March 2024

Lion's Roar

BUDDHISM CULTURE MEDITATION LIFE

Lion's Roar2 min read
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In partnership with San Francisco Zen Center, Lion’s Roar is pleased to offer Practicing Zen in Uncertain Times with Ryushin Paul Haller through Lion’s Roar Online Learning. The course focuses on the fundamentals of zazen practice, and how to apply o
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Lion’s Roar
MELVIN MCLEOD Editor-in-Chief ANDREA MILLER Editor NOEL ALUMIT Associate Editor MARIANA RESTREPO Associate Editor MIHIRI TILLAKARATNE Associate Editor PAMELA AYO YETUNDE Associate Editor MARIANNE WARD Proofreader MEGUMI YOSHIDA Art Director ANDREW GL
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Anything Can Be Practice
I WANTED TO DEEPEN my practice. So, when I was accepted into a graduate program for Buddhist chaplaincy, I couldn’t wait. I was going to what I affectionately called “Buddhism School.” Since I swore to pay for Buddhism School without student loans, I
Lion's Roar6 min read
Where Did My Grandfather Go?
THE MOMENT BUDDHIST GUIDE TO MINDFUL LIVING I ACCEPTED AN INVITATION to sit in my grandfather’s armchair. Big, blue, and like most things in the seventies, the chair was covered in scratchy fabric, but I didn’t care. I was nine, and with my legs fold
Lion's Roar5 min read
Descendant Of The Strongest Of The Strong
I’ve been practicing Buddhism since I was sixteen or seventeen, after my mother was introduced to Buddhism in 1976. My family is religious. My grandparents on both sides were Christian ministers. My great-grandmother founded five Christian churches i
Lion's Roar4 min read
What To Do When You Say The Wrong Thing
I AM SURE I’M NOT ALONE in having made mistakes that I remember long afterward. Whenever I say the wrong thing, there’s such a horrible sinking feeling as I realize the impact of my words. One such moment I remember came in my first year or two of te
Lion's Roar5 min read
There Is Nothing Other Than This
IN HIS BOOK Secret Body, Jeffrey Kripal retells a classic Jewish fable: A rabbi from Cracow once dreamed that he should go to Prague to find a treasure that was hidden under a bridge there. In Prague, far away from home, he found the bridge guarded b
Lion's Roar6 min read
I’m The Aunty Now!
I BOUGHT A T-SHIRT that says, “Aunty’s Worst Nightmare.” It’s an accurate description of me in the eyes of many traditional Sri Lankan aunties. I’ll never be an “appropriate” Sri Lankan American Buddhist. I’m unmarried and childfree by choice, I’m lo
Lion's Roar5 min read
The Four Givings
WHILE NUMEROUS Buddhist traditions consider the four immeasurables—loving-kindness, compassion, appreciative joy, and equanimity—an important group of principles and practices, it’s not easy to find consensus on how to apply them. Do we engage in act
Lion's Roar4 min read
The Taste Of Longing
AS I TOOK THE LAST BITE of my Ben & Jerry’s Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough ice cream, a wave of anger and self-judgment washed over me. I had done it again—after a distressing encounter with my boyfriend, I’d given in to my craving and devoured a pint o
Lion's Roar5 min read
How To Build A Better World
IN BECOMING GANDHI: My Experiment Living the Mahatma’s 6 Moral Truths in Immoral Times (Sounds True), author Perry Garfinkel sets out to live like Gandhi for three years. Garfinkel, a freelance journalist, worldwide traveler, and self-proclaimed “bon
Lion's Roar3 min read
Mind Or Brain?
THAT LITTLE VOICE that’s narrating your experience as you read this—is it in your mind or in your brain? At first glance, this might seem like a stupid semantic question. But it cuts to the heart of a weighty dilemma for modern science that also has
Lion's Roar6 min read
Step into Awareness
The first time I tried walking meditation, it was with a Soto Zen group, and I fell on my face—literally. My leg had fallen asleep during zazen, and I didn’t even make it one step before I hit the ground. Not great. And when I finally got my feet und
Lion's Roar8 min read
Loving-Kindness for All Beings & All Bodies
I have experienced illness, heartbreak, aging, and disability. As a Black, elder, cis-gendered woman, I live with the trauma of social oppression on a daily basis. Like many of us, I’m also profoundly disturbed by the current suffering in the world.
Lion's Roar2 min read
Why I Practice Metta Meditation
LOVING-KINDNESS IS by far my favorite meditation. I learned about it on my first retreat. I was newly diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome, and my life felt flipped upside down. I emerged from retreat feeling stronger and loving myself in a way I
Lion's Roar8 min read
CHANTING for BUDDHAHOOD
Growing up outside Philadelphia back in the 1980s, I found myself attracted to practicing meditation to attain enlightenment. When I was first exposed to Buddhism, I assumed that silent sitting meditation, with or without the single-minded contemplat
Lion's Roar5 min read
You Are the Embodiment of Compassion
THE BODHISATTVA CHENREZIG is the embodiment of primordial compassion that unceasingly manifests to hold and alleviate suffering. This boundless compassion and altruistic intention are innate to each of us, but are veiled to us by our habitual ways of
Lion's Roar8 min read
The Method of No-Method
SILENT ILLUMINATION is one of the two main methods of practice in Chan Buddhism. It is a subtle practice in which stillness and insight are cultivated simultaneously, and curious inquiry allows us to reconnect with the natural state of being fully hu
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How to Do Chenrezig Practice
YOU CAN INVOKE Chenrezig’s presence in any moment by simply chanting his mantra, Om Mani Padme Hung. Reciting his mantra reinforces our indivisible bond with him while instantly connecting us to his continuous, compassionate support. For a more forma
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Silent Illumination
SILENTLY AND SERENELY, one forgets all words, Clearly and vividly, it appears before you. When one realizes it, time has no limits. When experienced, your surroundings come to life. Singularly illuminating is this bright awareness, Full of wonder is

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