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2 weeks ago | 
lionsroar.com | Rod Meade Sperry
National Public Radio has just released an exclusive new interview with Mohsen Mahdawi — the former president of Columbia University’s Buddhist Association and student activist who has been critical of Israel’s actions in Gaza, and was detained in Vermont by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services on April 14. In the interview, Mahdawi reports that he continues to meditate every day while in prison, saying, “I am centered internally. I am at peace.
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3 weeks ago | 
lionsroar.com | Rod Meade Sperry
Two new letters of Buddhist-community support for Mohsen Mahdawi — a former president of Columbia University’s Buddhist Association and student activist who has been critical of Israel’s actions in Gaza — have been issued in response to his detention by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services on April 14.
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1 month ago | 
lionsroar.com | Rod Meade Sperry
As The Intercept, The New York Times, and other outlets are reporting, Mohsen Mahdawi — a student activist who has been critical of Israel’s actions in Gaza, and is the former president of Columbia University’s Buddhist Association — was detained by immigration officials on Monday, and is understood to be currently held in Vermont after arriving at an immigration center that day in order to take his US citizenship test.
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1 month ago | 
lionsroar.com | Rod Meade Sperry
Myanmar was hit earlier today by a 7.7 magnitude earthquake — felt also in Thailand, China, India, and Vietnam.
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1 month ago | 
lionsroar.com | Rod Meade Sperry
The other day I received an email regarding the Buddhist Coalition for Democracy, “a newly formed national organization of Buddhists from multiple lineages created in response to the ongoing threat to democracy.” The Coalition had crafted and issued a Call to Action — found in its entirety below — and was seeking signatories.
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Feb 10, 2025 | 
lionsroar.com | Rod Meade Sperry
Gyalo Thondup, the second-eldest brother of His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama, has died at age 97 in his home at Kalimpong, Northern India. He served not only as an advisor to His Holiness, but as the Tibetan government-in-exile’s Prime Minister in 1991 and Minister for Security (1993 to 1996), and was considered a major force in the fight for Tibetan freedom.
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Jan 24, 2025 | 
lionsroar.com | Rod Meade Sperry
Thich Nhat Hanh’s Plum Village monastery in southern France has lost a building to fire. Fortunately, no one was seriously injured. According to a social media message posted yesterday by Plum Village and the Thich Nhat Hanh Foundation:Last night, flames engulfed one of the oldest and most cherished buildings in Plum Village—the Purple Cloud building in Lower Hamlet. Nine sisters were sleeping upstairs.
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Jan 13, 2025 | 
lionsroar.com | Rod Meade Sperry
The Buddhist teacher Dilgo Khyentse Yangsi (born Ugyen Tenzin Jigme Lhundrup), recognized as the reincarnation (Yangsi) of the famed Nyingma teacher Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche (1910–1991), is no longer affiliated with the monastery that Dilgo Khyentse had founded, Shechen Monastery in Kathmandu, Nepal.
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Dec 22, 2024 | 
lionsroar.com | Rod Meade Sperry
Shortly after entering hospice care following a heart attack a year ago, Hozan Alan Senauke — dharma teacher, musician, author, and abbot of California’s Berkeley Zen Center — has died.
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Dec 10, 2024 | 
lionsroar.com | Rod Meade Sperry
Close to a year after suffering a heart attack, Hozan Alan Senauke — dharma teacher, musician, author, and abbot of California’s Berkeley Zen Center — has entered hospice care. On a December 4 entry on Senauke’s CaringBridge site, his wife Laurie wrote that “Alan had a downhill slide over the weekend – with fever and confusion – probably an infection, which is somewhat better now, though he remains weak and less communicative. This triggered a decision to engage hospice services.
