About Jin Lian-Hua (Carry Kim)
How does one come to be fully alive and lead a meaningful life?
Jin Lian-Hua (Golden Lotus) is a dharma name given to me by Yuan Miao upon returning from a trip to India. A dharma name is meant to guide and remind us of our true purpose in this life. A lotus symbolizes our infinite human potential and though born out of mud, always rises above it. Only by embracing the "mud" can we grow and celebrate life fully.
My path began in 2001, fatigued from a career in fashion and having just completed my MFA in photography at CalArts, I embarked on a longterm solo journey to India, Tibet and Nepal. India shifted my DNA entirely. I naively took the Bodhisattva Vow with H.H. the Dalai Lama in Dharamsala, not realizing it would follow me for the rest of my life. Upon returning, I seriously entertained the idea of burning all my belongings and wondered, “What is my purpose now post-India?” Enter Ana Forrest and Jill Miller, my first yoga teachers. I completed my first teacher training with Ana in 2001, played and explored with Jill and thus, began my inquiry into healing, energetics, and personal transformation.
My love affair with Tibet began in my early 20s with plans to travel there though I possessed not even a vague notion where it was on a map. Fatefully, in 2003, “the teacher appeared” and she was half-Tibetan. I met my root teacher, Yuan Miao, and became a lineageholder of Yoga of Joy (Tibetan & Primordial Yoga) which remains my true dharma. Miao forever altered my understanding of Yoga and revealed to me our connection to universal energy and pure joy, how to open the heart beyond the boundaries of dogma and concepts…how to laugh and truly be free, not conceptually—but experientially. And most of all, how to be fully human, loving and compassionate. I understood now, why Yoga’s aim was enlightenment and what was meant by the term, “Inner Nature.”
To fuel a continuing interest in healing, the body-mind connection, transformational bodywork, and energetics, I became a certified Shiatsu therapist in 2003, at the Shiatsu Massage School of California, where I met my long-time continuing mentor in nutrition, Dr. Vincent Medici. I have privately taught hundreds of individuals how to integrate living and raw foods, macrobiotics and aspects of Ayurveda for optimal health. Twenty plus years of catering experience, global travels, some years spent in Tokyo and a wanna-be-chef mother taught me to mix the art of Zen and a passion for food with healing. I teach gourmet, therapeutic nutrition for private clients and public workshops alike, to assert, “food is medicine; health is our natural state.”
In 2005, I returned to Chennai to study the classical tradition of Yoga at the Krishnamacharya Yoga Mandiram. Sparked by an epiphany about “breath” and holistic healing through Yoga, in 2007, I entered the first-ever, 4-year yoga therapist certification program by the Krishnamacharya Healing and Yoga Foundation in India, taught by TKV and Kausthub Desikachar. While at the KYM, I also discovered Vedic chanting, which I now continue studying with Deborah Kuryan. Through individualized yoga therapy sessions, I help students deepen their practice, empower and heal themselves using the full range of Yoga’s tools, from gross to subtle.
Ever a nomad and world traveler at heart, nicknamed “wild mustang” by my father, I have always found inspiration in Nature and the traditions of tribal peoples. I still entertain the idea of escaping LA congestion to gallop across Mongolia on a wild pony. Since 2005, I have studied and performed traditional hula and Polynesian dance with my halau, Na Kapaku, led by Okima Kapaku. Hula provides a sacred way for me to honor Nature and express stories through movement. Having studied Northern Shaolin Kung Fu and Tai Chi seriously for many years, I became a registered teacher of Yin Yoga in 2009 from Paulie Zink to coalesce my love of Nature, animals, Taoism, Chinese medicine, and martial arts. My deep reverence for Native American tradition, shamanism and Nature, led me to breathwork mentor, David Elliott, with whom I became certified as a breathwork facilitator.
My influences are many: Yoga, Taoism, Buddhism, martial arts, Shiatsu, dance, bodywork, somatic movement, Native American tradition, Nature and activism—together, they form a vibrant tapestry of who I am--however, Yuan Miao, Lama Norbu, the teachings of Vajrayana and esoteric Tibetan wisdom provide the deep roots from which students and I connect to our innermost joy.
It is my sincere wish to help as many people as possible, through the gift of these teachings, that we may all be free, serve humanity, experience joy and embrace peace and Oneness in the world.
With immense gratitude to all my teachers.