Spirituality News and Headlines
Spirituality News and Headlines
Erica Bassani, author of *Women in Love with the Divine*, releases a new book compiling twelve interviews with women spiritual teachers from Buddhism and other faiths. The work, born from her Women Awakening Project, explores themes of divine femininity, the transformative power of softness, and the role of sisterhood in spiritual growth. Bassani describes a personal breakthrough where she perceived the divine shifting from a paternal to a maternal presence, reshaping her practice. The book underscores expanding opportunities for women to pursue spiritual paths in today’s more accessible landscape.
Peter Geffen, a New York‑based educator and civil‑rights veteran, links his Cold‑War upbringing and early exposure to Holocaust testimony with a lifelong commitment to social justice. He credits the memory of genocide and his father’s protests for shaping his work...
A Zen practitioner recounts a week‑long, highly ritualized retreat where strict protocols forced constant attention. The teacher assigned a seemingly simple koan—“When you see the stick, where is God?”—that ultimately led the author from intellectual guessing to a non‑conceptual breakthrough....
Rich Fernandez argues that purpose is not a fixed destination but a dynamic state that shifts with what feels most alive in the moment. He illustrates this by sharing his own North Star—integrating mindfulness across every life domain—and explains how...
May 2026’s Lion’s Roar roundup spotlights a wave of new Buddhist titles, from Margaret Cullen’s *Quiet Strength* that re‑centers equanimity, to Bodhipaksa’s 28‑day habit builder *Sit*. It also features Reb Anderson’s Zen parable collection, the Hases’ partnership guide, Roy Remer’s caregiver...
The article argues that ethics is the essential foundation of any Buddhist or spiritual practice, emphasizing non‑violence (ahimsa) toward all beings. It warns that advanced non‑dual teachings can tempt practitioners to abandon moral restraints, leading to ego‑driven misuse of spiritual...
The Lion’s Roar article weaves Buddhist practice with observations of five animal species—bears, snakes, owls, salmon and eagles—to illustrate mindfulness principles. Each creature’s natural behavior is presented as a concrete reflection on rest, letting go, deep listening, perseverance and resilience....
The author recounts a decade‑long sobriety journey that merged Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) with Zen Buddhism, highlighting how the AA Big Book eventually recognized Buddhist members. He explains that the Buddhist Eightfold Path mirrors AA’s Twelve Steps, allowing both frameworks to...
The article explains the Buddhist concept of the "middle way," tracing its origins from the Buddha’s rejection of both self‑indulgence and extreme asceticism to the Mahayana Madhyamaka school’s philosophical emphasis on emptiness. It illustrates how the Buddha’s first turning of...
Marc Andreessen sparked controversy after a podcast appearance in which he claimed he strives for "zero" introspection, arguing that self‑reflection is a modern folly. The remark ignited a cultural clash between tech‑savvy “action‑oriented” leaders and humanist critics who see his...
Former House Speaker Martin Romualdez used Palm Sunday to urge Filipinos to treat Holy Week as a period of prayer, reflection, and personal accountability. He highlighted the nation’s current challenges—division, mistrust, and social strain—and called for spiritual renewal to foster...
On December 1, 2025 a Triratna Buddhist monk and four sangha members meditated for twelve hours on London’s Circle line to raise funds for a new UK centre and to protest urban noise. The silent sit, filmed and shared by...
Former collegiate athlete and serial overachiever Katie Jesionowski recounts her reluctant first encounter with yoga, a brief glimpse of calm that she later dismissed after a challenging class. Six years later, therapy and meditation led her back to a small...
Oxford Mindfulness director Claire Kelly challenges the notion that mindfulness creates passivity, arguing it actually fosters clearer, more deliberate action. Systematic studies of MBCT and MBSR show participants gain better emotional regulation, reduced stress, and sharper decision‑making. Kelly emphasizes that...
Eric Maisel’s article "The Dilemma of Choice" explores how modern abundance of options creates anxiety and paralysis. He argues that self‑coaching can help people navigate uncertainty by clarifying core values, reframing decisions as experiments, and distinguishing personal motivations from external...
Rick Hanson’s latest Just One Thing entry argues that the most effective way to care for yourself is to extend genuine kindness toward others. He illustrates the point with a personal story of a high‑pressure keynote where shifting focus from...
Physicians from leading academic centers published a paper in Neurology Clinical Practice urging routine spiritual care for neurological patients. The study cites a survey of 1,000 adults where 60% want spiritual support in medical settings. Researchers provide concrete questions and...
The article argues that societal pressure forces young people to chase rapid, visible success, often by age twenty‑five, creating a scripted timeline of achievement. It reveals that this urgency is largely manufactured by industries that profit from insecurity, such as...
The article argues that the debate over AI consciousness distracts from the real economic question: how human‑AI configurations create value. It cites research showing that when AI is integrated as a collaborative partner—preserving human judgment—performance improves, whereas naïve automation harms...
The article outlines seven developable inner strengths—compassion, flexibility, purpose, gratitude, mindfulness, empowerment, and calm—that help individuals thrive amid uncertainty. It argues that these qualities are not innate traits but neuroplastic skills that can be cultivated through daily practice. The author...
The reflection explores humanity’s deep‑seated fear of death and frames it as a catalyst for spiritual practice. It cites Bishop Fulton Sheen and St. Paul to argue that daily self‑offering, or “daily death,” mitigates that fear. The piece then examines...
The article revisits the five remembrances from the Upajjhatthana Sutta—aging, illness, death, separation, and karmic consequence—and describes how the author uses them in Buddhist chaplaincy work. Personal anecdotes from a hospice setting illustrate how confronting these truths fosters authentic presence...
A. D. Sui’s *The Iron Garden Sutra* follows Iris, a death‑monk of the Starlit Order, as he investigates a murder mystery aboard the ancient generation ship *Nicaea*. The story intertwines a sprawling, forest‑filled spacecraft, a hostile AI, and a clash of faith...
The article highlights a fundamental divide between people who obsess over life’s meaning and those who operate without such existential concerns. It links this split to brain wiring, particularly intolerance of uncertainty, and shows how it influences leadership styles and...
Shoukei Matsumoto’s excerpt from *Work Like a Monk* frames everyday cleaning as a form of mindfulness rooted in Japanese Buddhist practice. He describes how collective cleaning in schools, temples, and even stadiums reinforces gratitude, presence, and a sacred bond with...
Indika, the latest release from indie developer Odd Meter, is a dark narrative‑driven game that intertwines puzzle‑platforming with retro arcade sequences while confronting religious hypocrisy and personal faith. Set in an Eastern Orthodox convent, the four‑hour experience follows a nun...
Ananda in the Himalayas, a luxury wellness retreat founded by Ashok Khanna of the Oberoi lineage, blends Ayurvedic nutrition, yoga, and ancient Indian philosophy within a historic palace estate. Guests undergo a personalized dosha assessment that shapes their meals, emphasizing...
Award‑winning journalist Michael Pollan’s new book *A World Appears* tackles the enduring mystery of human consciousness, probing how physical processes give rise to subjective experience. In a recent Guardian podcast, Pollan discusses how thoughts and feelings shape our conscious life...
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The article offers a comprehensive guide to Buddhist meditation, outlining its historical roots, core principles such as mindfulness, impermanence, compassion, suffering, and non‑self, and detailing three main techniques—Samatha, Vipassana, and Metta. It explains step‑by‑step instructions for beginners, highlights scientific research...
The Financial Times article "Reading Socrates in Silicon Valley" is currently locked behind a subscription wall, offering only a teaser and a series of pricing options. The piece appears to explore philosophical influences on tech culture, but full content is...
Dr. Willoughby Britton, a Brown University neuroscientist, founded Cheetah House to support meditators experiencing severe distress such as hyperarousal, dissociation, and psychosis after her research showed meditation outcomes are highly variable. The nonprofit provides evidence‑based peer support, clinician consultation, and...
The author, a lifelong athlete and self‑identified perfectionist, enrolled in a free Seattle yoga class taught entirely in Spanish. Struggling with both language and his yoga practice, he discovered that the unfamiliar instructions forced him to stay present, sharpening breath...
The essay argues that modern mobility has severed people’s ties to specific places, weakening stewardship of local ecosystems. Citing Gary Snyder and Daniel Wildcat, it highlights how a homogenized consumer culture blinds citizens to climate signals such as pollinator loss. Snyder’s...
The piece weaves together five distinct observations: stargazing in Chile’s Atacama desert illustrates how dark‑sky environments can improve mental health, prompting researchers to propose a Night Sky Connectedness Index. A study on insomnia reveals that most people misinterpret heritability, leading...
Brother Dinh Thanh recounts a recent pilgrimage in Vietnam that follows Thich Nhat Hanh’s footsteps, centering on the Root Temple of Tu Hieu and the forest of Phuong Boi. He uses the classic song “This Bitter Earth” to illustrate the...
Recent books and essays argue that relentless pursuit of GDP growth accelerates ecological and social crises. Authors like Timothée Parrique and Kohei Saito call for a degrowth mindset, while psychologists highlight the cultural addiction to speed. Mindfulness scholar Andrew Olendzki suggests shifting from...
The essay argues that human ignorance has historically powered imagination, giving rise to myths, religions, and early social structures, as noted by Vico and Nietzsche. Modern science, driven by a relentless will to knowledge, has delivered unprecedented benefits but also...
Thai forest monk Buddhadasa reshaped modern Theravada by challenging doctrinal orthodoxy, arguing that the Abhidhamma was a later addition and that nibbana is an everyday cooling of reactive emotions. He taught a luminous, "empty" mind free of self‑attachment and reinterpreted...
In a March 2026 episode of *Happiness Break*, host Dacher Keltner guides listeners through a brief meditation designed for professionals swamped with tasks. Guest Kia Afcari, director of Greater Good Workplaces at UC Berkeley, frames overwhelm as a relationship issue rather than...
Family physician and mindfulness expert Patricia Rockman outlines a step‑by‑step meditation designed to interrupt automatic, habit‑driven reactions. The practice guides practitioners from posture awareness through breath focus, body scanning, and gentle redirection of attention when the mind wanders. By inviting...
The author recounts sewing an okesa, the traditional Zen ordination robe, as a meditative practice where each stitch serves as a mantra. The painstaking, collaborative effort mirrors the challenges of collective activism and personal resilience amid social upheaval. By intertwining...
Write Yourself Every Day (WYED) is a low‑tech journaling method that uses a phone’s voice‑to‑text feature to capture unfiltered inner monologue for ten minutes each day. After recording, the transcript is reread as if it belonged to a fictional character,...
Renowned primatologist Jane Goodall passed away at 91 during a U.S. speaking tour, and her posthumous appearance on Netflix’s “Famous Last Words” delivered a stark warning about hope and apathy. In the interview, Goodall framed herself as a messenger tasked...
Emmy Noether, a pioneering early‑20th‑century mathematician, formulated two groundbreaking theorems linking continuous symmetries to conservation laws, providing the missing mathematical foundation for energy conservation in Einstein’s relativity. Despite lacking a formal position and facing gender discrimination, she taught unofficially, built...
The article explores how the multiverse concept, rooted in philosophy and quantum physics, has become a powerful literary device for processing grief and identity. It highlights works ranging from James Salter’s existential paradox to contemporary novels like *The Midnight Library*...
A new paper in Neurology Clinical Practice argues that spiritual distress is a clinical reality for patients with neurological diseases such as Parkinson's, dementia, and epilepsy. It proposes a biopsychosocial‑spiritual model and recommends the FICA framework to conduct a two‑minute...
The article traces Buddhism’s evolving relationship with impermanence, contrasting early dualistic meditations that sought disillusionment and escape from the world with contemporary nondual approaches that embrace change as a path to liberation. Early practitioners meditated in charnel grounds to cultivate...
Oliver Laxe’s film *Sirāt* follows a middle‑aged Spanish father’s desperate trek across the Moroccan desert to locate his missing daughter at an illegal rave. The movie, which blends pulsating electronic beats with stark desert landscapes, has earned nominations for Best...
Visiting Lahore at the start of Ramadan and Lent, Sikh executive Tarunjit Singh Butalia chose to fast not for religious duty but to stand in solidarity with his Muslim and Christian friends. He observed a day‑long Ramadan fast with a Muslim...
The Tibetan Book of the Dead, originally titled “The Great Liberation by Hearing,” is a 14th‑century Buddhist text that outlines six intermediate states, or bardos, extending far beyond the moment of death. While early Western exposure came from Walter Evans‑Wentz’s...
