Be Clear, Be Kind, Be Present: Essential Zen Teachings for an Awakened Life with Rev. Kanji

Sumi Loundon Kim

Buddhist Chaplain

Yale Chaplain's Office

Before joining Yale in 2018, I served as the Buddhist chaplain at Duke University for 8 years. I received a BA in fine arts from Williams College, followed by an MA in Buddhist Studies and Sanskrit from the Harvard Divinity School. I was raised in a Zen community until I was just shy of 9, where my parents lived and practiced. In my teens, I became a student of the Theravada (insight) lineage. I’m the author of Blue Jean Buddha (2001); The Buddha’s Apprentices (2005); Sitting Together (2017); and Goodnight Love (2023), among others. My husband, Professor Kim, teaches courses in Buddhism with the Department of Religious Studies, and we have two nearly-adult children.

Steve Kanji Ruhl

Rev.

Rev. Steve Kanji Ruhl is an ordained Zen Buddhist minister who received his Master of Divinity from Harvard University.  In addition to training in end-of-life issues at Harvard, he has experienced those issues directly through the deaths of beloved family members and close friends and through hospice chaplaincy. Author of the books Appalachian Zen and Enlightened Contemporaries and two books of poems, he is a  faculty member of the Shogaku Zen Institute, teaches Zen students independently through his online Touch the Earth cyber-sangha, and is a longtime Buddhist advisor at Deerfield Academy and with the Yale Buddhist Student Community.