Who Wrote This? On Buddhism & Agency in the Age of AI

When AI writes your emails, edits your prose, and ​s​o on, where does “you” end? Hajeong Park finds that Buddhism has been sitting with this question for centuries — and that its answer, rooted in non-self and dependent origination, ​g​ives us a useful framework for navigating the age of AI.

Hajeong Park

What My Body Taught Me When It Stopped Working

The late Zen teacher Darlene Cohen was athletic, fearless, and self-reliant — until rheumatoid arthritis took her strength, her independence, and even her ability to care for her own child. What she found on the other side of denial wasn’t peace. It was curiosity. An excerpt from the new collection, Alive For It All — Wisdom for Everyday Life: The Teachings of Darlene Cohen, by Cynthia Kear.

Darlene Cohen

Deep Dive

No Self

Buddhist teachers on the core concept of anatta — that our personalities (ego) are neither fixed nor eternal, and are therefore changeable. It’s one of Buddhism’s three marks of existence; reckoning with the truth of no-self is essential to our liberation.

the 14th Dalai Lama

Seeing Ourselves Clearly

“The suffering and happiness each of us experiences is a reflection of the distortion or clarity with which we view ourselves and the world.”

The Dalai Lama

How the Five Skandhas Build Our Sense of Self

We assemble the thing we call “self” ourselves, according to Buddhist psychology. Gaylon Ferguson breaks down the five-step process of ego development.

Gaylon Ferguson

The Haunted Dominion of Mind

The haunted dominion of the mind, says Dzigar Kongtrül Rinpoche, is self-clinging. We must cut through self-clinging by cultivating the view of emptiness.

Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche

The Boundless Energy of No-Self

Zoketsu Norman Fischer on his deep love for Shantideva and how the great teacher’s insights lead us unavoidably to a path of vigorous service to the world.

Norman Fischer

Beyond No-Self

While insight into the truth of no-self, is an important step, says the Dalai Lama, it doesn’t go far enough.

The Dalai Lama

Transforming Self-Comparison Through No-Self

Eda Ocak reflects on how meditation practice and the Buddha’s message of no-self transformed her habit of self-comparison.

Eda Ocak

Looking Deeply into Impermanence, No-self, and Nirvana

Thich Nhat Hanh teaches that by looking deeply we develop insight into impermanence and no self. These are the keys to the door of reality.

Thich Nhat Hanh

Woman on surfboard with arms outstretched and sun in background.

Experience the Truth of No Self

When we see ourselves as separate, we’re limited, says Rebecca Bradshaw. In experiencing the truth of nonself, we free our hearts and minds.

Rebecca Bradshaw

No Self, No Suffering

Melvin McLeod breaks down the Buddha’s four noble truths and argues it’s not only the ultimate self-help formula, but the best guide to helping others and benefiting the world.

Melvin McLeod

VIDEO

You’ll find these and much more on the Lion’s Roar YouTube channel.

Remembering Venerable Shwe Nya War and his Work for Democracy

Political-activist monk Venerable Shwe Nya War Sayadaw, who died in July 2025 after years of imprisonment under Myanmar’s military junta, embodied a form of Buddhist nationalism that championed democracy and solidarity with Muslims rather than scapegoating them. Hein Htet Kyaw remembers a monk whose legacy challenges comfortable assumptions about religion, resistance, and belonging.

Hein Htet Kyaw

The Taxi Was the Teacher

Thirty days of silent retreat didn’t prevent a flare of anger when a driver failed to show. The Buddha’s Simile of the Cook explains why — and what to do about it.

Reji Varghese

Khanti, or Patience, as Relational Practice

Khanti is one of the parami, and an antidote to anger. How can we bring it to bear in our relationships — meeting conflict, hurt, and intensity directly — without flinching, shutting down, or acting out?

nico hase

A.I., Yogacara, and the Mind That Was Never Only Ours

AI, writes Rev. Mauricio Hondaku, is not a threat to the dharma, but “a new surface on which the dharma can write itself, provided we bring to its design the same care, depth, and intentionality that the tradition has always demanded of its vessels.”

Rev. Mauricio Hondaku

Ask the Teachers
woman in yellow sweater types on a laptop

Lion’s Roar among 2026 Awardees of The Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Program in Buddhist Studies

This year’s awardees include four Buddhism Public Scholars, nine dissertation Fellows, five Early Career Research Fellows, a new professorship grant of $300,000, and six Public Impact Grants to be announced this summer.

Rod Meade Sperry

Ground Yourself from the Inside Out

Working with the subtle body’s inner wind can calm restlessness, restore emotional balance, and anchor you in the present — here’s a practice to begin.

James Gritz

A Woman of Zen

Melissa Myozen Blacker recounts how she, as a practitioner and a teacher, has navigated a male-dominated tradition.

Melissa Myozen Blacker

Acknowledging Buddhism’s South Asian Roots

Vishnu Sridharan points out a blind spot in Western Buddhism — South Asia is exorcized, while Buddhism’s origins in South Asian culture are ignored.

Vishnu Sridharan

Why I Ordained — And What It Was Like

Rev. Dr. Aaron Shōken Proffitt shares his experience of tokudo shurai — the ordination training for priests in the Jōdo Shinshū Hongwanji-ha — and learns that “everything is tokudo.”

Aaron Proffitt

A Bigger Umbrella

Rev. José M. Tirado on working with the spiritual longing “for the complete thing, the practice that would hold all of me, the teacher who would see everything I was bringing and say: yes, this too belongs.”

Rev. José M. Tirado

Buddhism A–Z

Learn all about key Buddhist terms, concepts, and traditions in our in-depth glossary — perfect for beginners and committed dharma practitioners alike.