Konrad rYUSHIN MARCHAJ

Rev. Konrad Ryushin Marchaj, Sensei is a Zen priest and a Dharma heir of the late John Daido Loori, Roshi. From October 2009 to January 2015, Ryushin Sensei served as the Abbot of Zen Mountain Monastery in Mt Tremper, NY.

Born in Warsaw, Poland, Ryushin immigrated to the United States in 1967. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Anthropology from Yale University in 1976. He received his medical degree from Albany Medical College in 1980, working first as a pediatrician in Portland, Maine, and then serving in the US Navy as a physician for three years.

Ryushin then returned to Albany for postgraduate training in psychiatry. After completing his residency, he served as medical director for a community psychiatric outreach program, the Mobile Crisis Team, which served Albany County’s disenfranchised and homeless population.

He entered full-time residential training at the Monastery in 1992. In addition to his roles as the Monastery’s Abbot and Director of Operations, he explored contemplative practices in higher education, collaborating with several liberal arts educators and administrators in the Northeast to look at ways for college students to engage religious practice as part of their education. He has been practicing Buddhism since 1983.

Drawing on his background as a physician and psychiatrist, Ryushin’s infectious interest and thorough training in the workings of the mind, combined with his skill at translating complex concepts into the accessible, everyday language, characterize his unique teaching style.