The Light Enters You: Remembering Video Artist Bill Viola

Video artist Bill Viola died Friday at his home in Long Beach, California of complications from Alzheimer’s disease. He was 73. As a video artist, Viola captured not just image, but experience, showing us what video art could be. In this 2004 interview with Lion’s Roar, Viola talked in detail, for the first time, about his Buddhist practice and how it informed his art.

I Figured I Would Never Find Another: On Being a Queer Asian American Buddhist

For Pride Month, Marissa Wong reflects on her experiences with alienation and community.

A hand extends in the "stop" gesture on a grey background

The Meditation Police

How can Buddhist centers manage gatekeeping volunteers that treat BIPOC practitioners with suspicion? John Mifsud offers some solutions.

Do I Have to Pick Just One Buddhist Tradition?

Rev. angel Kyodo williams addresses the challenge of sticking to one Buddhist tradition.

Recent Buddhist Books by Black Authors — A 2024 Roundup

On Tina Turner and bell hooks, love and liberation—eight inspiring new books are reviewed by Arleta Little.

No One Like Me

Lama Rod Owens on taking care of your own needs when you don’t see yourself represented in those around you.

5 Buddhist Practices to Help Tackle Climate Change

Willa Blythe Baker offers five meditations to help accept the truth of climate change, laying the ground for a skillful response.

Good, Evil, and Gaza

In a moving personal essay from the December issue of “Wheel of Dharma,” Buddhist Churches of America member Sydney Shiroyama reflects on the horrors of the Gaza war and what Shinran’s teachings about human nature and the deeper causes of good and evil tell us about the path to compassion and peace.

The Revolution Begins with the Self

Your individual meditation practice can aid collective liberation. Dr. g explains.

True Liberation: Black & Buddhist in America

Recently the nonprofit organization Dharma Relief awarded fellowships to Black Buddhist leaders for their work supporting Black communities. Here, Lion’s Roar’s Pamela Ayo Yetunde hosts a roundtable conversation with four of those fellows: Jean Marie Robbins, Pamela Freeman, Ramona Lisa Ortiz-Smith, and Victoria Cary. Bringing their lived experience to bear, they talk about how Buddhist practice is helping Black people heal from the impact of racism and discover inner peace.

Illustration by Mel Valentine Vargas

Beyond the Binary

With our ideas of right and wrong, male and female, we’re stuck in the suffering of dualistic thinking. Nonbinary author Tomara Garrod wants freedom.

What AI Means for Buddhism

AI can articulate the sum total of human knowledge, but can it help us cultivate wisdom and compassion—or is it a danger on the spiritual path? Ross Nervig investigates.

For Love of Nature: Q&A with Jane Goodall

Andrea Miller talks with celebrated environmental and animal activist Jane Goodall, about the compassion that exists in our natural world.

The Race Koan

Are we all Black poets at night? E. Ethelbert Miller asks us to ponder this and other questions.

Honoring the Form

Everything is impermanent, but a chance encounter shows another truth—continuation. A short story by the renowned novelist Charles Johnson.

Engaged Parenting as Spiritual Practice

For years, Buddhist practitioner Leslie Davis felt she was too busy being a mother to practice Thich Nhat Hanh's tradition of "Engaged Buddhism" properly. Eventually, she discovered that parenting itself is a form of Engaged Buddhism.

How to Not Burn Out

Sustainable activism begins with not calling yourself an activist, says Keisha Bush.

Sweeping My Heart

When Zenju Earthlyn Manuel was assigned to clean the Zen temple, she felt generations of oppression rise in her. Conversing with her ancestors about what this work really meant helped her see how it could be healing.

The 2022-2022 Contemplative Medicine Fellowship cohort in a group photo at their graduation.

Study finds Contemplative Medicine training reduces burnout in medical professionals

The study measured the effects of the New York Zen Center's twelve-month "Contemplative Medicine Fellowship" on burnout among medical professionals.

A Cloud Never Dies

Andrea Miller on what Thich Nhat Hanh taught her, his inspiring and courageous life, and how—through us—his wisdom continues.