Tricycle’s Highlights From the Week: The Winner’s of Last Month’s Haiku Challenge, a Short Meditation on Releasing Tension, and an Interview with Tibetan Musician Tenzin Choegyal

Nothing is permanent, everything is precious. Here’s a selection of some happenings—fleeting or otherwise—at Tricycle and in the Buddhist world this week

The Winners of Last Month’s Haiku Challenge

The winning poets of May’s haiku challenge all addressed the most notable feature of a soap bubble—the fleeting, unstable beauty of its “little world.” Read the winning haiku here, and then submit your own haiku for a chance to be featured on our website and in the print magazine. 

A Teaching on Finding the Courage to Embrace the Unknown

Given the current state of our world, the theme of grounding in groundlessness seems both apt and urgent. Read a teaching on the subject by writer and Zen teacher Vanessa Zuisei Goddard.

An Interview with Tibetan Musician Tenzin Choegyal

With the release of his latest album, Yeshi Dolma, Tenzin Choegyal, one of the world’s finest Tibetan musicians, blends tradition with genre-transcending sounds. Read an interview with Choegyal here.

A Short Guided Meditation for Releasing Tension

In the first of our For the Moment series on embodiment, Insight Meditation teacher Andrea Fella guides us through experiencing emotions on a bodily level in order to transform and release stress. Listen here.

June 20: Dependent Arising Course

Tricycle’s new online course—led by Bodhi College cofounders Stephen Batchelor, Christina Feldman, John Peacock, and Akincano Weber—will explore the foundational teaching of dependent arising. Read an excerpt from the course here, and register here. 

June 28: Listening to Buddhist Texts

Join Buddhist Scholar Sarah Shaw, who will demonstrate the unique spiritual and historic insights that emerge when we engage with Buddhist suttas as oral literature. Register here.

July 1: Posture of Meditation Workshop

Join us to discover the principles of meditation posture in an hour-long virtual workshop with Will Johnson, meditation teacher and author of The Posture of Meditation. Register here.

Writer and Zen Priest Ruth Ozeki Wins the Women’s Literature Prize for Her Latest Novel, The Book of Form and Emptiness

The prize, which used to be known as the Orange and then the Baileys prize, is awarded to “the best full-length novel of the year by a woman” written in English and published in the UK. Listen to an interview on our podcast, Tricycle Talks, with Ozeki on the book here.

Poet and Zen Buddhist Ocean Vuong Will Join NYU’s Creative Writing Program Faculty

The award-winning poet, who received his MFA in poetry from NYU, will join the university’s Faculty of Arts & Science as a Professor of Creative Writing this fall. Listen to a Life As It Is podcast episode with Vuong on his latest poetry collection, Time is a Mother, here. 

Google Engineer Discusses Zen Koans and Meditation with “LaMDA,” Its AI Chatbot Generator, and Proposes Evidence for AI Sentience 

Software engineer Blake LeMoine and a collaborator conducted a series of chat-based “interviews” with an AI chatbot on subjects like zen koans and transcendental meditation. LeMoine was then placed on paid leave after claiming the AI is sentient.

Robot “Deity” Gives Buddhist Sermons at Japanese Temple 

A humanoid robot named “Mindar,” who was created by a team from the Department of Systems Innovation at Osaka University, gives weekly sermons at the historic Kodaiji Temple in Kyoto. 

Thai Lawmakers Give Initial Approval on Marriage Equality Bills

Four bills permitting same-sex marriage and partnership in Thailand have received initial approval, just days after Bangkok celebrated its first Pride parade in 16 years.

Buddhist Tzu Chi Foundation Distributes 45,000 Aid Vouchers to Ukrainian Refugees 

In response to the ongoing war and refugee crisis in Ukraine, the Buddhist Tzu Chi Foundation, a global humanitarian organization based in Taiwan, has distributed 45,000 aid vouchers, each worth $450, to refugees.