Looking for a late-night snack, the young Martin Luther King, Jr., discovers instead the truth of interdependence. A short story by Charles Johnson. Beings exist from food. —Bhagavad-Gita, Book 3, Chapter 14 In September, the year of Our Lord 1954, a gifted young minister from Atlanta named Martin Luther King, Jr., accepted his first pastorate at the Dexter Avenue Baptist [...]
The Classical Monk
Arthur Braverman returns to the park where Sodo Yokoyama, "the Leaf-flute Zen Master," sat and led a classical Zen life in the midst of modern Japan's speed and stress. My daughter Nao and I board the bullet train at Osaka station. The station is crowded, as are all places in Osaka, but the crowds are not imposing. The Japanese have mastered the art of maintaining their [...]
How American Women Are Changing Buddhism
American women are taking Buddhism away from its patriarchal past, participating confidently as practitioners, teachers, and leaders. The job is not finished, says Rita M. Gross, one of Buddhism's leading feminist thinkers, but the role of American Buddhist women is unprecedented and may change Buddhism forever. The sheer diversity of forms of Buddhism practiced in North [...]
The Wise Woman Who Talked Back to God
The Ancient Buddhist tale of the Seven Wise Sisters has Zen Teacher Bonnie Myotai Treace thinking about the koan of gender. There is a teaching story I love in which a woman talks back to God. She is yet another unnamed woman in Buddhist history, but we’re told she was wise, one among seven wise sisters. And like the seven Ancient Greek muses, the daughters of Memnosyne (Great [...]
Death Don’t Have No Mercy
Mariana Caplan's moving memoir of her mother's death, a rare account of death looked straight in the face and a powerful lesson in the pain of holding on. Well Death will go in any family in this land Well Death will go in every family in this land Well he’ll come to your house and he won’t stay long Well you’ll look in the bed and one of your family will be gone Death [...]
Just to Be Alive Is Enough
There is no greater gift than to be grateful for our lives, says Zen teacher Blanche Hartman, and gratitude leads naturally to generosity, because we want to share this gift with others. There are two related practices that guide my life these days: cultivating gratitude and cultivating generosity. Generosity, dana paramita, is the first of the perfections of the heart of [...]
Women’s Liberation
Discussion led by Melvin McLeod All the major religions say that men and women have the same essential nature. Yet in practice these religions are dominated by men. Irshad Manji, Karma Lekshe Tsomo, and Patricia Wittberg discuss the struggles of women in three of the world's major religions. Lion's Roar: How would you characterize the views and experiences of women in your [...]
No Real Winners
Winning and losing is a mug's game, says Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche. All gain ends in loss anyway, and trying to achieve victory over others is unpleasant and delusional. I’ve always loved sports—horseback riding, golf, running. I once asked my father, Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, what he thought about football, since it’s a sport that didn’t exist in Tibet. He answered, “They’ve [...]
Creative Conflict
On the evening of September 11 last year I had the good fortune to be in a Chicago nightclub called Jazz Showcase. It’s a legendary spot run by a legendary man, Joe Segal. He’s been a jazz impresario in Chicago for almost sixty years. When he takes your ticket at the door, he sizes you up, welcomes you, and then when the place is filled up, he introduces the acts. It’s a [...]
