomlin in a sweater that said “I like boring things.” For Gyurmey, that Andy Warhol quote references not the banality but the beauty of quotidian life. Raised in Himachal Pradesh, a Tibetan enclave in northern India, he paints family and friends with the diaspora an underlying theme. “My work delves into the realm of anticipation, the moments of love in the family that go unspoken,” he says, “and an identity that is always changing.”

Kamilah Majied, PhD

Kamilah Majied, PhD, who pays tribute to the late jazz musician Wayne Shorter in “The Wonderful Sounds of Wayne Shorter,” called writing about the renowned saxophonist and composer “a beautiful gratitude practice.” Like Shorter a longtime practitioner of Nichiren Buddhism, she said, “I’ve tried to live with a ‘never give up’ spirit, but it was not until I wrote this article that, inspired by Mr. Shorter’s example, I was able to articulate what ‘never give up’ means to me as a Buddhist.” Her conclusion? “It is a call to endless spiritual creativity and power.”

Anne C. Klein

Reflecting on the experience of writing her latest book, On Being Human and a Buddha Too: Longchenpa’s Seven Trainings for a Sunlit Sky, scholar and dharma teacher Anne Klein, aka Lama Rigzin Drolma (“The Big Picture”) said, “I was connecting with something that feels vast and universal. I am eager to share that connectedness with others. At the same time, it feels so intimate and personal that I feel shy at revealing it. Neither of these undercuts the other. They are part of a larger dance. And that wholeness is amazing.”

Sarah Fleming

Tricycle’s audio editor, Sarah Fleming produces the podcasts Tricycle Talks and Life As It Is. “I love coordinating the interviews with people I want to learn about,” she says. For “An Academic Like No Other,” she interviewed scholar-translator-professor Robert Buswell, one of the most distinguished and influential Buddhist academics in the world. “I was struck by his humility and gentleness and kindness,” she recalls. A Harvard Divinity School graduate and Soto Zen practitioner, Sarah is a palliative oncology chaplain at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. “Doing end-of-life care is tied to the practice for me,” she says.

The post Featured Contributors appeared first on Tricycle: The Buddhist Review.

We typically associate modernism with the cultural West, and “Buddhist modernism” is no exception: traditional forms of the religion reached our shores, the story goes, and over time we worked to make them compatible with the realities of contemporary life. Yet the process of modernization has its roots in Asia. Grappling with the social, cultural, and economic pressures of colonialism and modernization, Asian Buddhist cultures not only developed strategies to defend against foreign incursions but also adapted Buddhism in highly creative and innovative ways. In Burma, for example, meditation was taken out of the monasteries and made widely accessible to lay men and women, ensuring its survival.

The process of adaptation is how Buddhism stays vital in the lives of those who practice it. So it is not surprising that from early on, some of Buddhism’s central tenets have been transformed to accommodate the demands of a quickly changing world. As the author and professor of religious studies David McMahan explains in this issue (“The Roots of Buddhist Modernism”):

The concept of dependent arising underwent a considerable transformation in Asia before it reached a global audience. It began as bad news: karmic bonds enmesh us in bondage, suffering, and continual rebirth. But the interdependence of all things begins to take on more positive meanings in East Asia, especially when combined with the idea that buddhanature permeates everything, including the natural world.

What began in Asia continued as Buddhism reached new lands. Eventually, what McMahan calls a “transnational Buddhism” developed, in which people globally “began working from a shared repertoire of ideas, which allowed new resonances and connections.”

There is perhaps no better embodiment of Buddhism’s modern expression than the Vietnamese Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh, whose centering of dependent arising—or to use his term, “interbeing”—influenced not only Zen schools in the West but also Buddhist traditions worldwide. Interdependence has been so pervasive in contemporary Buddhist discourse that it is fair to say that it is one of the ideas most closely associated with Buddhism in the popular imagination. Even outside Buddhist circles—particularly in the field of ecology—interdependence has found its way into common parlance.

In this and in so many other respects, it is difficult to overstate Thich Nhat Hanh’s influence. All the more reason that his loss is felt both inside and outside his Order of Interbeing, the school he founded and that has flourished beyond Vietnam’s borders. A figure so central to a school’s development is virtually impossible to replace, and in this issue, Megan Sweas looks at the future of his community in “After Thay.”

Thich Nhat Hanh opined that the future Buddha would “manifest in the form of ‘A Beloved Community,’” and members of the Order of Interbeing have taken him at his word, meticulously maintaining a horizontal, consensus-based model of decision-making in the sangha. “They must maintain a young tradition and stay true to Thay’s spirit by pushing at its bounds,” Megan Sweas writes, “all while no single person holds authority.”

It is not an easy line to walk, but given their extraordinary commitment to the legacy of their teacher, Thich Nhat Hanh’s students are confident they’ll manage in his absence. The creativity and innovation that characterized their teacher, after all, is precisely what has allowed the Buddhist forms we practice today to survive the convulsions of modernity.

The post Walking a Fine Line appeared first on Tricycle: The Buddhist Review.

One of the things I’ve noticed through the years is that Tricycle has been doing a better and better job of covering the various sects of Buddhism, and the Spring 2023 issue might be the best example yet, with wonderfully informative articles on the Nichiren and Pure Land [Jodo Shinshu] schools (“Knowing Nichiren” and “True Entrusting” [now titled “One Mess Within Oneness” on tricycle.org]).

Something that fascinates me is how so many people view their practice as the only valid one. I consider sitting meditation to be the most miraculous discovery of my life. But some years ago, when I was teaching at Duke University, one of my students told me about her grandmother, a Nichiren Buddhist who moved from Japan to America for cancer treatment. She faced her illness—and her eventual death—with complete equanimity and would wake up every morning at 4:00 a.m. to chant for two hours. I was in awe of that.

One evening she gathered her family and told them how grateful she was to have them and to have discovered Buddhism. She died later that night. The best spiritual practice is the one that you actually do.

–David Guy

Dear Editors,
I just wanted to express my appreciation for your inclusion of Nichiren Buddhist perspectives in the range of articles that you publish and events that you put on. I am always pleased to see work from teachers like Bishop Myokei Caine-Barrett [head of the Nichiren Shu Order of North America] or contributions from a more academic perspective like the recent interview with Professor Jacqueline Stone (“Knowing Nichiren,” Spring 2023).

I was especially pleased to see “You Can Get There From Here” by Mark Herrick in the Spring 2023 issue and would love to see more content that explores the range of Nichiren-inspired Buddhist practice in the West beyond the better-known Soka Gakkai.

More broadly, I would welcome any contributions that illustrate how Buddhist practices can be so much more diverse than breath meditation and mindfulness, important as those practices are in their own right. Thank you.

With best regards,
John Crossland
Brighton, UK

“It was refreshing to see the sect and discipline that I follow receive some attention. Thank you for helping to educate others.”

As a Nichiren Buddhist practitioner, I was excited and pleased to read the interview with Professor Jaqueline L. Stone (“Knowing Nichiren,” Spring 2023). Nichiren Buddhism does not get the same media attention from Buddhist magazines as other traditions do—largely, in my opinion, as a result of misunderstanding and lack of knowledge. Frederick M. Ranallo-Higgins conducted an exemplary interview, underscoring history, eradicating misnomers, and providing much-needed insight into the Daimoku. Please highlight Nichiren Buddhism in Tricycle more frequently, perhaps by interviewing practitioners.

It was refreshing to see the sect and discipline that I follow receive some attention. Thank you for helping to educate others. 

–Shundrea S. Trotty, MPA

Greetings,
I loved the article in the Spring 2023 issue on defilements as the path to awakening (“You Can Get There from Here” by Mark Herrick) and the interview with Jacqueline Stone (“Knowing Nichiren”). Both articles were excellent in providing insights on Nichiren Buddhism, a less-known lineage not often discussed in “mainstream” Buddhist circles. Nichiren Buddhism, particularly the Nichiren Shu lineage, has been around for over 750 years. This is a Buddhism that stresses equality and diversity. I would greatly appreciate if Tricycle could publish more articles on this very enlightened lineage of Buddhism.

With Gassho,
Nadine Shaw-Landesvatter

I really enjoyed Mark Herrick’s article on Nichiren Buddism and the Lotus Sutra (“You Can Get There From Here”). It is very interesting and informative. I look forward to seeing more articles by him.

–Kathleen Dinsmore 

In response to the Buddhism for Beginners article, “Is Buddhism a religion, a philosophy, or a way of life?”: It seems unnecessary to try to pin Buddhism down to one of these three categories since, in fact, it may be all three or just one, depending on the needs and perspective of the individual. For some, Buddhism may also be a psychology, [with] practice incorporated into a therapeutic approach. Buddhism may start out looking like one thing, say a philosophy, and later appear as a way of life and/or a religion. Despite not fitting the description of a religion using Judeo-Christian criteria, in many parts of the world Buddhism is undoubtedly a functioning religion that helps people through maintaining faith in the dharma and connects them through belonging to a sangha. Important rituals and practices help maintain and strengthen this faith, and provide people with important insights into how everything in the universe exists and how one fits into a network of relationships that is non-dual.

Maybe most importantly, as you suggest, Buddhism helps people cope with the obvious fact of suffering through a deep understanding of the four noble truths. I think the tenets of any religion should be open to question and to the test of one’s personal experience, regardless of what you call it.

-@davidtomlinson1804
on Instagram

♦

To be considered for the next issue’s Letters to the Editor, send comments to editorial@tricycle.org, post a comment on tricycle.org, or visit us on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter.

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The post Featured Contributors appeared first on Tricycle: The Buddhist Review.

Charles Johnson

Best known for his novels and short stories, Charles Johnson is also a screenwriter, cartoonist, martial arts teacher, Zen practitioner, and last but not least, Tricycle contributing editor. His celebrated writing includes Middle Passage (the recipient of the National Book Award in 1990), The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, and Taming the Ox: Buddhist Stories and Reflections on Politics, Race, Culture, and Spiritual Practice. Whether the subject is creative practice or Black life in America, his work is steeped in his studies of philosophy and Buddhism. For a taste of Dr. Johnson’s writing, read his rich retelling of the classic Zen tale “Is that So?,” here.

Rev. Dr. Kenneth K. Tanaka

Rev. Dr. Kenneth Tanaka got an early start on his Pure Land studies as a 13-year-old “Sunday school” attendee at Mountain View Buddhist Temple in Mountain View, California. He went on to become a Jodo Shinshu priest and scholar whose academic career spanned the US and Japan. After working for the Institute of Buddhist Studies, in Berkeley, California, Rev. Tanaka taught at Tokyo’s Musashino University for 20 years before retiring. His books include Ocean: An Introduction to Jodo Shinshu Buddhism in America and Amerika Bukkyo (American Buddhism). In this issue, Rev. Tanaka addresses what liberation, or shinjin, means in Shin Buddhism, breaking down popular misconceptions along the way.

Frederick M. Ranallo-Higgins

Frederick M. Ranallo-Higgins is an associate editor at Tricycle and a Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Buddhism Public Scholar. Ranallo-Higgins earned his PhD in Asian Languages and Cultures at the University of California, Los Angeles, in 2019 under the guidance of Robert E. Buswell Jr. His main academic interests are doctrinal and textual studies, translation, and Won Buddhism, and his doctoral research explored the real-world challenges of Buddhism and its institutions. In this issue, Ranallo-Higgins recommends Buddhist places to visit in Seoul and interviews Princeton Emerita Professor Jacqueline Stone on Nichiren Buddhism.

Karen Armstrong

Karen Armstrong is one of the most popular voices in comparative religion. Although she left religion for over a decade after a grueling experience as a Catholic nun, she returned to it as a writer with works like the best-selling book A History of God: The 4,000-Year Quest of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. She has addressed world leaders, advised policy makers, and is the founder of the global collective Charter for Compassion. In an excerpt from her most recent book, Sacred Nature: Restoring Our Ancient Bond with the Natural World, she investigates what myth offers us that science can’t and how it can help us take action for the sake of our world’s future here.

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