I received my spring issue of Tricycle and was surprised to find the Buddhist quarterly playing the numbers game on the cover. But instead of promises to take off 20 Pounds in 30 Days or 143 Ways to Please 7 Girls, this issue presents “Tricycle’s 28-Day Meditation Challenge.”

Sound anomalous? Challenge, meditation — kind of like military music? Well, Buddhism didn’t just spread across India and Asia by itself and I think it’s fair to say that Tricycle sees itself as part of the vanguard of the Vipassana, or “mindfulness,” school that has gained in popularity over the last few decades. In fact the principal author of the challenge is the venerable Sharon Salzberg, who has almost single-handedly warmed up Americans rather cool picture of Buddhism with her writings about Lovingkindness and Faith.

Though Tricycle is written for practicing Buddhists, and its advertisers include the makers of Zen clocks (“Shouldn’t you be asking what time isn’t it?”) and services like Dharma Match (“Where spiritual singles meet”), its editors are savvy enough to know that most of us are wannabes. We’ve meditated, probably been to a few retreats, read a few books — but who has time for the daily dose, aside from say Jon Stewart’s nightly Moment of Zen? By challenging readers to join her in a week-by-week program (and even answering questions online from participants), Salzberg is acknowledging our basic laziness and tendency to stray. As the editors note, “It’s the coming back that deepens our practice.”

So what have you got to lose — except those unsightly attachments? The challenge begins with the Five Precepts (who did some great stuff with Gene Chandler) and those include a commitment to refrain from intoxicants and use speech in an ethical way. If you get started now, you can be finished by St. Patrick’s Day. Talk about starting over.