Joy, giving, family, and peace—people of all faiths can celebrate these values of the holiday season. Eight Buddhists offer their take on yuletide dharma. One Perfect Christmas Bonnie Nadzam on letting go of holiday expectations, and simply enjoying the mystery and tradition of the season. I was raised Catholic and once, as a girl, I had The Perfect Christmas. The snow was [...]
Body and Me
Body was 390 pounds. Ira Sukrungruang bares his soul about their complicated relationship. Our own physical body possesses a wisdom which we who inhabit the body lack. We give it orders which make no sense. —Henry Miller Outside winter rage. The wind is a guttural animal against this old upstate building. I swear I feel the sway of this place, feel the cold invading the [...]
Dead Like Me
He tries to picture himself eating his favorite food or snorkeling an unknown sea, but sometimes the grim-reaper thoughts just keep on coming. Here, in thirteen ways, Ira Sukrungruang unpacks what it means to be dead. One My dog lies in the shape of a crescent moon, her front and back paws curling toward each other. She dreams, I am sure, of her greatest moment—the day she [...]
Playing With Buddha
“The Buddha is with you,” his mother used to say. “Believe in him.” At age seven, Ira Sukrungruang believed that the Buddha was more than a bronze statue. The Buddha was his best friend. I used to stare at the meditating Buddha in our living room: his straightbacked posture, his wide shoulders and narrow waist, his elegant hands resting humbly in his lap. This statue sat [...]
The Cruelty We Delivered: An Apology
After learning a childhood acquaintance has committed suicide, Ira Sukrungruang comes to terms with his adolescent role in the boy's teasing and exclusion. I. We didn’t know what to do—your rocket energy sending Thai monks into fits, as they chased you through the Chicago temple, hands hiking robes like dresses, flip flops slapping callused heels. Your trouble made us roll [...]
In Thailand It Is Night: Poems by Ira Sukrungruang
Ira Sukrungruang's prose voice is funny, poignant, wise, and poetic – as you know if you've read the three creative nonfiction pieces that he has written for the Lion's Roar: Body and Me, Playing with Buddha, and Dead Like Me. So it's no surprise that his poetry has the same flare. What follows are two excerpts from In Thailand It Is Night. What I Want to Remember in the [...]
