Mindfulness and Compassion in our Daily Life with Kaira Jewel Lingo

Kaira Jewel Lingo, author of the book We Were Made for These Times: Ten Lessons for Moving Through Change, Loss, and Disruption, is a Buddhist teacher and was a Buddhist nun for 15 years. She has spent decades weaving mindfulness and meditation with social justice. Kaira Jewel’s teachings interweave art, play, nature, racial and earth justice, and embodied mindfulness practice. She feels especially called to share the Dharma with Black, Indigenous, and People of Color, as well as activists, educators, youth, artists, and families.

In 1999 Kaira Jewel was ordained as a Buddhist nun at the age of 25 and spent fifteen years as a nun, engaging in a 24-hour-a-day mindfulness practice made up of daily sitting and walking meditation, eating meals in silence to be fully present for our food, dharma study and community building, leading retreats and guiding students individually. Then, in her early forties, she made another huge shift after a long discernment process, deciding to leave monastic life to start all over. Currently, Kaira Jewel continues what she learned from her teacher and mentors by teaching and leading retreats internationally, helping to train a new and more diverse generation of Buddhist and mindfulness teachers who can translate the gifts of this beautiful tradition and offer it in a way that addresses the cries of our world. She also mentors groups and individuals and supports social movements, offering a contemplative grounding and perspective to change-makers whose courage to address injustice inspires me daily.

Kaira-Jewel teachings interweave art, play, nature, racial and earth justice, and embodied mindfulness practice. I feel especially called to share the Dharma with Black, Indigenous, and People of Color, as well as activists, educators, youth, artists, and families.

This event is co-sponsored by Interfaith Center, Mindfulness Center and Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging, and the Black Student Union.