Dharma for a T R AU M AT I Z E D WO R L D

F LOW E R S Are Enlightened

In Search of the S AC R E D
The 3 S TAG E S of M E D I TAT I O N

PSYCH E DE LIC S &

S PI R ITUA LIT Y
NEW FRONTIERS IN THE
S C I E N C E O F W E L L-B E I N G
Discover newfound freedom
vi½ÃiÛiÀV>}}yÜv
endings and beginnings with the
wise words of Pema Chödrön,
beloved Buddhist nun and
bestselling author of When
Things Fall Apart.
The life and writings of
an accomplished Tibetan
meditation master who was
the Buddhist priest to two
Mongolian emperors and was
ÀiV}âi`>ÃivÌiwÀÃÌ
ever reincarnated lamas in Tibet.
A translation of Jigme Lingpa’s
eighteenth-century Tibetan
Buddhist aspiration prayer for
taking rebirth in the pure land
Copper-Colored Mountain,
accompanied by a commentary
and analysis by the translators.
A complete introduction to the
Buddhist goddess Tara, with
special emphasis on her red
form, representing her powers
of magnetization, subjugation,
and the transformation of desire
into enlightened activity.
Ý«À}ÌiVyÕiViv>ViÌ
Chinese spirituality and modern Western
environmental thought, Wild Mind,
Wild Earth reveals the unrecognized
kinship of mind and nature that must
be reanimated if we are to end our
destruction of the planet.
Explore this stunning collection of
spiritual calligraphy by Japan’s greatest
martial arts masters including Musashi,
Takuan, Yagyu, and more—with
commentary from Zen art authority and
aikido master John Stevens.
TIMELESS • AUTHENTIC
Freshly translated poems reveal
the complexity, self-realization, and
spiritual freedom of three classical
Daoist women poets.
An interdisciplinary deep dive into
Õ``ÃÌ ń> i`Ì>Ì>`Ü
it can transform our understanding
of self and consciousness–including
looking at it through the lens of
neuroscience.
• T R A N S F O R M AT I O N A L
A Buddhist master’s guide
to cultivating dignity through
meditation to live a meaningful
>`vÕw}vi°
A unique Buddhist tradition,
>VViÃÃLi }ÃvÀÌiwÀÃÌ
Ì ipÌÀ>Ã>ÌÃvvÀÌÞwÛi
Cambodian Dharma songs, with
contextualizing essays and a link to
audio of stunning vocal performances.
To live kindness is to express the
essential Buddhist wisdom of
ÃiyiÃÃiÃð/ÀÕ}ÃÌÀiÃvÀ 
the ancient Pali canon of Buddhism
>`«iÀÃ>ÀiyiVÌÃ `iÀ
vi] >À >Ìi>ViÀiÛÀvw
reveals the richness and multifaceted
nature of loving-kindness or metta
on the Buddhist path.
Stop trying to become “better”
by suppressing or hiding parts
of yourself, and learn what it
means to be fully human with this
accessible guide to the core ethical
teachings of Zen Buddhism.
SH A MBH A L A .C O M
 CONTENTS
JANUARY 2023
PHOTO BY CHRIS RAINER

26 A SACRED PLACE
Photographer CHRIS RAINIER
has spent decades seeking
out spiritual landscapes and

34
COVER STORY PSYCHEDELIC INSIGHT
religious sites. He’s come to
Psychedelics and spirituality understand what sacred
are reuniting with science after really means.
decades of estrangement.
JENNIFER KEISHIN ARMSTRONG
on this new frontier in the
study of mind.

44 52
YES, NEVER, BREAKING FREE FROM
SOMETIMES? ADDICTION
What does Buddhism say about The dharma can help people
consuming intoxicants? We get—and stay—sober. We
look at the surprising diversity present four true stories of
of Buddhist views. recovery.
JUSTIN LEE VALERIE MASON-JOHN
Don’t Open the Door The End of Suffering
SOZAN MIGLIOLI S. BRENT RODRÍGUEZ-PLATE
Just a Little Something Came Undone
JUDY LIEF MARY STANCAVAGE
Drink in Wisdom The Undefended Heart
OFOSU JONES-QUARTEY KEVIN GRIFFIN ON THE COVER
What Is Your Phone Doing to You? One Path Photo © tr3gi / 123rf.com

JANUARY 202 3 3
CONTENTS

JANUARY 2023

YOU ARE ALREADY

A BUDDHA
Meditation, says YONGEY
MINGYUR RINPOCHE , is the
process of recognizing your
buddhanature, then nurturing
that recognition.

EDITORIAL
YOU’RE WITH US
ON THIS JOURNEY | 07

GARDENING

60
THE WAY OF
FLOWERS | 09

ENGAGED BUDDHISM
THE DHARMA OF FICTION DHARMA FOR A
TRAUMATIZED
Novels, fables, and plays— WORLD | 13
they’re stories that are made
up, yet they often express FOOD
deep truths. COOKED WITH
LOVE | 17
CHARLES JOHNSON on
REVIEWS
“The Emperor’s New Clothes”
THE HOW OF
EMILY FRANCE on HAPPINESS | 20
Mrs. Dalloway MEET A TEACHER
LAUREN SHUFRAN on
QALVY
GRAINZVOLT | 24
King Lear
MARKETPLACE | 75
SHYAM SELVADURAI on
Paradise BUDDHIST
DIRECTORY | 77
CINDY LITTLEFAIR on
War and Peace JUST SO | 80

FIND MORE ONLINE: LIONSROAR .COM

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Practicing tonglen
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JANUARY 202 3 5
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eg
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tle
un EDITORIAL
fol
din
g. T MELVIN MCLEOD Editor-in-Chief
he
flig ANDREA MILLER Editor
ht o
f ROSS NERVIG Assistant Editor
a th
oug NOEL ALUMIT Associate Editor
ht.
A hea MARIANA RESTREPO Associate Editor
v yw MIHIRI TILLAKARATNE Associate Editor
eigh
t hu PAMELA AYO YETUNDE Associate Editor
sh.
A MEGUMI YOSHIDA Art Director
m
e ANDREW GLENCROSS Deputy Art Director

m
ory
L I O N ' S R O A R D I G I TA L

that’s c
ROD MEADE SPERRY Editorial Director
LILLY GREENBLATT Digital Editor
CHRIS PACHECO

au
Associate Editor, AV

g
ht
.T SANDRA HANNEBOHM AV Producer
he m
ome MARTINE PANZICA Digital Editorial Assistant
nt th
at g r
ows.
To b PUBLISHING
ev e e
ry BEN MOORE Publisher
th DAN SCOTT Associate Publisher,
in
Consumer Marketing
.A g

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fu tu e tha

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6 L IO NS R OAR .CO M

YOU’RE WITH US
ON THIS JOURNEY
WE D O N ’T H AV E TO look very far to
see hurt in the world. As if the underlying
uncertainty, anxiety, and trauma in our
own lives were not enough, we’re sur-
rounded by countless examples of suf-
fering in the world—climate change, pan-
demic, war, economic insecurity…the list
goes on. Life is, indeed, marked by suffer-
ing. Facing that truth, rather than avoid-
ing it, has marked the start of the spiritual
journey for millennia. Buddhist teachings
and practices offer an approach to find-
ing peace within ourselves; they also
inspire us to help others work with the
myriad internal and external sources of
conflict and confusion all of us face.
At Lion’s Roar, our mission, and our daily
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immediate goal is offering the dharma to
help people relieve the suffering in their
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Our long-term goal is no less than reduc-
ing the suffering of the world; taming
materialism and ego; and realizing a more
compassionate, harmonious society.
These goals are not modest; the needs
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timid. The core teachings of the dharma
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wisdom and goodness. We believe this
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Over the course of forty-plus years,
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E DI TORIAL
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By bringing Buddhist wisdom to bear on
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human concerns—our work helps point
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We’re deeply committed to doing our
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—BEN MOORE
Publisher
JAN UA RY 202 3 7
May we be a bridge…
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 The Moment
BUDDHIST GUIDE TO MINDFUL LIVING
PHOTO © JUNO / STOCKSY UNITED

THE WAY OF
FLOWERS
J OA N S TAMM on how the Japanese art of
flower arranging taught her to appreciate her mother—
and the seeds she planted in Stamm’s heart.

JANUARY 202 3 9
SAICHO, THE FOUNDER of
Tendai Buddhism in Japan, once
said, “True riches are not material
things but that which shines light
into a dark corner.” As I interpret
it, lighting up a corner means
using one’s own unique talents
and passions to brighten a corner
of the world.
Kukai, the founder of Shingon
Buddhism, added another layer.
He believed that the natural
world, the world of trees and
flowers, is enlightened. “Sentient
beings” include not only human
beings, but also plants.
These reflections, articulated
by two Buddhist contemporaries
of the ninth century, laid the
foundation for the flower-temple
pilgrimages of modern Japan: the
practice of journeying to vari-
ous temple gardens. I’d booked
a flower-temple pilgrimage in
Kyoto and Nara for April 2020.
The pandemic altered my plans,
waylaid my dreams. I stayed
home that year, then the year
stretched into three.
During the months of lock-
down and isolation, I focused my
love of nature—of gardens and
flowers—on my own slice of the
natural world: six and a half acres
on a mountain, on an island in the
Salish Sea. I spent the time reflecting on the evolution of my own work of gardening—planting and digging bulbs, dividing peren-
predilection for flowers and how it had begun with my mother. nials, staking gladioli, and all the other tasks involved in growing
PHOTO © ALI HARPER / STOCKSY UNITED

She sought the light of the living world, of flowers mostly, and
unknowingly passed that light on to me. Her passing of the torch
got off to a rocky start.
In my family, my mother’s passion for gardening was invali-
dated and marginalized. That might sound strange or cruel or
insensitive to an outsider but—being a member of “the tribe”
who joined in on this marginalization—I’ll say in my defense that
my mother’s love for gardening often seemed like a burden that
we were forced to share. She complained a lot about the hard
award-winning flowers. Even her exhibiting at the county fair
became another burden that involved me and the other family
members who had to transport all those flowers, carry them to
the car, carry them into the flower barns, carry them out of the
flower barns and back into the car and into the house.
The drawer full of blue and purple ribbons was a testament
to her skill. Did we, her family, nourish and acknowledge her
corner of light? Not really. As is common in families, we all had
various interests that went unnoticed and unacknowledged. Our

10 L IO NS R OAR .CO M

corners were not lit. We plodded on, nobody ever getting or giv-
ing a crumb of praise or validation.
Now it’s many decades later, and having developed my own
love of flowers in the form of ikebana, or kado, “the way of flow-
ers,” I regret that it took me so long to appreciate my mother’s
passion. Why didn’t I say anything kind about the labor of love
she involved me in? Looking back, I was the typical self-centered
American teenager. But unknowingly I absorbed something vital
from my mother’s love for flowers: the spiritual kinship she had
with living things.
Flowers represent the highest, purest expression of nature’s
spiritual essence. Flowers are spiritual beings; they’re “little
buddhas,” as the priests and abbots of the flower-temple pil-
grimages in Japan say in their literature. It’s no surprise that as
people lose interest in institutional religion, they’re turning to
nature for solace. In the twenty-first century, temple grounds—
once havens for spiritual pilgrims, and still blessed with untold
centuries of prayer and aspiration—are becoming gardens filled
with fabulous flowers and flower pilgrims: those who seek to
touch their inner essence by journeying into nature. With their
A NEW BOOK
ON BELLS
BEL L S includes seventeen stories about the
history and culture of bells, including chapters
on ancient Chinese chimes, Buddhist temple
bells in Kyoto, and the sacred handbell of
Tibet. Illustrated with over one hundred
photographs, this beautiful book creates a
living portrait of one of history’s most
remarkable artifacts.
www.thebellsbook.com
GA RDEN ING
various shapes, sizes, colors, and unique characteristics, flowers
symbolize the diversity of people.
For some today, a Buddhist icon doesn’t speak to their hearts,
but a crimson peony does, or a white camellia in the middle
of winter, or the pendulous racemes of a lavender wisteria, or
that most exquisite and symbolic of flowers, the lotus emerging
from the bottom of muddy ponds like a beacon of ephemeral
light. According to Kukai and Saicho, flowers have buddhana-
ture, so they can be our teachers, if we let them. If we notice.
Flowers can teach us about patience, about being present
through all kinds of turbulent weather, about grace, imper-
manence, and the naturalness and beauty inherent in aging
and dying. Flowers transition from seed to seedling, to mature
plant—budding, opening, flowering, withering, perishing, and
composting—much akin to our own human seasons. Yet they
do so quietly, without complaint.
As the pandemic continued, and Japan’s borders remained
closed to tourism, I continued to revel in flowers here at home,
without temples, without famous gardens. I grew my own
flowers or collected those of my neighbors and turned them
JANUARY 202 3 11
 G AR DE NI N G

g, into works of art, into

E/F%l?F__ ikebana. All the while, I
Flowers represent
__Fg/?_ admired from afar the
the highest, purest temple priests, who
_[/_ began, twenty or thirty
expression of nature’s years ago, to offer more
Ďg¸»¸G¸÷-Õ¸
spiritual essence. than funeral rites at
Flowers are spiritual their Buddhist temples.
Offering flower-temple
5)&
/&8&45 beings—they’re pilgrimages was a way
"%%*5*0/
50
5)&
4&3*&4
*4 “little buddhas.” they found to bring
065
/08 life back to their inher-
ited and often historic
compounds. During the
height of the pandemic,
knowing that these tem-
ple gardens existed gave me hope in the creative spirit and
ingenuity of humans. We can transform the old into the
new and give it fresh life; we can reaffirm that kado—“the
way of flowers,” the way of being in and with nature—has
no bounds.
My mother and I have taken different approaches to flow-
ers. She derived great joy in propagating plants from leaf or
stem. I derive great joy in designing with leaf and stem. And
she didn’t have an affinity for Japanese culture or know a
thing about Buddhism. Mother didn’t have a religious bone
in her body. Yet the tranquility of her garden was akin to a
church. Her garden was the place where she found and cre-
ated a corner of light.
It has taken me many years to see and honor the part
of me that is a seed planted by my mother. If she were still
here, I might try to tell her. But then…maybe not. My mother
and I rarely spoke the same language, and she wouldn’t have
0/
4"-& understood the magic of Japan and its Buddhist temple

gardens. A farmer’s wife and homemaker, she had no experi-
ence of being in an ancient temple compound, contemplat-
ing the flight of a cherry blossom, the color of an iris, or
the bluest blue of a hydrangea under a cloudy sky. But she
,LxgL?/wɡ
would have understood the paradox that flowers conjure,
E¸Ò®ùËÒ£ìì:ÙùèÒË that life conjures: even as we bring our light into the world,
07&3
0/

. * - - * Xù ˸ìμ£DZDZɭǰ ɭDzǰDzDz the melancholy and the joyous live side by side. 1
13*/5 /_FɡDZǵDz Dzdzǰ
4"-&4 X踣ɡˌDZǴɟǵʱˌDzǰɟǵ
X¯£ÙùÒôɡDZ
gè¸Ñ_¸Đ£ɡǵĊ is the author of
J O A N D . S TA M M
The Language of Flowers in the
Time of Covid: Finding Solace in
ąąąɟåèËËĊɟÙè¯
Zen, Nature, and Ikebana. She’s
ʦåèËËĊåè£ìì
a certified teacher in the Saga
School of Ikebana.

12 LIO NS R OAR .CO M

 EN GAGED BU D DH IS M

DHARMA FOR A
TRAUMATIZED WORLD
The cause of our global suffering is forgetting that we belong to
one another and to the earth. TA RA B RACH recommends four
practices to nourish a sense of collective belonging.

T HI S I S A T IM E of global trauma. Col-
lectively, we’re facing a warming planet,
pandemics, racial and social injustice,
growing authoritarianism, the horror of
war, and global instability unlike anything
we’ve seen since the end of the Second
World War.
In this traumatized world, many people
are coming to meditation classes asking,
PHOTO BY NOAH BERGER / AFP
destructiveness—threatens all life sys-
tems on our planet. More than ever, we
need practices that can evolve conscious-
ness from “self vs. other” and “us vs.
them” to “we” practices that motivate
us to act on behalf of our collective
well-being.
Buddhist teachings point to the most
elemental cause of our suffering—for-
self-protection that lead to violating our-
selves, others, and our world.
While the cultivation of mindfulness
and compassion can awaken us from this
trance, they require wise adaptation to
the sufferings of our times. In our increas-
ingly individualistic-oriented society,
we need a strongly focused dharma of
interdependence. This means consciously

How can I navigate these difficult times?
How can spiritual teachings and prac-
tices help me find healing, connection,
and freedom?
We are at a time in history where
the illusion of separate self—with its
unprocessed fear, aggression, and
getting who we really are. We forget we
belong to one another and to our larger
body of earth. We forget we belong to
the boundless, loving awareness that is
our shared essence as human beings.
Instead, we live in a trance of egoic sepa-
ration, feeding habits of grasping and
shifting from a focus on the individual to
realizing our collective belonging.
This crucial, adaptive shift is begin-
ning to happen. A growing number of
Buddhist and secular mindfulness teach-
ers, notably those who are Black, Indig-
enous, and people of color, are applying

JAN UA RY 202 3 13
E NG AG ED BU DD HI SM

The Ranch Fire was groups, and spiritual communities ben- trigger PTSD. Teachers should be trained
part of a complex of
efit from having clear agreements for to help students customize meditation so
wildfires that burned
for more than three
speaking and listening, such as those in that they can experience love and safety
months in 2018. It place at Oakland’s East Bay Meditation and find the healing of an enlarged sense
was the single-largest Center, as well as guidelines for resolving of connectedness.
wildfire in California
conflict, such as those offered in Non-
history until it was
surpassed by the Dixie Violent Communication. As a practice, Multicultural Competency,
Fire in 2021. relational meditations can be deepened Sensitivity, and Equity
through interactive mindfulness work- If we are part of the dominant culture, we
shops, RAIN partners, Insight Dialogue, are conditioned to devalue nondominant
mindfulness and compassion practices Cloud Sangha mentoring groups, and others on the basis of characteristics
to four primary domains that enlarge our other formats that train us to be awake, like race, religion, gender identity, sexual
sense of identity. embodied, openhearted, and real with orientation, economic class, and ability.
each other. We cannot awaken spiritually without an
Mindful Communication and awareness of the intersecting identities
Conflict Resolution Trauma-Sensitive Meditation that shape our experience of the world
To realize our interdependence we need Trauma is the suffering of disconnection, and separate us from each other.
to bring the basic teachings of mindful- and our practices can either bring us This awareness grows as we investi-
ness and compassion into all relation- healing or exacerbate our pain. We need gate, with compassion, the bias and soci-
ships. Mindful communicating takes to recognize the symptoms of trauma etal conditioning we each carry from the
intentionality and practice. Individuals, and how certain styles of meditation can dominant culture we live in. A dedication

The Pema Chödrön Foundation is dedicated to preserving and sharing

Pema’s inspiration and teachings in order that they might help us all
awaken wisdom and compassion in ourselves and the world around us,
now and sustainably into the future.

Nuns In The Himalayas

The Pema Chödrön Foundation’s support helps ensure that nuns in Nepal, Bhutan and
India have the same equal opportunities for deep practice and study as monks have
always had.

At Risk Populations
Pema is committed to supporting organizations that work to protect and nurture at-risk
populations in the US and abroad.

The Book Initiative

Pema’s books and recorded teachings are
offered to underserved individuals and the organizations that support them, around the
world, free of charge.

The Buddhist Monastic Tradition

Pema is dedicated to help guide and support her home monastery, Gampo Abbey, as
well as monastic settings in Asia and the West.

Our Online Bookstore

Your purchase of Pema’sbooks and audio teachings in our online
bookstore support Pema’s work. Free shipping in the USA.

pemachodronfoundation.org

14 L IONS R OAR .CO M

to this process is essential if we are to
create safe and welcoming spaces for
diverse others, build meaningful commu-
nity, and realize the truth, joy, and free-
dom of our collective belonging.
Engaged Spirituality
The spiritual path is often considered
individual work, yet our inner personal
practice is inseparable from our ways
of engaging with our wider society. As
awareness awakens, we realize our con-
nectedness and oneness with all parts
of life. The natural expression of this is
a love-based activism where together,
we respond to the suffering around us;
and equally, we celebrate life’s intrinsic
beauty, mystery, and goodness.
For the last two decades, I’ve been
training people to teach meditation, and
increasingly the emphasis has shifted
from the individual to the collective.
During the last six years I’ve been lead-
ing the Mindfulness Meditation Teacher
Certification Program with Jack Korn-
field and a wonderful, diverse team of
teacher–mentors. We have trained 3,750
new mindfulness teachers from more
than seventy countries, highlighting these
four domains so essential to a dharma
of interdependence. These teachers are
drawing on multicultural understandings,
developing skills for working with trauma
and handling conflict, and dedicating
themselves to the bodhisattva path of
compassion in action.
This is the hope: that teachers and
practitioners in growing numbers will
nourish a deepening sense of our collec-
tive belonging and foster an evolution of
consciousness. How else will we humans
hold hands and act on behalf of the
earth? How else will we go beyond the
political and social divisions that lead to
violence and oppression? How else will
we create Beloved Community—a world
where all life is cherished, the vulner-
able are cared for, and we naturally live
for the common good? The dharma of
interdependence is what will allow us
to create the world we long for, a world
that expresses our natural capacity to
live in love. 1
is a
TA R A B R AC H
meditation teacher,
psychologist, and
author of several
books, including
the international
bestsellers Radi-
cal Acceptance, Radical Compassion, and
Trusting the Gold.

JANUARY 202 3 15
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Arepas have been eaten in South America since pre-Columbian
times. For MARIANA RES TREPO , they’re a reminder
of all the hands that have fed and shaped her.
M Y FA M I LY D O E S N ’ T
have any heir-
loom recipes passed down from genera-
tion to generation. I did not learn how to
PHOTO BY ISABEL BYFIELD / TASTYAZ.COM
cook from my parents; I learned to cook
on my own, mostly out of necessity. I was
a young teen when my family immigrated
to the United States, and my mother
worked long hours, leaving my brother
and me to fend for ourselves in terms of
meal preparation. Even now, when my
mother is craving Colombian food, she
asks me to cook it for her. I’m the one
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her own childhood, telling her the stories
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When I first started cooking, I relied on quality and caring in a
desert of the opposite”
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— 2022 participant
combined with my limited understanding
of what flavors and spices work together. Visit our website for current
Later I looked for recipes in magazines, information on all online and
or those printed on food packaging. My residential programs
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printed on the backside of condensed-
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18 LI O NSR OAR .CO M
FOOD
in my cooking skills, I developed my own
dishes from a medley of different recipes,
using what I liked best from each one. My
first recipe that my family came to love
and request often was arroz con leche, or
rice pudding. I started making arroz con
leche when I was fifteen, and my recipe
evolved as I did. It went from simple and
straightforward—rice, milk, and sugar—
to a rich brew of rice, condensed milk,
cinnamon, and raisins. During my college
years, I easily adapted the recipe to my
vegan diet, substituting milk with almond
milk. Now, I often incorporate my love
of Indian flavors, adding a dash of carda-
mom, perhaps a splash of rose water, and
shaved almonds instead of raisins.
While there weren’t family recipes
passed down to me, I do recall my
maternal grandmother’s cooking. It
wasn’t fancy or sophisticated. On the
contrary, it was mostly rice, eggs, and
lentils. Simple, but always comforting.
She loved to make eggs for my brother
and me, whether for breakfast, lunch,
or dinner. I remember her making very
runny eggs, the way I still like them. In my
grandmother’s house, eggs were cooked
in small frying pans called caserolas,
designed to cook eggs and eggs only. If
my grandmother had to cook eggs for
the whole family, each egg would be indi-
vidually prepared and served in its own
caserola. The exception would be huevos
pericos, Colombian-style scrambled eggs
mixed with chopped green scallions and
tomatoes, lightly fried.
But it didn’t matter what type of eggs
we were eating, or whatever else we were
having for breakfast; our “daily bread”
was always arepas, flat, round patties
made from maize. Every day started and
often ended with an arepa. Arepas were
indispensable. When I was a kid, every
time we traveled from Colombia to visit
relatives in the U.S., we lugged carry-on
suitcases filled with only arepas. Those
PHOTO COURTESY OF THE AUTHOR
same suitcases would return to Colombia
filled with Snickers, Twizzlers, M&Ms, and
other highly coveted American candy.
A fair exchange, I suppose. While rela-
tives far away from Colombia longed for
familiar flavors, those back home craved
the exotic. I did not understand that then,
 Teaching her son’s class how to make
them, Mariana Restrepo reflects: “I’m
reminded of my role in passing down
the traditions of my people.”

as I do now. Liv- the preschool dressed in a traditional

ing in the States, I
rate the quality of
every city based
on the accessibility
of good arepas. Even when I attended a
traditional three-year Tibetan retreat, I
made sure to travel with an arepa grill as
well as enough arepas to last me a while.
A few years back, when I took a
Tibetan Buddhist monk of Hungarian
heritage to Colombia, my family served
arepas every day for breakfast. At the
end of the trip, he joked that he had
now completed his “Mil-arepa ngondro.”
A ngondro is a preparatory practice
where one accumulates thousands of
mantras, prostrations, etc. Milarepa is
one of Tibet’s most famous yogis and a
significant figure in the Kagyu lineage of
Tibetan Buddhism. So, as you can see,
this was a very clever play on words.
Food that brings us comfort does so
because of the memories attached to
it. I recently went to my son’s preschool
to teach his classmates how to make
arepas. In preparation, my mother and
I premade enough arepas so everyone
would have the chance to eat their own.
This was the first time I ever made arepas
with my mother, and I was the one teach-
ing her how to make them. I went to
Colombian chapolera outfit: flowers gar-
landing my braided hair, a white peasant-
style blouse adorned with ribbons, and
a long skirt with ruffles that mimic the
wings of butterflies fluttering through
coffee fields. Teaching my son and his
classmates how to prepare arepas, I
was reminded of those who have come
before me, those who will come after,
and my role in passing down the tradi-
tions and stories of my people. For me,
arepas are a reminder of all the hands
that have fed me, all the hands that have
shaped me.
Sharing food, especially sharing the
food I make with others, is a way of open-
ing myself up, of allowing myself to be
seen. It’s a form of vulnerability. For me,
cooking is a way of caring for those I
love. And while I aspire to love all beings
equally, my closest friends will tell you my
tres leches cake is exclusively reserved
for those I hold dearest to my heart. 1
MARIANA RESTREPO is
an associate editor at
Lion’s Roar. She has an
MA in religious studies
from Florida Interna-
tional University.

JANUARY 202 3 19
R EV I E W S

THE HOW OF HAPPINESS

Mindfulness, courage, and compassion are key.
BON N IE N A DZ A M presents a selection of new books on living well.

I N OU R HE A RTS AR E RE ST L ESS: The
Art of Spiritual Memoir (Oxford Uni-
versity Press), Richard Lischer, Christian
pastor and professor emeritus at Duke
Divinity School, celebrates individuals
who’ve made a profound impact in the
genre of spiritual memoir—Augustine,
Julian of Norwich, Emily Dickinson, James
Baldwin, and Anne Lamott among them.
As Lischer observes, all of these lumi-
naries were deeply committed both to
living life well and writing out their lives,
in a mysterious, mystical, dynamic rela-
tionship with the page. Lischer affirms
philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre who said
that the only way to answer the question
of “who am I?” is by orienting yourself in
a larger story, finding those whose stories
help you make sense of life, and sharing
your own story with others. This seems
to be Lischer’s wise and benevolent
undertaking; his collection of essays will
inspire the reader to start living life well
and, perhaps, putting pen to paper.
The Thorn Puller (Stone Bridge Press)
is the first novel to appear in English by the
bold and beloved Japanese writer Hiromi
Ito. Reading it is as extraordinary an experi-
ence as it is complicated to describe. This
book is both a long poem and a novel;
Californian and Japanese; absurdly come-
dic and heartbreaking. At times, it is a sti-
fling, intimate portrayal of a woman caring
for her aging parents, but it’s also as disori-
entingly spacious as the global stage upon
which the tale is set. Ito investigates the
complexities and stresses experienced by
a woman tending to her two families: her
husband and daughters in California and
her elderly parents living in Japan. With the
narrator traveling between the countries,
Ito creates an enjoyable and affecting
narrative about the meaning of living and
aging in our globalized era. One beautiful
thread that runs through the book is the

20 L IONS R OAR .CO M

Village Zendo
36 years of Zen practice in New York

Zen practice is more relevant than ever.

Join us online or in-person at our new
location in downtown New York. Our
schedule includes daily meditation,
twice-weekly Dharma talks, monthly
retreats and more, all with the guidance
of experienced teachers.

Please explore our full schedule at

villagezendo.org

Abbot Roshi
Enkyo O’Hara

photos Jiryu Davis

JANUARY 202 3 21

Ref lect on your practice with
guidance from great teachers.
Discover meditation supplies
to support your practice, gifts to
inspire, and jewelry for everyday life.
GIFTS :: ART PRINTS :: PRACTICE MATERIALS
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22 LI O NSR OAR .CO M
REV IEW S
protagonist’s relationship with Jizo Bod-
hisattva, or Great Vow Bodhisattva, who is
known for his vow not to attain buddha-
hood until all hells are emptied. She pays
homage to him in faith that he will pluck
the thorns of suffering from her painful life.
What is happiness, really, and is it even
possible for an individual to “attain” it
if the culture they live in measures all
value in economic terms? In A Culture of
Happiness (Parallax), happiness expert
Dr. Tho Ha Vinh suggests that while liv-
ing a satisfying life may in some ways be
related to having material needs met and
to experiencing pleasure, human beings’
responsibilities have changed from the
days when living a good life meant having
shelter, plenty of food, and entertain-
ment. Now, we are accountable for the
well-being and, it seems, the very survival
of life itself. In this guide, Tho Ha Vinh
reflects on his experiences as program
director of the Gross National Happiness
Center of Bhutan, a nonprofit organiza-
tion, under Bhutanese royal patronage,
which is dedicated to creating pathways
to mindfulness practices for individu-
als, their communities, and the larger
structures of which they are a part. While
acknowledging that Bhutan is a country
facing many challenges, he suggests that
the country can be seen as a “lab” to
study what happens when people, fami-
lies, and communities begin to measure
value not economically, but rather in
terms of satisfaction and well-being.
“Dalit” is the word used for the so-
called untouchable people of India who
belong to the lowest stratum of castes.
The word also means “resilient.” In The
Trauma of Caste: A Dalit Feminist
Meditation on Survivorship, Healing,
and Abolition (North Atlantic Books),
esteemed American scholar, writer, and
activist Thenmozhi Soundararajan calls
for an end to Dalit oppression and con-
nects it with the oppression faced by
Black, Indigenous, Latino, and Queer
communities. She presents haunting true
stories of the cruelty that Brahminical
structures impose upon billions of people
hurt by caste—not just in India but world-
wide, including in the United States. She
also offers meditations and exercises for
readers to change their own experiences
with the concept of caste, wherever they
live—because all suffering is collective
suffering, and the harm we inflict upon
others is rooted in a false sense of separa-
tion from them. Soundararajan’s perspec-
tive is grounded in her Buddhist practice
and the teachings of B. R. Ambedkar
(1891–1956), the Indian economist,
social reformer, and political leader who
inspired the Dalit Buddhist movement.
In Daughters of the Buddha (Simon
and Schuster), early Buddhism scholar
and meditation teacher Bhikkhu Analayo
sets forth twenty-one chapters, each
dedicated to a nun or laywoman from
ancient India. Many of their names may
already be familiar to practitioners: Got-
ami, Khema, Uppalavanna. In this single
treasure, Bhikkhu Analayo shares their
teachings. The discourses and life stories
of these Buddhist nuns and laywomen
are simply yet comprehensively pre-
sented, and we come away with the most
fulsome understanding possible of how
these women contributed to the dharma.
Although there was misogyny in early
Buddhist thinking, there were also many
fierce women to whom we are beholden
for navigating the prejudices of their day.
Deepening Wisdom, Deepening Con-
nection (Namchak Publishing) is the third
book of the Ancient Wisdom for Our
Times series written by the American Bud-
dhist teacher Lama Tsomo. The books do
not necessarily need to be read in order,
however, as they each stand well on their
own. In this new volume, Lama Tsomo
shares meditation practices for cultivating
loving-kindness, compassion, sympathetic
joy, and equanimity. Practice by practice,
readers are guided toward the kind of
deep compassion that arises naturally
from being more fully aware—beginning
with self-awareness. The book is remark-
ably warm, funny, intelligent, and beauti-
fully articulated. Lama Tsomo, who is
also a counselor, is adept at integrating
psychological understanding and spiritual
practice without muddying either.
Psychotherapist and Zen teacher
Koshin Paley Ellison identifies main-
stream Western culture as one that is
infused with “junk” pleasure-seeking that
distracts and deprives human beings
from creating a life truly worth living. In
Untangled: Walking the Eightfold Path
to Clarity, Courage, and Compassion
(Balance), Koshin guides readers through
his own tough childhood and his journey
of becoming a Zen monk (which he’d
remarkably identified as his life’s purpose
by age eight). He also provides a very
clear, simple series of practices anyone
can use to clarify their own direction. This
book is a must-read for anyone ready for
real connection, beginning with one’s self
and extending intimately outward.
The Hero of Compassion: How
Lokeshvara Got One Thousand Arms
(Bala Kids) by Harry Einhorn tells the
tale of how even a very committed and
big-hearted being like the bodhisattva
Avalokiteshvara (“Lokeshvara” for short!)
can become overwhelmed by the amount
of despair and suffering in the world. Fea-
turing the spectacular and vibrant illustra-
tions of Khoa Le, this storybook will pro-
vide children (and their caregivers) with
a solid reminder not to quit. Even if our
heart breaks, we can put it together again
and become more loving. Each and every
one of us has the potential for uncondi-
tional compassion and resilience. 1
BON N I E N A DZ A M
is a poet, novelist,
and Zen practi-
tioner. Her novel
Lions was a finalist for the PEN USA Literary
Award in Fiction.
JANUARY 202 3 23
 MEET A TEACHER

• A unique practice opportunity

for sincere Dharma students
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Taos, New Mexico. Grounded
in the Vipassana Theravada
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Day Long BIPOC Retreat
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Recognizing Natural Awareness
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10 DAY Vipassana Retreat
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Sunday International Sangha
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Guiding Teacher: Marcia Rose
P.O. Box 807
Ranchos de Taos, NM • 87557
575-758-0633
hermitage@mountainhermitage.org
www.mountainhermitage.org
IN 1977, I WAS BORN in an old
Manhattan apartment... literally. I was
not born in a hospital.
My father, a Bronx native, was a public-
school teacher. My mother, originally
from Japan, worked tirelessly at home
raising my brother and me. In a spiritually
nomadic fashion, my family tried out vari-
ous traditions throughout my childhood,
eventually settling on Shinnyo Buddhism
when I was in high school.
As very little Shinnyo-en literature was
translated into English at the time, I was
uninterested at first. Yet I found reso-
nance with the practices of meditation
and recitation of sutras and mantras.
They helped alleviate some of the anxiety
I felt being a teen.
During college, I enlisted in the New
York Army National Guard, and a year
later, upon finishing my undergradu-
ate degree in nutritional sciences, I was
selected as one of ten people in the
United States for commissioning as an
active-duty second lieutenant in the U.S.
Army Medical Specialist Corps—en route
to becoming a staff army dietitian at
Walter Reed Medical Center in Washing-
ton, D.C. Ultimately, I turned this position
down last minute to pursue service in the
Shinnyo-en priesthood.
I’ve been serving as an ordained member
of the clergy, full-time, ever since. Now, as
the only Buddhist police chaplain in New
York state, I teach first responders and
essential workers how to meditate and
employ de-escalation techniques. With a
graduate degree and licensure in clinical
mental health counseling, as well as being
a faculty member at New York University
teaching meditation, I find living at the
nexus of spirituality, forensic mental health,
mindfulness, and public safety a true test-
ing ground for Buddhist teachings. 

24 LI O NSR OAR .CO M

Primary teachers?
Her Holiness Shinso Ito, the spiritual
leader of Shinnyo-en. Also, my fellow
human beings, especially those with
whom I have a harder time getting along.
Favorite meditation practice?
Shinnyo-en sesshin meditation as well as
my never-ending attempts to transform
waiting in line—either in-person or on
the phone—into meditative moments.
What dharma books
do you recommend?
Dr. Seuss’s I Had Trouble in Getting to
Solla Sollew.
Your favorite virtue?
Generosity. It unlocks something
sacred within.
Your chief characteristic?
Optimism. Sometimes it works wonders.
Your principal poison?
Ignorance. It’s challenging because it
stays hidden within the shadowed spaces
of mind and heart for so long.
If not yourself, who would you be?
A professional ballroom dancer with a
specialty in tango.
Your idea of happiness?
The peace and mirth that accompany
family gatherings. Also, discovering that
family transcends biological bonds.
Your idea of misery?
The monotony and hopelessness of
incarceration whether in form, habit,
or thought.
What’s the worst job
you’ve ever had?
Shouting at the top of my lungs to sell
periodicals and magazines. It did help me
overcome shyness, so maybe it wasn’t the
worst after all!
Name three of your heroes.
Essential workers, my family, and the
A-Team.
Natural Dharma Fellowship
The natural talent you’d Lama Willa Blythe Baker
most like to have? Lama Liz Monson
A Broadway-caliber singing voice. with many visiting teachers
Wonderwell Mountain Refuge
Your favorite author?
Our retreat center in
Too many to list. Off the top of my head:
Springfield, New Hampshire
J. R. R. Tolkien and Audre Lorde.
Residential &
Your favorite musician or group? Online Programs
I worked for thirteen years at the Metro- BUDDHIST LINEAGE TEACHINGS
politan Opera House, so Puccini operas WITNESSING THE WILD
are among my favorite musical works.
THE DIVINE FEMININE
Dire Straits, Cass Elliot, and Bob Marley
THE WAKEFUL BODY
also hit the spot.
PROGRAMS FOR BEGINNERS
VA JRAYANA  DZOGCHEN 
What’s for dinner? MAHAMUDRA
Homemade sushi, shiso-leaf salad, and YEARLONG PRACTICE PROGRAMS
green tea pudding.
SOLO RETREAT OPTIONS
A motto that represents you? Weekly Online Practice
“The Universe is made of stories, not DHARMA SUNDAYS
atoms.”—Muriel Rukeyser. If I could MONDAY NIGHT MEDITATION
expand upon Rukeyser’s poetry, I’d add:
“Always seek time to learn one another’s
stories. It’s a sure-footed path toward
peace, connection, and healing.”
Guilty pleasure?
Binging TV. The Walking Dead, Billions,
Outer Range, and Quantum Leap (the
1989 version).
NATURAL DHARMA.ORG
JANUARY 202 3 25
  
       
Photographer C H R I S R A I N I E R has spent decades
seeking out spiritual landscapes and religious
sites on all seven continents. He’s come to
understand what sacred really means.

 nveloped by darkness, it took me a while to see the

light within the void.
At first, it was a faint blue line searing the desert
horizon. Then it spread across the night sky. Slowly, as
the first colors of sunrise cut the sky, another Sahara
Desert day had begun. I was some five hundred miles
deep in the baking sand dunes of northern Mali on
a camel expedition in search of the sacred. We’d left
Timbuktu weeks earlier heading north, navigating by
an ancient system of the Tuareg, the blue men of the
desert. Each day after his morning prayers, my guide, a
devote Muslim named Mohammed, would sit quietly
on a high sand dune tracking the lingering morning
star, then he’d intensely observe the shadows across
the land and the direction of the wind patterns across
the desert to the horizon. All of these subtle signs
allowed him to lead us precisely across this sea of sand.
Without even a compass, Mohammed was taking us to
a point beyond the horizon—a place he held sacred.
My own personal journey, a pilgrimage on a path to
find the meaning of sacred, had begun decades earlier,
before I was even aware of what I was looking for. I was
born into a family steeped in the language of travel and
adventure. After my birth in Canada, my family soon
All images by Chris Rainier, excerpted from Sacred: In Search of
Meaning. Copyright 2022, Mandala Publishing.
left to live in Australia. We moved every few years—
falling into the rhythms of a peripatetic lifestyle—from
Australia to Africa, Canada, Europe, and the United
States. Life’s gravity pulled me to the inevitable: a
mission to see and to understand the planet and its
people—in all its beauty and with all its raw edges.
And this is how I came to be heading north, deep
into the Sahara in my mid-fifties, by now a profes-
sional explorer and photographer, with a group of
veiled Tuareg elders in search of what is sacred.
The hot days had long blurred into one another. The
hours of each day were filled with the slow, regular
movement of the camels looking for coolness in a place
with no shade and with the constant awareness of
thirst. Water was precious out here in the desert—more
precious than gold. Mohammed told me that one day
when still a young man learning the celestial naviga-
tion of the sand, he’d gotten lost and separated from
his camels. Eventually, with death near and almost
defeated, he sank to his knees in the searing sand and
prayed to Allah. In a simple and powerful moment of
light and awareness, Mohammed’s god directed him to
follow an unseen and unknown path to a watering hole.
Emboldened, Mohammed stumbled on for a day
and night until he came upon the water source. His
misfortune did not, however, end there. The well was
deep—the water was some one hundred feet down.

JANUARY 202 3 27
 Without ropes or a bucket, he could not reach it.
Mohammed once again prayed to Allah. Would he die
at the mouth of the well or jump down? Allah gave his
guidance and Mohammed jumped. Once in the cool
water, he quenched his desperate thirst. Holding on by
his fingertips to a thin ledge of no more than an inch
or two, Mohammed trod water for days until a passing
camel caravan stopped for water and rescued him.
Mohammed was weak but was saved. He believed that
Allah had allowed him to live for a higher purpose. He
would never forget it—the moment when his prayers
brought him the life-saving gift of water.
Even before Mohammed announced that we were
almost at our destination, I sensed that we were
nearing our journey’s end. On the long traverse across
the largest desert in the world, I’d contemplated my
decision to join Mohammed’s journey to sacredness,
and now, as we crested the hill, I wasn’t sure what
I expected. Would we see an ancient temple lost in
waves of rippling sand dunes? Would I behold a
hidden landscape so wondrous as to come close to
defining a sacred place? Would a shimmering city
await us in the middle of the Sahara, a new and undis-
covered mythological Timbuktu? It was none of these.
Mohammed had led me to a small lake, a body of
water seemingly lost in the middle of the desert. It was
beautiful in its simplicity—an oasis of life surrounded
by nothing but sand for a thousand miles in every
direction. For Mohammed, this was so much more
than water. It was an affirmation of spirit, of divinity.
A lake of water is to one man the very meaning of
light and of his god. To another man, it’s simply a wel-
come watering hole along his journey. A mountain can
be for one woman a sacred place, a place of pilgrimage
or religious worship. For another woman, it represents
a summit to climb and on which to face both the
rock’s steepness and her own mortality. Sacredness moais stand as silent sentries on one of the most
comes in many forms, in all religions, belief systems, isolated islands in the Pacific; or the Taj Mahal, shim-
and value sets, and in all places. Its definition morphs mering silver in a full-moon night on the floodplains
with time, with age, and with wisdom. of northern India. I ask myself: What makes a power
I have always been fascinated with the concept of place sacred? Is it its location? Did the ancestors who
power places and energy points. In my journeys to built the monument upon it understand the location
remarkable architectural wonders, I’ve sought them to hold an unseen power, as having a primordial pulse,
out—power places such as Machu Picchu, high in the that deemed it to be sacred? Did they feel an ancient
Andes; or Rapa Nui (Easter Island), where volcanic residue, an inherent energy? Or does a location only

28 L IO NS R OAR .CO M
 Previous page: At
Swayambhunath Temple in
become sacred once a place of contemplation or Kathmandu, Nepal, the stupa
worship, a monument considered to be sacred by its is adorned with eyes. A Nepali
symbol for the number one
creators, has been built upon it? Do later generations,
serves as stylized noses and
sometimes wholly randomly, assign sacredness to a represents the unity of all things.
place even if it was not originally considered sacred
by its architects, the centuries adding to its perceived Above: The Wave in Arizona
is comprised of Navajo
power? What is a sacred place—or a sacred space?
sandstone dunes that have
Recently, adapting to a world ravaged by the Covid-19 calcified. It began forming 190
pandemic and with my other travel plans on hold, I million years ago.

JANUARY 202 3 29
30 L IO NS R OAR .CO M
 sought refuge in the isolation and wonder of Iceland.
With its nocturnal aurora ballets, its raging waterfalls,
and its black lava beaches where the stranded icebergs
washing back and forth in the surf shine like diamonds,
Iceland demands that you pay attention to it.
I was incredibly fortunate in spring 2021 to witness
the eruption of Iceland’s Fagradalsfjall volcano, which
had been dormant for more than six thousand years.
On a number of occasions with some local friends, I
hiked the few miles to the volcano’s edge to witness the
power of lava bursting out and lighting the night sky
and to feel its heat on my skin. I sat for hours mesmer-
ized by its beauty, its pure, elemental beauty. I listened
to the sound of the magma flow toward me, an eerie
sound not unlike glass slowly tinkling in the distance.
On our last visit to the volcano I spent the whole
night there, photographing and witnessing its mas-
sive rhythmic eruptions of lava arcing into the deep
navy sky and falling to the ground to flow in rivers of
glowing red. I paused often, wondering whether this
would be my last opportunity to see this wonder up
close and be so alone with its power. I was reluctantly
thinking about leaving when I noticed the first hints
of sunrise on the eastern horizon. I remembered the
sheer beauty of another sunrise over the Saharan
Desert sands all those years ago. I waited, knowing
now that I had to stay and that I had no other place
to go, and watched the sunrise unfold all of its color
palette across the living, growing, breathing fire.
As I’ve become older and as the miles of my pilgrim-
age have accumulated, I’ve begun to understand the
intricacies of what sacred means to me: Love is sacred.
The love for my son, for my family, for my life partner,
and for my friends has evolved into a purity of love
and devotion, into sacredness. I will always and inevi-
tably continue to search for the unknown and perhaps
the unknowable. I will seek out impossible horizons,
ancient topographies, moonlit monuments, and the
answers to the question of what it means to be human. CHRIS R AINIER is a documentary
I have an obsession to see and to try to understand photographer and National Geo-
the wisdom of distant shores and remote cultures. But graphic explorer who’s highly
respected for his documentation
that morning, as I sat at the edge of the fiery volcano, I
of endangered cultures and
understood clearly and maybe for the first time in my traditional languages around the
life that for me, being alive, truly alive and reverent, is globe. He’s a fellow at the Royal
the most sacred act of all. 1 Geographical Society in London.

32 L IO NS R OAR .CO M
Previous spread: Northern lights, Sweden.
Many Indigenous peoples of northern
Eurasia and North America share similar
traditional beliefs of northern lights being
the blood of the deceased.

Above: For approximately two-

hundred thousand years, humans have
intentionally left behind their handprints.
These handprints in Utah are up to a
thousand years old.

JANUARY 202 3 33
Guides support participants during
their psychedelic experiences at
the Johns Hopkins Center for
Psychedelic and Consciousness
Research, located in Baltimore.
 Psychedelic
Psychedelics and spirituality—including more than a few Buddhist concepts
and practices—are reuniting with science after decades of estrangement.
JENNIFER KEISHIN ARMSTRONG on this new frontier in the study of mind.
Y ou enter a beige brick building like all
the others on the Johns Hopkins Bayview
Medical Center’s sprawling campus. Here, in an
unremarkable maze of offices, something remark-
able is happening.
When you reach a third-floor office, there are
hints of the mystical experience ahead. In the
waiting room, you’re greeted by bright paintings,
a crystal tabletop with blue and beige swirls, and
a foot-tall amethyst gracing the gray filing cabi-
net. A set of swinging doors adorns the entry to
the hallway, painted with the black silhouette of a
face, with multicolored dots trailing off from the
head like someone’s mind bursting with delight.
It’s the official logo of the Center for Psychedelic
and Consciousness Research.
Beyond those doors, you find the four psy-
PHOTO BY A. JESSE JIRYU DAVIS
chedelic treatment suites, each with a photo on
the door depicting a beautiful wilderness path.
Inside, you enter a room that resembles a particu-
larly cozy psychotherapist’s office, with a framed
panoramic photo of mountains directly above
an oversized white cotton sofa strewn with fuzzy
orange throw pillows.
But there are things you don’t usually see in a
psychotherapist’s office: a desk with a computer
monitor, headphones, and a blood pressure mon-
itor next to the sofa. The monitor is there just in
case, to keep you safe throughout your journey,
as comforting, in its way, as the soft sofa cushions
and pillows. On the end table are a bowl of red
grapes and a white rose in a vase. Psychedelic
researchers as far back as the 1950s have created
similar still lifes for their subjects, as roses tend
to “come to life” when the psilocybin sets in.
You take a comfortable seat on the sofa facing
the two people who will serve as your guides
today. In many of these sessions, one of them is
Mary Cosola, a friendly woman with short brown
hair who has a collection of mushroom-patterned
socks for such occasions. (The suite is a no-shoe
zone, so socks are on full display.) If you’re partic-
ularly lucky, the other guide is Roland Griffiths,
a gentle, wiry, white-haired man who revolution-
ized the study of psychedelics in the early 2000s
and is now the director of the center.
Your guides are settled on meditation cushions
just a few feet from you. One of them offers you

a plastic pill case so you can check to make sure
it bears your name. Once you verify that it does,
a blue pill is placed in a brown clay chalice and
presented to you. The other guide offers a crystal
glass of water to help you swallow the conscious-
ness-altering capsule.
From there, they help you lie down, cover your-
self in a light cotton blanket, put on an eye shade
and headphones, and drift off to the center’s
playlist full of calming, mostly classical music
as you wait for the drug to kick in. Over the next
several hours, you’ll experience your mind in
ways that go far beyond the ordinary—often
profound and insightful, occasionally difficult
and frightening, but always with your guides
there beside you, sometimes literally holding
your hand. Griffiths describes the experience as
“a crash course in waking up.”
Welcome to the new frontier in the study
of the mind, a place where psychedelics and
36 L IO NS R OAR .CO M
PHOTO BY HAROLD ADLER / ALAMY STOCK PHOTO
spirituality—and more than a few Buddhist con-
cepts and practices—are reuniting with science
after decades of estrangement.
I n the 1950s and sixties, as LSD swept the
counterculture, its tendency to produce
transcendent visions inspired its share of hip-
pies to turn to Buddhism, playing a key role as
PHOTO BY PICTORIAL PRESS LTD / ALAMY STOCK PHOTO
Asian spiritual teachings took root in America.
Psychedelics “really are what catapulted many
of us into studying the dharma,” says Trudy
Goodman, the founding teacher of InsightLA.
But as the drug-culture heyday of the sixties
and early seventies passed, many spiritual
Boomers left psychedelics behind them in
favor of meditation. For some Buddhists,
any form of drug taking became verboten
in light of the precept against intoxication,
and it was seen as antithetical to the path to
enlightenment.
 But today, as psychedelics return to favor in the
scientific community, offering great hope for the
treatment of addiction, anxiety, and depression,
some Buddhist teachers have been reconsidering
them as a legitimate way to augment, and even
supercharge, one’s practice. And given that
some advocates see psychedelic experiences as
one of the most direct ways to drive home the
interconnectedness of all beings, they could help
address everything from racism and nationalism
to climate change.
Of course, Indigenous cultures in the
Americas have been using psychedelics—“plant
medicine”—for millennia. But these substances
were largely ignored by mainstream Western
culture until the 1950s. As they entered public
consciousness, psychedelics and Buddhism
intertwined from the beginning.
In 1953, writer and philosopher Aldous Huxley
was recruited by psychiatrist Dr. Humphry
Osmond to participate in his experiments with
mescaline in Los Angeles. Huxley had studied
Vedanta, practiced meditation, and researched
several mystical traditions for his book The
Perennial Philosophy. He brought all that to bear
on his experience with mescaline, calling to mind
a Zen koan quoted by D. T. Suzuki: “What is the
Dharma-Body of the Buddha?” Huxley wrote
that the answer—“the hedge at the bottom of the
garden”—suddenly felt true in a way he hadn’t
previously grasped when he had seen it as “only a
vaguely pregnant piece of nonsense.” He contin-
ued: “Of course, the Dharma-Body of the Buddha
was the hedge at the bottom of the garden. At the
same time, and no less obviously, it was these
flowers, it was anything that I—or rather the
blessed Not-I, released for a moment from my
throttling embrace—cared to look at.”
Huxley’s work introduced much of the wider
world to the psychedelic experience and did so
in a way inherently per-
meated with Buddhism.
The Beat Poets, too,
helped to popularize
both psychedelics and
Buddhism in America.
And plenty of future
American Buddhist
teachers had their first
major enlightenment
experiences via psyche-
delics, which often led
Previous page, left to right: Timothy
Leary, Allen Ginsberg, Alan Watts, and
Gary Snyder were key figures in the
counterculture of the fifties and sixties.
They inspired a generation of Americans
to explore psychedelics and Buddhism.
Left: Aldous Huxley was the author of
the 1954 book The Doors of Perception,
which detailed his experiences on
mescaline. As he put it, his psychedelic
insights ranged from the “purely
aesthetic” to “sacramental vision.”
JANUARY 202 3 37
 directly to their spiritual seeking and eventual
embrace of meditation practice.
Trudy Goodman, for instance, says that
during this era she saw something while
stoned on LSD that made her almost mad. “It
was like, wait a minute, this is my birthright
as a human being to know this and see this,”
she says. “Why do I have to take a drug to see
this?” That question led her to a very practical
inquiry: How could she access this wisdom
without taking drugs? After all, she was a single
mother, and she simply couldn’t be constantly
arranging for childcare so she could trip. She
needed to be present for her daughter. This led
Goodman to Buddhism.
For a time, psychedelics were embraced to a
startling degree by the mainstream as a miracle
cure for many of the world’s ills. Time and Life
magazines began cheering them on as early
as 1954, and actor Cary Grant talked about
how LSD changed his life in Good Housekeeping
magazine, about as mainstream as it gets. The
tide began to turn in the 1960s after psycholo-
gist Timothy Leary, perhaps LSD’s best-known
cheerleader, was fired from Harvard University
in 1963 when colleagues raised concerns about
his methods, which included a lack of scientific
rigor (not using control groups or random
sampling), pressuring students to take the drugs,
giving them to undergraduates (which was
against university policy), and taking the drugs
himself while administering studies. Leary’s
second-in-command, professor Richard Alpert,
was also dismissed. Alpert took off for India,
where he studied with Hindu guru Neem Karoli
Baba, who gave him the spiritual name Ram
Dass. When he returned to America, he became a
leader in the New Age movement with his semi-
nal 1971 book Be Here Now.
Leary suffered more of the aftermath,
becoming the symbol of the order-threatening
counterculture. With catchphrases like “Turn on,
tune in, drop out,” he became an easy target for a
rising conservative backlash. President Richard
Nixon’s administration made an example of
Leary in its anti-drug crusade, setting the largest
bail ever announced for an American citizen and
38 L IO NS R OAR .CO M
launching a worldwide manhunt when Leary
escaped from a minimum-security California
prison, where he was serving time for marijuana
possession. By 1966, Life magazine had changed
its tune, fretting about “the exploding threat of
the mind drug that got out of control” in a cover
story about LSD.
Meanwhile, many of those hippies who had
life-changing psychedelic experiences began to
channel that spiritual awakening into serious
study of Buddhism. There, they found concepts
like interdependence and no-self that made
sense of their psychedelic visions.
“One of the reasons that Buddhism came
to America and came in the form it did was
because of psychedelics,” says best-selling
author Michael Pollan, who has helped usher
psychedelics back into the mainstream with
his 2018 book How to Change Your Mind: What
the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About
Consciousness, Dying , Addiction, Depression,
and Transcendence and the recent companion
series on Netflix. “There are just so many of
those early founders of American Buddhism
who had used psychedelics that it’s fair to ask
whether there would be American Buddhism if
not for psychedelics.”
Those early teachers, however, also found that
Buddhism had very clear ideas about how to be
a good practitioner, and taking drugs wasn’t one
of them. The fifth precept warned students to
“refrain from intoxicants,” which caused some
teachers to denounce psychedelic use altogether
and certainly ended any talk of drug-assisted
spiritual practice. Many teachers wouldn’t talk
about their early psychedelic enlightenment
experiences as part of their Buddhist journey and
still don’t.
But it was actually meditation that inspired
Roland Griffiths to jump-start the revival of
serious psychedelic research. His research then
focused on drug abuse, but after he took up
meditation he felt called to center his work on
something much larger. “Our previous work
on addiction was important, but, for me the
importance pales in comparison to what all of a
sudden came into view: What is the experience
 of sentience and life awareness, and what are
the implications for scientifically understanding
those experiences?”
As part of his personal investigation, he
began to read about the research on psychedel-
ics, which was done in the fifties and sixties,
and realized this was what he wanted to ded-
icate himself to professionally. He remained
skeptical of the grand claims those researchers
made about the drugs’ potential. But his early
studies clearly showed that psilocybin—a
hallucinogenic substance found in some mush-
rooms—produced “mystical-type experiences
having substantial and sustained personal
meaning and spiritual significance,” one of his
published papers says.
PHOTO BY CHRISTOPHER MICHEL GREEN
Not only did Griffiths’ own life’s work take a
turn as a result, he also reinvigorated the field
as a whole. Today, rigorous psychedelic research
is being done at major institutions such as the
University of California, Berkeley, New York
University, and at his center at Johns Hopkins.
W hile taking psilocybin and other psyche-
delics is not the same as Buddhist prac-
tice, the two share significant areas of overlap.
“The key point where they line up is the shift of
perspective into nonduality or into the illusory
nature of the separate self,” explains Rev. Kokyo
Henkel, a longtime Zen teacher who has taught
at Santa Cruz Zen Center and Green Gulch Farm
and worked with psychedelics throughout his
Michael Pollan is the
author of the New York
Times bestselling book
How to Change Your
Mind: What the New
Science of Psychedelics
Teaches Us About
Consciousness, Dying,
Addiction, Depression,
and Transcendence,
which led to a
docuseries on Netflix.
 life. “A meditation practice reveal-
ing this kind of shift happens in
a very controlled environment,
a very calm, very stable mind.
Whereas when that insight hap-
pens in the psychedelic realm, it’s
usually not that calm and stable.
It’s a little bit chaotic. But within
that difference, I think you can
find the same direct insight.”
The main effect of psilocybin
is that it casts the practitioner
into an experience of the pres-
ent moment. It deactivates the
brain’s default mode network, the
neurons that produce a person’s
sense of self and ruminate on the
self when one isn’t engaged with
the outside world. “Psilocybin
allows one to dispassionately
observe and let go of pain, fear,
and discomfort, as does medita-
tion,” Griffiths explains. “During
psilocybin sessions, we encourage
participants to be deeply curious
about their experiences and to
bring in that intense sense of
interest and curiosity and openness to whatever LSD.” The drug triggered a manic episode, and
it is that arises in consciousness. This sounds like he spent years in mental hospitals as a result.
Mindfulness 101 to me.” Griffiths shares her sense of caution: “The psy-
These discoveries have, in turn, inspired a chedelic renaissance has now taken off, and in
revival of interest in incorporating the drugs some ways, I’m really hesitant about the enthu-
into Buddhist practice—and some debate over siasm,” he says. “Psychedelics can be dangerous.
whether the two are compatible. “To me, it really People can develop psychotic conditions. They
hinges on the intention with which these sub- certainly can engage in dangerous behavior to
stances are being used,” Goodman says. “If the themselves and others. If anything, we’re in a
intention is to grow in love and understanding, bubble of overenthusiasm.”
to have insight into the nature of reality, I do But Goodman and Griffiths both believe that
think there can be a lot of benefit from wise the right circumstances
use. I say ‘wise use’ because I don’t mean just make all the difference,
tripping out. Are you intending to induce heed- as they do for the prac-
lessness and intoxication? Do you just want to tice of meditation. Just
get high? Or is it more like a boost to cut through as meditation is best Dr. Roland Griffiths spearheaded
being mired in conventional reality? That’s undertaken with a good the scientific community’s
renewed interest in psychedelic
different to me.” teacher, knowledgeable
research. He describes guided
Goodman does not say this lightly. Her guides are the key to psychedelic sessions as “a crash
brother, she says, was “one of the casualties of productive psychedelic course in waking up.”

40 L IO NS R OAR .CO M
 experiences. They can
Trudy Goodman’s interest in
the dharma was sparked by a
help practitioners not
long-ago psychedelic experience. only feel safe during
Today, she’s the founding teacher the experience and
of InsightLA.
avert any disasters, but
also integrate the trip’s
lessons afterward. “The
value of these experi-
ences is the extent to which one can learn from
the experience and integrate positive aspects into
their day-to-day lives,” Griffiths says. “This is the
project of waking up, right?”
Students of Buddhism are particularly able to
make good use of the insights psychedelics can
offer. When experienced meditators participate
in studies, Griffiths finds that they are better pre-
pared for the experience in terms of remaining
present and observing their minds. They also
PHOTO BY LAURA GRIER
often experience shifts in their own practice as a
result of the psychedelic experience. Griffiths has
discovered that many find themselves opened
up to new approaches—shifting from following
the breath, for instance, to an open awareness
PHOTO BY ANDRE CHUNG FOR THE WASHINGTON POST VIA GETTY IMAGES
practice. In a 2018 paper, he and his research
team found that “psilocybin-occasioned mysti-
cal-type experience in combination with med-
itation and other spiritual practices produces
enduring positive changes in psychological func-
tioning and in trait measures of prosocial atti-
tudes and behaviors.” In other words, meditators
have the best chance of converting the insights
gleaned during a trip into lasting changes.
B uddhist teacher Gina Sharpe found herself
drawn to psychedelics because she was
seeking a profound shift in her practice. Sharpe
is a cofounder of New York Insight Meditation
Center and was its guiding teacher, but she found
her faith in the institutions of Buddhism shaken
after running into what she calls a “painful wall
of misogyny, abuse of power, and racism” while
doing diversity work in the Buddhist commu-
nity. She recalled her experience with psychedel-
ics in the sixties and thought it might be the only
method powerful enough to allow her to process
the shock and hurt she was feeling.
 Buddhist teacher
Gina Sharpe tried
psychedelics
because she wanted
to revitalize her
meditation practice–
and it worked. She
quips that new
insight hit her right
in her third eye.

So in October 2021, she decided to attend a
MycoMeditations retreat in Jamaica, the country
where she spent the first eleven years of her life
before immigrating to New York. She liked the
idea of being someplace familiar, and that the
center grew its own psychedelic mushrooms. She
would be among a group of about ten partici-
with an eyeshade on and accompanied by a few
facilitators. “Who is that?” the woman asked. One
of the guides said, “Oh, don’t worry, it’s Gina.” The
woman asked her, “Gina, why are you here?”
Sharpe says, “It hit me, right in my third eye.
That is the question that I have been asked by
the Buddhist community after my twenty-five or
PHOTO BY DONNA SVENNEVIK

pants with three or four facilitators in a beautiful
location right on the ocean, with three sessions
scheduled over a week.
On the retreat, she had a powerful encounter in
the very first session: As she walked down a path-
way, she saw another retreatant, who was mid-trip
thirty years of service in it. Why am I here?” She
began to weep. She understood that what she
really needed was not to understand the people
who had hurt her, but to see the ways she had
idealized the dharma, to renegotiate her own
relationship with it.

42 L IO NS R OAR .CO M
 Though she doesn’t regard psychedelics as part
of her Buddhist practice, Sharpe sees no conflict
between Buddhist practice and psychedelic use.
The drugs, she says, are not intoxicants. Buddhist
practice, she says, “is designed to be able to pene-
trate all of those hidden parts of the mind, right?
So why wouldn’t I be willing to take a compound
that might facilitate that process?”
Sharpe’s experience was enhanced signifi-
cantly by the presence of trained guides, just
as Goodman and Griffiths both emphasized.
The focus on skilled facilitators during this new
psychedelic boom seems to be a reaction to the
catastrophic implosion of the sixties’ movement
with its many psychedelic casualties, and train-
ing programs for guides are launching to make
sure there are more than enough available as
possible legalization approaches. (Oregon has
already made psilocybin legal and is working on
guidelines for implementing the law beginning
next year; Colorado is considering a similar ballot
measure this fall.)
Earlier this year, Naropa University in Boulder,
Colorado, began offering a ten-month, two hun-
dred–hour certification in psychedelic-assisted
therapies, combining online instruction and
intermittent residential retreats. Given that
Naropa was founded by Buddhists and is dedi-
cated to contemplative principles, this underlines
the strong connection between Buddhism and
psychedelic practice. But Naropa officials are also
focused on maintaining the Indigenous tradi-
tions that discovered and honored the power of
psychedelic medicine and perfected its ceremo-
nial use long before the hippies of the 1960s. The
program will also focus on maintaining appropri-
ate boundaries between guides and psychedelic
seekers, given the intimacy and vulnerability of
the experience.
Naropa President Chuck Lief sees such train-
ing as critical to the future of the movement.
“I’m not sure I come down on the side of tight
accreditation of guides,” he says. “But on the
other hand, we know there are a bunch of
meditation instructors out there who aren’t very
good, and they’re messing around with people’s
minds. Here, we’re messing around with people’s
minds exponentially more, potentially, because
of the medicines.” Given those risks, he says,
well-trained guides and facilitators are even
more important.
Harrison Rappaport, a researcher at the
University of California, Berkeley, has been work-
ing to develop a similar training program at the
school’s Center for the Science of Psychedelics.
He sees guides as the key to making psyche-
delics work for large numbers of people. He’s a
Vajrayana meditation teacher himself and views
the dharma as the best way to use what one has
learned from psychedelics.
“Somebody said to me once: Say you’re stuck in
a densely forested wood, and you have to get to
the other side of it, and you can’t see the way,” he
says. “A psychedelic lets you take a little helicop-
ter up above the tree line and see the path where
you have to go, but you have to come back down.
Okay, you saw the way, how do you get there?
And that’s what practice is.”
While Rolland Griffiths sees himself as a scien-
tist first, he also believes that his work is part of
a larger arc in human history, something he calls
“the Awakening Project” that includes Buddhism
and other spiritual and mystical practices. “It
really has to do with this fundamental recog-
nition that we’re all in this together,” he says.
“What we want people to do is to awaken to that,
because we know that when people do awaken
to that, they’re going to be more compassionate,
more altruistic. The hope is that such changes
will neutralize some of our primitive motives
that lead to destructive behavior and hurting
one another.”
Or, as Michael Pollan says, we’re ready for
mainstream acceptance of psychedelics “because
we’re desperate. People are like, ‘Bring it on, we
need some new tools.’” 1
Formerly a staff writer at Entertain-
ment Weekly, J E N N I F E R K E I S H I N
A R M S T R O N G has written seven
books, including the New York
Times bestseller Seinfeldia.
JANUARY 202 3 43
 Y E S, N E V E R ,
SOMETIMES?
Buddhism doesn’t have just one thing to say
about consuming alcohol and other intoxicants.
In time for party season, we look at the
surprising diversity of Buddhist views.

I L LU STR ATI ONS BY S É BA ST IE N THI BA ULT

DON’T OPEN
THE DOOR
Intoxication can cause heedlessness, negligence,
and danger. J U S T I N L E E surveys the Buddhist
traditions that abstain from all intoxicants.

C ertain Buddhist traditions, chief amongst

them the Theravadin school centered in
Southeast Asia, have long held an austere per-
spective on the use of intoxicants. This view is
grounded in a strict interpretation of Buddhism’s
fifth precept.
The five precepts, which constitute the foun-
dation of Buddhist ethics, form the basic code of
conduct observed by practicing Buddhists, both
monastics and lay practitioners. The fifth precept
is a call to “abstain from intoxicants that induce a
state of carelessness,” and breaching this precept
is often considered a gateway to violating the
other precepts, foremost among them the vows
against killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, and
harmful speech.
Today, the prevailing view on strict obser-
vance of the fifth precept calls for practitioners
to abstain from three subsets of intoxicants:
distilled liquors, fermented liquors, and other
intoxicants. This is interpreted to include most
recreational drugs, including marijuana, narcot-
ics, and hallucinogens.
However, some scholars have made exceptions
for medicinal uses and a small set of milder
mind-altering substances. For one, the Western
Theravadin monk and writer Thanissaro
Bhikkhu notes that coffee, tea, tobacco, and betel
are not considered intoxicants. Ashin Kelasa, a
Burmese Buddhist monk, takes an even more
nuanced, if not limiting, view of tobacco, noting
that “the great teachers have determined that

44 L IO NS R OAR .CO M
only unwell monks may smoke cigarettes made
with tobacco leaf.” This reflects a traditional
Burmese view that tobacco is medicinal (the
Burmese word for “cigarette” is literally “rolled
medicine”). He further notes that chewing betel
nut, which is made with betel leaf, areca nut, and
lime and acts as a stimulant, is also permissible.
In all cases, however, Buddhists of this mindset
consistently categorize alcoholic beverages and
recreational drugs as intoxicants that violate the
fifth precept.
Beyond the precept itself, traditional texts and
commentaries undergird this prevailing view
on intoxicants. For example, many Theravada
Buddhists learn the Mangala Sutta in the form of
the Thirty-Eight Blessings. The twentieth of these
blessings calls for refraining from intoxicants as a
means of cultivating spiritual development.
In the Sigalovada Sutta, the Buddha identifies
six dangers caused by intoxication: loss of
wealth, increased conflict, susceptibility to illness
and poor health, reputational damage, indecent
exposure, and weakened insight. Further, the
oft-cited Duccaritavipaka Sutta notes the conse-
quences of habitually consuming alcohol, one
of which is rebirth in lower realms. Another
teaching praises the conduct of those who both
abstain from intoxicants while simultaneously
encouraging others to do the same.
For ordained monks of certain schools, while
consuming intoxicants is not considered one of
the four grave offenses resulting in expulsion
JANUARY 202 3 45
 J U ST A
LITTLE
from the Buddhist order, it is nonetheless con- A little beer or wine is okay,
sidered an offense requiring confession. The says S O Z A N M I G L I O L I , as long as you
common thread of these texts is the same: intoxi- remain mindful of yourself and others.
cants cause heedlessness, negligence, and danger,
ultimately disrupting one’s path to spiritual
development and weakening one’s insight and
mindfulness.
Undoubtedly, these views on intoxicants have
I n Zen, we try to understand the spirit of
the five precepts rather than just the words.
The precepts are guides toward the cessation of
been heavily shaped by the historical experiences
suffering, not strict or prescriptive admonitions.
of five Asian countries—Thailand, Myanmar
They are there to open our eyes, to help us see
(Burma), Sri Lanka, Cambodia, and Laos—which
clearly what creates unwholesome karma.
are home to the overwhelming majority of the
A definition of enlightenment is “to see reality
world’s Theravada Buddhists. Four of these five
as it is.” For this reason, the precept “I vow not to
countries were colonized by the British and
intoxicate the mind or body of self or others” is
French in the 1800s. Amid increasing contact
very important. It asks us to keep our eyes open,
with European powers, Buddhist practitioners
our awareness alive, to what creates suffering in
throughout the region gravitated toward more
this world. It directly addresses the issue of not
orthodox Buddhist practices, which emphasized
seeing things clearly and can guide us on our
strict observance of precepts, to combat the pal-
path of awakening in many different ways.
pable threat of imperialism.
Certain traditions also add a positive side, so
Buddhists in the colonies of Ceylon (now Sri
the precept can be followed from a perspective
Lanka), Burma (now Myanmar), and Cambodia
of abundance, such as “I vow not to intoxicate
all railed against intoxicants, especially alcohol,
the mind or body of self or others, but to pro-
organizing large-scale temperance movements
mote clarity and awareness.” When approaching
as a means of reviving and restoring Buddhism.
the precept this way, we include both what
In Burma, charismatic Buddhist monks like Ledi
fosters difficulty as well as a clear path to taking
Sayadaw (best known for popularizing Vipassana
positive action.
meditation) publicly exhorted followers to
The fifth precept tells us that we shouldn’t
undertake pledges to abstain from intoxicants.
compromise our clearmindedness to the point
In nearby Ceylon, hundreds of temperance
where our moral judgments are hampered. And
societies organized by Sinhalese Buddhists had
it doesn’t stop there, because it also asks us not
mushroomed throughout the island by the turn
to become a vehicle for others to do so. This is
of the twentieth century. The legacy of these tem-
important because while people might remain
perance movements continues to this day. 1
aware of the ways in which they get intoxicated,
they often pay little attention to how they can
intoxicate other people’s minds and bodies.
Whether its a substance or a word, we should be
aware of what we take in and what we offer others.
JUSTIN LEE is a Burmese Ameri-
So as long as a person is not entering a space of
can writer with a specific focus clouding body or mind, social drinking or having
on Southeast Asian issues at the a glass of wine or a beer can be okay. Of course, if
intersection of class, identity, you are in recovery or underage, this is definitely
religion, and society.
not the case. This is why most traditions who

46 L IO NS R OAR .CO M
believe in the middle way of using intoxicants
don’t just say that it is alright to drink moder-
ately, because that means a different thing to
different people. We must also be very aware of
the ways in which circumstances change. Maybe
you are more tired today, or maybe you have an
empty stomach. The meaning of “drinking mod-
erately” changes from one moment to another.
One of the ways to understand one’s relation-
ship to this precept has to do with the intention.
Asking yourself why you want to have a glass of
wine, or binge-watch a TV show, opens up the
possibility of understanding of how you could
actually be misusing the substance or the show.
Bringing awareness to the “why” is a way to
engage with the precept in a healthy way, because
there is no good excuse to cloud your judgment,
not even a celebration.
Being mindful of the effect of our actions is
key. We should stay in touch with our mindful-
ness every time we drink, watch TV, or engage
in social media, because sometimes we can
get distracted or distanced from ourselves and
before we know it we have had that extra beer
or seen that extra episode that tips the balance.
Mindfulness ensures that we connect with the
fifth precept in a way that is not strict, and at the
same time, not naive. 1
SOZ A N M IG LIOLI is a Zen priest
and teacher in the Shunryu Su-
zuki Roshi lineage. He currently
serves as the president of the San
Francisco Zen Center.
JANUARY 202 3 47
 DRINK IN
WISDOM
It’s challenging to relax our fixed views,
says J U D Y L I E F . Drinking within a
sacred context can help.
F rom ancient times alcohol has been used as
a component of religious rituals. In some
Hindu and Buddhist traditions alcohol is called
amrita, “no-death,” the elixir of immortality. In
the West, alcohol is sometimes called “the water
of life.” Sacred rituals such as the Jewish seder
and the Christian communion service include
wine in the liturgy.
Yet many other spiritual traditions and
religious communities teach abstinence from
alcohol. We humans are clearly conflicted about
how to deal with this powerful substance. Is it a
blessing or a curse?
The practice of Vajrayana or tantric Buddhism
is about transmutation. It is about changing
poison into medicine, finding the sacred within
the profane, the sanity within neurosis, the
blessing within the curse. It is a form of alchemy.
But instead of transforming lead into gold, you
are transforming confusion into wisdom, and
you can use substances like meat and alcohol as a
means of doing so.
In Vajrayana Buddhism, practitioners drink
alcohol and eat meat in the context of an elabo-
rate group ritual called a vajra feast. For people
who because of their vows or tradition refrain
from meat and liquor, this is quite shocking—and
it is meant to be. You are breaking the rules. By
including meat and liquor, you are inviting the
forbidden into your practice.
But feast practice is not just about eating meat
and drinking liquor. It points to the more funda-
mental question of how we deal with negativity
altogether—all those parts of ourselves and our
experiences that we fear and avoid. How do you
48 L IO NS R OAR .CO M
deal with your anger, your lust, your greed? Do
you try to curb them, to avoid them, to keep them
under control? Do you try to manage them with
your mindfulness and awareness? Or do you find
a way to include them in your practice?
Instead of denying, fighting, or avoiding such
negativity, in the Vajrayana you make use of it
to enrich your practice. The challenge is to con-
front negativity directly—so directly that your
relationship to it begins to transform and you
find that within negativity and confusion there
is wisdom.
Mental and emotional rigidity are hard to
change. It is easy to get stuck in fixed views
and lose the freshness and vitality of dharmic
practice, and life altogether. In fact, one of the
hardest challenges for many serious dharma
practitioners is to learn to relax, to loosen up.
The use of drinking within the sacred context of
a vajra feast can help with that. Alcohol has the
power to dissolve the solid boundaries we cling
to between confusion and awakening, between
self and other. Our tightness, our fixed opinions,
our clinging to the familiar, our rigid attachment
to control—all this needs to be intoxicated to
liberate the wisdom within the confusion.
Mystical experiences are also a form of intox-
ication, as boundaries dissolve and you are
taken over or infused with the divine. Allowing
your fixations to dissolve in the sacred context
of group practice liberates joy, devotion, humor,
and delight. In the vajra feast, when drinking is
done in a sacred context and within an elaborate
ritual setting, alcohol is not an indulgence and it
is not frivolous entertainment.
 In The Rain of Wisdom, a collection of reali-
zation songs of Tibetan masters, there is a song
about three yogis who come to visit the monas-
tery of the great master Gampopa. On the tenth
day of the month, according to tantric tradition,
the yogis gathered meat and alcohol to prepare a
vajra feast, or ganachakra.
They were having a great time chanting and
meditating, drinking and eating, singing and
dancing, when the head disciplinary monk heard
the ruckus. As there was a strict no-drinking
rule for the monastics there, he chased after the
drunken yogis with a stick and kicked them out.
At the time, Gampopa is in his hermitage,
deep in meditation enjoying a vision of many
dakas and dakinis arriving at his monastery and
filling the space with their powerful presence.
But then Gampopa started to see that one by one
they were leaving, and the atmosphere of sacred
energy was dwindling away. Gampopa sensed
that something was not quite right, so he came
out of retreat to see what was going on.
When Gampopa heard that his head disciplinar-
ian had kicked out the three yogis, he got angry.
He knew that it was the sacred upset of their feast
practice that attracted the devas. He ran after the
yogis and pleaded with them to come back to the
monastery. The song’s poignant refrain alternates
between Gampopa’s pleas to “Come back up!” and
the yogis’ response, “We’re coming back!”
In his attachment to the outward forms of the
monastery, the disciplinarian monk missed what
was really going on. Forms that are designed to
nurture and hold a direct experience of the sacred
can become ends in themselves. The forms remain,
but the sacredness is lost. And if there is no inner
direct experience of the sacred, what is the point of
outer discipline? At the same time, no matter how
many profound inner experiences you may have,
without discipline they are simply indulgence.
On the tantric path it is important to distin-
guish the apparent and the hidden, the outer
form and the inner experience. What may appear
to be discipline may not be; what may appear to
JANUARY 202 3 49
 be indulgence may not be. The challenge is to
maintain proper discipline without losing the
inner playfulness and untamed nature of mysti-
cal experience.
This juxtaposition of outer monastic or moral-
istic forms with inner yogic practice is a thread
that runs throughout the tantric or Vajrayana
path. Gampopa himself followed the monastic
disciplines meticulously, and he required his
monks to do so also. But behind the scenes, so
to speak, his inner world was visionary and
W H AT I S YO U R
PHONE
D O I N G TO YO U ?
Media consumption can be a form of intoxication.
O F O S U J O N E S - Q U A R T E Y suggests
bringing mindfulness to bear.
T hich Nhat Hanh often discussed a practice he
called “mindful consumption” when teach-
ing about “the four nutriments.” These are four
ways we consume the outer world to inform, influ-
ence, and sustain ourselves: edible food, the food
of sense impression, the food of volition, and the
food of consciousness. When we neglect to apply
mindfulness to how we consume, we invite all
sorts of potential disasters into our lives. But when
consumed mindfully, each of these “foods” can be
a basis for insight, compassion, and awakening.
Media and entertainment are examples of the
food of consciousness, and when we consume
them unmindfully, they can become a form of
intoxication. You see a trending topic on Twitter
involving the calamity of some celebrity, or hear
a story on the news about the hateful rhetoric
from a politician. Once hooked, you begin
voraciously ingesting the toxicity and suffering
embedded in these types of media.
What is this doing to you? You scroll through
Instagram, experiencing the suffering arising
50 L IO NS R OAR .CO M
unbounded. So traditionally it is said that even
those who meticulously observe monastic rules—
who never touch a drop—inwardly follow the dis-
ciplines and practices of a yogi, intoxicating fixed
mind and transmuting curse into blessing. 1
is a Buddhist teacher
J U DY L I E F
and author of Making Friends
with Death. Currently, she lives
in Boulder, Colorado.
from comparison, experiencing the stress and
anxiety of each post vying for your attention,
projecting the facade of perfection, inviting
greed, self-loathing, and delusion into your heart.
How is that impacting you? Are these “foods” not
the basis of our current difficulties with intrusive
thoughts and anxiety? When the suffering within
us—our fear, anger, loneliness, sadness, confu-
sion, self-loathing, you name it—flares up, the
pain of experiencing it is often too much to bear.
Without mindfulness, we resort to further media
intoxication to make ourselves feel better.
Mindfulness, argued Thay, makes it entirely
possible to consume in a way that supports
healing, growth, and awakening. When we feel
suffering growing within us, instead of fueling
it with media that is full of the toxins of anger,
violence, mindless desire, and deluded thinking,
we can acknowledge the toxins and understand
that suffering is a part of the human condition.
Thay suggests you might decide instead to listen
to a beautiful song to encourage yourself. You
may choose to look at a beautiful painting, read
poetry, listen to dharma talks, or watch a movie
that inspires you.
On social media, you have the power to
manipulate the algorithms in your favor by fol-
lowing accounts and people who inspire the best
within you, transforming doom scrolling into
joy scrolling. Through mindful consumption,
we learn to suffer well, allowing the suffering
within us to be exposed to the sunlight of our
awareness and eventually wither and vanish,
never to return, or perhaps return with lessening
intensity each time.
At Plum Village, there is an opportunity to take
what is known as the five mindfulness trainings.
Based on the Buddha’s five precepts—against
killing, stealing, lying, sexual misconduct, and
intoxicants—the five trainings guide practi-
tioners toward a happier, safer, more ethical life
with mindfulness as their guiding light. In the
trainings, one commits oneself to be aware of
the suffering caused by different actions and to
apply mindfulness to help reduce the suffering
in the world. This is done by not only refraining
from behaviors that cause suffering as much
as possible, but by actively engaging in words,
actions, and consumption that support happi-
ness, liberation, and awakening.
Avoiding media intoxication by practicing
mindful consumption, we give ourselves the gift
of living with ease and grace in the world as we
work through the human condition. Engaging
the world around us with loving awareness and
consuming media that supports our liberation,
we give ourselves the opportunity to experience
happiness in the here and now. 1
OFOSU JONES - QUARTEY (aka
Born I) is a meditation teacher,
musician, and author living in the
Washington, D.C. area.
JANUARY 202 3 51
BREAKING FREE
from ADDICTION
The dharma can help people wake up to the truth
of their substance abuse and find a way to get—and
stay—sober. We present four true stories of recovery.
THE END OF SUFFERING
VALERIE MASON-JOHN struggled with addiction.
The four noble truths taught her that she wasn’t alone.
I WA S I N TH E HE L L R E AL M . I’d been diagnosed
with extreme bulimia and my only respite
from the struggle was using drugs. I thought
the only way out was to take my life, and I had
tried three times before the age of eighteen. In
my twenties, I was slowly killing myself with-
out concern, numbed through my hedonistic
lifestyle of running nightclubs and Queer
beauty contests, and producing festivals. My life
swirled around at such a speed I could hardly
catch my breath.
When I came across the four noble truths,
it was a thunderbolt moment. I had thought I
was the only one who was suffering and there
was something terribly wrong with me. Not so,
the dharma told me—everyone suffers. This
teaching catapulted me out of the hell realm
into the human realm. I had woken up and
could not pretend to be asleep anymore. I knew
I’d found something that would profoundly
change my life.
I had been constantly searching for something
outside of myself to make me happy. This was
my life summed up in a sentence. I could now
see how I had been creating extra suffering in my
life, due to craving, greed, hatred, and delusion.
The third noble truth—that the end
of suffering comes with the end of
craving and greed—seized me. I was
caught by the dharma. That there
could be an end to suffering blew
my mind.
The real work began when I was
able to metabolize the truths and
begin the journey of transforming
my speech, actions, and mind
through the eightfold path. This
admonishment to us is from the
Buddha’s first discourse:
Monks, there is addiction to indul-
gence of sense pleasure which is
coarse, lowly, unprofitable, and the
PHOTO COURTESY OF THE AUTHOR
way of the ordinary person. There
is addiction to self-mortification,
which is painful, low, and coarse.
Avoiding both these extremes, the
Tathagata, the noble one, has real-
ized the vision, the knowledge, that
gives rise to calm, insight, enlighten-
ment, nirvana.
 I thought about these words
often. Of course, I relapsed and
found myself rumbling around in
the hungry ghost realm. It took a
great deal of time to put all these
teachings into action. After many
years, this teaching was enough to
liberate me from my addictive and
compulsive life.
One day, my publisher reached
out and asked if I had another
book I wanted to write. I thought
about the Buddha’s words and
my struggle. I’d never been public SOMETHING CAME UNDONE
about my addictions nor my compulsive
S. BRENT RODRÍGUEZ-PLATE ’s mind and body
behaviors. I recovered in the rooms of medita-
were disconnected when he was drinking.
tion and Buddhism. As far as I am concerned,
Meditation helped him reconnect them.
the oldest recovery program we know of—the
oldest therapeutic program we know of today—
is the Buddhist teachings. But could I step into O N E DAY I WO KE U P and realized I was vermin.
the light? Unlike Gregor Samsa in Kafka’s story, it didn’t
“Oh no,” I thought, “that’s not sexy. Why do I happen overnight. My metamorphosis was
want to talk about recovery?” Could I really wade long, perhaps as long as my life. But one way or
into the coarse and lowly days of my addiction? another, one day in midlife, I awoke, had a vision,
Could I talk about my missteps of self-morti- and realized something had to give.
fication and the painful mistakes I’d made on It wasn’t one of those look-in-the-mirror
my way to healing? It was something I’d held moments in the movies, confronting my own face
so closely, had grappled with for so long it felt and seeing a stranger. My vision was a sight seen
intrinsic to my existence. through bloodshot eyes: a display of Budweiser
As mulled this over on a walk, I heard this cans scattered about in my temporary digs,
voice say: “What you have to offer is your recov- their vacant pop tops staring at me like a dozen
PHOTO COURTESY OF THE AUTHOR

ery.” So I offer it to you, that it may bring you
hope too.
is a senior teacher in the
VA L E R I E M A S O N - J O H N
Triratna Order and author of Detox Your Heart:
Meditations for Emotional Trauma.
hungry eyes, all hollowed out and empty. “Yet
again,” I thought, as my aching head pulsed and I
brooded in my solitude. “I must change my life.”
Living estranged from my family was its own
hell. My endlessly gracious partner had reached
her wit’s end. My children, in their youthful
ways, tried to take my dependencies in stride,

JANUARY 202 3 55
 but try as they might, children are not so resil-
ient. They were left battered and scarred. And I
was their batterer. Never physically, but emotion-
ally, their little lives impressed upon. One of us
had to go.
A recovery program made sense. Most of
these, I quickly learned, were extensions of the
psychoanalytic talking cure. We talked about
our problems, confessing our powerlessness in
the face of alcohol. I think the program works
(it can, I’ve seen it happen), based on Christian
ideas centered around a sense of having a hole
in one’s life. The French mathematician Blaise
Pascal once wrote that we all have a “god-shaped”
vacuum in our lives. Recovery and redemption
alike arise through filling that hole.
So, we talked to fill up the emptiness. But it
kept revolving around spoken words, sticking to
metaphorical linguistics. It wasn’t long before
those empty aluminum eyes were staring back at
me again.
On one of those vermin days, I drank myself
stupid and ended up at Blue Cliff Monastery in
the Catskills, an offshoot of Thich Nhat Hanh’s
Plum Village. As the drink wore off at five in the
morning, I found myself in a prolonged seated
meditation, all zazen and zafus. For the next two
days, I didn’t talk to anyone. (Most of the monks
only spoke Vietnamese anyway.) I spent the time
in silence, doing seated and walking meditations,
all the time, being in my body. I walked out of
that place and began to get sober.
It would be nice if the story ended there. Soon
after, my family life began its healing, but there
were miles to go. Sobriety takes a long time. Not
drinking is one thing; being of sober mind and
body is another. What I learned at that monas-
tery, through my walking and sitting, was some-
thing that moved me closer to being whole.
I learned that my main metaphor had to
switch. I had to stop thinking of myself with a
hole at the heart of my life and begin thinking
of it as a canyon with two sides. On one side is
the mind. The other side is the body. Becoming
whole was not accomplished by filling up, or
even bridging that gap, but by pushing the two
56 L IO NS R OAR .CO M
sides together again like a great geological meld-
ing to counteract the forces of history.
Pascal and the psychoanalysts were wrong.
There is nothing lacking. There’s only an
ever-widening distance eroding between our
body and mind.
While my main metaphor had to switch, that
was just the first step. To go further into the
metaphor, to find a way to bring mind and body
together, I also had to get rid of the metaphors
themselves. Or, at least, I had to return to the
realities on which the metaphors are based. My
ongoing Buddhist meditation practices helped
me see how the distance I felt between mind and
body may be just a metaphor I use.
As a professor of religious studies, I often
have my students reflect on the term “religion.”
The Latin roots of the term mean “re-binding”
(re + ligare, “binding,” a word also at the root of
terms like “ligament” or “legal”). While it suggests
bringing things together (communities, people,
their gods), “re-ligion” also implies that some-
thing has come undone. Some original binding
no longer worked, things got untied, and they
must be re-bound. Religion is a metaphor too.
In this light, I sometimes like to think that my
journey through midlife, from alcoholism to
healing, is a religious journey. Not because I’ve
found the thing to fill the hole—whether Jesus or
Buddha or a lot of words or an inflated sense of
self—but because I’ve been trying to re-bind my
mind and body.
I’ve continued a modified Zen practice that
weaves together a lot of walking meditation with
some seated meditation and only a little talking. On
the days I practice best, I’m most in my body, and I
feel the most sober. I don’t need a lot of words. The
practice doesn’t help me “fill” a hole. It makes me
whole by showing me that things like my body and
PHOTO COURTESY OF THE AUTHOR
mind, my self and family, my work and play, can be
bound together again, as they always have been.
is executive director of the
S . B R E N T R O D R Í G U E Z - P L AT E
Association for Public Religion and Intellectual Life and a
professor of religious studies at Hamilton College.

THE UNDEFENDED HEART
MARY STANCAVAGE used intoxicants to avoid
painful emotions. Meditation allowed her to touch
her grief and heal.
A LTH O UGH I HA D B EE N I N R E COV E RY from
alcohol and other substances for more than sev-
enteen years, I felt I was at a dead end and could
not see a way out.
I had worked a twelve-step program faithfully
for years, but something was missing. I was in a
lot of pain, whether I admitted it or not, and had
hit a brick wall. I no longer used food, alcohol,
drugs, or cigarettes to dull my senses, but I had
no tools to deal with my feelings. I found myself
at an impasse.
It was soon after this that I began a formal
Buddhist practice in the Insight tradition. I
had dabbled in meditation over the years,
practiced yoga, and read some Buddhist books,
but nothing had landed in a meaningful way.
This dead end was the catalyst I needed to get
serious about practice, and it may have saved
my life.
My father died when
I was five and the grief
I had stuffed away
showed up front and
center when I began to
sit. After his death, my
mother had struggled
with depression and
schizophrenia. This also
had an impact on me,
and it began to make
itself known during
practice. I had resisted
these and other uncom-
fortable feelings all my
life, putting them away
into little intellectual
boxes that could be kept
on a shelf. I’d take them
out occasionally, point
to them, and be quite
dismissive about any
part they played in my adult world. Now I started
to take these traumas seriously and allow myself
to experience them.
My years of recovery allowed me to under-
stand how these experiences may have fueled
my addictions, but I hadn’t learned how to turn
toward the painful feelings and be with them
fully. Instead, I created stories about my place in
the world. I felt I was always on the outside look-
ing in and eternally inadequate. This fueled a
perfectionism in me that became painful because
it was unattainable. I spent my whole life trying
to figure things out, rarely doing anything with-
out a deep analysis, which usually led to doing
nothing at all. Or I’d spend time thinking about
what I should or shouldn’t have done in the past.
Unattended feelings and false narratives built
a wall around me so vast and thick it seemed
impossible to breach, and I’d done everything in
my power to keep it that way. I was determined to
think my way out of feeling or die trying.
Sitting meditation made me stop. It taught me
how to let go of the thoughts and distractions. It
let me know there were things underneath the

JANUARY 202 3 57
chatter of the mind. It connected me with my
body, which had been the enemy for most of my
When KEVIN GRIFFIN combined his recovery journey
life. It let me experience the first noble truth and
and his Buddhist practice, both deepened.
acknowledge dukkha, suffering, firsthand. That
was not what my mind wanted, but it was such a
relief to let go of the conditioning that had fueled
my addiction over the years.
The surprise was that the fear of touching
grief and sorrow was worse than experiencing
them. The wall I’d built was much more painful
to maintain than befriending the emotions. It
was not necessarily fun or easy, but it really was a
simpler way. For me, it’s the only way. In the years
since starting a formal practice, I have continued
the journey from thinking to feeling. I also found
the courage to seek out therapy, which I would
never have done otherwise since it implied
imperfection.
I’ve learned that integrating Buddhist practice
into my recovery has also been a journey of
introducing compassion into my vocabulary, spe-
cifically compassion for myself. I believe whole-
heartedly in the teachings of nonharming and
living the precepts, but applying them to myself
has always been a challenge. It was in the middle
of a long retreat that I allowed more of the wall
to come down. It felt like finally exhaling after
holding my breath for decades. I could finally feel
the feelings and hold myself with care.
Today, I have not arrived anywhere or accom-
plished anything, but even more of the wall has
fallen away. A commitment to deep intimacy
with experience, without preferences, and the
willingness to be present for whatever arises,
has lessened the desire to build a barrier against
feelings that were the root of my addictions.
The main thing is that I have to be intentional
about it. Intention is foundational to the practice,
and my intention is to live with an undefended
heart. This is the way of peace. This is the way of
liberation. This is the way of complete recovery.
is a meditation teacher based in
M A R Y S TA N C AVA G E
the Los Angeles area. She reflects daily on what it
means to live with an undefended heart.
58 L IO NS R OAR .CO M
ONE PATH
BU DD H IS M D I D N’ T GE T ME SOB ER . I’m not
even sure if it helped. I needed the twelve steps
to make that change. What Buddhism did do was
give me a path that then sustained and deepened
my recovery over almost four decades.
I was practicing Vipassana for five years before
I got sober, although my practice was pretty
deluded. It started out okay, but soon degener-
ated into a lot of magical thinking. When I finally
got clean and sober (quitting alcohol and drugs),
my meditation practice took on a more practical
purpose: maintaining enough clarity and calm
to hang in with the early days of recovery. But
pairing my understanding of Buddhism with the
twelve steps took a while. In 1985, the dharma
world and recovery world didn’t have much con-
tact with each other.
At first, I couldn’t see how the language of the
steps—powerlessness, higher power, inventory,
amends, etc.—fit with Buddhism. Even though
I’d been on some long retreats, I didn’t really
understand the underlying meaning of Buddhist
teachings. So at that point, I just thought I better
keep the two apart. I knew I needed to stay sober,
and I loved dharma practice, and in some way, I
was almost afraid of letting them blend for fear
I’d lose one or the other.
For some time, I was able to skim over the
surface of the God language in the steps. I kind
of surrendered to it without giving it too much
thought. I really just needed to rebuild my life,
so I didn’t think it was worth worrying about
whether there was a God or not. I had bigger
problems to face. An aging rock musician, I knew
I had to find another career. A high school drop-
out, I realized getting some schooling might help.
A failure at relationships, I wanted to learn how
to sustain intimacy with a partner.
It was only at around six or seven years sober
that I really started to question what my spiritual
path was. If I identified as a Buddhist, how did
 that fit with “turning your will and
your life over to the care of God,” as
the twelve steps required? So began
the next phase of my recovery and
my Buddhist practice. I discovered
that the foundation of moral con-
duct I’d developed with the twelve
steps was a great foundation for
Buddhist practice. My meditation
and my understanding of the
dharma began to penetrate much
deeper than it ever had. At the same
time, having used the steps for some
years, I’d come to see the subtler
undergirding of that program. Now
I could embark on the project of
finding parallels and intertwining
these two paths. someone in a twelve-step program, the fact that
Looking back, it’s interesting to see how these there was someone there who understood their
questions, and the challenges the two paths condition made them feel more welcome. At the
presented, forced me to reflect in ways I would same time, the growth of a distinctly Buddhist
not have done otherwise. Without my addiction approach to recovery has allowed people who are
and subsequent recovery, and especially without alienated by the twelve steps to still find a path
the theism of the twelve steps, my Buddhist prac- to sobriety.
tice would likely have followed a conventional Today, these two paths I wanted to keep apart
trajectory. The need to reconcile these apparently are so integrated into my understanding that it is
conflicting approaches to spiritual life turned out difficult for me to talk about one without refer-
to be an opportunity. encing the other. The four noble truths seem like
Dealing with addiction made me much more a description of the problem of addiction and its
cognizant of the importance of sila—right or eventual solution. Suffering is caused by craving;
moral conduct—in Buddhism. The idea of I’m powerless over that craving. That means I
dharma as a higher power, which Buddhadasa need to find a power “greater than myself ” to
Bhikkhu pioneered, gave me a sense of the sig- deal with my addiction. And so I “turn my will
nificance of following the eightfold path I didn’t and my life over” to the power of the dharma, the
PHOTO COURTESY OF THE AUTHOR

understand previous to recovery. When your
practice is a life-or-death struggle, it raises the
stakes in ways a nonaddict may not experience.
Eventually, when I was invited to teach, I
came to see myself as a bridge between people
in recovery and the dharma. While a Buddhist
center might look alien or intimidating to
path of awakening. What could be more perfect
than that? 1
KEVIN GRIFFIN is the author of One Breath at a Time:
Buddhism and the Twelve Steps. He is a co-founder of
the Buddhist Recovery Network.

JANUARY 202 3 59
 The Dharma
of Fiction
Novels, fables, and plays—they’re stories that are
made up, yet they often express deep truths.
Five writers and thinkers explore the spiritual
teachings they’ve found in fiction.

THE NAKED TRUTH

CHARLES JOHNSON on “The Emperor’s New Clothes.”

A TRULY G REAT S T ORY like “The Emperor’s
New Clothes” can be compared to an old, old
coin. It has traversed continents and civiliza-
tions, picking up slight changes along the way,
yet still bearing the palm oil and wisdom of the
millions who’ve handled it.
We know the famous 1837 version by Hans
Christian Andersen, but I was delighted to discover
that there was a 1335 version in a collection titled
PHOTO BY MEGUMI YOSHIDA
entourage are tricked by cunning weavers who
supposedly present him with finely wrought
clothing—with an interesting catch. They claim,
depending on the version, that anyone who was
born “illegitimate” or not fathered by the man he
or she thinks is their father, or who is unworthy
of the official positions they hold, or is a fool, will
not be able to see such finery.
Naturally, everyone fearing disapproval,

El Conde Lucanor, by Don Juan Manuel, prince of
Villena. According to Wikipedia, Andersen read
this in a German translation from the Spanish. An
even older Indian variant exists as well.
All versions of the story that I’m aware of have
the same basic premise. A silly king and his royal
shame, or social ostracism says, yes, they can see
the invisible clothes!
While not intentionally influenced by
Buddhism, this story speaks beautifully to our
zeitgeist today, and to the power of collective
illusions. We conform. We go along to get along

JANUARY 202 3 61
 “What’s this?” thought the Emperor. “I can
see nothing at all! That is terrible. Am I
stupid? Am I not fit to be Emperor?”
—HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN

socially. We act and talk as if we believe, for exam-
ple, that there is something enduring and substan-
tive called the “self,” because everyone speaks that
way. And how often have we heard award-winning
films, novels, and products praised to the skies,
only to realize on inspection, like the child in
personal loss or gain. It is the child innocently
blurting out, “But he hasn’t got anything on,” that
liberates the intimidated crowd watching the
promenading, naked king to at last speak truth
“The Emperor’s
to power. New Clothes”
May we all one day have the courage of that child.
ILLUSTRATION BY REX WHISTLER, 1935

has resonated
Andersen’s version, that there is no “there” there? with so many
readers that the
We act as if we believe. Even wrong speech can be
title has become
powerful, especially if it appeals to our vanities an idiom. It
and fears, seducing the mind to accept what it CHARLES JOHNSON won the refers to people’s
National Book Award for groupthink
knows—by the evidence of its senses—is not true.
Fiction for his novel Middle tendency to
It is a child in Andersen’s version of the story Passage. He’s coauthor of avoid criticizing
who sees reality clearly. The child has a Zen-like the new graphic novel The what others are
beginner’s mind, one unconditioned by fears of Eightfold Path. praising.

62 L IO NS R OAR .CO M
THERE SHE WAS
EMILY FR ANCE on Mrs. Dalloway.

V IRGI NI A WO O LF ’S NOV E L Mrs. Dalloway

follows a single day in the life of a British social-
ite in 1923. The plot is simple. Mrs. Dalloway
buys flowers in a London shop, has a visit from
a former suitor, and hosts a party. But the novel
isn’t about all that. It’s about the vast inner life
of one woman, her mind a field of immeasurable
size. Woolf painstakingly traces every thought
her heroine experiences, and this is part of what
makes it remarkable: it was one of the first novels
to follow the stream of consciousness.
Woolf wrote Mrs. Dalloway in the wake of
World War I, when writers were turning away
from the chaotic details of outward events to
the fragmented movements of inner ones. Mrs.
Dalloway is pummeled by delicious memories of
her youth, feelings of inadequacy in the present, Moments like this are buds on
and fears about what may come. And aging! Oh,
the horror of all this aging. The powerful under-
the tree of life. Flowers of
tow of mind is pleasing and terrifying by turns. darkness they are.
And it’s nothing if not familiar.
—VIRGINIA WOOLF
Mrs. Dalloway’s story captures the very essence
of dukkha, the Buddhist term for a dissatisfaction
that permeates our lives, even at the best of times. be another way of being in the world. Perhaps
She feels something is off-kilter. Things aren’t as there’s a path, some working of the mind, that
they’re supposed to be. Desperate for a solution, her might ease all of this suffering.
mind tries to solve the puzzle of this discomfort. Our existence, we learn, is suffused with dukkha;
What happened to that sharp girl of eighteen? every second is touched by its turmoil. It can be
She’s changed into a middle-aged woman she subtle, or it can be extreme. But being aware of this
hardly recognizes. She chose a husband when is a momentous beginning. A flower finally noticed.
she was very young. Did she make the wrong I find the dharma most present in the last line
choice? Is that the problem? Or is it the career she of the novel. Mrs. Dalloway steps into the middle
craved but never had? If only she could figure of her party, her thoughts silenced for just a
out what to do about it all, life would be more… moment: “There she was.”
satisfactory. This is dukkha, and she’s mired in it. I see a woman at peace. Awakened to her life.
Then, unexpectedly, Mrs. Dalloway is aware of
nothing but the sounds of a busy London street.
She’s captivated by the scent of a flower, or in awe
E M I LY F R A N C E ’s
debut adult
of fresh air. These moments of rapture are so well
novel, Daughter Dalloway, is a
described, so powerful—they teach us. Reading retelling of Woolf’s Mrs. Dallo-
them, I experience a beautiful lightness akin to way. Her books for young adults
relief, to hope. The scenes suggest there might include Zen and Gone.

JANUARY 202 3 63
 NOT ME, NOT MINE
In one of LAUREN SHUFR AN on King Lear.
Shakespeare’s
most famous IF T HERE ’S A WO R D that resounds throughout for Cordelia—his darling—to flatter him as they
tragedies, King
PHOTO BY JULIA MARGARET CAMERON, 1872

Lear decides
King Lear—one of Shakespeare’s most devastating have, she has “nothing” to say. Lear responds
to divide his plays—it’s the “nothing” that Lear’s youngest with rage.
kingdom among daughter says to him in the play’s first scene. The word “nothing” appears thirty-four times
his daughters. It’s
Lear, King of Britain, is proclaiming his deci- in King Lear. It’s a word that quietly evokes
been said that
Lear’s daughter
sion to renounce the throne and partition it off shunyata, “emptiness” or “voidness.” The defini-
Cordelia sym- to his three daughters. But he imposes a test: the tion of shunyata varies among Buddhist schools,
bolizes death. daughter who publicly declares she loves him but it’s most often understood as a natural
When Lear rages
most will receive the largest share. Lear’s two consequence of two other views: nonself (all
against her, he’s
raging against his eldest daughters, Goneril and Regan, play to their phenomena are empty of a permanent, inherent
mortality. father’s wish to be venerated. But when it’s time nature) and dependent arising (all phenomena

64 L IO NS R OAR .CO M
arise interdependently, contingent on transitory
causes and conditions). In other words, nothing
in this world possesses enduring identity; all
phenomena are interconnected in an endless flux
of co-becoming.
Granted, shunyata isn’t “nothingness.”
Shunyata is a concept that invites us to see all
form, feeling, perception, and consciousness
as “not me, not mine.” Lear hasn’t touched this
insight, and so Cordelia’s “nothing” humiliates
him and exposes how ultimately powerless he is.
Not understanding nonself, he grasps at identity.
(“Doth any here know me? This is not Lear….
Who is it that can tell me who I am?”)

Nothing will come of nothing.

—WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

Wounded and enraged, Lear denies Cordelia

her portion of the kingdom, making her a
“stranger to [his] heart and [himself ].” Yet Goneril
and Regan turn out to be anything but loving
daughters, and Lear’s rage at their “ingratitude”
grows stronger with each new insult. In the
course of the king’s eruptions, we observe a
pattern: his reaction, each time, is to renounce
whoever has angered or hurt him, labeling them
“not me, not mine.” The consequence of this is
ten gruesome deaths.
Shakespeare’s wisdom here is that renouncing
the other is always a failed strategy. Lear can’t
disclaim his own daughters because language
has no bearing on blood. This truth extends to all
our ties. Even as we attempt to distance ourselves
from those who hurt us, we can’t ultimately say
“not me, not mine” of another human being. The
“emptiness” of shunyata is also the radical full-
ness of our essential interconnectedness.
is the author of
L AU R E N S H U F R A N
The Buddha and the Bard: Where
Shakespeare’s Stage Meets Bud-
dhist Scriptures.
SAFE HAVEN
SHYAM SELVADUR AI on Paradise.
I’ VE B E E N LOOK IN G for examples in fiction,
whether Buddhist or not, of the three poisons.
It’s easy to find great examples of greed/craving
and anger/hatred, which are pretty much the
staple of fiction. But the poison of delusion,
moha—the erroneous idea that anything is stable
and unchanging, which is the ultimate cause of
suffering—is harder to find.
Which brings me to Toni Morrison’s Paradise,
a novel that feels Buddhist in its capturing of
moha. The novel is set in the town of Ruby. It
was established by a community of African
Americans who fled anti-Black oppression in the
late nineteenth century and created their own
version of the Garden of Eden, a utopia.
Now, it’s 1976 and the winds of change are blow-
ing ever stronger into Ruby. First, there’s the Black
empowerment movement, which is deplored by the
male elders. They fear this will cause their youth
to question and disobey the way things are done
in their town. Then there’s the women’s liberation
movement. This is threatening because essential to
the establishment and continuation of the utopia

JANUARY 202 3 65
 How exquisitely human
was the wish for permanent
happiness, and how thin
human imagination became
trying to achieve it.
—TONI MORRISON
of Ruby is a patriarchal hierarchy in which women
must remain compliant, chaste, and serving.
Fear of change becomes focused on some women
who live in a former convent a little distance from
the town—a place that has become a safe haven
for women fleeing various kinds of violence and
oppression. Unlike Ruby, the convent has no real
hierarchy, and these women are free to be who
they wish. As a result, the convent women soon
become the symbol for all that threatens Ruby. So
the women must go. Early one morning, the men
arrive at the convent and massacre the women.
The massacre in the novel is result of moha.
The men cannot face the nature of reality, which
is change, so they sublimate their anguish and
fear into the destruction of the perceived agents of
change. What happens in Paradise is a microcosm
of what has happened throughout history. Utopias
tend to require massacres, in order to stay utopias. I
find myself returning again and again to this notion
of the danger of utopias—not just on a societal level,
but also on a personal level. We cause so much
destruction and unhappiness by trying to keep
something we value from changing, especially the
places or people where we’ve parked our happiness.
How interesting that Morrison, who wasn’t
Buddhist, has so insightfully captured moha! But
then, Morrison was a one of the great observers and
interpreters of the human condition, as Siddhartha
Gautama was so many centuries before.
S H YA M S E LVA D U R A I ’s
new novel,
Mansions of the Moon, is a his-
torical novel about the Buddha’s
wife, Yasodhara.
66 L IO NS R OAR .CO M
WHEN DID THE
WAR BEGIN?
CINDY LITTLEFAIR on War and Peace.
T H E R E’S A MOM ENT in reading War and Peace
when I say, “Tolstoy! You Buddhist you!”
At this point, I’m almost a thousand pages in.
Tolstoy’s love of humanity is clear. He under-
stands their frailties and failings, their quotidian
concerns. He scorns the selfish, upholds the
moral. I am hypnotized by his characters, the
movers and shakers of early nineteenth-century
Russian society. Now Napoleon is about to
invade Moscow. Enter the dharma.
“The first thing history does,” says Tolstoy
through the character of General Kutuzov,
commander-in-chief of the Russian forces, “is to
take an arbitrary series of continuous events and
examine it separately, whereas in fact no event
can ever have a beginning, because an individual
event flows without any break in continuity
from another.”
Tolstoy is saying that the basic condition of
phenomena is one of motion as opposed to
discrete, discontinuous units. This is interdepen-
dence, I think to myself, recognizing the telltale
signs. Impermanence. Continuation. War and
Peace is a sand mandala of a telling.
Kutuzov holds a council of war, ostensibly to
decide whether to repel the French or let them
We can know only that we
know nothing. And that
is the highest degree of
human wisdom.
—LEO TOLSTOY
PHOTO BY GEORGE PIMENTEL
take Moscow. In his heart, he already knows the
answer. “Why was it certain that Moscow had to
be abandoned? When did something happen
that made it inevitable, and whose fault was it?”
 Maybe Tolstoy himself would like nothing observing it. He does not take the advantage in
better than to find a single perpetrator, a causal their dissolution.
"NAPOLEON IN BURNING MOSCOW" BY ALBERT ALBRECHT, 1841

factor, someone to blame. Isn’t that what Time is continuous. Motion and events are
Napoleon’s there for? But no. It’s not in Tolstoy continuous. There is no single moment of begin-
to fall for simple-minded answers. There was no ning, even if we go all the way back to Napoleon
one person responsible, no one event. He knows as a glint in his father’s eye. There is “no birth
War and Peace
there was no particular beginning, and there will and no cessation,” and neither Tolstoy nor his
fictionalizes the
be no tidy end. Tolstoy can neither blame nor protagonist will pretend there is. 1 French invasion
credit Napoleon. of Russia. The
Alone in his conviction, Kutuzov is badgered author Leo
Tolstoy hesitated
by his advisors and tormented by doubt. to classify the
He gives the order to retreat, and Napoleon book, saying
invades. Though the French take Moscow, they has been on
C I N DY L I T T L E FA I R it’s “not a novel,
staff at Lion’s Roar for sixteen even less is it a
realize too late that their reach has exceeded years. She has her MFA in cre- poem, and still
their grasp, and they depart in disarray. ative nonfiction from the Universi- less a historical
Kutuzov leaves them to their ruin, simply ty of King’s College. chronicle.”

JANUARY 202 3 67
 EX PLORE BU DDH IS M

YOU ARE ALREADY

A BUDDHA
In this, the first of a four-part series on tantra,
SAMANTABHADRA (FROM SITU'S SET OF EIGHT GREAT BODHISATTVAS), KHAM PROVINCE, EASTERN TIBET, 19TH CENTURY, COURTESY OF THE RUBIN MUSEUM OF ART

YONGEY MINGYUR RINPOCHE presents the three

stages of meditation. Meditation, he says, is the
process of recognizing your buddhanature, then
nurturing that recognition.

M
y first experiences learning to meditate were with my
late father, Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche. He was a revered
meditation teacher, but he lived a very simple life, spending
most of his time in a small hermitage on the outskirts of the
Kathmandu Valley. Some of my most precious memories
are of the years I first learned to meditate, sitting at the foot
of a traditional “meditation box” that served as both his bed
and meditation space.
One moment I will never forget was the time he intro-
duced me to the principle of buddhanature. I was sitting
on the floor trying to meditate, but the village dogs were
especially annoying that day and I couldn’t stay focused. My
father, sensing my frustration, gently said, “Amé”—a Tibetan
term of endearment that means something like “dear”—and
then pointed out the window to the barking dogs.
“Did you know,” he
said, “that the true
nature of all those dogs
you hear barking is the
In the Nyingma school of tantric
Buddhism, the primordial buddha
same as the true nature
Samantabhadra represents the of all the buddhas?” He
You, those dogs, the Buddha here—you all have buddhana-
ture. The only difference between a buddha and everyone
else is that a buddha recognizes their own true nature,
while all the beings suffering in samsara do not.”
I will never forget those words.
I wish I could say that I experienced a profound awaken-
ing when I heard them, like the great arhats of the past who
became enlightened from hearing a few simple words from
the Buddha. The truth is that I didn’t believe them.
What had motivated me to start meditating in the first
place were the crippling panic attacks that followed me
around like a shadow. The idea that I was already a buddha
was far from my actual experience. I could only see my
flaws and shortcomings. So when he told me that my own
mind was fundamentally pure, and that the path of medi-
tation was simply the process of recognizing qualities that I
already had, these were nothing more than words and ideas
to me. I didn’t doubt him, or that the idea of buddhanature
was true. I just didn’t believe these teachings applied to me.
THE PATH TO BUDDHANATURE

sky-like nature of the mind and
the fundamental, unchanging
nature of goodness within each of
us. In Sanskrit, his name means
“always good.”
T
then pointed to a statue here are a few individuals who can recognize their own
of the Buddha on his buddhanature the moment they hear the teachings.
shrine. “And you have These are called the “instantaneous” type, according to
this true nature as well. tradition, but they are exceedingly rare. Most of us need

JANUARY 202 3 69
E X P LOR E BU DD HIS M
a step-by-step path to follow. We need practical tools that
help us translate the profound principle of buddhanature
into direct experience, so that it becomes more than an
inspiring concept we read about in books.
As I said, my first reaction to the idea of buddhanature
was doubt, but in a way, it was a healthy doubt. I didn’t
really believe that my own mind, in its present state, was
fundamentally pure, but I was open enough to the idea
that I kept at it. My father taught me how to meditate, and
although I was lazy and struggled to keep up my daily medi-
tation practice, I kept going. I stayed on the path.
What I didn’t quite realize at the time was that he was teach-
ing me an ingeniously designed path of meditation, one that
opens the mind to new possibilities. Some of the practices I
learned tapped into the power of my overactive imagination.
Other meditations helped me see how daily experiences
like falling asleep and dreaming could be powerful gateways
to self-discovery. And some teachings—the ones my father
seemed to treasure above all others—were meant to directly
point out to me the awakened nature of awareness itself.
THE FRUITIONAL PATH
I
n sharing these teachings with me, as he did with
countless others, he was passing on the core teach-
ings of Buddhist tantra, also known as Vajrayana, the
“Indestructible Vehicle.” Although Buddhist tantra has
its origins in ancient India, and is found in some other
Buddhist traditions, it is mainly identified today with
Tibetan Buddhism.
It is often said that what sets the Vajrayana apart from
other styles of Buddhist meditation is not the view—meaning
the core principles that underlie this approach—but rather
the swift and transformative types of meditation it employs.
There are certainly debates in the tradition about the view of
the Vajrayana, and whether or not it is more profound than
the perspective of other approaches. What no one disputes,
however, is that the Vajrayana approach to meditation is
uniquely effective when it comes to accessing buddhanature.
So in this four-part series in Lion’s Roar, I will explore the
most important forms of meditation in Buddhist tantra. In
this, the first of the series, I will give an overview of the tra-
dition as a path to realizing our buddhanature. The articles
to follow in subsequent issues will focus on the three stages
of Vajrayana practice: the development stage, the comple-
tion stage, and the path of liberation.
Taken together, these three stages of the Vajrayana are
referred to as the “fruitional path.” This esoteric term means
70 L IONS R OAR .CO M
that there is no goal, or “fruition,” that one seeks to obtain
as a result of the practice. From the Vajrayana point of view,
the “goal”—meaning the state of awakening or buddha-
hood—is already here. We are already buddhas. We simply
do not recognize that we are. In the Vajrayana, meditation
is nothing more than the process of recognizing that we are
buddhas, and then nurturing that recognition.
NO OBSTACLES, ONLY OPPORTUNITIES
I
n some strands of Tibetan Buddhism, awakening is what
happens at the end of a long, arduous journey. We root
out the many impurities in our minds. We pinpoint the
mental and emotional states that get in the way of our path
to awakening and eliminate them. When we get angry, we
generate loving-kindness to counteract the “poison,” or
klesha, in our mind. When we experience lust or desire, we
contemplate the unsavory qualities of the thing we long for.
The path is a long process of identifying and correcting our
endless problems and shortcomings.
In the Vajrayana, there are actually no poisons, and so
there is no need for antidotes.
This might sound absurd. If we don’t get rid of anger and
other toxic states of mind, how can we possibly find our
way out of samsara?
This is precisely the question my father was answering
when he told me that the dog and I had the same awakened
nature as the Buddha. He was trying to tell me that the path
of meditation is not about trying to get rid of our shadows
and inner demons. In the Vajrayana, meditation is meant to
help us recognize the true nature of these experiences, not
destroy them. Seeking a remedy to counteract them, or even
trying to transform them, only solidifies the view that they
are problems.
But no matter how many times my father reminded me
about buddhanature, I struggled to see myself as he did. I
looked at my own mind and saw an anxious mess. It was
filled with panic and fear and it created tremendous suffer-
ing. This led me to an obvious conclusion: if my suffering
was due to these painful thoughts and feelings, then surely
I must get rid of them if I wanted any peace and happiness
in life.
You might not struggle with anxiety or panic like I did,
PHOTO BY KEVIN STURM
but unless you’re one of those “instantaneous types” who
gets enlightened in a single moment, you likely have your
own shadows and inner demons. Maybe you have a short
temper. Maybe you procrastinate, or feel lonely, or get
depressed. We all wrestle with our thoughts, feelings, and
A renowned meditation master in the Kagyu and Nyingma lineages
of Tibetan Buddhism, YO N G E Y M I N G Y U R R I N P O C H E is the guiding
teacher of the Tergar Meditation Community, a global network of
meditation groups and centers. His books include Turning Confusion
into Clarity and In Love with the World: A Monk’s Journey Through
the Bardos of Living and Dying.

impulses, and much of our pain and suffering is due to the
endless struggle we have with our own minds.
Meditation is not a way to win this inner power struggle.
The Vajrayana approach is to change the entire paradigm.
Rather than trying to eliminate our perceived flaws, we treat
them as opportunities and use the path of meditation to
explore them and discover their true nature. We use every
aspect of our inner experience as a gateway to recognizing
the empty, luminous purity of our buddhanature.
THE THREE STAGES OF THE VAJRAYANA PATH
F
or me, just hearing about buddhanature was not enough.
I needed a process, a path. I needed a practical way to
see buddhanature for myself, or more accurately, to see it
within myself. This is the true specialty of the Vajrayana. It
is filled with creative techniques and colorful methods to
help us taste buddhanature for ourselves.
There are three different styles of meditation in the
Vajrayana tradition. These are known as the “three stages”:
the development stage, the completion stage with marks,
and the completion stage without marks, also known as the
path of liberation.
The first of these three, the development stage, transforms
impure perception into pure perception by using the imag-
ination and symbolic imagery. Like all forms of meditation
in the Vajrayana tradition, the development stage is based
on the view that we are all buddhas who have simply not
recognized who we truly are. To bring us closer to recog-
nizing our true nature, this style of practice harnesses the
power of our restless imagination. Instead of reliving our
past mistakes and imagining future scenarios that may
"VAJRADHARA" BY FLERA BIRMANE, DAKINI AS ART, WWW.DAKINIASART.ORG
never happen, we imagine ourselves as perfectly awakened
buddhas. We imagine that we are the very embodiment of
wisdom and compassion. We imagine our surroundings as a
pure realm, and all other living creatures as our fellow bud-
dhas. In short, development stage practice helps us to see
ourselves and the world through the lens of buddhanature.
The second stage of
Vajrayana practice, the
completion stage with
marks, consists of the
As the primordial buddha in the
Kagyu tradition, Vajradhara is
so-called “inner yogas”
portrayed as dark blue to signify such as the famed six
that he symbolizes the pure nature dharmas of Naropa.
of ultimate reality. He’s considered
These inner yogas take
the supreme essence of all buddhas
and the tantric form of the ordinary experiences
historical Buddha. and emotions as
EX PLORE BU DDH IS M
opportunities to access buddhanature. Some forms of
meditation, like the practice of tummo, or “inner heat,” do
this by working with the energetic currents and channels
of the so-called “subtle body.” Others, like the practice of
dream yoga and deep sleep luminosity meditation, use the
rhythms of life experience as gateways to buddhanature.
There are even practices that help us to recognize the stages
of the dying process so we can gain access to the “mother
luminosity” that dawns at the moment of death.
The third and final approach, the completion stage with-
out marks, is known as “the path of liberation.” This path
includes the nature of mind practices of Mahamudra and
Dzogchen, simple yet profound forms of meditation that
help us to recognize the true nature of our minds.
This typically begins when we receive “pointing out”
instructions from a qualified teacher. These instructions
help us to experience on the spot the mind’s empty, lumi-
nous nature, the nondual essence of pure awareness. Then,
once we recognize this pure awareness for ourselves, the
practice is exceedingly simple: we return to that recognition
over and over until pure awareness is so familiar to us that
we never lose touch with it.
REMEMBER WHO YOU TRULY ARE
A
dmittedly, it’s easy to get lost in the details when it
comes to Vajrayana Buddhism. The Vajrayana is not
known for its Zen-like simplicity. The strength of the
Vajrayana lies in its richness. It is a tradition filled with pow-
erful methods and transformative insights. The rich array of
practices mirrors the complexity of our minds, and there are
more than enough styles of practice for each of us to find a
path that fits our own strengths and predispositions.
And yet, despite the great diversity of this tradition, the
many stages and styles of practice in the Vajrayana share
one basic feature: they all point us back to our true nature.
As my father taught me so many years ago, there is no
fundamental difference between us and the Buddha. Our
minds are pure, perfect, and awake, just as his was. Like
beggars with treasure buried beneath our very feet, the only
thing we need to do is recognize what we already possess.
The entire path of Vajrayana meditation is nothing more
than a path that leads us back to ourselves. For all the com-
plexity of the Vajrayana, it’s that simple. 1
The next part of Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche’s series on tantra
will delve deeper into the first stage of meditation. It will be
published in the March issue of Lion’s Roar.
JANUARY 202 3 73
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CALIFORNIA
DHARMA CENTER
5059 Newport Ave, Suite 303, San Diego, CA 92107. (619)
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DHARMA REALM BUDDHIST UNIVERSITY
4951 Bodhi Way, Ukiah, CA 95482. (707) 621-7000, info@
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DZOKDEN
3436 Divisadero St, San Francisco, CA 94123. (415) 810-
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INSIGHT LA MEDITATION
1430 Olympic Blvd, Santa Monica, CA 90404. (310) 450-
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GREAT VOW MONASTERY
79640 Quincy Mayger Rd, Clatskanie, OR 97016. (503)
728-0654, kennyo@zendust.org, www.zendust.org. • Great
Vow Zen Monastery of Zen Community of Oregon is a
full-time residential Zen practice community in Clatskanie,
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ALBUQUERQUE ZEN CENTER
2300 Garfield Ave SE, Albuquerque, NM 87106. (505) 268-
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DORJE KHYUNG DZONG RETREAT CENTER
PO Box 131, Gardner, CO 81040. (719) 746-2264, www.dkd.
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EARTH JOURNEY RETREAT CENTER
Lorien Rd, NM 87556. (575) 586-1038, sheppmartha@
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1900 South Cook St, Denver, CO 80210. (720) 353-4419,
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A D IREC TO RY
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1404 Cerro Gordo Rd, Santa Fe, NM 87501. (505) 986-
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1922 W Irving Park Rd, Chicago IL 60613. info@ancient-
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Batavia, IA 52533. www.ojaya.com • The OJAYA Dharma
Sangha offers 100% online courses in OJAYA Deep
Meditation: The Ancient Martial Art of Serenity & Inner
Strength.
RIME BUDDHIST CENTER AND MONASTERY
2939 Wayne Ave, Kansas City, MO 64109. (816) 256-4956,
info@rimecenter.org, www.rimecenter.org • Executive
Director Gabriele Otto, Spiritual Director Lama Matthew
Rice. Meets: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday class/
meditation, 7pm., Sundays,service/practice, 10:30 am.
TERGAR INTERNATIONAL
706 N 1st St, Ste 112, Minneapolis, MN 55401. (612) 460-
8837, minneapolis@tergar.org, www.tergar.org • Tuesday
meditation 7 pm; check website for other centers and pro-
gram dates. Summer retreats in NE, NW and MN.
UDUMBARA ZEN CENTER—EVANSTON
1330 Ridge Ave, Evanston IL 60201, (847)475-3264, udum-
bara@udumbarazen.org, www.udumbarazen.org • Regular
zazen practice and study schedule; Bodhisattva, chaplaincy,
priest training/ordination; Head Teacher Sensei Tricia Teater.
JAN UA RY 202 3 77
 YOUNGE DRODUL LING
1624 Fordem Ave, Madison, WI 53704. info@youngedrod-
ulling.org, youngedrodulling.org • We are a global commu-
nity of Dharma practitioners devoted to preserving an
authentic Rime practice lineage.
ZEN LIFE & MEDITATION CENTER, CHICAGO
38 Lake St, Oak Park, IL 60302. (708) 689-1220, www.
ZLMC.org • Our mission is to empower you to live a zen-
inspired life of openness, empathy and clarity based on a
foundation of mindfulness meditation.
SOUTH
CHAPEL HILL ZEN CENTER
PO Box 16302, Chapel Hill, NC 27516. (919) 967-0861,
info@chzc.org, www.chzc.org • A Soto Zen temple with
daily meditation in the lineage of Shunryu Suzuki Roshi.
Teacher: Josho Pat Phelan.
DALLAS MEDITATION CENTER
810 W Arapaho Rd, Richardson, TX 75080. www.dallas-
meditationcenter.com • Dallas Meditation Center offers
mindfulness meditation training and practice groups,
chanting and musical events, yoga, tai chi, Qigong, and
other wellness courses. All are welcome to this community
space. Our practice serves all levels of meditation experi-
ence; all ages, genders, ethnicities, sexual orientations.
HOUSTON ZEN CENTER
1605 Heights Blvd, Houston, TX 77008. (713) 869-1952,
www.houstonzen.org • Zen meditation—daily zazen, week-
ly classes and lectures, sesshin and retreats. Soto Zen. Abbot
Gaelyn Godwin and assistant teachers.
LITTLE ROCK ZEN CENTER
1516 W 3rd St, Little Rock, AR 72201. (501) 661-1669,
lucyhsauer@gmail.com, www.ebslr.org/kwan-um-zen •
Meditation practice every Tuesday nights from 6:00-7:00 in
the large meditation room at EBS - Please join us! A Kwan
Um School Zen Center.
PROJECT CLEAR LIGHT
2220 Postoffice St, Suite B, Galveston, TX 77550. (409) 599-
4268, www.projectclearlight.org • Prison outreach, sponsor
prison sangha groups and retreat, offer a free Lojong corre-
spondence course for incarcerates, resource list. Weekly
open sittings Tuesdays and Thursdays 8–9 a.m., Nyingma,
Great Perfection, contemplative practices.
NORTHEAST
AMERICAN BUDDHIST SHIM GUM DO ASSOC.
203 Chestnut Hil Ave, Brighton, MA 02135. (617) 787-
1506, Fax: (617) 787-2708, info@shimgumdo.org, www.
shimgumdo.org • Shim Gum Do - Mind Sword Path; Zen
meditation and martial art training. Ongoing classes and
residential programs available.
BARRE CENTER FOR BUDDHIST STUDIES
149 Lockwood Rd, Barre, MA 01005. (978) 355-2347, con-
tact@buddhistinquiry.org, www.buddhistinquiry.org •
Residential and online courses combining study, discus-
sions, and meditation for strengthening sangha, supporting
curiosity, and expanding and deepening personal practice.
BLUE MOUNTAIN LOTUS SOCIETY
6496 Jonestown Rd, Harrisburg, PA 17112. (717) 671-5057;
houseofmeditation@gmail.com; www.bmls.org • The Blue
Mountain Lotus Society is devoted to sharing the universal
teachings of the Buddha in the 21st century. Director,
Sensei Anthony Stultz.
BOUNDLESS WAY ZEN
1030 Pleasant St, Worcester, MA 01602. (508) 792-5189,
info@boundlesswayzen.org, www.boundlesswayzen.org •
Throughout New England and beyond. Shikantaza, koan
practice, sesshins, dokusan, and workshops.
78 LI ONSR OAR .CO M
CAMBRIDGE INSIGHT MEDITATION CENTER
331 Broadway, Cambridge, MA 02139. (617) 441-9038,
www.cambridgeinsight.org • Vipassana. Guiding Teachers:
Larry Rosenberg and Narayan Liebenson. Urban center
dedicated to integrating meditation practice and wisdom
into daily life. Workshops, retreats, practice groups. Daily
sittings, weekly drop-ins, Dharma talks.
CAMBRIDGE ZEN CENTER
199 Auburn St, Cambridge, MA 02139. www.cam-
bridgezen.org • Cambridge Zen Center welcomes you to
the practice of Zen Buddhism, an ancient tradition that can
help you discover your inherent resources of wisdom, love,
and compassion. We offer morning and evening Zen prac-
tice almost every day of the year, at no charge. We also offer
weekly introductory classes and dharma talks, monthly
workshops and meditation retreats, and the opportunity to
experience joyful community life. Please join us.
CHAN SPACE NEW YORK
219 E 60th St., New York, NY 10022. (917) 475-1046 chans-
pacenewyork.org • Following Master Hsin Tao’s teachings,
guided by Ven. Guang Guo Shih, our Peace Meditation
program encourages regular practice for a meaningful life
with less anxiety.
CLEVELAND ZAZEN GROUP
1813 Wilton Rd., Cleveland Heights, OH, 44118. (216) 932
3084, clevezen@gmail.com, zencleveland.com • For the past
forty-plus years, the Cleveland Zazen Group has taught
and practiced traditional Zen meditation in a welcoming,
all-inclusive atmosphere and setting. Located in Cleveland
Heights, the group meets several times weekly as well as
sponsoring occasional introductory workshops for begin-
ners and extended meditation retreats for more experi-
enced practitioners.
COPPER BEECH INSTITUTE
303 Tunxis Rd, West Hartford, CT 06107. (860) 790-9750,
info@copperbeechinstitute.org, copperbeechinstitute.org •
Connecticut’s premier retreat center for mindfulness and
contemplative practice offering 40+ retreat programs.
Beautiful monastery campus with 48 wooded acres 90 min-
utes north of NYC. Farm-to-table meals, comfortable
accommodations. Day and evening meditation groups.
Stone labyrinth open daily. All are welcome.
DAI BOSATSU ZENDO-KONGO-JI
223 Beecher Lake Rd, Livingston Manor, NY 12758. (845)
439-4566, office@daibosatsu.org, www.zenstudies.org •
Japanese Rinzai Tradition. Remote mountain setting.
Residential practice: two training periods, shorter interim
stays. Sesshin, introduction weekends. Shinge Sherry
Chayat Roshi, Abbot.
DHARMA DRUM MOUNTAIN / RETREAT CENTER
184 Quannacut Rd, Pine Bush, NY 12566. (845) 744-8114,
Fax (845) 744-8483, ddrc@dharmadrumretreat.org, www.
dharmadrumretreat.org • A center for Chan Buddhist prac-
tice and study in the Lineage of Master Sheng Yen.
Meditation retreats & activities suitable for beginners to
advanced practitioners. Weekly activities. Volunteer
opportunities.
EMPTY CLOUD MONASTERY
29 Ridgeway Ave, West Orange, NJ 07052. info@empty-
cloud.org, emptycloud.org • Empty Cloud Monastery is a
gender-inclusive Buddhist monastery located just outside
New York City, offering teachings and meditation pro-
grams from all Buddhist traditions, with a particular
emphasis on early Buddhism. The monastery’s public
offerings include meditation classes, Buddhist holiday cele-
brations, meditation retreats, sutta study series, and daily
livestream teachings.
HEART CIRCLE SANGHA
451 Hillcrest Rd, Ridgewood, NJ 07450. (877) 442-7936,
information@heartcirclesangha.org, www.heartcirclesang-
ha.org • Zen meditation, beginning instruction, koan and
precepts study, retreats. Rev. Joan Hogetsu Hoeberichts,
Sensei. White Plum Asangha Soto-Rinzai Lineage.
KUNZANG PALCHEN LING
4330 Rte 9G, Red Hook, NY 12571. (845) 835-8303,
registration@kunzang.org, www.kunzang.org • Tibetan
Buddhist center supporting all traditions of Tibetan
Buddhism, especially Vajrayana and in particular the terma
tradition of Barway Dorje.
MENLA RETREAT & SPA
Phoenicia, NY. (845) 688-6897, menla.us/spa • Menla
Retreat & Dewa Spa: official Catskills retreat of Tibet
House US, the Dalai Lama’s US Cultural Center in NYC.
NEW YORK BUDDHIST CHURCH
331-332 Riverside Dr, New York, NY 10025. (212) 678-
0305, www.newyorkbuddhistchurch.org • All inclusive Pure
Land community. Weekly Sunday services (Japanese,
English), Wednesday evening meditation; Buddhist classes,
book discussion, Japanese cultural offerings.
NEW YORK ZEN CENTER FOR
CONTEMPLATIVE CARE
119 W 23rd St #401, New York, NY 10011. info@zencare.
org, www.zencare.org • The center offers meditation and
dharma talks, three annual retreats, training in contempla-
tive care and Zen practice, courses in Buddhist studies,
accredited CPE training, Masters in Pastoral Care and
Counseling, CE programs available for nurses and social
workers, and end-of-life grief, bereavement, and spiritual
support.
NEW YORK ZENDO SHOBO-JI
223 East 67th St, New York, NY 10065. (212) 861-3333,
office@newyorkzendo.org, www.zenstudies.org • Japanese
Rinzai tradition. Daily zazen, Zen intro, zazenkai, sesshin,
Dharma talks and interviews. Shinge Sherry Chayat Roshi,
Abbot.
OPEN-HEARTED AWARENESS INSTITUTE
305 W 91st St #2, New York, NY 10024. contact@lochkelly.
org, www.effortlessmindfulness.org • Effortless mindful-
ness, Heart mindfulness, and Sutra Mahamudra for path of
awakening. Workshops, retreats, and online courses.
Teacher, Loch Kelly.
SOJI ZEN CENTER
2325 Marshall Rd, Lansdowne, PA 19050. info@sojizencen-
ter.com
VILLAGE ZENDO
(Dotoku-ji True Expression Temple) 588 Broadway, Ste
1108, New York, NY 10012. info@villagezendo.org, www.vil-
lagezendo.org • Daily Zen meditation, retreats, workshops
in the heart of the city. Roshi Pat Enkyo O’Hara, Abbot.
WONDERWELL MOUNTAIN REFUGE
253 Philbrick Hill Rd, Springfield, NH 03284. (603) 763-
0204, info@naturaldharma.org, www.naturaldharma.org •
The Buddhist meditation and retreat center of Natural
Dharma Fellowship. We host residential and online pro-
grams in the Tibetan traditions of Mahamudra and
Dzogchen. Specialty retreats: lineage teachings, wisdom of
the body, retreats in nature, eco-dharma, contemplative
care, women in Buddhism. Spiritual Directors: Lama Willa
Blythe Baker, Lama Liz Monson.
ZEN CENTER OF NEW YORK CITY
500 State Street, Brooklyn, NY 11217. (718) 875-8229,
zcnyc@mro.org, https://zmm.org/zcnyc/ • Jody Hojin
Kimmel, Abbot. A residential lay training center offering
daily zazen, a regular Sunday program, weekly retreats, and
meditation intensives.
ZEN CENTER OF SYRACUSE, HOEN-JI
266 W. Seneca Tpke, Syracuse, NY 13207. (315) 492-9773,
admin@hoenji.org, www.zencenterofsyracuse.org • Shinge
Sherry Chayat, Abbot. Daily zazen, sesshin, teisho, dokusan,
Dharma study, residency, visiting scholars & artists.
ZEN MOUNTAIN MONASTERY
PO Box 197, 871 Plank Rd, Mt. Tremper, NY 12457.
(845) 688-2228, registrar@mro.org, http://zmm.org/ •
Geoffrey Shugen Arnold Roshi, Abbot; Jody Hojin
Kimmel, Sensei. Residential training programs, monthly
sesshin, and weekend retreats in the heart of the Catskill
Mountains.
CANADA & HAWAII
LONDON ZEN CENTRE
923 Waterloo Street, London, ON N6A 3X2. info@lon-
donzencentre.org, londonzencentre.org • Zen Centre in the
koan line of Linji. Emphasis on personal growth and envi-
ronmental responsibility using koans and deep personal
work. Head teacher is Guy Gaudry, Roshi. Dharma heir of
John Tarrant, Roshi.
NECHUNG DORJE DRAYANG LING
96-2285 Wood Valley Rd, Pahala, HI, 96777-0250. (808)
928-8539, www.nechung.org • The temple is a remote sanc-
tuary located in a secluded part of the Big Island, and is
uniquely suited for contemplation & meditation. Nechung
Rinpoche established the temple in 1973 and is its head
Lama. Weekly Sunday practices are ongoing from 10 am to
11:30 am.
THOUSAND HARBOURS ZEN
Halifax, NS. zennovascotia.com • Founded by Rev. Koun
Franz in 2014 with a commitment to provide authentic
Soto Zen Buddhist practice and teachings to all. Daily prac-
tice online.
BUDDHIST
TORONTO ZEN CENTRE
33 High Park Gardens, Toronto, ON M6R 1S8. (416) 766-
DIRECTORY
3400, info@torontozen.org, www.torontozen.org • Lay zen
training. Daily zazen, sesshin, dokusan, mettabhavana The definitive listing
courses. Roshi Taigen Henderson, Dharma Heir of Sunyana
Graef, Roshi: Roshi Kapleau lineage.
of meditation and
retreat centers in
TRUE NORTH INSIGHT MEDITATION
(613) 422-4880, info@truenorthinsight.org, www.truenor- North America is
thinsight.org. • True North Insight — Insight meditation now paired with an
residential/non-residential retreats, sitting groups, daylongs
and workshops in French & English. Diversity of back- expanded online
ground and experience are welcome. Montreal, Ottawa,
Toronto.
version.
WHITE WIND ZEN COMMUNITY /
ZEN CENTRE OF OTTAWA With available
240 Daly Ave, Ottawa, ON K1N 6G2. (613) 562-1568, enhancements
D I R E C T O R Y. L I O N S R OA R .C O M
info@wwzc.org, www.wwzc.org • Main monastery
(Dainen-ji) of the White Wind Zen Community. Subscribe including images,
to our free weekly email illustrated newsletter—www.
wwzc.org/emirror. videos, descriptions
and maps.
The directory is a
Lion’s Roar, ISSN 2369-7997, published bimonthly.
Subscriptions: $34 US, $44 CDN, $54 Intl. Mailing address: searchable, sortable
548 Market Street, Box 17113, San Francisco, CA 94104-
5401. Central Business Office: 2403 Clifton Street, Halifax,
guide to practice
NS B3K 4T9 Canada. Publisher: Ben Moore; Editor: Melvin
McLeod; Deputy Editor: Andrea Miller. Publication mailing
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address: 548 Market Street, Box 17113, San Francisco, CA nities worldwide.
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JANUARY 202 3 79
JU ST S O

Because the World Is Cluttered

like the back of my car, a graveyard
of water bottles and wet socks, like my tornado-ed
thoughts, debris whirling and whirling, splinters
and nails and ruined homes—
we need that moment Buddha speaks of, the ability
to see the miracle of a single flower, its blossom
like hands praying beyond sky,
praying for stars to plummet into the bloom.

Let that light shine in shadowed places, let it stir

us from our silent slumber.
Remember the heart is biology—muscle and veins
and arteries.
It will bleed if we let it.

—IRA SUKRUNGRUANG

PHOTO COURTESY OF NASA

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