On Monday, 200 Buddhist teachers issued a statement calling for an end to the US government’s practice of separating migrant children from their parents. Lion’s Roar magazine deputy editor Andrea Miller talked to Tenku Ruff — president of the Soto Zen Buddhist Association, which created the statement — about what she hoped the letter would achieve. Andrea Miller: What can [...]
About Andrea Miller
Buddhism Began with a Good Meal
Buddhism isn't about depriving yourself of worldly pleasures. Andrea Miller explains how a good meal helped Siddhartha understand the importance of nourishment — and offers a healthful recipe for cashew pulao. The Buddha taught that the gift of food is fivefold; it is the gift of life, beauty, happiness, strength, and discernment. It’s worth noting that Buddhism itself began [...]
Waves of Impermanence 🌊
Each Friday, we share three topical longreads in our Weekend Reader newsletter. This week, Lion's Roar deputy editor Andrea Miller talks about the ocean and what it means to us. Sign up here to receive the Weekend Reader in your inbox. From the Lion's Roar office, we can see the Atlantic. Sometimes it's a glinting cobalt, while at other times it's a dull slate or else [...]
Deer to the Heart
Even if you don't think much about them, they're always present. Andrea Miller reexamines something we all might have missed in the meaning of the quiet, watchful deer. Somehow, I’d missed the part about the deer. I’d read everything in the guidebook about Nara, or at least I thought I had. I’d read that Nara’s temple, Todai-ji, sheltered a gargantuan bronze statue of [...]
Review: “The Truth of This Life”
From the March 2018 issue of Lion’s Roar. The Truth of This Life Zen Teachings on Loving the World as It Is By Katherine Thanas Shambhala Publications 2018; 176 pp., $16.95 (paper) In 1967, at age forty, the late Katherine Thanas was introduced to Zen by Shunryu Suzuki Roshi. She went on to become the founding teacher for the Monterey Bay Zen Center and abbot of the [...]
Review: “I Wanna Be Well”
From the March 2018 issue of Lion’s Roar. I Wanna Be Well How a Punk Found Peace and You Can Too By Miguel Chen with Rod Meade Sperry Wisdom Publications 2018, 192 pp., $16.95 (paper) When he was sixteen, Miguel Chen’s mother died of cancer. Seven months later, his twenty-year-old sister was killed in a car accident. These devastating losses prompted Chen to try to [...]
Review: “Holy Rascals”
From the March 2018 issue of Lion’s Roar. Holy Rascals Advice for Spiritual Revolutionaries By Rami Shapiro Sounds True 2017; 232 pp., $16.95 (paper) Rabbi Rami Shapiro isn’t against religion, but he believes there is something religious bigwigs don’t want you to know: “Brand-name parochial religions are concerned with their respective truths rather than the Perennial [...]
Review: “Aging with Wisdom”
From the March 2018 issue of Lion’s Roar. Aging with Wisdom Reflections, Stories & Teachings By Olivia Ames Hoblitzelle Monkfish Book Publishing Company 2017; 218 pp., $16.95 (paper) There are inevitable aches and pains involved with growing old. But today in the West, old age is made even more painful by the way our culture glorifies youth, does not respect its [...]
Review: “Divine Gardens”
From the March 2018 issue of Lion’s Roar. Divine Gardens Mayumi Oda & The San Francisco Zen Center Interviews and essays compiled by Rachel Walther Parallax Press 2017; 112 pp., $29.95 (cloth) I’ve long admired the colorful, joy-infused art of Mayumi Oda, but after reading Divine Gardens, I now have a greater appreciation for her as an artist, activist, and [...]
Review: “Long Strange Journey”
From the March 2018 issue of Lion’s Roar. Long Strange Journey On Modern Zen, Zen Art, and Other Predicaments By Gregory P. A. Levine University of Hawai’i Press 2017; 344 pp., $62 (cloth) Long Strange Journey offers the first critical analysis of Zen-inspired modernism and its ubiquitous legacies. Gregory P. A. Levine is a professor of Japanese art and [...]
