What Will We Do with Our Awakening?

Lion's Roar's Andrea Miller introduces the May 2025 issue.

A Mother’s Love

Both Amida Buddha and the idealized mother figure are symbols of pure love, says Teresa Shimogawa. Whether we’re male, female, or nonbinary, whether we have children or not, we can each aspire to give that kind of love.

What to Do About Your Climate Anxiety

James Thornton offers tips for turning anxiety into skillful action and a kinder, safer world.

Why Jon Kabat-Zinn Brought Mindfulness to the Mainstream

Jon Kabat-Zinn was a yoga teacher and meditator with a PhD in molecular biology—then he founded mindfulness-based stress reduction and sparked the American mindfulness movement. In this second installment of a three-part conversation, he tells editor-in-chief Melvin McLeod about the experiences and insights that shaped his journey.

Don’t Clench

Grievances can lead to toothaches and other pains. Gabriel Cohen on letting go.

Finding Myself in the Garden

Valerie Brown returns to gardening to recover her broken spirit, and discovers what really grows in a garden is love.

Myanmar’s major earthquake — and how to help

On March 28, a 7.7 magnitude earthquake struck Myanmar, impacting numerous Buddhist sites.

How to Transform Shame into Self-Compassion

Author and psychoanalyst, Pilar Jennings, offers advice to a practitioner who continues to feel unworthy and unloved.

New Buddhist Coalition for Democracy launches, issues Call to Action

“As Buddhists, we are called upon to witness, respond to, and resist the ongoing systematic destruction of norms and institutions that allow free societies to flourish,” the Buddhist Coalition for Democracy’s Call to Action reads.

What Does It Mean to Be Enlightened?

Contrary to popular thought, awakening isn’t a distant goal. In fact, says Lisa Ernst, awakening is always available.

Remembering Anna Douglas, Spirit Rock founding teacher (1939-2025)

Douglas taught classes and retreats in the Insight Meditation tradition for more than 40 years.

A Buddhist Approach to OCD

Naomi Matlow shares her experience with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder and advice on how mindfulness can help us work with harmful thoughts.

The Power of Mindfulness

Diana Winston on how to use the tools of mindfulness to work with negative patterns like shame, guilt, and self-criticism that stand in the way of caring for and liking yourself.

Seeking Buddha in Gaza

As a Buddhist and a Jew, Linda Hess considers how to respond with wisdom and compassion to the violence inflicted on the people of Gaza and the rage she feels about it. Paintings by Malak Mattar.

Couple holding hands over coffee

Mindfulness for Connection, Communication, and Deepening Our Relationships

Read the introduction to the new book “Right Here With You,” edited by Lion’s Roar's Andrea Miller.

A butterfly sits on a flower.

The Magic Moment in Meditation

Sharon Salzberg explains how to practice basic breath meditation.

How to Do Green Tara Practice

Lama Palden Drolma teaches us how to visualize the deity Green Tara, who embodies our own buddhanature.

Is Fear of Death the Root Cause of Injustice?

We can’t change the world with mind-body practices alone, says James K. Rowe. But political interventions that don’t address our fear of mortality are also incomplete.

Photo of a pagoda on waterlily pond in Lumbini, Nepal.

In the Footsteps of the Buddha

When we visit the very places where the Buddha lived and taught, we discover deeper meaning in his teachings. Shantum Seth takes us on a sacred pilgrimage.

Painting of a bright sunshine over the horizon by Edvard Munch

Your Enlightened Nature

The essence of mind is empty, luminous awareness. Mingyur Rinpoche on the Tibetan Buddhist practice of Dzogchen.