How to Practice Bowing
Brother Phap Hai
When we bow to another person, says Brother Phap Hai, we honor both their goodness and our own.
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Listen to meditations, interviews, and dharma talks to awaken your heart and mind.
Feeling Unworthy?
Pilar Jennings
Author and psychoanalyst, Pilar Jennings, offers advice to a practitioner who continues to feel unworthy and unloved.
How to Be a Bodhisattva
Thich Nhat Hanh
It may seem like an unattainable ideal, but you can start right now as a bodhisattva-in-training. All you need is the aspiration to put others first.
Cutting Through Views: Three Practice Verses by Machig Labdrön
Charlotte Rotterdam
Charlotte Z. Rotterdam shares three verses by Machig Labdrön, the founder of Chöd, that we can carry with us in our daily lives.
Your Favorite Meditation of the Year
Lilly Greenblatt
Lilly Greenblatt takes a look at our readers’ favorite meditation of 2020: tonglen, or “sending and taking.”
Getting Vaccinated, Reliving My Grief
Tenku Ruff
Zen Buddhist priest Tenku Ruff She reflects on her experience getting the COVID-19 vaccine — both the joy and grief.
How to Be a Bodhisattva
Thich Nhat Hanh
It may seem like an unattainable ideal, but you can start right now as a bodhisattva-in-training. All you need is the aspiration to put others first.
How to Practice Bowing
Brother Phap Hai
When we bow to another person, says Brother Phap Hai, we honor both their goodness and our own.
Feeling Unworthy?
Pilar Jennings
Author and psychoanalyst, Pilar Jennings, offers advice to a practitioner who continues to feel unworthy and unloved.
Cutting Through Views: Three Practice Verses by Machig Labdrön
Charlotte Rotterdam
Charlotte Z. Rotterdam shares three verses by Machig Labdrön, the founder of Chöd, that we can carry with us in our daily lives.
Your Favorite Meditation of the Year
Lilly Greenblatt
Lilly Greenblatt takes a look at our readers’ favorite meditation of 2020: tonglen, or “sending and taking.”
Getting Vaccinated, Reliving My Grief
Tenku Ruff
Zen Buddhist priest Tenku Ruff She reflects on her experience getting the COVID-19 vaccine — both the joy and grief.
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Barbara O'Brien
The Best of the Dalai Lama: Life, Quotes, Teachings, and Books
Lion's Roar Staff
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MEDITATION
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5 Reasons to Meditate
Pema Chödrön
The simple act of stopping, says Pema Chödrön, is the best way to cultivate our good qualities. Here are five ways meditation makes us better people.
How to Practice Metta for a Troubled Time
Mushim Patricia Ikeda
Mushim Patricia Ikeda teaches us how to generate loving-kindness and good will as an antidote to hatred and fear.
What do all of the terms for Buddhist meditation mean?
Lion's Roar Staff
I’m confused about all the different terms for meditation, like shamatha, vipassana, zazen, mindfulness, calm abiding, insight, just sitting. What’s what?
How to Practice Shamatha Meditation
Lama Rod Owens
Shamatha meditation is the foundation of Buddhist practice. Lama Rod Owens teaches us a version from the Vajrayana tradition.
WATCH & LISTEN
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How Not to Freak Out
If you find all the bad news overwhelming, Buddhist teacher Judy Lief has some meditations to help you…
How Not to Freak Out
If you find all the bad news overwhelming, Buddhist teacher Judy Lief has some meditations to help you…
How Not to Freak Out
If you find all the bad news overwhelming, Buddhist teacher Judy Lief has some meditations to help you…
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BUDDHIST WISDOM
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Listening Deeply for Peace
Thich Nhat Hanh
Peace will only become a reality when world leaders come to negotiations with the ability to hear the suffering at the root of all conflicts.
All Beings Liberating, Together, At Once
Judy Roitman
Judy Roitman unpacks the Mahayana vision. “The essence of this vision,” she says, “is a universe in which time and space are flexible, and in which beings are neither separate nor dissolved in each other.”
Healing America’s Racial Karma
Larry Ward
More than 150 years after the end of slavery, America’s tragic racial karma rolls on.
Awakening Fueled by Rage
Zenju Earthlyn Manuel
As a dharma teacher, says Zenju Earthlyn Manuel, she’s told she shouldn’t feel or express rage, but she disagrees.
We Always Have Joy
Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche
The sun doesn’t stop shining just because there are clouds in the sky. Our buddhanature is always present and available, even in difficulty.
LIFE & CULTURE
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What Is the Sound of Buddhist Music Today?
Lion's Roar Staff
The dharma speaks through music—it always has, it does today. From jazz to metal to rap to emergent hybrid forms, Buddhism’s influence on the musical realm can be discovered at almost every turn.
This Floating World
Joan Sutherland
Zen teacher Joan Sutherland on life’s dreamlike nature and why it should be embraced.
Tina Turner’s Journey into Faith
Ralph H. Craig III
A review of Turner’s autobiography, “Happiness Becomes You: A Guide to Changing Your Life for Good.”
Where Is My Brother?
Cary Groner
As his brother’s mind deteriorates, Cary Groner grapples with troubling questions about the ephemerality of the self.
Three Practices That Healed My Heart After A Traumatic Injury
Carla Beharry
When a car drove over her foot, Carla Beharry felt like her anger would never end. She soon learned that the only way out of suffering is through it.
THE MAGAZINE
CURRENT ISSUE
The January 2021 issue of Lion’s Roar magazine features the Dalai Lama’s call to action on the climate crisis, and his wisdom for combatting it together.
CURRENT ISSUE
In this powerful statement on the climate crisis, the Dalai Lama calls on us to make this a century of compassion for the planet and all its inhabitants.
Phoebe Bridgers: Her Music as Meditation
Ray Buckner
Ray Buckner on how Grammy nominee Phoebe Bridgers’ music is a spiritual friend, a path forward into the unknown.
Thich Nhat Hanh’s Love Letter to the Earth
Thich Nhat Hanh
Thich Nhat Hanh on falling completely in love with our beautiful planet.
The Zen of Peter Coyote
Jennifer Keishin Armstrong
Actor, writer, narrator, and one-time radical — Jennifer Keishin Armstrong on the many roles of Zen priest Peter Coyote.
BUDDHADHARMA
CURRENT ISSUE
The Winter 2020 issue of Buddhadharma features in-depth teachings for cultivating your Buddhist practice and manifesting those teachings meaningfully in everyday life.
CURRENT ISSUE
Enlightenment is everywhere we look, says Joan Sutherland — we can choose to notice it, but at the same time, we can also trust that it will find us, wherever we are.
Our Traditions Can — and Must — Change
Justin von Bujdoss
Even as we uphold tradition, says Justin von Bujdoss, we also have to leave room for it to grow.
It Comes Down to Character
Thanissaro Bhikkhu
We often look at Buddhist practice as a way of cultivating particular qualities; Thanissaro Bhikkhu reminds us, however, that the Buddha also spoke of qualities we must have to take up the practice in the first place.
The Promise and Peril of Spiritual Authority
Gina Sharpe
Gina Sharpe, Roshi Pat Enkyo O’Hara, and Pilar Jennings examine spiritual power, the roots of its abuse, and how we might learn to hold it differently going forward.