A Wake-Up Call
Andrew Holecek on bardo, one of the Six Dharmas of Naropa’s two practices for helping us find our way, when the time comes, through the death experience. It can help us in life, too.
Deep Dive
Tara: Protector, Liberator, Guide
Tara — buddha, bodhisattva, and mother of liberation — is one of the most beloved figures in Tibetan Buddhism, and her practice is among the most accessible and alive. She protects. She liberates. She reflects back to practitioners their own deepest nature.
In this month’s Deep Dive, teachers and practitioners explore what it means to take up Tara practice. Includes teachings multiple teachings by Lama Döndrup Drölma, plus Lama Tsultrim Allione, and photography and reporting by Karen Greenspan.
The Unconquerable Heroine
Tara is the fully awakened buddha who appears in twenty-one forms. In this teaching on the middle seven emanations, Lama Döndrup Drölma explores the invincible clarity that restores balance after fear, offering a way to recognize this clarity within ourselves.
She Who Removes All Fear
Lama Döndrup Drölma introduces the first seven of Tara’s twenty-one emanations, showing how each helps us meet whatever arises with courage and compassion. Illustrations by Lasha Mutual.
Waking Up to Patriarchy
In this 2015 conversation, the late Gloria Steinem joins Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo to talk about personal challenges they’d each faced, progress they’d seen, and why there’s more to be done.
Is Your Life Too Busy for Loving-kindness?
One small word in the Metta Sutta raises a question that modern practitioners may prefer not to ask: What if meditation cannot compensate for the lives we have
Who Wrote This? On Buddhism & Agency in the Age of AI
When AI writes your emails, edits your prose, and so 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, gives us a useful framework for navigating the age of AI.
Meet the Teacher: Andrew Holecek
Andrew Holecek, whose work involves studies on dream yoga, the practice of dark retreat, and coming to terms with death, impermanence, and loss, speaks to Lion’s Roar’s Rod Meade Sperry about what makes him tick, and what he teaches in “Waking Up to Death,” his new online course coming soon from Lion’s Roar.
Dharma Books: Excerpts
Devotion in Three Keys
At a monastery’s grand reopening in Kathmandu, Justin Kelley watches three very different expressions of Buddhist devotion sit side by side — and finds, in his teacher Mingyur Rinpoche, a living example of what it looks like when they meet.
Equanimity Is Not Detachment
Nichiren Buddhist teacher Mark Herrick argues that equanimity isn’t stoic composure — it’s homeostasis, the same balancing function that lets a single cell survive change.
U Po’s Five Hundred Years
In 19th-century Mandalay, a physician’s reading of a single Vinaya passage put him at odds with centuries of commentary — and cost him his life.
How I Turned My Buddhist Practice Into Service
A Marine veteran on how a felony arrest, a Zen teacher, and a correspondence with a man on death row led him to bring meditation to veterans, teenagers, and the incarcerated.
Making Offerings to Our Ancestors
When we place offerings on the altar for teachers long past, do we understand what we are doing, or why? Zenju Earthlyn Manuel looks into the depths of that encounter between past and present.
A Prayer for Nepal & Tibet — and How to Help
James Gritz reflects on the devastating flash floods in Nepal and Tibet and shares resources for those looking to support relief efforts.
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.
