Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche

The moon in the deep spring is so beautiful that we are pulled right into it, and that moon itself is in a vessel that becomes the moon’s very purity and clarity. The cherry and the peach flowers were so beautiful, and while I was looking at them they pulled me right into the deep mountains, and then the clover and the dandelions were blooming and the butterflies were dancing, and while looking at them, I arrived home again. Although we need to have goals, if we aren’t acting playfully within each and every second of realizing our goals—if we think, while in the midst of living and struggling, that we have to wait until later to play— then we aren’t realizing the true value of life. When each and every moment is true, when our goal is to have a deep worth, to be complete, then in each and every moment we will find deep wonder and amazement and joy, and the value of life will be clear.

The world today needs a real revolution—the kind of deep transformation that only spiritual practice can bring—in how we relate to ourselves, to each other, and to the environment. As part of our 40th anniversary celebrations, Lion’s Roar will host a panel discussion on Wednesday, May 8, at New York’s Rubin Museum of Art on the power of spiritually-inspired activism. This timely, lively discussion will feature Buddhist teacher Sharon Salzberg; Christian progressive leader Serene Jones, president of Union Theological Seminary; and NYU student Lydia Mason, whom Huffington Post recognizes as a key member of the new generation of black secular teen activists. For tickets and live streaming information, visit lionsroar.com/events.

On April 15, a fire consumed a three-storey renovated barn at Tsogyelgar Dharma Center in Ann Arbor, Michigan, destroying the shrine room on the top floor, which featured Tibetan relics and a hand-painted mural of Tibetan Buddhist deities. The priceless upper shrine at Tsogyelgar has burned to the ground,” Traktung Khepa, leading teacher at Tsogyelgar, wrote on Facebook. As fire consumed the shrine room, tanker trucks from local counties carted in 70,000 gallons of water from a fire hydrant two miles away to prevent flames from spreading to nearby buildings. We follow a faith and one of its primary tenets is that all things are impermanent,” said B. Love, the community member who painted the shrine room

On April 22, East Bay Meditation Center, the leading-edge, Bay Area spiritual community profiled by Lion’s Roar magazine’s Lindsay Kyte last year, will host “The Power of Compassion,” a benefit event featuring  Tara Brach. While tickets for the in-person event sold out quickly, a generous donor has made it possible for EBMC to livestream the event, and tickets to the livestream are now available. East Bay Meditation Center, as Kyte writes, “offers meditation and teachings from Buddhist and other wisdom traditions, with a focus on social action, multiculturalism, and diverse populations. The Center is based on the principle of radical inclusivity, which community coordinator Mushim Ikeda says means creating a space where everyone is welcome and feels safe to practice and experience community.