The great Spanish poet Federico Garcia Lorca once said: "The day that hunger is eradicated from the earth, there will be the greatest spiritual explosion the world has ever known. Humanity cannot imagine the joy that will burst into the world on the day of that great revolution." Although, as a Buddhist, I consider the Buddha’s enlightenment and his “turning the wheel of Dharma” to be the greatest spiritual ...

by the time food reaches me, it is caked with the invisible pain of others, saturated with the grim labor of thousands. this accumulated degradation is harder to remove than the wax off an apple, or the gerrymandered genes from a cup of Monsanto rice.   but maybe, somewhere along the line, the food has also been blessed by the whispers and motions of resistance. maybe the diggers of these potatoes are ...

Heads up: last week Nathan over at Dangerous Harvests (one of my favorite political Buddhist blogs) wrote a thought-provoking post on what it means to pick berries from unattended bushes that are technically "private property."  His questions resonate deeply with what we at BPF have been wondering about reclaiming stolen land. As Nathan puts it: As a Buddhist, I have vowed to uphold the precept of not steal ...

Warning: this is not a post about spirituality, per se.  But I invite all dharma junkies to stick around. And I'll tell you why. In my opinion, in order to be strong, the education of a political Buddhist should involve learning about the political and social situations in parts of the world where the teachings of Buddha have deep roots and living traditions.  This interview with Yoon, Geum-Soon illuminates ...

A sharp, on-point and often hilarious conversationbetween two Asian-American foodies questioning each other about US cuisine and cultural appropriation.  What does integrity look like for chefs who borrow from culinary traditions outside their ethnic group — in a context of (im)migration, commodification, racism (/white supremacy) , and American nationalism?  Is integrity even possible? I think I’m so disen ...

My first experience in food justice was delicious.  I scooped it up with a shovel-sized serving spoon from a bottomless platter of intentionally blessed local organic righteousness.  It was fresh bright crunchy green, pale yellow creamy, deep orange sunsets, and vibrant dancing reds.  I was on my first meditation retreat in the Vipassana (Insight Meditation) tradition.   I was eating lovingkindness in every ...

Secret-Buddhist food celebrities.* Activism, art, contemplation. Mindfulness and nutritional racism. Poetry that reconnects with roots. Welcome to a new month, friends! Here at Turning Wheel we are excited to embark on an experiment: throughout July we'll be highlighting issues of food justice from Buddhist and spiritual perspectives. Some days we'll feature new submissions; other days we'll blog about nour ...

Our recent event “What’s Up With Engaged Buddhism?” started because I was in a total panic. It was January. I had suddenly stepped in as Acting Director of the Buddhist Peace Fellowship while Sarah Weintraub went on temporary disability, trying to get healthy after picking up a number of mysterious illnesses on a fall trip to Colombia to reconnect with her peace work there. I reached out to elders in the BP ...

The Buddha woke up to the suffering of the world when faced with old age, sickness, and death. As practitioners, we are encouraged to view our own experiences of illness, aging, and impending death as dharma doors to enlightenment. At the same time, as Buddhist radicals, we know that oppression means these universal sufferings affect each of us differently. Health is intimate, but also systemic: it's imposs ...

Nails and a single black thread. Today, the work of Japanese artist Kumi Yamashita inspired me to stop, breathe, and rededicate myself to the task at hand, full of gratitude for what is possible with patience, dedication, imagination, and grace. Amazing. Thanks to Kenji Liu for introducing me to Yamashita's work. (What she does with light and shadows is also incredible.) While I don't know whether she is Bu ...