Robert Lawrence Kuhn is a public intellectual; he is the creator, writer, host of Closer To Truth, the long-running PBS/public television series and leading digital resource on Cosmos (cosmology/physics, philosophy of science), Life (philosophy of biology), Mind (consciousness, brain/mind, philosophy of mind), and Meaning (theism/atheism/agnosticism, global philosophy of religion, critical thinking). Peter Getzels is Closer To Truth co-creator and producer/director. Kuhn is the author of the comprehensive review article on theories of consciousness – “A Landscape of Consciousness: Toward a Taxonomy of Explanations and Implications” – and editor-in-chief of the expanded, continuously updated Landscape of Consciousness website (with more than 400 theories of consciousness in ten categories), Kuhn has written or edited over 30 books, including The Mystery of Existence: Why is there Anything At All? (with John Leslie); Closer To Truth: Challenging Current Belief; Closer To Truth: Science, Meaning and the Future; The Library of Investment Banking; How China’s Leaders Think (featuring President Xi Jinping); The Man Who Changed China: The Life and Legacy of Jiang Zemin (China’s best-selling book in 2005 and in December 2022); and “The Origin and Significance of Zero: An Interdisciplinary Perspective” (with Peter Gobets). Dr. Kuhn is chairman of The Kuhn Foundation. He has a BA in Human Biology (Johns Hopkins), PhD in Anatomy/Brain Research (UCLA), and SM (MBA) in Management (MIT).

From my teenage years I had an unquenchable thirst to see beyond the veils that growing up had created in my mind. I tried different avenues of exploration, and soon found my spiritual home in the Zen tradition. After graduating from college, I went straight to Japan and became a Zen monk at the Bukkoku-ji monastery. For over a dozen years I practiced in the monastic context, mostly in Japan and Korea, living a life dedicated fully to this investigation, going through an awakening process, and deepening my realization and embodiment. Later I also explored approaches of other traditions and followed several secular non-traditional teachers. I have spent about 4 years total in silent meditation retreats, and have worked directly in the retreat setting and one-on-one with teachers such as my root monastic teacher, Tangen Harada Roshi, as well as with Jakusho Kwong Roshi, Shodo Harada Roshi, Wu Bong Sunim, Adyashanti and Angelo Dilullo.

Even though the years of meditation and the simplicity of monastic life had a powerful effect, most important on my path were three breakthroughs at age 23, 30 and 37, each stripping down a different layer of illusion and revealing bare truth, without any sense of separation, or any sense of personal nor universal “self.” I have also explored and continue to explore various approaches of somatic work to aid embodiment and the uprooting of habitual tendencies, as I consider myself, and all human beings, a work in progress.

Following my monastic Dharma grandfather (Daiun Harada Roshi)’s example, I vowed to spend all of my twenties and thirties only on my own practice, deepening and embodiment. Now in my forties, I make myself available as a resource to those who seek support in their own process of finding freedom from self-created suffering. Despite my love of the monastic life and the Zen tradition, I have decided to share outside of the confines of those systems. I stay true, however, to the essence and marrow of Zen as defined by Bodhidharma, the Indian monk considered the founder of what we now know as Zen:

“Transmission outside of scriptures
Not dependent upon words and phrases
Directly pointing to each person’s mind
See your nature – become a buddha”

Feel free to reach out if you feel so inclined.

May all beings find liberation!

Purnima Sinha is a spiritual director and coach whose life has been shaped by meditation, near‑death experiences, and a deep commitment to seva (selfless service). Raised in a highly spiritual Indian family steeped in the teachings of the Bhagavad Gita, she began meditating in her teens and was trained in Ultra Transcendental Meditation and Surat Shabd Yoga in India. She has now practiced meditation for over 50 years.

After an intense emotional crisis around the year 2000, Purnima had a near‑death‑type experience in which she found herself in a tunnel, received a powerful life review and “downloads” about her future, and understood that her life’s purpose was far from complete. This, along with subsequent experiences—including warnings before a later collapse, shared‑death experiences with family members, and long‑term after‑death communication with her mother—reoriented her life around service, self‑love, and trust in inner guidance.

Professionally, Purnima worked for many years as a graphic designer before feeling an inner compulsion to serve in a hospital setting. Guided “voices” and a series of striking coincidences led her into over 3,500 hours of volunteer work and a formal role as a patient advocate in a major hospital, where she visited patients one‑on‑one, listened to their concerns, and supported them and their families through serious illness, cancer treatments, and end‑of‑life transitions. Repeatedly, nurses and staff invited her to sit with patients who were actively dying, and she became known informally as someone who could help people cross over peacefully.

Out of this work grew hospital meditation and wellness programs. Purnima has served as a meditation, chair‑yoga, balance and strength, and “Fit for Life” facilitator, as well as a spiritual life coach for county wellness programs and cancer support networks. She holds certificates in Lifestyle Medicine and in Meditation & Psychotherapy from Harvard Medical School. Drawing on clinical research supplied in part by her physician son, she helped establish a hospital‑based meditation initiative before the COVID‑19 pandemic.

Purnima has been a frequent presenter at the International Association for Near‑Death Studies (IANDS), including on after‑death communication panels, and has shared many of her experiences publicly only in recent years. Her article on healing the “pain body” was published in Eckhart Tolle’s newsletter. She emphasizes practical spirituality: starting and ending the day with gratitude, cultivating stillness and prayer, listening to inner guidance, and practicing self‑love as the foundation for serving others.

Her core messages include: no one ever dies alone; we are always guided and supported, even when we cannot see it; every experience, including painful ones, can serve the evolution of consciousness; and “Self‑Care = Self‑Love.”