Dharma & Society

Recently the nonprofit organizatoin Dharma Relief awarded fellowships to Black Buddhist leaders for their work supporting Black communities. Here, Lion’s Roar’s Pamela Ayo Yetunde hosts a roundtable conversation with four of those fellows: Jean Marie Robbins, Pamela Freeman, Ramona Lisa Ortiz-Smith, and Victoria Cary. Bringing their lived experience to bear, they talk about how Buddhist practice is helping Black people heal from the impact of racism and discover inner peace.

With our ideas of right and wrong, male and female, we’re stuck in the suffering of dualistic thinking. Nonbinary author Tomara Garrod wants freedom.

AI can articulate the sum total of human knowledge, but can it help us cultivate wisdom and compassion—or is it a danger on the spiritual path? Ross Nervig investigates.

Andrea Miller talks with celebrated environmental and animal activist Jane Goodall, about the compassion that exists in our natural world.

Your individual meditation practice can aid collective liberation. Dr. g explains.

How can all communities thrive? Bryant Terry on the importance of cooking mindfully.

Are we all Black poets at night? E. Ethelbert Miller asks us to ponder this and other questions.

Stacy McClendon, teacher and co-founder of the BIPOC Sangha at Common Ground Meditation Center, talks with Lion's Roar's Pamela Ayo Yetunde about how mindfulness can transform the way we work.

White Lotus and Sopranos actor Michael Imperioli is also a novelist, screenwriter, director and musician. He and his partner Victoria Imperioli, a well-known interior designer, talk about how Buddhism informs their life together as artists and entrepreneurs.

Judy Lief, a Buddhist teacher in the Tibetan tradition, talks about how you can work with your desires to find peace. Then Cheryl Fraser, a sex therapist and dharma teacher, shares her article, How to Have Mindful Sex. To close, professor, minister, and author of Living Nembutsu: Applying Shinran’s Radically Engaged Buddhism in Life and Society, Jeff Wilson, talks about the radically inclusive founder of the Jodo Shinshu tradition, Shinran.

In this episode, Catherine Bailey talks about the characters in her children’s book Dinos Don’t Meditate and shares a 30-second meditation you can do with your kids. Then, author and Zen teacher Vanessa Zuisei Goddard talks about her children’s book Weather Any Storm in which the “Wildering Billies” are a metaphor for waves of emotion that create an inner storm, plus a short breathing meditation for kids.

In this selection from Lion’s Roar’s online course, Medicine for Fear, dharma teacher Mushim Patricia Ikeda talks about the art of “feeling all the feelings” without causing harm to yourself and others, and why the smallest act of kindness can be a powerful form of activism.