Kaira Jewel Lingo (Sister Chau Nghiem)

Kaira Jewel Lingo is a lay Dharma teacher with a lifelong interest in spirituality and social justice. Her work continues the Engaged Buddhism developed by Thich Nhat Hanh, and she draws inspiration from her parents’ lives of service and her dad’s work with Martin Luther King, Jr.

Kaira Jewel lived as an ordained nun for 15 years in the Plum Village monastic community, with the ordained name Sister Chau Nghiem and was ordained as a Dharma Teacher in 2007. She now teaches internationally in the Zen lineage and the Vipassana tradition, as well as in secular mindfulness, at the intersection of racial, climate and social justice with a focus on Black, Indigenous, and People of Color, and activists, as well as artists, educators, families, and youth.

Based in New York, she offers spiritual mentoring to groups and is author of We Were Made for These Times: Ten Lessons in Moving through Change, Loss and Disruption and co-author of Healing Our Way Home: Black Buddhist Teachings on Ancestors, Joy and Liberation. She and her partner, Adam Bucko, an Episcopal priest, are building a spiritual sanctuary in upstate New York, The Beloved Community of Engaged Spirituality. Her upcoming events and teachings can be found at www.kairajewel.com.