Google: An Illegal Monopoly?
CBS’s 60 Minutes reports on the power of Google, a company whose critics say has stifled competition: Most people love Google. It’s changed our world, insinuated itself in our lives, made itself indispensable. You probably don’t even have to type Google.com into your computer, it’s often the default setting, a competitive advantage Google paid billions […]
Marriage: Imprisoned Together in Misery
In the television series “Little Britain USA,” David Walliams and Matt Lucas play a middle-aged British couple named George and Sandra in a series of sketches called “Forty Glorious Years.” One sketch has them visiting the zoo: Narrator: On both sides of the Atlantic marriage is a wonderful way of destroying not just your own […]
Living and Loving
Counselors and meditation teachers Stephen and Ondrea Levine write about Living the Life You Wish to Live in the Tricycle, the Buddhist magazine (Spring 2009,) Be mindful. Be loving. Practice forgiveness. Don’t put off anything. Any dream you have, anything that you have always wanted to do – do it. I can’t tell you how […]
Sitting Still
Scottish agnostic cleric and writer Richard Holloway writes in A Little History of Religion (2016): Buddhism is a practice not a creed. It is something to do rather than something to believe. The key to its effectiveness is controlling the restless craving mind through meditation. By sitting still and watching how they breathe, by meditating […]
Meditation of Just Sitting
British artist and author Robert Beer writes in the article Art Making the Artist in the Tricycle magazine (Fall 1999,) When you sit down, all that you’re exposed to is your own mind, there is nothing else … Just to remain in that space and to let things arise and fade without having to grasp […]
Was China’s Three Gorges Dam Worth it?
Nectar Gan writes in CNN that the summer’s record rains expose the Three Gorges Dam’s limited ability to control floods: Some geologists say instead of relying on dams to stop flooding, we should give rivers space and allow them to expand during the flood season. “Large alluvial rivers naturally flood during the wet season. Floodwater […]
The Experience of Dissatisfaction
From Chogyam Trungpa’s Collected Works, Looking for security and failing to find it is a glimpse of egolessness. Everyone begins the journey on the path by experiencing dissatisfaction. Something is missing somewhere, and we are frantically looking for it. But even though we run faster and faster, we do not discover anything at all. There […]
30 Gorgeous European Islands to Visit
Lori Zaino, senior writer for The Points Guy, identifies idyllic island escapes in Europe that offer tranquility and relaxation : Gozo and Comino, Malta Île de Batz, France San Domino and San Nicola, Tremiti Islands, Italy La Gomera, La Palma and El Hierro, Spain Solta, Croatia Herreninsel and Frauenchiemsee, Germany Madeira and Porto Santo, Portugal […]
Restaurants Taking Takeout to the Next Level
Wall Street Journal’s Jane Black reports that the coronavirus pandemic has forced restaurants to offer meal kits, prepared foods, and restaurant-quality ingredients: “Restaurant food at home” isn’t a marketing slogan anymore. It’s reality. Forced to pivot to survive in the face of the pandemic, restaurants are producing a new profusion of top-quality ready-to-eat foods for […]
Thoughts are Idiosyncratic Visitors
Bob Sharples of the Melbourne Therapy Centre writes in his essay “Do the Thoughts Ever Stop” in the Winter 2006 of the Tricycle magazine, When you stop to examine your thoughts you start to see that they have a life of their own, they come and go, generally in a random, idiosyncratic way. Recognizing the […]