Everyday Buddhism: Making Everyday Better
Religion & Spirituality:Buddhism
Join me for a delightful conversation with Steve Kanji Ruhl about his book, Appalachian Zen: Journeys in Search of True Home, from the American Heartland to the Buddha Dharma, the 2023 Gold Prize winner for Memoir in the Nautilus Book Awards.
Steve Kanji is a Zen Buddhist minister ordained in the Zen Peacemaker Order, now teaching independently and instructing Zen students through his Touch the Earth cyber-sangha. Reverend Kanji received his Master of Divinity degree from Harvard University and is a Buddhist chaplain at Deerfield Academy, a Buddhist Adviser at Yale University, and faculty member of the Shogaku Zen Institute.
Kanji has been a guest speaker or workshop facilitator at Harvard’s Center for World Religions, Yale Divinity School, the International Conference on Socially Engaged Buddhism, the Omega Institute, and elsewhere.
In addition to Appalachian Zen, he is the author of Enlightened Contemporaries: Francis, Dogen & Rumi—Three Great Mystics of the Thirteenth Century and Why They Matter Today and has recently finished writing a new book about his personal experience of spirituality and wellness called The Whole Earth is Medicine: Science, Zen, and Healing Body and Mind in a Journey through Cancer. He has also published two volumes of poems, The Constant Yes of Things and Paintings of Rice Cakes Satisfy Hunger.
In his book, Appalachian Zen, Kanji takes us on a 30-year journey through his search to find his "true home" in lilting and lyrical prose and poems that move the story from Appalachia through academia—constantly asking: What is home? What is this? What is life? Death? What is real? … The questions Buddhism never answer but continue to ask.
In our conversation we talked about, among other things:
-Childhood memories
-The search for self and the search for losing the self
-Being a foolish being and Shin Buddhism
-The contrast between Western and Eastern philosophical and spiritual worldviews
-Mystical Christianity and the similarity to the direct experience of the sacred in Buddhism
-Buddhist lay ministers as compared to Buddhist monastics, priest, and the "guru model"
-Kanji's teaching of "Be Clear, Be Kind, Be Present"
Everyday Buddhism 87 - Untangled with Koshin Paley Ellison
BONUS - Chat With Everyday Buddhism 1
Everyday Buddhism 85 - What Could Go Right with Emma Varvaloucas
BIRTHDAY BONUS PODCAST: Impermanence with Kaspa Thompson (Inspired by Shan Tao)
BIRTHDAY BONUS PODCAST: The Five Remembrances with Bradley Jinaiyo Nussbaum
Everyday Buddhism 82 - Birthday Bonus Intro: Impermanence
Everyday Buddhism 81 - Navigating Grief and Loss with Kimberly Brown
Everyday Buddhism 80 - Bodhi Day: Best of Everyday Buddhism Episodes
Everyday Buddhism 79 - Luminous Darkness with Deborah Eden Tull
Everyday Buddhism 78 - The Diamonds Within Us With Melissa Moore
Everyday Buddhism 77 - Shin Buddhism with Rev. Marvin Harada
BONUS PODCAST: Contemplation - Loved Just As I Am
Everyday Buddhism 76 - Losing My Hair: Alopecia, An Uninvited Teacher
Everyday Buddhism 75 - Beyond the Cushion with Jack Huynh
Everyday Buddhism 74 - My Relationship With Troublesome Buddhas
Everyday Buddhism 73 - Confined to Align with Ashley Lyn Olson
Everyday Buddhism 72 - Walking on Pins and Needles with Arlene Faulk
SPECIAL Intro to Ep.72 and 73 - Dynamic Acceptance of What Seems Impossible
BONUS PODCAST PREVIEW: Contemplation - Not Knowing
Everyday Buddhism 71 - Why Nonsense Makes the Most Sense
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