Archives: LR Articles
Seeing Suffering Through the Lens of Karma
Buddhism in the West is having a difficult time. With allegations of misconduct made against teachers in several of our communities, there is now widespread disillusionment and organizational chaos. Of course, similar problems exist in other faith traditions, and the #MeToo movement has been revealing these issues throughout all levels of society. Many of us…
Joanna Macy: Guide for Our Time
Stephanie Kaza reflects on this treasured spiritual guide and landmark thinker. With humanity at a crossroads, she offers us the wisdom, courage, and love for life we need.
5 Tips for Spiritual Activists
Bill Aiken offers five Buddhist insights to be a more effective agent of change
The Real Change We Need
Using Buddhist principles, economist Clair Brown identifies the big policy changes we need to have a caring society and a sustainable future.
The Right Way to Reach the Top
We have a whole system built on striving and it causes a lot of suffering—anxiety, competition, misplaced priorities. Brad Stulberg looks at ways we can change our stressful striving into right effort.
The Healing Power of the Truth
Playwright Eve Ensler’s book The Apology, written in her father’s voice, tells the story of the terrible abuse she suffered growing up. She talks to Andrea Miller about why it’s healing to tell the true story of your trauma.
Omitting None: The Deep Practice of Community
The practice of community, says Mushim Patricia Ikeda, is more than including beyond all people, even all beings. It mean including all thoughts, all emotions, all realities—the bad as well as the good.
Review: “Mop Rides the Waves of Life”
We review "Mop Rides the Waves of Life" by Jaimal Yogis and Matthew Allen.
Erased No More
After years of painful struggle to fit in, Yenkuei Chuang decides to stand up for her identity, her anger, and the heritage of Asian American Buddhism. She will resist erasure.
Love Trumps Hate
Bill Gaston despises a certain someone at the White House. Can any good come of it?
The Fifth Sight: The Suffering of Injustice
To the Buddhism’s traditional four causes of suffering we must now add a fifth: the suffering caused by racism, sexism, poverty, and all the other forms of human injustice. Only when seeing that clearly, says Ann Gleig, will our compassion will be complete.
The Heart of Good Spiritual Friends
When we are with others in times of suffering, says contemplative care expert Koshin Paley Ellison, we can take the four noble truths as our guide.
Our Inner Light
Only when we awaken to our own light can we be fully present to another person’s inner light and life, says Shinge Roko Sherry Chayat. "Only then can we respond fully, with nothing in the way."
In the Zone: The Zen of Sports
Mystics and poets aren't the only people who experience the transcendent. Andy Cooper on sports beyond conventional mind.
A Dive Into Emptiness
A talk by Dainin Katagiri Roshi about the Buddhist idea of emptiness — and, an unusual sport.
The Golden Chain: Guide to a Life of Love
The Golden Chain is a traditional recitation within American Shin Buddhist communities. For Camille Hamilton Pating, it comes as naturally—and joyfully—as saying the Name of Amida Buddha.
I Thought I Knew How to Fix the World
We cling to our own worldviews, says Dorotea Mendoza. Imagine if we listened to each other instead.
Wisdom x Compassion = Freedom
The combination of wisdom and compassion—the very essence of Buddhism—leads to that all-American value, freedom. It is, says Duncan Ryuken Williams, freedom in the most profound sense.