Melvin McLeod

Melvin McLeod

Melvin McLeod is the editor-in-chief of two of America’s leading Buddhist magazines: Buddhadharma: The Practitioner’s Quarterly and the Shambhala Sun. He is also the editorial director of Mindful magazine. He is the editor of Mindful Politics: A Buddhist Guide to Making the World a Better Place, the Best Buddhist Writing series, and three books of teachings by Thich Nhat Hanh.

Books, Courses & Podcasts

Mindful Politics

“I’ve studied politics my entire life. It’s been because of my time working on this book that I’ve finally learned what’s really important in politics.” So says Melvin McLeod, editor of Mindful Politics, a book that transcends Right and Left, progressive and conservative, to get to the heart of what matters: how we can all make a positive difference in our complex political world.

This is not your typical political book. It’s not written at a fever pitch, it doesn’t use a good/bad binary, and it doesn’t tout partisan policies. Instead, this timely collection addresses the less-discussed but more important questions about politics: What insight does religion have to offer politics? How can we as concerned citizens move beyond the particulars of legislation and party affiliation, and take direct action? How, amid divisive and challenging times, can personal growth and effective advocacy take place together?

In short, Mindful Politics offers the perspectives of 34 important authors and thinkers on how each of us, right now, can make the world a better place.

McLeod includes essays and insights from some of the brightest, and most controversial, lights of Buddhism—and beyond.

Included are:

  • Thich Nhat Hanh
  • Sam Harris (author of The End of Faith)
  • The Dalai Lama
  • Jerry Brown
  • Pema Chödrön
  • Trungpa Rinpoche
  • bell hooks
  • Ezra Bayda
  • Meg Wheatley
  • …and many more

Twenty-First-Century Buddhists in Conversation

Twenty-First-Century Buddhists in Conversation collects the very best of the round-table discussions recorded in the pages of Buddhadharma magazine for over a decade. These conversations among a who’s who of contemporary Buddhist teachers, ranging over topics from student-teacher relationships to the place of prayer and the leadership roles of women in modern Buddhism, are always lively and insightful. With participants such as Bhante Gunaratana, Shohaku Okumura, Sharon Salzberg, John Tarrant, and Jack Kornfield, discussions equally represent old-school and newly emergent Buddhist traditions.

Contributers include: Sharon Salzberg, Bhikkhu Bodhi, Jack Kornfield, Joseph Goldstein, Bhante Gunaratana, David R. Loy, Robert Thurman, Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche, Anne Carolyn Klein, B. Alan Wallace, Taigen Dan Leighton, Andrew Olendzki, Reginald Ray, Ringu Tulku, and many more.