03.28.2025 The Antidote   The news right now is overflowing with things to be outraged, downhearted, and frightened about, and I will admit that I am, quite often these days, all of those things. I feel as though it’s never been easier to see — in my lifetime, at least — how quickly things can go wrong when people are driven, unchecked, by the poisons of greed, anger and ignorance, and are bereft of wisdom and compassion. But then we can remember: there is an antidote to greed, anger, and ignorance. There is an antidote to the absence of wisdom and compassion. There is an antidote to cruelty, divisiveness, misogyny, intolerance, disregard for human agency and dignity, disregard for animals and the earth. The antidote is the dharma. The dharma offers a counter. A full 180. Interconnection instead of division. Harmony and diversity instead of xenophobia and intolerance and unlawful detention. Skillful, kind speech and behavior instead of lies, bullying, and mistreatment. A spacious and welcoming heart rather than one that seeks to criticize, demonize, or otherwise other. But we must play our part. The dharma is realized through us, and we through it. We practice generosity, equanimity, patience, kindness, and through us they come forward. It takes time, care, work. You may find yourself tired. Your meditation practice or dharma study may falter and lapse. It’s okay. But do come back to it. It’s worth sticking with. Because the alternate way of living — baseline: negative, fearful, suspicious, exploitative, cruel — is taking hold, is simply unsustainable (not to mention stupid and totally unnecessary), and everything we can do to counter it is worth doing. Now, I’m not saying our meditation practice or Buddhist study are the cure-all. But they are effective in helping us build wisdom and compassion. And they are effective for building our resistance to the overwhelm that they, and he, want us to feel. (And, I’ll admit, there’s really something gratifying in doing the complete opposite of what they’d ever do. Of what he’d ever do.) Our wisdom, compassion, and yes, resistance, are needed in this world — perhaps more than ever. May we realize them together. Thank you for your practice. —Rod Meade Sperry, senior editor, Special Projects and Buddhadharma How Not to Freak Out If you find all the bad news overwhelming, Buddhist teacher Judy Lief has some meditations to help you relieve your anxiety. It seems as if we humans never learn. Instead, we keep perpetuating the same dysfunctional behavior in every generation. Only now, we have the capacity to create havoc on a global scale, to the extent of threatening the continuation of life on this planet. We not only continue to rely on age-old habits of violence, greed, and deception, but we have put these habits on steroids. On an individual level, we can’t seem to stretch beyond the narrow bounds of self-interest and looking out for number one. This focus on ourselves feeds our fear and makes us susceptible to manipulation. It feels as if the worse things get, the more frantically we apply approaches that have never worked. Because these times happen to be our times, for us they seem uniquely difficult. But it is hard to imagine any time that has not seemed troubled to the people who were experiencing it. ADVERTISEMENT New Buddhist Coalition for Democracy launches, issues Call to Action “As Buddhists, we are called upon to witness, respond to, and resist the ongoing systematic destruction of norms and institutions that allow free societies to flourish,” the Buddhist Coalition for Democracy’s Call to Action reads. As Buddhists, we recognize our profound interconnectedness and the prime importance of universal compassion and loving-kindness. We affirm the need to listen to differing viewpoints with openness and equanimity and to respond with wise minds and caring hearts. We aspire towards a society that values all of its members and believe democratic values, institutions, and processes are the best means for realizing it. As Buddhists, we are called upon to witness, respond to, and resist the ongoing systematic destruction of norms and institutions that allow free societies to flourish. Video: Wisdom for a Traumatic Time with Sally Quinn and Robert Waldinger   Many of us are feeling traumatized right now by what’s happening in America and around the world. Zen teacher and psychiatrist Robert Waldinger and renowned journalist Sally Quinn talk with Lion’s Roar editor-in-chief Melvin McLeod about how to make it through.   Robert Waldinger: We talk a lot about what our overarching intention can be when showing up in the world. For me, that intention is alleviating suffering where I can, and that includes alleviating my own suffering and the suffering that I see in the world. That means everything isn't all equal. When I see events and people out there who are increasing suffering, my job is to discern how I can best respond in a way that eases suffering — not in a way that demonizes anybody — but in a way that works to lessen the harm that I see being done in the world.   To Have and to Hold Each Other   In the wake of the US presidential election result, Zenju Earthlyn Manuel reflects on the ritual of voting and calls for compassion, urging us to honor our shared humanity and the sacredness of life.   Are we ready and capable of dismantling the distorted perceptions we have of each other that are now strangling us, personally and collectively? No matter what gender, what skin tone — and there are more than two genders and two tones — we must ask what is it that causes us to do or fear not doing what we know shouldn’t be done? How will we lift the noose from around our own necks so we can do the same for another? If possible we will live in the difficult and in the more difficult and in the difficult after that not because we are becoming stronger but because we know that freedom is tied to what we create out of what sits at our feet. Freedom is to not long for what a president, alone, could never give us. Can we feel the freedom we already have despite things causing us to feel otherwise?