Category: Dharma & Society
Is Buddhism Violent?
Buddhism is a religion of peace. So why do some monks carry guns and preach hatred? In this conversation with Lion's Roar, religious studies professor Michael Jerryson says that, if you look closely, "violence abounds" in Buddhist doctrine.
Extinction Rebellion activist Mark Ovland on bringing climate activism & Buddhism together
Tynette Deveaux talks to Buddhist Extinction Rebellion (XR) activist Mark Ovland about his decision to join the XR movement.
Art Gallery of Greater Victoria explores relationship between Buddhism and contemporary art
The Canadian gallery's project will focus on artists who have heavily drawn on Buddhism in their art, including Yoko Ono, Marina Abramovic, John Cage, and Tenzing Rigdol.
The End of Ice
Avid mountaineer and former war reporter Dahr Jamail chronicles the world’s environmental crisis for his new book, "The End of Ice."
Can Buddhism Meet the Climate Crisis?
David Loy makes clear what Buddhism offers in the face of climate change. From the Spring 2019 issue of Buddhadharma: The Practitioner's Quarterly.
Noble Black Manhood: A New Rite of Passage
Diversity is more than just representation. It’s about really meeting the needs of different communities. Pamela Ayo Yetunde suggests how Buddhism can address the mass incarceration of young black men and its terrible costs.
The Invisible Majority
The vast majority of American Buddhists are of Asian heritage, yet they are too often ignored, mispresented, and even looked down upon. Chenxing Han offers four ways we can start to heal American Buddhism.
Free at Last
Rima Vesely-Flad reports on Deep Time Liberation, a retreat that takes African American meditators into the heart of slavery’s past so they can free themselves from its legacy of trauma.
The Fierce Love of Eve Ensler
As creator of The "Vagina Monologues," Eve Ensler changed the way the world regards women’s bodies. Lindsay Kyte tells her story.
How Buddhist monks are protecting a vulnerable forest from illegal logging in Cambodia
Since 2002, the monks from Samorang Pagoda in Cambodia have protected a 71-square-mile tract of forest from illegal logging and hunting.
Confessions of a Marxist Buddhist
For a long time, Dorotea Mendoza hid her Marxism from her fellow Buddhists and her Buddhism from her activist comrades. Finally, as the dialecticians say, she resolved the contradiction.
Why We Go for the Gun
Greg Snyder on how to reclaim the grace and humanity that our access to guns has led us to squander.
Smokey the Bear Sutra
In 1969, poet Gary Snyder wrote his "Smokey the Bear Sutra," imagining Smokey as the Great Sun Buddha giving a discourse, in the style of a Buddhist sutra. Fifty years later, the message of the sutra continues to resonate.
Watch Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi deliver UN speech on climate change emergency
At the United Nations celebration in recognition of Vesak, Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi gave this address about our need to confront climate change.
We Will Come Back for You
Not so long ago their own families were held in camps like these. That’s why Japanese American Buddhists like Satsuki Ina will keep coming back until the tragedy on America’s southern border ends.
Listen as Laurie Anderson gives voice to “Songs from the Bardo”
Musician and visual artist Laurie Anderson has lent her voice to perhaps her most outwardly Buddhism-influenced project yet.
Meet the Blue Dragon
John Tarrant shares what he feels is the most helpful message Buddhism can offer in the coming decades.
It Takes a Village Zendo: Roshi Pat Enkyo O’Hara’s Search for Connection
A lifelong outsider, Roshi Pat Enkyo O’Hara leads a warm and engaged Zen community in New York’s Greenwich Village. Lindsay Kyte profiles one of Buddhism’s leading teachers.
InsightLA to hold first residential meditation retreat for transgender community
Creating Joy In Community, the first residential retreat for transgender people, welcomes members of the transgender, gender nonconforming, genderqueer, and non-binary community to join together and cultivate "trans joy."
Review: “Cinderella Liberator” by Rebecca Solnit
In 1892, a book was compiled of 345 versions of the Cinderella story and related tales. Now, from Rebecca Solnit—Zen Buddhist and acclaimed author of Men Explain Things to Me—comes the enlightened, feminist version for our time.