Konda Mason – Brown Rice Hour – Ep. 16 – We Were Made for These Times w/ Kaira Jewel Lingo

Dharma teacher and author, Kaira Jewel Lingo, joins Konda in conversation around spirituality, social justice, community, Thich Nhat Hanh, acceptance, apocalypse, and collective healing.

Kaira Jewel Lingo is a Dharma teacher who has a lifelong interest in blending spirituality and meditation with social justice. She received Lamp Transmission from Thich Nhat Hanh and became a Zen teacher in 2007, and is a teacher in the Vipassana Insight lineage through Spirit Rock Meditation Center. Kaira teaches and leads retreats internationally, provides spiritual mentoring, and interweaves art, play, nature, racial and earth justice, and embodied mindfulness practice in her teaching. She especially feels called to share the Dharma with Black, Indigenous, and People of Color, as well as activists, educators, youth, artists, and families. Check out her new book We Were Made for These Times: Ten Lessons on Moving Through Change, Loss, and Disruption, and discover more offerings at KairaJewel.com

Spirituality & Social Justice // Plum Village & Community

Welcoming esteemed Dharma teacher and author, Kaira Jewel Lingo, to the Brown Rice Hour, Konda invites her to talk about her work at the potent and needed intersection of spirituality and social justice. After digging into childhood comfort food (no shade on the coke & milk float) and what early catalysts brought Kaira to the dharma, community, and social action, they jam on themes and reflections from her timely new book We Were Made for These Times: Ten Lessons on Moving Through Change, Loss, and Disruption.

“I lived in [Thich Nhat Hanh’s] Plum Village for a year, and I ordained as a nun. So much of how I was raised made it easy adapt to another very communal— where you got up with everybody, you brushed your teeth with everybody, you went to meditation hall with everybody. You were on this rhythm, and there was this feeling you could really rest back in the arms of the community.” – Kaira Jewel Lingo

For another Konda podcast at the intersection of spirituality & social justice, tune to, Ep. 2 of the Brown Rice Hour

Gratefulness & Acceptance // Apocalypse & Interbeing (21:08)

After becoming ordained and noticing the lack of diversity amongst other nuns and monks, Kaira describes her innate pull to merge her dharma path with social justice work. Sharing how we can actually be grateful for our hardships, Kaira and Konda explore the powerful heart-lesson of accepting how it is while still diligently working in truth for a better world immersed in collective freedom and Thich Nhat Hanh’s teachings of interbeing – a loving awareness of our interconnectivity.

“You can say we’re in a time of apocalypse. The Greek word where this word comes from, it doesn’t mean the destruction of everything, it means the lifting of the veils. What’s so powerful about mindfulness and all of these very deep wisdom teachings about paying attention to what’s happening: if our mind settles to where we can see what’s really going on, there is a lifting of the veils.” – Kaira Jewel Lingo 

Charles Eisenstein joins Konda to share the beautiful world our hearts know is possible, on Ep. 7 of the Brown Rice Hour

Policing & Collective Healing // Thich Nhat Hanh & Mindfulness (40:00)

Speaking to the George Floyd case and the current state of policing and power abuse, especially in regards to racism, Konda and Kaira share heart wisdom around how we as individuals within this collective society all play integral roles in the healing process of the whole of humanity. To close, Konda asks Kaira to recount a story from her book where Thich Nhat Hanh relayed to her how mindfulness practice can be our deepest anchor through difficult times.

“We’re all a part of wars; we don’t support them, we don’t believe in them, but the fact that we pay taxes, that we’re part of this society—we can’t take ourselves out of that and say, “No, that’s you who did that.” Because we did that. So we all need to look at this whole situation of policing. It’s not about demonizing police, but it’s about: this whole society created this problem, and we’re part of this whole society, so what will bring the healing of the whole?” – Kaira Jewel Lingo

Original Mindrolling duo, David & Raghu, share teachings of Thich Nhat Hanh, on, Ep. 190 of Mindrolling