“The World Is Sound," at New York City's Rubin Museum of Art, features the work of Éliane Radigue, Laetitia Sonami, Bob Bielecki, Christine Sun Kim, Hildegard Westerkamp, John Giorno, Pauline Oliveros, and more. Lindsay Kyte takes you there. The entrance to the Rubin Museum of Art was alive with sights and sounds as their annual block party, this year called “Sounds of the [...]
How to Practice Tonglen
Pema Chödrön teaches us “sending and taking,” an ancient Buddhist practice to awaken compassion. With each in-breath, we take in others’ pain. With each out-breath, we send them relief. Tonglen practice, also known as “taking and sending,” reverses our usual logic of avoiding suffering and seeking pleasure. In tonglen practice, we visualize taking in the pain of others [...]
Include Everything
A teaching by Roshi Pat Enkyo O'Hara. A group of twelve of us lived on the streets in Lower Manhattan for four days, practicing meditation and experiencing how it is to survive without money or cellphones. It was a renunciation and a pilgrimage, a way to give up all our habitual comforts and resources and to open up to reality, to the conditions of the world of which we are [...]
“Facing Death Is a Device for Tenderizing Hearts”
Twenty-two years ago, Pascal Auclair had to come to terms with his own mortality. Now, as a Buddhist meditation teacher, he’s helping others do it. Profile by Lindsay Kyte. It was 1995 and Pascal Auclair was a handsome 25-year-old actor in Montreal. His life changed, though, when his doctor uttered the words, “You are HIV positive.” “It was as if the building had [...]
Remembering Buddhist teacher Michael Stone
Stone, 42, was an activist, family man, and teacher of yoga and Buddhism. Following a period of hospitalization that began on Thursday, July 13, as was announced on the 14th via Facebook by Stone's partner Carina Stone, Stone's family on the 16th announced that Stone, in a coma, would “remain on life support until tonight (Sunday) between 8pm and 1am Pacific Time.” Then, on [...]
Everything Is Joyous: An interview with John Giorno
John Giorno is an important and vital poet, pop artist, and Buddhist — though his life and work have always transcended labeling. In the midst of New York City's celebration of Giorno, Lauria Galbraith speaks with him about his art and inspirations. John Giorno is a poet of spontaneity – he labors over his art for years, but in the moment of performance, the words sound [...]
Confronting Abuse: Be Proactive
An Olive Branch presents an action plan for putting the necessary supports in place to protect sangha members from abuse and for creating procedures to deal with it if it happens. Buddhist groups in the United States have been rocked in recent years by misconduct on the part of honored teachers—misconduct that in some cases had been going on for many years but was kept secret [...]
If It Sounds Too Good to Be True…
When we pray, says Mark Unno, it’s important not to get caught up in magical thinking or to become attached to specific outcomes. Just praying is enough. When we think about prayer in a Buddhist context, we find there are at least two major types: prayers for and prayers of. Prayers for are directed to future fulfillment of specific goals. These might include prayers for [...]
How do you text “I’m meditating”?
How do you say "I'm busy developing insight into the nature of mind," in a text? Soon, you'll be able to say it the same way it seems everything is communicated in 2017: with an emoji. For World Emoji Day on Monday, Apple released a preview of its forthcoming emojis, including a meditator emoji. Predicts my colleague, LionsRoar.com assistant editor Lilly Greenblatt, "This is [...]
“Ice stupas” bring water to drought-stricken villages of Northern India
Traditional Buddhist monuments are bringing life to a Himalayan community grappling with climate change. Villagers in Northern India have invented a way to fight drought, inspired by traditional Buddhist architecture. Each winter since 2013, the people of Phyang, Ladakh, have built stupas — traditional Buddhist monuments — made out of ice. When the whether warms and [...]