Governor David Ige — one of America's most prominent Buddhist politicians — on immigration, climate change, and compassion in governance. On November 6, Hawaii gubernatorial incumbent David Ige won a second term. He’s set to take on some unique challenges, as Hawaii is strategically positioned between the US and Asia and faces acute threats from climate change. In the past [...]
5 Buddhist Practices to Help Tackle Climate Change
Climate change can feel so immense that it hurts just to think about. Lama Willa Miller offers five meditations to help bring the truth of climate change into your awareness and lay the ground for a skillful response. Hurricanes and wildfires have come and gone, leaving hundreds dead. We’re left facing a dire reality: we live on a warming planet. Homes blown apart. Lives [...]
What Happens When a Government Loses Its Compassion?
Without compassion, everyone is worse off. In this essay from June 2018, Zen teacher Roshi Joan Halifax comments on the Trump administration's family separation policy. What happens when a government loses its moral footing? When elected officials seem to be operating without integrity? When our politicians and their officials lack any semblance of compassion? These [...]
6 Buddhist Leaders Reflect on the US Midterms and What Comes Next
In the US midterm elections on Tuesday, the Democrats took control of the House and seven governorships while the Republicans strengthened their hold on the Senate. Six Buddhist teachers interpret the outcomes through the lens of Buddhist wisdom. Upaya and the Middle Way Rev. angel Kyodo williams After two impossibly long years of what seemed like daily offenses to the [...]
I Vow Not to Burn Out
Mushim Ikeda says it's not enough to help others. You have to take care of yourself too. At the end of January, one of my close spiritual friends died. A queer Black man, a Sufi imam “scholartivist” (scholar–artist–activist) and professor of ministry students, Baba Ibrahim Farajajé died of a massive heart attack. He was sixty-three, and I’m guessing he had been carrying [...]
A Sanctuary of Hope
For more than 500 days, Rosa Sabido has sought sanctuary from deportation in a Methodist church in Colorado. In that time, she formed a friendship with Zen chaplain Joanie Trussel. The two talked with Lion’s Roar about what it’s like to live in sanctuary and how to find hope in dark times. In the one-stoplight town of Mancos, Colorado, Rosa Sabido has taken refuge in a tiny [...]
Buddhist leaders pen open letter encouraging Americans to vote
The letter urges Buddhists across America to "express your commitment and respect for the innate dignity and worth of all" by voting in the midterm elections on November 6. Nearly 130 Buddhists teachers and leaders have signed an open letter to Buddhists across America in an effort to increase voter turnout at polling stations this election season. The effort, Mindful [...]
Smile at Fear: Pema Chodron on Bravery, Open Heart & Basic Goodness
If you want to pitch in and help solve the world’s problems, says Pema Chödrön, you’ve got to start with yourself. Here’s her advice for making friends with the fear that can hold us back. Despite what we might think much of the time and what the news programs imply, we all wish to be sane and open-hearted people. We could take our wish to be more sane and kind and put it in a [...]
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. Just over twenty years ago, a friend was shot five times in the face a few feet in front of me. He was a music venue doorman, and earlier that night he had asked a young college student to leave for drunken, aggressive behavior. The few words spoken by the shooter betrayed [...]
Inner Cities
With noisy neighbors and the homeless camped on street corners, city life offers many opportunities to practice kindness. Dzigar Kongtrül Rinpoche on how urban living can open our hearts. Spiritual practitioners often aspire to live alone in the mountains among wildlife, yet a city can be an equally or an even more supportive environment for practice. Unlike the [...]
