In an expansive discussion around Steve Kanji Ruhl’s book, Appalachian Zen, Steve and Raghu explore finding equilibrium through zen practice.
“Living deliberately has a lot to do, simply with living in a way that’s awake rather than sleep walking. It’s so easy, especially in our society which encourages it, to lapse back into some type of soporific state of sleep walking. What we’re really being called to do, is to stay awake. That’s simply what the word Buddha means, it means to be awake.” – Steve Kanji Ruhl
In this episode, Raghu Markus and Steve Kanji Ruhl discuss:
- Cultural Transformation in Appalachia
- Steve Kanji’s experience of violence and PTSD
- Zen practice and finding our inner equilibrium
- Enduring a soul injury and the journey of healing
- The teachers that shape us for better or worse
- Meeting Ram Dass and receiving sanctuary
- The concept of home and the path as the guru
- Holding self and other simultaneously
- Zazen meditation practice
- Living deliberately and obstructions of the will
- Balancing intention with surrender
- Breaking down the conditioning that prevents us from being clear, kind, and present
- Direct identification and Tantric intimacy
- Community as the antidote of dysfunctional solitude
“In Buddhism, the true home is that place within each of us, it’s an inner heartland. We can call it original Buddha Nature; it is accessible to all of us anytime and any place. It’s really a matter of finding this inner equilibrium and being in this moment, in this place, and being fully alive.” – Steve Kanji Ruhl
About Steve Kanji Ruhl:
Reverend Steve Kanji Ruhl, M.Div., is an innovative Zen Buddhist minister ordained in the Zen Peacemaker Order by Roshi Bernie Glassman, and is also a lay Zen dharma holder and preceptor authorized by Roshi Eve Myonen Marko. Formerly affiliated with Green River Zen Center in western Massachusetts where he helped to teach and assisted Roshi Eve, he now operates independently, teaching Zen students in person and through his Touch the Earth cyber-sangha to “be clear, be kind, be present” through instruction in koans, ethical precepts, and shikantaza (“just sitting”) meditation. Also a multi-published author, Steve Kanji Ruhl was awarded the Gold Prize for Best Spiritual Memoir in the 2023 Nautilus Book Awards for his book, Appalachian Zen: Journeys in Search of True Home, from the American Heartland to the Buddha Dharma.