Tibetan Buddhist teacher Pema Chödrön and Zen teacher Bernie Glassman both teach three-step meditations that can help foster wisdom in times of tragedy. When tragedy strikes, we can feel like the ground has dropped out from under our feet. The Buddhist view, though, is that these experiences offer an opportunity to directly experience wisdom and compassion — exactly what [...]
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What Is Suffering? 10 Buddhist Teachers Weigh In
The Pali word dukkha is most commonly translated to English as "suffering." Dukkha presents in an array of emotions — from happiness to despair. While counterintuitive, it is a central concept in the Buddha's teachings. In these passages, adapted from longer teachings on Lion's Roar, 10 teachers explain what suffering is, how we feel it, and why it isn't a condemnation — it's a [...]
More than 420,000 refugees have fled violence in Myanmar
(This post has been updated since its original publication on September 6, 2017) 20,000 refugees are fleeing violence in Myanmar each day, according to the International Organization for Migration. The United Nations estimates that in less than a month, more than 420,000 refugees have crossed the Naf River from Myanmar into Bangladesh. The refugees are fleeing a militant [...]
Groundbreaking Scholar Timothy Morton Wants Philosophers to Face Their “Buddhaphobia”
Philosopher Timothy Morton is injecting Buddhism into Western philosophy in a way that’s never before been done. He talks to LionsRoar.com's Sam Littlefair about Buddhism, ecology, and optimism in the age of Trump. You may not have heard of Timothy Morton, but he’s changing the world you live in. Last year, Morton was named one of the fifty most important philosophers [...]
Buddhist organization Tzu Chi distributing humanitarian relief in Houston after Hurricane Harvey
“We are facilitating recovery with love and care,” reads the organization’s website. Tzu Chi Foundation, A Buddhist-inspired international NGO, plans to distribute 10,000 lbs of rice, 11,000 blankets, 200 portable beds, and 5,000 first aid kits to residents of Houston, according to a press release from the organization. Tzu Chi has already begun work on the ground, [...]
Buddhist translator wins $72,000 at poker tournament; will donate money to charity
Scott Wellenbach placed 17th out of 1,700 competitors at a PokerStars tournament in Barcelona. Scott Wellenbach, a translator of Tibetan Buddhist texts, won big at a poker tournament in Barcelona last week. Wellenbach placed 17th out of 1,700 competitors and brought home 61,000 euros. Wellenbach told CBC Radio that he plans to donate the winnings to charity — though he [...]
Alfred Bloom, scholar of Shin Buddhism, dies at 91
Alfred Bloom, a pioneer of English-language Jodo Shinshu Buddhist studies, died on August 25 at the age of 91. He was with family. Zen teacher and Unitarian Unversalist minister James Ishmael Ford wrote a remembrance of Bloom on his blog. Ford quotes Shin priest Jeff Wilson, who once wrote that Bloom was “widely regarded as one of the most important American figures of the past [...]
Thich Nhat Hanh returns to home country of Vietnam for first time in a decade
Zen teacher Thich Nhat Hanh landed in Vietnam this afternoon for his first visit to his home country since 2008. Nhat Hanh was exiled from Vietnam in 1966, at the age of forty. He returned for the first time in 2005, and then again in 2007 and 2008. This trip marks his fourth return and his first since suffering a stroke in the fall of 2014. A statement from Plum Village, [...]
The New Yorker publishes Buddhist eyewitness’s account of Charlottesville attack
Kristin Adolfson was feet away from the car attack that killed one and injured 19. On Saturday afternoon, Kristin Adolfson was in downtown Charlottesville, her bag packed with spare clothes, earplugs, saline, snacks, and water. She was equipped to protest hatred. "I'm not there to be around violence," Adolfson told the New Yorker in an interview after Saturday's attack. [...]
Programmers say this Buddhist Bitcoin could “disrupt religion”
Users would be able to earn "Karma Coins" by meditating and teaching Buddhism. The coins could be spent within a special Buddhist community called the "Lotos Network." A group of Buddhist programmers says it's time for the world’s first cryptocurrency-based spiritual community, built using "blockhain," the booming new technology that makes Bitcoin and hundreds of other [...]