Rod Meade Sperry

1 week ago | lionsroar.com | Rod Meade Sperry

Thousand Harbours Zen in Halifax, Nova Scotia will make history this weekend with some first-of-their-kind — for Canada— ceremonies. The community, headed up by Soto Zen priest and former Buddhadharma editor Koun Franz — will be officially installing Franz as the abbot of its temple, Sensouji (pictured), in a “Mountain Seat Ceremony” (shinsanshiki). A Dharma Combat Ceremony (hossenshiki) will also be held, as well as a one-day retreat.

2 weeks ago | lionsroar.com | Rod Meade Sperry

On Tuesday, June 10, Upaya Zen Center in New Mexico announced that its founder and head teacher Roshi Joan Halifax would be undergoing major heart surgery that morning to repair what she said was “one leaf of my mitral valve [which] has become unmoored, and which was creating “excessive fatigue and shortness of breath.”After posting that the surgery had gone “really well,”on Wednesday, Upaya shared the news that “Roshi is recovering well and her heart is doing great.

2 months 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.

2 months 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.

2 months 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.