Turning Wheel Media emerges from the generous labor of many media makers. We include voices you know and love, and also help introduce a new wave of spiritual activists whose intersectional identities and revolutionary politics help us all think more sharply about the problems our world is facing, and the resilient solutions available to us in this moment. Now is our chance to give generously in return.  To ...

Here it is: the second installment of our year-long curriculum for Buddhist activists. Take a look inside for: An exclusive practice offering video by Rev. Keiryu Lien Shutt Political cartoons, Cultural Appropriation Bingo, and other helpful supplementary texts Our favorite pieces from April's Turning Wheel Media, with discussion questions to help us dig in more deeply An introduction to the audio recording ...

It's been a sobering and inspiring month with you, exploring an institutional take on the Second Precept, or a Buddhist look at systemic stealing.  Thank you for joining us in this process of learning and reflection. To close out our month, and in honor of May Day tomorrow, we want to leave you with the insights of author, historian, and journalist Vijay Prashad, on the recent tragic and infuriating deaths ...

As a teen, my first explicit encounter with Buddhism was in an independent bookstore on Philadelphia’s South Street. The stern, grey, hardcover of Suzuki Roshi’s Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind came back with me to central New Jersey where I muddled through its pages. I sat on my room’s hardwood floor and tried to figure out what he meant by holding oneself upright and relaxed, what I was supposed to do with my h ...

Reminder, everyone!  The System Stinks conversation is on a roll as we begin to think more structurally about peace and conflict, studying some of the Lies That Build Empire.  But we're just getting started.  Next up, we'll be taking a systemic look at theft.  (The image above, from a "modern and sophisticated" jewelry line, gives just one example of cultural commodification that can happen when all things ...

It's here!  Volume 1 of The System Stinks curriculum.  Featuring discussion questions for selected media that we've featured here on Turning Wheel over the past month, plus two "classic texts" from Andrea Smith and Arundhati Roy, and practices you can do at home. After the richness of last night's phone call with Tendor and Joshua Eaton (recording and transcript forthcoming — thanks in advance to our awesom ...

We're so excited to talk about the Lies that Build Empire during February — starting on Monday with a loving and politicized letter to a beloved jambolan tree. For you media makers out there who feel inspired to write something for our next theme, here's the next call for submissions! In the second theme for The System Stinks, we’re taking a look at systemic theft. How do we live within the precept “I will ...

It can be lonely out there for political activists grounded in a spiritual practice that sometimes gets pigeonholed as too “woo” for revolutionaries. Also lonely are we spiritual seekers who find the meditation cushion just isn’t enough for the liberation of all beings. That’s why it’s so refreshing to find those spaces where, those people with whom, we can bring our fuller selves. This year, as part of The ...

Above, the Overpass Light Brigade engages in some Right Speech over a Wisconsin freeway.  Reminder: Turn in your spiritual submissions for The Lies That Build Empire by the end of the day Tomorrow!  Email them to us at submissions@turningwheelmedia.org.  Thank you! The Lies That Build Empire Observation shows us how lies cause suffering in our own lives.  And some of the lies we encounter are those entrench ...

This image (hat tip to engaged Buddhist and artist Kenji Liu) is just one of the many possible examples of a Right Speech meme that attempts to challenge one of the Lies That Build Empire. Plunking an imperialist nation-state front and center on a map is one way of sending the message: This place is the most important. A related question is whether the cartographic and ideological centrality of the US is a ...