The practice of love, says bell hooks, is the most powerful antidote to the politics of domination. She traces her thirty-year meditation on love, power, and Buddhism, and concludes it is only love that transforms our personal relationships and heals the wounds of oppression. At a conference on women and Buddhism that took place in spring last year, I was upset because [...]
About bell hooks
Cultivating Openness When Things Fall Apart
Pema Chodron and bell hooks talk about facing life's challenges, in this 1997 conversation from the Lion's Roar archives. Initially when I enter the classroom, I share with my students that we are there to think critically—to engage the world we live in—the world of ideas, fully, deeply, with our whole heart. Pema Chödrön's work gives me this gift. Consistently she [...]
bell hooks and John Perry Barlow talk “prana in cyberspace”
From the Lion's Roar archives, a 1995 conversation between digital activist and lyricist John Perry Barlow — who died on February 7, 2018 — and social theorist bell hooks. John Perry Barlow: "On paper, you are my polar opposite [bell hooks: iconoclastic feminist, leading African-American intellectual, progressive Buddhist, self-proclaimed homebody], yet I feel none of that [...]
The Power of Real Love: A Conversation with Sharon Salzberg and bell hooks
How do we bring more love into our lives? Sharon Salzberg and bell hooks sat down with Lion's Roar's Melvin McLeod for a special discussion on love in celebration of Salzberg's new book, Real Love: The Art of Mindful Connection. Photos by Christine Alicino. If love is what we need more of—and we do—then Sharon Salzberg and bell hooks are two of the most important voices [...]
How to Be a Bodhisattva
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 and some inspiration from helpful guides like the Buddhist teachers found here. Everyone Is Your Guest Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche on your life as a future bodhisattva Many Mahayana scriptures speak of inviting all sentient [...]
Building a Community of Love: bell hooks and Thich Nhat Hanh
bell hooks meets with Thich Nhat Hanh to ask: how do we build a community of love? Thich Nhat Hanh has been a presence in my life, as a teacher and guide, for more than twenty years. In the last few years I began to doubt the heart connection I felt with him because we had never met or spoken to one another, yet his work was ever-present in my work. I began to feel the [...]
Pema Chödrön & bell hooks on cultivating openness when life falls apart
In this conversation from 1997, bell hooks talks to Pema Chödrön about how to open your heart to life's most difficult challenges. Initially when I enter the classroom, I share with my students that we are there to think critically — to engage the world of ideas that we live in fully, deeply, and with our whole heart. Pema Chödrön's work gives me this gift. Consistently she [...]
bell hooks shares her “Big Screen Buddhism” pick
In our May 2016 magazine, 10 figures familiar to movie buffs and Buddhist alike — including Krista Tippett, Jeff Bridges, Peter Coyote, Naima Mora, and more — nominated their favorite Buddhist-themed films, from Groundhog Day to Kung Fu Panda. Here, renowned feminist theorist, author, and cultural critic bell hooks writes about her pick. A Zen Life: D.T. Suzuki Directed by [...]
Penis Passion
bell hooks argues that our erotic lives are enhanced when men and women can celebrate the penis in ways that don't uphold macho stereotypes. Working on a poem inspired by the joys of having sex in the world’s smallest study seated on an old-fashioned straight back chair painted red where I spend much of my time writing, I seek for words to describe the sensation of sitting in [...]
Ain’t She Still a Woman?
Increasingly, patriarchy is offered as the solution to the crisis black people face. Black women face a culture where practically everyone wants us to stay in our place. Progressive non-black folks, many of them white, often do not challenge black male support of patriarchy even though they would oppose sexism in other groups of men. In diverse black communities, and [...]
