The opening editorial from our "Buddhist Teachings on Mindfulness" issue. If “mindfulness” seems like a simple concept, that’s true. Also, it’s not. In the September 2016 issue of Lion’s Roar, you’ll find a number of definitions. In Joseph Goldstein’s teaching on page 42, for example, mindfulness is first defined as “the quality and power of mind that is aware of what is [...]
A little something for Throwback Thursday: In a White House-produced YouTube video first shared on January 15, President Obama addressed a number of things -- including what's in his pockets. It turns out that, along with a rosary gifted to him by Pope Francis, a small Buddha statuette, given to him by a monk, is often found on the president's person. "Ever since I started [...]
In this new official trailer for Doctor Strange, we get a new, longer glimpse at Benedict Cumberbatch as Marvel's "master of the mystic arts" -- and, at the end, learn how how his neighbors can hack his internet. Strange's wifi password will be recognizable to many, not least of all our readers, who will recognize it as a variation on a key word in our old name, before we [...]
Comedy fans won't want to miss Sick in the Head, Judd Apatow's collection of his interviews through the years with some of America's finest comedians, stand-up and otherwise. (It's now in paperback.) And if you're interested in the collision of Buddhism and comedy -- as we are -- then you'll especially want to read Apatow's discussion with the legendary and late Harold Ramis [...]
Equivalent to a Doctorate in Buddhist Philosophy, the Geshema degree represents the highest level of training in the Gelugpa school of Tibetan Buddhism -- a level of training previously only available to men (in whose case the degree would be a Geshe degree). But that's changed now that twenty Tibetan Buddhist nuns have become the first to pass all the exams necessary to earn [...]
You might have seen a recent story about how monks from the Great Enlightenment Buddhist Institute Society (GEBIS), located in Prince Edward Island, Canada had re-released caught lobsters back into the sea in order to save them from being boiled alive for dinner. There's no doubt that this is a noble effort -- and one other Buddhist groups also engage in (or at least adapt). [...]
To make diversity real, says Zen teacher angel Kyodo williams, Buddhists must look deep into their own hearts. Brooklyn Zen Center executive director Greg Snyder has spoken of a mind-meld that’s gone on between you and he, and BZC guiding teacher Teah Strozer. Let’s talk about that connection. I’m a New Yorker. I lived in Fort Greene and had a little sitting group, an [...]
New York magazine's blog The Cut has a funny new post called "A Brief History of Terrible Yogurt Commercials Targeted at Women." Among them is a classic Dharma-Burger. It's so classic, in fact, that there's actually a Buddhist book named after it. The ad is for Yoplait yogurt. In it, two women in a luxurious spa setting are swooning over their Yoplait, trying to come up with [...]
We've told you in the past -- with an update just yesterday -- about the problem in New York, and worldwide, of fake Buddhist monks out to scam people for "donations." But would you know one if you saw one? Maybe not. "These faux monks are hard to spot," Stephen Colbert told his Late Show audience. And that's why he performed the public service of bringing "Donny, the Real [...]
Michael Herr, the author of the famed memoir, Dispatches, about his time covering the Vietnam war, has died. He was 76. Herr was also known for his contributions to other famous works, including the films Apocalypse Now and Full Metal Jacket, for which he wrote the screenplays. In addition, Herr became a devoted student of Buddhism in the latter years of his life, studying [...]
