Like fish in water, it's easy for us to ignore the systems of injustice that surround us. Colin Beavan offers five tips to recognize injustice and swing into action. All over the world, people are faced with the same questions about our suffering planet: Is there any hope, or is it game over? Why are some people in denial about climate change? Why don’t politicians do [...]
Buddhism Began with a Good Meal
Buddhism isn't about depriving yourself of worldly pleasures. Andrea Miller explains how a good meal helped Siddhartha understand the importance of nourishment — and offers a healthful recipe for cashew pulao. The Buddha taught that the gift of food is fivefold; it is the gift of life, beauty, happiness, strength, and discernment. It’s worth noting that Buddhism itself began [...]
Waves of Impermanence 🌊
Each Friday, we share three topical longreads in our Weekend Reader newsletter. This week, Lion's Roar deputy editor Andrea Miller talks about the ocean and what it means to us. Sign up here to receive the Weekend Reader in your inbox. From the Lion's Roar office, we can see the Atlantic. Sometimes it's a glinting cobalt, while at other times it's a dull slate or else [...]
Is Mine Bigger than Yours?
Charles Johnson explores our endless capacity to compare ourselves to others, and the Buddha’s antidote to trying to measure up. Every day I lurk and listen to scholars of Eastern religions on the academic forum Buddha-L, taking notes when their exchanges clarify some arcane matter of Pali grammar or touch upon sutras I feel I should study. One day the forum’s moderator, [...]
Where I Make Sense
Buddhism teaches us that the buddhas can appear in different bodies. Finn Enke chronicles a lifelong journey to find the identity that makes them feel, finally, “I am here.” Everything is of the nature to change. That’s a fundamental Buddhist teaching, and it might be transgender affirming as well. When I was a trans-struggling child growing up in the 1970s, adults saw [...]
The People Who Inspire Us
Each Friday, we share three topical longreads in our Weekend Reader newsletter. This week, Buddhadharma editor Tynette Deveaux talks about the people who inspire us. Sign up here to receive the Weekend Reader in your inbox. There’s a woman named Darlene who goes for long walks by my house most days, even when the weather is unbearably cold and stormy. She walks slowly, with [...]
Courage Starts With Uncertainty
To create enlightened society, we must recognize our interdependence. In this 1999 conversation from the Lion's Roar archive, Pema Chödrön and Margaret Wheatley discuss how individuals can open to one another. Margaret Wheatley:I see the essence of my work as becoming comfortable with uncertainty, which is actually a chapter title in my book, Leadership and the New [...]
Deer to the Heart
Even if you don't think much about them, they're always present. Andrea Miller reexamines something we all might have missed in the meaning of the quiet, watchful deer. Somehow, I’d missed the part about the deer. I’d read everything in the guidebook about Nara, or at least I thought I had. I’d read that Nara’s temple, Todai-ji, sheltered a gargantuan bronze statue of [...]
How to Be Equanimous in a Racialized World
In a tense moment on a full plane, Ruth King gets a glimpse of the inner strength of equanimity. Several years ago, I took a long flight from South Africa to California. As I boarded the plane, I looked forward to taking a long nap on the fully-booked plane. As we rose into the air, I relaxed into my seat and pushed the button to recline. The person sitting behind me, a [...]
Realistic Travel Tips for Unreal Destinations
Alexander Weinstein's The Lost Traveler's Tour Guide comprises a collection of tour guide entries for fictional fantastical destinations. In this excerpt, Weinstein offers advice enjoying your time in the exotic locales of Bhodur, Bent, and Luxore. The Markets of Bhodur Long before tourists arrived, Bhodur’s artisans carved sculptures and left them in temples as offerings [...]
